Chloe opened an eye with difficulty. Some how during the night she had flipped around when she was sleeping and her legs were hanging off of the bed. She pulled herself off of her mattress and felt slightly nauseous. She put her head between her knees.

“That is completely the last time I’m taking Caster Oil. No matter how healthy it will make me,” she mumbled. Chloe took a stab at the wall with finger and hit the light switch then grabbed a bottle of water from her desk as she went down stairs.

“They’ll pick up, Stace,” her dad said standing and dumping the remains of his coffee down the sink. “Chloe and Mason, well, Mason caused the insurance, but he’s got a job and if grades are good the student discount.”

“I know. Today I work until four. They’ll have to walk home or something until—Good Morning, Chlo,” her mom said standing at the stove with her arms folded.

“Hey mom,” Chloe said going into the laundry room. A green sweater and a pair of jeans hung over the sink. “Mom?” she asked raising her voice, “Have you seen my blue uniform sweatshirt?”

“It’s either in your room or Mason’s,” Mrs. Donica yelled back from the kitchen that was starting to come alive. Chloe grumbled and turned around. The phone rang as she looked in her closet and her door banged open. Mason came in, threw the phone on her bed, and stormed out.

“Thank you?” she said picking up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Hello, this is Marshall. I’ve come to take your soul.”

“Hi, De.”

“Hi.”

“Did you do the soul thing to Mason?”

“Is that what answered? It was gross breathing and angry-ness.”

“Welcome to my house at 6 am.”

“Yikes.”

“So, why are you calling?”

“I missed you. No, really, I need a ride. Your mom’s still driving right.”

“As I have no car, yes.”

“Okay, come pick me up.”

“Uh, I’ll have to talk to my mom.”

“Please! I’ll give her…uh…my lunch!”

“Because she really wants that?”

“I am trying here!”

“We’ll get you.”

“Okay. I’m going to go dig my skirt out of the numerous piles in my room now.”

“Have fun Marshall.”

“Bye Seymour.” And she hung up.

“Seymour?” Chloe took the phone back down stairs once she was fully dressed as her mom threw a plate on the counter.

“Here,” Mrs. Donica said, “Eat.”

“Mason beat me down here?” Chloe asked picking up a fork. Her mom said nothing. Chloe swallowed her eggs in silence.

“Mason, I’m not waiting! Get down here we’re leaving!” Mrs. Donica shouted up the stairs.

“Mom,” Chloe asked, setting her book-bag in the trunk. “De needs a ride, can we get her?” Her mom pushed hair off of her face and clicked her seatbelt.

“I suppose. Please ask earlier next time though.” Chloe nodded and snapped her own belt into place.

“You look like an Eskimo,” Chloe said as Deana climbed into the car wearing a large puffy coat.

“You look like William Randolph Hertz.”

“Okay…Did you read the newspaper or something this morning?”

“Of course, dear Willy.” Chloe laughed through a yawn. They jumped out of the car once it reached the curb outside the front office building. As the walked towards homeroom, they were able to grab Alexandria from her locker as the bell rang.

“I graded your mansion papers,” said their teacher walking down the rows of his students handing out packets. “No, I lied. My TA graded your mansion papers. I just recorded them.” He handed Chloe hers. She flipped it over 98, not too shabby, she thought. “Please,” came Mr. Scotten’s voice, “on your next assignment, read all of the instructions. We are no longer in KinderCare.”

“What’d you get?” Deana asked leaning over Chloe’s shoulder. “98. Sweet, I got 77. I’m still in KinderCare apparently.”

“What’s with the 77? Did you not do it all?”

“No, I did. Well, I didn’t see the questions on the first page.” She pulled it out to show Chloe and they traded papers.

Year of Completion: 1901

List any design qualities that are unique to the time period: It looks like a castle

Find and identify some of the century’s luxuries: TK had a bombin’ car.

“De they were asking for things inside the house.”

“Like the dumbwaiter?” Chloe nodded. “Well what is this thing-y? Snakes on the wall?”

“That’s a shower.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Why did you draw all of this stuff?”

“It said to.”

“Crap.”

“Reading directions comes in handy.”

“Okay,” Deana said taking her packet back, “I’m gonna write all this stuff down.”

