To Solomon and Valentine,
for showing me the portal to secret,
dystopian and magical worlds . . .

Some people say that we are fighting for our future,
but that is not true. We are not fighting for our future,
we are fighting for everyone’s future.

– Greta Thunberg

Chapter 01:00: Elle

Chapter 01:00

ELLE

Something bad just happened and I want to leap back in time to make it unhappen.

But you’re not supposed to solo leap till you’re 3-leap, which is 12 years old for Annuals.

I won’t be 3-leap until the 29th of February. Three days’ time.

I just ran out of double geography and now I’m in the corridor. I’m tongue-tied and my face is burning red with humiliation and I can still hear Mr Carter’s old, creaky voice in my memory: ‘Elle, where are you going?’

I check my watch: 15:01, Wednesday 26 February.

I close my eyes to block out the muffled shouts from the classroom, the yellow walls of the corridor, the smell of sweat and all the bad thoughts colliding in my head about the bad thing that happened AND getting into trouble for running out of a lesson.

I’m THINKING about leaping back in time so the bad thing won’t happen. I don’t MEAN to leap. That would be wrong. When I have that thought, another one comes into my mind at the same time. Will athletics club still be on tonight? It’s usually 5 o’clock on a Wednesday, but someone said it might be cancelled. I imagine doing running round the track to keep myself calm and it feels like it’s actually happening. My body goes fizzy, charged up like a battery. Something very strange is happening to me. My body isn’t any bigger but it’s much stronger. I’m no longer Elle, I’m Elle to the power of 3! My head begins to spin so fast I stop thinking about running. I try to think about nothing at all but I’ve never felt so happy, like I could take on the whole world.

I clasp my hands tight.

Everything goes dark.

I hear a door open.

Classroom chatter pours out, like a tidal wave.

I open my eyes. Things slowly come into focus, like my eyes are a camera. I’m sitting on the grass by the school track, next to the long-jump pit. My watch says 17:00. My mouth is a capital O. I just leapt 1 hour 59 minutes into the future!