Fate

Usually, when Mai came back after a visit from the future, she would do so with strange feelings. Feeling down, or unaware if it had been real or not. However, this time she was certain that everything was real, and that she had been able to change the supposed future.

Using this energy and determination, she grabbed her phone and made a list of things that she needed to do. The first thing on her agenda was to try and catch the culprit that was responsible for stealing her clothes.

According to Future Shirley they had been unable to do that in her timeline, but in the present nothing had appeared in Simon's locker yet. Catching the thief in the act would hopefully fix her relationship with her childhood friend.

The next thing was to find out more about Chris and his past. Whatever he did between the present and the future had caused the death of Future Chris. As long as she might learn more about his past it might mean that Future Mai would be able to save her future husband.

Taking a step out of her front door, Mai had a big smile on her face, but soon that smile turned into a red face, as she could see Simon standing there waiting for her.

'Damn it, I completely forgot that despite having spent two days in the future, that only one night has passed in the present. I thought I was over his actions, but now seeing him in front of me like this... It's just reminding me about everything that he said before.'

What was even more awkward was the way Simon was standing, he had his bike propped up with the little metal stand near his wheel keeping it balanced, while he stood straight and tall with his hands behind his back.

'Why can't things just go back to the way they were?' Mai wondered as she slowly walked over towards Simon, and suddenly, he had moved causing her to jolt. She screamed and covered her face.

'No, no, is he trying to attack me!' Mai was afraid. 'Is this because I rejected him?!' However,, opening her eyes, she could see that Simon was merely presenting her with a single red rose.

"Although a rose is not enough to be a romantic gesture of pleasing you, I hope this can be a start." Simon said, his voice slightly shaking and she could see some light embarrassment on his face.

Looking at his arms held out straight with the rose, she could see that they were shaking. He was putting on a brave act. Seeing this, Mai took the rose.

"Thank you, this is really pretty." She said, as she placed the stem on her ear. She also noticed that all the thorns had been removed and smoothed out. It was clear that he had put in a lot of effort , but seeing it the pain in her heart only grew.

Mai could see the reflection in a parked car and she had to admit the look of a rose propped in her ear with her hair back suited her surprisingly well.

Next, Simon pulled out a cloth, seemingly out of nowhere as if he was a magician and started to clean the seat before he allowed her to sit behind him.

'This is a side of Simon I've never seen before.' Mai thought as she climbed on and Simon started to peddle away.

"I told you, I was serious when I said I won't give up. Mai, I'll prove to you that me and you are meant to be the one together, not you and Chris." Simon said, as he peddled even faster, making the rose fall from her hair and on the ground.

She wanted to say something, but looking at Simon peddling so hard, something was stopping her from telling him to stop. Eventually the two of them stopped at the convenience store, and that's when Simon noticed his missing gift.

"What happened?" He asked, unsure whether she had gotten rid of it at some point, due to not liking it.

"It kind of fell in the wind while we were riding. I'm sorry I wanted to tell you." Mai apologised, her head held low.

"So... it's my fault." Simon uttered as he sulked, but the next moment he got back on the bike. "I'll be here to pick you up later again Mai, don't be late! And don't worry I won't do anything you don't want me to, you can walk to school on your own."

Mai wanted to say something as she reached out, but he had already paddled away. When she heard Simon express his words like that, Mai felt a little like she was a villain in a way. It seemed as if she had forced Simon to take her to school and then didn't even want the two of them to be seen together at school.

'What am I doing?' Mai asked herself as she walked the rest of her way towards school. Calmly looking around she noticed something as she walked past the nurse's office. The door was slightly open and she wasn't quite sure if she was imagining things so she took a peak.

There, she could see that Chris was currently inside, and he was getting his hands bandaged up.

'What happened? How did he get hurt? Could this have something to do with him in the future?' She thought as her legs started moving forward and she entered the room.

"Mai?!" Chris was surprised. "What are you doing here?"

The nurse turned around and saw Mai standing by the door with a red face.

"You're all bandaged up now, and it doesn't look like you've fractured anything, just bruised it. I have other things to do, so I'll let you two talk this out." The nurse said as she got out of the way of the two of them.

Chris was sitting on a bed, and Mai naturally moved closer to try to see where he had exactly been hurt, and whether it was just on the hands or not.

"Are you okay?" Mai asked. "Your knuckles are hurt… did you fall over, or maybe you got into a fi-"

"I'm okay Mai, you're right, I got into a fight." Chris said, as he stood up and walked past her without even looking at Mai.

"I think it's best if you just leave me be, as you can see staying with me just means you'll get hurt." Chris continued, and he didn't even turn back.

Mai turned around, but Chris had already left. At the moment, with how Chris had acted towards her for the last couple of days, she couldn't ever imagine the future where the two of them would end up together

'How the hell did Future Mai win him over?' Mai wondered as she walked out, and decided to head to her classroom as usual.

When she arrived, she could see that Shirley was enjoying a talk with Vicky and a couple of other girls. Although Shirley should be aware about Mai's sour relationship with Vicky, she didn't feel it right to get in the way of Shirley's new friends.

Besides, it wasn't exactly like Shirley was hers anyway, she could talk to who she wanted. However, when lunch break came, Shirley had come over with a strange request she would have never suspected.

"So I've been invited to a group date." Shirley confessed. "Vicky and her two friends said that they will be meeting up with a group of boys tonight, and they need me and another person to make the numbers even."

"You're pulling my leg, right? Ýou're not seriously asking me to join her and her goons to a mixer?" Mai asked, thinking this was just one of Shirley's antics.

However, with a guilty face Shirley nodded and put her hands together as if she was praying.

"Look I think both of you are nice people, and maybe if you got to know each other better the bad blood between you two would go away." Shirley explained and before Mai could do anything her future BFF had grabbed her hands. "Please do it for me... and for yourself. I really think that you just have to get your mind off things that have been happening recently. Just think about how nice it would be to meet some boys you don't have a complicated relationship with. These are our teenage years, so let's live a little!"

Mai looked towards Chris, who had been staring out the window for the whole class seemingly doing nothing. She then thought about Simon, who she was just continuing to hurt. Mai's only feelings for him were that of a younger brother and the nicer he was to her, the more it would just hurt her.

'Future Mai, I promise that I will save Chris for our sake, but I think I might just need a little break with everything going on.' Mai thought.

"Alright." Mai reluctantly said.

-------

Over in another classroom, Simon, who was pretty out of it, and hadn't been paying attention to any of his lessons all day, was approached by some of his male classmates. One of them was called Chang.

"Hey Simon, you seem to be in a sucky mood today." Chang said. "Guess what, I have something that might just cheer you up. Me and the boys have set up a group date with a bunch of hot girls, and we're down a guy, so what do you say, you want to come? And before you say anything, just going out on a group date doesn't mean you're cheating or anything!"

"I know you got the hots for Mai, but who says you can't have a little fun once in a while? Huh, so what's your answer going to be? Chang asked.