"Who are you? What are you-How did you get in here?", demanded the scary girl who was currently pointing some sort of gun that looked like it belonged in Star Trek at my head. Tobias, my best friend, cowered in fear behind me. My hero, I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, he popped his head out over my shoulder. "I can explain", he said. "But it would sound so much better coming from Adriane here." I turned and glared at him. "Yeah, throw me under the bus, why don't you."

"Technically, I'm not throwing you under a bus. You're way more likely to get shot by her than to get run over by a bus."

"You get my point!"

"There aren't any buses in here! You're point doesn't make sense!"

"I meant it metaphorically! It's an idiom! It's not supposed to make sense!"

"Why not? Everything's much better when things make sense!"

"Fine then! Push me into the line of fire, why don't you? Better?"

The girl cleared her throat. "You two done?" The guy standing next to her looked like he was trying not to laugh. I blinked. "Yes?" She cocked her Star Trek gun. "Good".

You guys are probably wondering how managed to get myself into this mess. Before I tell you, let me just state now, on the record, in front of all you witnesses: It was all Tobias's fault. That's right, it's going to be on his conscience when I get my brains blown all over wherever the heck we ended up. His stupid curiosity got us into this. If I die, someone had better arrest him for it.

Today started normally enough.

My alarm rang, scaring me so badly I fell out of bed. "I'm awake!", I shouted at it, but the infernal thing kept ringing. I picked up the closest thing to me, a shoe, and threw it at the timekeeping device. Usually my aim is terrible, but for once in my life I was dead on. My Adidas hit the stupid thing, and it fell off my nightstand with a crash and the sound of breaking glass. "Great", I muttered, shoving all the bits and pieces under the nightstand and hoping my mom wouldn't notice them. "Just perfect."

School now.

First period: Social Studies. "Mrs. Camel, I'm so sorry I forgot my homework at home. I'll bring it tomorrow, I promise." AKA, I didn't do it (again) and I'll do it tonight.

Second period: Band. Boo yah! Flutes are the best! (No offense. This is my calm, objective opinion here. BUT STILL!)

Third period: English Language Arts. Mrs. Ferigious, does it really take twenty minutes to tell us where to write our names on the paper? And explain what to do when the instructions are RIGHT THERE? I mean, come on we're freshmen, I'm pretty sure most of us can read. Pretty sure. Eighty percent. Maybe seventy if we're betting on it.

Fourth period: also ELA with Mrs. Ferigious. Kill me now and shoot the teacher in the mouth.

Fifth period: Math. Mr. Geronimo likes to yell at the top of his lungs to when it's dead silent to keep us awake. He also likes to tell us the school corn dogs are actually his pet guinea pigs who got radiation poisoning and lost all their hair. So he donated them to the school, who impaled, breaded, and fried them before giving them to us pupils for lunch.

Lunch. I'm not that hungry anymore. We're having corn dogs today.

Sixth period: Science. Yay! I rock this class.

Seventh period: PE. Physical Education. I don't do 'Physical'. I seriously once broke a nail playing soccer. (In real life too. Seriously. I wasn't even goalie.) Thankfully this is my last class.

So, the weird stuff happened as Tobias (I'm still mad at him) and I were walking home from school. There were two people walking in front of us, a girl with long, black, hair, and a guy with a baseball cap. They both looked out of place somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about them was off. They blended in too well.

Tobias was looking at them funny too. We watched them walk into an alley between two buildings. As they turned the corner, something small and shiny fell out of the girl's pocket. Me, being the kind hearted, honest person I am, walked forward and picked it up. I had every intention of returning it, until I saw what it was. "Just a penny", I sighed. "Nothing weird about that." "Which way did it land?", asked Tobias, catching up to me. "Heads is good luck."

"Then you can have my luck" I said, flipping the coin the coin over to him. He deftly caught it and began examining it. Suddenly his eyes widened and he jogged over to my side. "Call me crazy", he stated. "But I think the date on this is 2018. Last time I checked it was still 2017."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay Crazy. That's 'cause it is still 2017." Slightly intrigued now, I swiped the penny out of his hands. 2018. I grinned. "Someone at the US Mint probably screwed up and printed a whole batch of 2018 pennies in 2017." "Yeah, sure," he said, "But there's still something weird about them. You can go home, but I want to know what's going on."

I shrugged. "It's not like I have anything either. I'm coming too." Tobias smiled. "Let's go!" We followed the pair down the alley, just in time to see them roll up their sleeves, revealing something like really high tech fitbits. They pushed the band and a blue circle expanded under their feet, about ten feet in diameter. Unfortunately, we were a lot closer to them than ten feet, and when they disappeared in twin spirals of blue light, so did we.

When we rematerialized, we were in a completely different place. It was like we were on the inside of a sphere, except for the floor, which was flat. That's when the two of them decided to notice our presence. The girl looked Japanese, with pale skin and dark eyes and hair. The guy had blue eyes and brown hair, and he was wearing a baseball cap backwards. Tobias looked at the girl and raised his eyebrow. He strutted over to her and grinned, making finger guns with his hands. "Hey there", he said in a voice that was about two octaves lower than usual. That's when she pulled the gun out.

Tobias gave a very manly squeal and dove behind me. I stepped sideways and glared at him. "If she shoots you, you deserve it. No way in heck am I letting you use me as a human shield." He looked at me with fake tears in his eyes. "How could you? Are we not friends?"

Scary Girl rolled her eyes at him and turned to the guy. "What should we do with them, Damien?" He shrugged. "The Timekeeper should know." He touched a section of the curved, smooth, white wall of the inside of the sphere and a section of it slid away. A white hallway with blue overhead lighting led off to who knows where. The girl gave us an evil look. "Come on", she said roughly. Damien grinned at us both and shot us a double thumbs up. Tobias grinned even wider and returned the gesture. I elbowed him. "Dork."

The pair led us down winding hallways that twisted and turned where you least expected it. The whole place was weird. Tobias shared my opinion. "I don't like it here. It doesn't feel right. It's really disconcerting, and I prefer being concerted." I gave him a weird look but ignored his slaughter of the English language.

Finally they led us to what appeared to be a dead end. Scary Girl pushed a panel, and the wall slid open reveal some kind of office. Like one of those really cliché ones from the movies with the high backed chair so you couldn't see the person sitting in it, and the huge mahogany desk. The back wall was one giant window, giving us a wonderful view of-y'know, I wasn't really sure. Think like a giant tunnel made of storm clouds with multicolored lightning. The large chair swiveled around, revealing a small, balding, middle aged man.

He smiled widely at the sight of our abductors. "Ah, Mei, Damien, what brings you to my desk today?" Scary Girl, whose name was apparently Mei, turned and glared at us before diverting her attention back to whom I assumed was the famed 'Timekeeper'. "We picked up a couple of hitchhikers, sir." "Hm?" Suddenly, his whole demeanor changed, the five foot one man was suddenly imposing.

He frowned at them. "This is your second screw up in as many weeks. One more and you will be fired. The Agency does NOT tolerate failure." Both of them cringed visibly at the thought, as if being fired was some sort of physical torture. He turned to Tobias and I and we both stiffened. He looked at us sharply and said, " The pair of you have two choices. You can have your memory erased, and be returned to the exact moment you were, er, kidnapped. But, you should know, we have not worked out all the bugs to that. There is a ninety percent chance you could end up with all your memories erased until you second birthday." He leaned in, eyes glinting. "Or you could join the Agency."