My three friends and I were sneaking across campus. I felt like a secret agent after just escaping from the health center. But the summer sun was shining, and a slight breeze was blowing, so the sense of suspense was hard to maintain. We arrived at our dorm without incident.
         Just inside the back door, the four of us examined one another. We all looked pretty rumpled. I guessed jumping out of bed and racing over to the health center would do that to a person. Aw. They were good friends.
         "So?" Ethan asked. "I guess I'll see you guys later? I have a lab in a little while."
         We all nodded.
         Rory put her hand on his arm. "Thanks for coming with us, Eth. It made things easier."
         He smiled broadly. "Well, you said we might need to carry her out a window or something." He flexed, showing off his impressive guns. "I'm your man whenever you want to break someone out of something."
         Rory giggled.
         "Thanks," I said, and Lin echoed me, nodding.
         He took off.
         The three of us started walking for the female side.
         "Are you sure you're feeling all right?" Rory asked.
         "Can I meet your new cat?" Lin asked.
         "Yes, Rory, I'm fine." Now that I wasn't imprisoned, I was close enough to all right, anyway. "And, yes, Lin. Come on over and meet the cat."
         "What are you going to do with it?" Lin asked.
         That was an excellent question.
         When we turned onto my hallway, a couple of guys were standing in front of my door doing something suspicious.
         Lin immediately yelled, "Hey!" and ran towards them.
         The guys jerked and moved away from the door as if they'd just been caught doing something nefarious.
         Rory and I followed her.
         "What are you doing?" Lin yelled, bouncing on the balls of her feet. If I didn't know better, I'd guess she was about to beat them both up.
         "There you are!" the guy with long blond hair said. "We want our cat back." He seemed to be the ringleader.
         "Yeah, cat-stealer!" the other, a greasy-headed brunette, said as he shoved something, maybe a screwdriver, into one of his voluminous pockets. His olive-green cargo pants had many pockets.
         "What are you guys doing here?" I asked. Although I thought I knew: they were trying to break into my room and steal their cat. "I confiscated that cat fair and square. It wasn't safe with you. And, anyway, cats are illegal in the dorm." Honestly, these two guys were a huge pain. I was sick of them.
         "Yeah!" Lin said, bouncing some more.
         "Give us our cat back!" the ringleader said.
         "No," I said, crossing my arms in front of me.
         "If you don't give us our cat back, you'll be sorry," the screwdriver guy said, pointing the screwdriver at me.
         "Is that a threat?" Lin asked, getting right up in his face.
         Rory pulled out her phone and started filming. "It sounds like a felony to me. It looks like a felony. Tiffani, do you want to report them to the police?"
         Suddenly, the two men looked less belligerent and more worried.
         "Not if they leave right now and let this whole thing go," I said. None of us would benefit from bringing the cops in. (Probably, especially me.)
         "Maybe we don't want to let it go--" screwdriver guy said, getting in Lin's face.
         The blond guy grabbed the back of his friend's t-shirt and started dragging him away, down the hall, muttering something I couldn't make out.
         I unlocked the door, and the three of us entered. Right in the middle of the floor, an adorable gray tabby kitten sat up and meowed. Meow, meow.
         "Oh! She's so sweet!" Rory said, sitting down and petting it.
         Lin sat next to her. "You're a little sweetie, aren't you?" She petted the kitten, too. It wasn't so strange that they were entranced; sadly, living in the dorms, we rarely saw cats or dogs.
         For her part, the kitten flexed her back and purred.
         Rory glanced at me. "So, tell us what happened last night."
         "I don't completely understand it," I said.
         "Well, we know you're not crazy," Lin said. "So, understand that at least."
         "Just tell us from the beginning," Rory said.
         I sat on my bed. "The evening started normally. I met Liam--"
         "Was he high?" Lin asked.
         I nodded.
         Rory poked her in the arm. "Shh. Let her talk."
         "I met Liam, and we did our rounds," I said. "Everything was fine until we got to the penthouse in the southeast corner." Four so-called penthouse dorm rooms took up the top floor of the dorm. The rooms were larger and hence had more roommates. They were more prestigious, with big windows and amazing views of the foothills west of campus. They had a waiting list, so they tended to house upper-classmen. They were extremely popular for parties. Basically, they were a pain in the resident advisors' butts.
         "Tiff?" Rory asked.