“Why?”

“We’re touring again sometime this week and if I come home with two of these Mom’ll let Paul take my car.”

“But he’s got one in Colorado.”

“I know that. So what did you do?”

“Read the directions—Ow!” Deana unrolled her packet after whacking Chloe over the head. “Okay, well, I mentioned all of the different shapes and geometric figures in the architecture. And I saw the style of decorations.”

“Slow down! Arch-i-tech-ture and…” she finished and looked up.

“Mention the turn-of-the-century inventions.”

“Like the dumb waiter.”

“And the shower and the call board. What is with you and the dumb waiter?”

“It’s the coolest thing in that house!”

“Chlo!” Alexandria called from the back of the room. “What is the thing with the master bedroom?” Chloe flipped pages.

“Wait,” Deana said, “I actually know this one! In the master bedroom there were pictures of Baby Mary.”

“Who’s berry?” Deana huffed and got up to tell Alexandria her answer.

“Mary! Their two year old daughter that died when she was two,” Deana said heading to the back of the room. Chloe flipped back to the front of her packet and saw the picture of the earless horse and laughed she looked down at the first couple of questions.

In what year was the mansion site completed? The mansion site was bought in 1900 but was completely built in 1901.

Okay, Chloe thought, I dream sometime after that then. She grabbed a pen and wrote the number 19 on the back of her hand.

Who designed the Governor’s mansion? Carl Neuhausen designed and over saw the building that took just over a year.

How did the owner of the mansion show possession? Thomas Kearns placed his initials on every aspect of his house (i.e. doorknobs, the front steps, the gate, etc.)

What does the mansion resemble that is meant to show off wealth? The house looks like a French castle with three round turrets and no two faces of the house were the same.

Chloe had taken small notes along the tour and saw that she’d squeezed the word Limestone after the fourth question. She flipped the page over as the bell rang.

“So, how’s the time traveling going?” Deana asked pulling a roll out of a plastic bag.

“I’m completely convinced that I’m dreaming or hallucinating. I’m almost tired of it, except for the whole ‘I’m in love with history’ thing. It doesn’t let me get enough sleep though; I’m always tired.”

“I wanna walk around in the past!”

“I just wish that I could have logic while dreaming. Like all of the history my brain is hoarding.”

“Do you not remember it?”

“It just never occurs to me.” Chloe pulled out a container of cooked pasta and a slightly bent fork “But I don’t know anything about who I am in dream world of the past. Just my name is Nelson.”

“But you’re a girl.”

“Last name, De.”

“Weird. Why are you eating cold spaghetti?”

“Because I like it.”

“Well, then. Anyway so you’re in 1900 then what? Are you heroine-esque? Or damsel in distress?”

“I’m…me. I’m just kind of there. I’m rather uneventful.”

“You don’t get to wield a sword?”

“Nope. I’ve planned and attended a cotillion; I’ve been tutored, where I managed to remember stuff we’ve learned at school; I’ve been rained out at a lake; and I saw something that resembled a baseball game.” She paused, chewing. “And that’s it.” Deana brought out a juice-box.

“Wow,” she said and stabbed the straw through the carton.

“You sound busy to me,” Alexandria said.

“Yeah,” Deana chimed in, “I wake up, come here, eat, go home, eat, do homework, and sleep.”

“Fun. As exciting as you two believe my life to be, I’m exhausted.”

“Dream me in there, “ Deana suggested, patting Chloe on the arm and sipping her juice. “I’m exciting.” Chloe looked up at her.

“Or something,” Alexandria mumbled.

“This is the third and final type of essay that is on the final.” Chloe slumped in her desk chair tapping her pen on a stack of paper. “You might want to consider saving this prompt. Annotate it; it will come in handy.” Her teacher passed her desk laying the instructions on the table.

WRITE A WELL DEVELOPED ESSAY; DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING: One must first travel, experience, and live before knowledge and meaning can be found in life.

DEFEND OR REFUTE THIS STATEMENT USING EXAMPLES FROM HISTORY, LITERATURE, CURRENT EVENTS, OR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

“Lovely,” Chloe mumbled and hunched over the stack of loose-leaf paper. She picked up her pen and began.

