“Donna? Get the kids ready, we’re going out for dinner tonight!”

  “David, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon!”

  I was still laying back on the couch in shock over my gains on the stock market. It was my first major windfall, as before today I had merely chosen safe stocks and threw my money at it. I was learning a lot about investing, and if today was any indication, my knowledge of the future was going to pay off handsomely. While I didn’t let Dad know that I had had my own translation which paid off, he was so excited that he had doubled his investment of two grand in a day that he didn’t check to see that I had earned eighty.

  Dad was practically singing upstairs in the kitchen while Mom, confused as to why he was in such a good mood, went downstairs to change the laundry. I took a breath before gathering up my papers, and joined him upstairs. He was sitting at his desk in the kitchen, and with a big smile on his face gave me a bear hug. Fortunately I was too big for him to lift up, because I hated when he did that.

  “My daughter the genius!” Dad exclaimed, after hugging me one last time and then placing his hands on my shoulder. “I’m sorry I doubted you, sweetheart!”

  “Uh, you’re welcome, but we still have to –”

  “Nevermind, nevermind,” he beamed as he looked over the figures sheet once again. “Two thousand dollars in one day!”

  “Hold on, Dad, see, you don’t have the money yet,” I explained. “Tomorrow we have to call the broker and sell our shares so we get the cash.”

  Dad waved me off, confidently. “No worries, so I’ll have it tomorrow!”

  “Well, we don’t want to do that. Once we sell the Netscape stock, we should invest it back into Microsoft. It’s going to go up, and eventually we’ll be able to triple the money.”

  Dad’s eyes twinkled. “Triple, you say?”

  “Yes,” I cautioned, “but we have to be patient. It’ll be a while before it pays off, but it definitely will.” I felt odd explaining this to a man who was three times my age and size.

  “Well, I’ll trust you, Maya. My God, I still can’t believe this worked!”

  “Just give me permission to make the sales tomorrow,” I instructed. “And we shouldn’t tell Mom everything. It’s best just to sit on the wins and not think too much about it yet.” I swallowed. “Uh, that’s what my teacher said, at least.”

  Dad nodded, still keeping his big dopey grin on his face. “But you know, you’re the hero of the day! You’re picking where we go out tonight!”

  That evening Dad took the family out for pizza at the local Pizza Hut. It happened to be the old school version I remembered with the telltale red roof. Tim and Janie were stoked of course, though Mom was a bit curious as to why we were in such high spirits. Dad kept mum, assuring Mom that he just wanted to treat his family, and I was relieved that Dad was following my advice. Dad wasn’t the type to go on a shopping spree, but I didn’t want the temptation. I mean, I had nearly forty times the amount he had, and lord knows what he would have done if he knew that his daughter had more money than he made in a year.

  Summer began to wind down, and I was definitely going to miss the freedom it provided. Increasingly, I was beginning to notice unwanted attention I was receiving. I had been rapidly maturing all year, and I was gaining a distinct hourglass figure. I remained slim from my demanding cheerleading schedule, and it was offset by my bust which by July had expanded to a C cup. Not only was I starting to have back aches from my “blessings,” I could sense that eyes were subconsciously drawn to my chest. There had been several pool parties that summer, and when boys were present I constantly caught them staring. It also didn’t help when I was at the mall that boys would occasionally approach me. I either had to keep Jake on hand or flock with my girlfriends to avoid being chatted up.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  After Labor Day came the new school year. I very much had that same existential fatigue of sitting through freshman orientation in the school auditorium for a second time in my second life. While my friends were all stressed and anxious about finally becoming high school students, I was pretty much non-chalant. I remembered Matthew’s time in high school much more clearly than I had middle school, probably due to him being older and having firmer memories. As a result, the layout of the building was very familiar to me and I spent the first week guiding the members of my clique to their classes.

  While the material courses were going to prove to be simple, once again, they were going to be time-consuming despite only having four classes per day instead of seven. On top of this, the coach of the cheerleading squad announced our practice schedule was going to be a grueling three afternoons a week, and that didn’t include games.

  In the first week of classes the school club's signups were held in the cafeteria and all of my friends were signing up for extracurriculars. There were a couple dozen tables set up with signs and clipboards waiting for signatures. I browsed through several of them, and I decided to join the newly formed computer club and signed up on their desk.

  “Maya,” scolded Erin as I was signing the form, “You can’t sign up for that club!”

  “Why not?” I countered. “It, uh, will help me with my school work.”

  “But it’s a nerd club!” she teased.

  I rolled my eyes, but she had a point. Everyone else was joining the “cooler” drama club or language clubs, but I needed the computer club resources. We didn’t have internet access at our house yet, and I was eager to get back online for the next stage of my next plan. However, Erin had a point, and I was aware of the social standing I had to maintain. I scanned the other tables for options. “Here, I can do student government. I can be freshman class treasurer or something.”

  “Ooo, you’d be good at that. But I think you’d have to be elected for that.”

  “Well,” I smirked, “good thing I have the cheer squad for support, huh?” We shared a laugh.

  The computer lab was an offshoot of the library, with its beige walls slightly peeling and a slight whiff of old pizza. As I stepped in, I heard the sounds of digital gunfire from the cluster of boys chattering with each other. Their banter stopped when I entered the room, and all six of their heads turned. They weren’t hostile, just a little confused as to why a girl, a pretty one at that, had entered their space. I recognized a couple of them; Paul Jenson and Mark Kowalski, who had been friends of Matthew in my previous timeline. They were Matthew’s friends for years, arguing about comics and video games, and they even built a computer together their senior year. In Maya’s timeline, they were simply strangers.

  I shook off the phantom memories and approached the desk. Seated there was a younger man with a blonde mustache and thick glasses. He had been idly thumbing through a tech magazine as the boys busied themselves. I stood awkwardly as I waited for him to acknowledge me. It took him a moment to notice as he set aside his reading material.

  “Yes, miss, can I help you?”

  “My name is Maya Peterson, and I’m here for the computer club. Are you Mr. Erikson?” I asked, aware the boys were still watching from behind me.

  Mr. Erikson looked lost for a moment. Clearly he was more of a supervisor than a club organizer. “Yes, yes this is the computer club. Did you want to get set up on one of the machines?”

  “Actually, I wanted to ask some questions about the internet, if that’s okay.”

  “Please,” he gestured to one of the nearby chairs, “what’s on your mind?”

  I pulled the chair to his desk, smoothing my skirt as I sat down. “It’s…sort of a structural question. I was reading about DNS, and how it translates a domain name into an IP address. But I couldn’t figure out who actually controls those names. For example, if someone wanted to register a specific address, how would they actually do it?”

  Mr. Erikson was wide-eyed. He leaned back into his chair, clearly impressed. “That’s a pretty deep cut for a freshman. You’re right to be curious; in fact, there was just a change last week on how that was done. It used to be done by the government, but now there’s a company that takes care of that.”

  I played it casual. “That’s what I read. I was thinking about maybe getting a domain for myself. For a website or something.”

  “Well, you can buy one, but it’s about one hundred dollars to own it for about two years. Pretty expensive for a student’s hobby.”

  I smiled coolly. “So, how would I get started?”