         "So, we got up to the southeast corner and smelled pot," I said. "I knocked on the door, opened it, and saw a kitten inside." I pointed at said kitten. "One of the guys, the blond guy from previous problems, was pouring beer into a bowl, and the kitten was drinking it. Then the kitten made a weird noise and fell over." I paused for a moment, trying to stay calm. "She died."
         Both Lin and Rory grimaced.
         "And, then, I'm not sure what happened," I said. "I sort of freaked out."
         "What do you think happened?" Rory asked softly.
         "It seemed like I traveled back into the past," I said. "I was suddenly back in my room, and it was earlier. I stormed up to the penthouse, took the cat, and ran back to my room. And then, I guess I collapsed. Eventually, Liam showed up here and told me I was late for work. I felt horrible, super tired, and achy, but I tried to do rounds. And then it gets fuzzy again. I passed out or something? Anyway, Liam took me over to the health center. You know the rest."
         "Liam took you?" Rory asked.
         I nodded.
         Lin pointed at me. "You glossed over the most important part. How did you travel into the past?"
         I shrugged. "I don't know."
         My two friends stared at me.
         "It's a mystery," Rory finally said. "Well, however, you did it, I'm glad you saved this little fuzzball here." She leaned over the kitten and petted it some more.
         "There's some milk in the mini-fridge," I said, pointing. "Can you feed her?"
         "Sure thing," Rory said.
         "I'm going to take a shower." After my ordeal, I felt grungy. Traveling in time made a person sweaty. "Can you guys wait here for a few minutes?"
         Without taking their attention from the kitten, they both nodded and said something like, "Uh-huh...."
         
         In the shower, the hot water sluicing over my skin felt great. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. I was okay. I would just focus on my shower, water, soap, and shampoo.
         Nothing bad was happening. I wasn't traveling fast or into the past. I wasn't doing anything to, or with, time.
         I didn't have to worry about being considered crazy or being committed. I didn't have to worry about why all this was happening to me....
         Why was it happening? I had no idea. Why was it happening to me? I didn't know. How was it happening? I didn't know.
         I only had to focus on my shower. Focus, Tiff! I focused on the now.
         
         I felt much better when I got back to my room.
         Rory and Lin were still sitting in the middle of the floor, petting the cat, but they didn't look as content as when I'd left.
         "Do you want to go get lunch?" Rory asked.
         "Yeah, I'm starving," Lin said.
         It sounded fun, but I had to start figuring out what was happening with me. "You guys go ahead. I think I will grab a protein bar and go over to the physics building. Surely someone over there can tell me something about time so I can get a clue."
         They kept glancing at my phone.
         "Is there something up with my phone?" I asked.
         Rory scrunched up her nose. "You got a voicemail message while you were in the bathroom." Uh oh. Voicemail was never good.
         "Yeah," Lin said. "The big boss, the dorm director."
         Uh oh, to the max. If I got fired from my resident advisor position, I'd have to find a new place to live. "Oh no." I grabbed my phone and listened to the message.
         "Tiffani, I heard you had a medical issue and had to go to the health center," Dr. Stone said. She was stern but fair. "I hope you are feeling better. Of course, if you have something contagious, you need to quarantine." Had she heard I left the center against medical advice? I glanced at my phone. The message had come in recently, so there was enough time for her to hear things about me.
         But I couldn't tell what she knew. "I also heard you didn't complete your rounds last night," she said. "Please come see me in my office as soon as you get this message--which had better be pretty darn soon." We were supposed to be on call twenty-four-seven when we were on duty. And I was still supposed to be on duty. The message ended.
         "Ugh." Now it was my turn to grimace. "I'm in trouble with Dr. Stone. I have to go to her office." She had an office here in the building.
         "I don't suppose you want to come with me?" I smiled sweetly at my friends.
         "Uh, no offense, Tiff," Lin said. "But the last thing we need is to get in trouble with Stoney."
         "But we will accompany you if you need us to," Rory said, giving Lin a dirty look. "We are here for you. Moral support. Whatever."
         I examined them. They clearly didn't want to go. And they had already helped me a lot this week. "No worries," I finally said. "Go ahead and get some lunch. I'll catch up with you later."
         They jumped up, relieved.
         "Later," Lin said as she started walking for the door.
         "Good luck, sweetie," Rory said, trailing after her. "Let us know what happens."
         "Yeah, we'll meet up later," Lin said as they made their escape.
         I slowly followed them out the door and then locked it behind me.
         I started trudging down the hall on my way to Stone's office.
         Possibly to my doom.