“Are you trying to make your hand grow? I don’t think that will work.”

“No, Al, I think that all of the bones are broken though.”

“You just had the mock-final essay today,” Alexandria said sympathetically.

“Yep. Worse essay ever.”

“I’m sorry. Well, I’ve gotta start walking call if you find De randomly at your house and refusing to leave.”

“Well then don’t go anywhere.” Alexandria laughed and waved as Chloe got on the bus. Chloe sat and four seconds later there was a banging on the window.

“Chlo, get off! My mom’s sent Paul to come get us. He’s off like two weeks early!” Chloe heaved her bag back over her shoulder and joined Deana on the curb outside of the office building.

“Hey?! What happened to the bus?” Mason asked coming out of the office.

“Do you want to walk home?”

“No.”

“Then don’t take the bus.”

“Okay, well, I don’t want to live here either.”

“Paul’s coming.”

“From Colorado?”

“No, from his house here.”

“Okay.” He stuck his hand in his pockets and leaned against the office wall. Deana’s cell phone rang.

“Support Jane Goodall Hotline, how may I help you? Oh, hi, Paul. The office. No, the front one. The one in front. The front of the school. What do you mean which front? There is only one! Eyes on the road! Okay turn left. I see you,” Deana said clapping her phone shut.

“Your phone conversations are insane,” Chloe said staring.

“Well, he just kept saying “where” and “which one,” so it’s not my fault.” She adjusted the straps on her backpack as a numb sensation shot through Chloe’s arm. “Let’s go,” Deana said leaping towards her car that had just come over the hill.

Unlocking the door, Chloe waved at Deana before the car was out of sight. She flexed her hand. The nerves of her fingers sent tingles up her arm. I can’t feel my entire hand, she thought, setting her keys on the kitchen counter.

“I’m going upstairs,” she called, “scream if something catches on fire.”

“Gotcha,” Mason said back already consumed in the television.

“Call mom.”

“I will,” he droned back.

“Her office, not her cell.”

“I’m not five.”

“Could have fooled me,” she grumbled. She shut the door to her room and wiggled her fingers again. At least, she tried. Nothing moved when she tried. Lovely, she thought, it was one essay! Homework is gonna be so much harder if I loose an arm. She poked her wrist with a pen cap; nothing. Mason then came stomping up the steps. “Mom’s not answering.”

“The office, Mason, call her office,” Chloe said hiding her face in her hands.

“Oh.” He turned around and went back down the steps dialing. Chloe shook her head. Her knee popped as she climbed off of her bed and went to her desk. Her open math book reminded her of all of the homework that she had left. She slammed it shut and walked down to the computer room. Mason ran after her as she shut the door.

“Mom says that we’ve got rehearsal in like twenty minutes.”

“And no car.”

“Don’t rub it in.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“She’s leaving right now.”

“Okay. Well, now I need my tie.” Chloe huffed upstairs again, not ready to sing for another two hours of her life. Once in the rehearsal, Chloe couldn’t focus and left the room four times to get water. Great, now my brain is falling asleep, she thought, leaning against the wall. Two and a half hours later, Chloe and Mason stood in the fading light of six o’clock in the evening waiting to be picked up. When the van pulled up, Mason was attempting to flirt with a soprano a year older than him, so Chloe walked to the driver’s side window.

“Hey, mom,” she said poking her head in, “Can I drive?”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Come on, mom, it was Mason that crashed the car, not me.”

“Point,” Mrs. Donica said nodding. She pulled the keys out of the ignition and handed them to Chloe as Mason came over.

“What is this blasphemy?” he exclaimed.

“Last time you were behind a wheel, the car about died,” Chloe said starting the car.

“So, what?” he grumbled, slamming the door to the back seat shut. Chloe smirked and pulled out of the driveway.

“Dinner’s in the pan on the stove,” their mother explained as they drove. “Dad won’t be home tonight, so if you’re hungry.”

The yellow thing in the pan didn’t look edible to Chloe so she took to boiling frozen tortellini instead. I live off of pasta, Chloe thought as she cleared off her bed. She moved three books to her desk and a pile of clean clothes to her chair. She didn’t bother to change her shirt but pulled on sweat pants before getting into bed.