Prom Queen

Jammie had always felt there was something different about herself. It wasn't through a feeling of specialness or superiority, if anything it was the opposite. She was a shy, social outcast, lacking the awareness and social skills of other girls her age, mostly due to the strict upbringing by her ultra-religious and domineering mother. The other girls made fun of her, especially when she 'developed' late and failed at sports.

She began to notice the difference when she reached the age of 15. It was subtle things at first, a crack appearing in a window, objects falling off shelves. It happened during times of stress, and as the bullying intensified, so did the stress and with it, these manifestations that she could not control.

The one day after class, one of the popular boys, Tyrone, asked her to the prom. She was too shy to accept at first, but he persisted. He called her "pretty", "beautiful". He had grown tired of all the common girls and there was something about Jammie that was quiet and understated, like a deeper intelligence. Turns out, as the others learned that Tyrone showed an interest in Jammie, they began to see what he saw too. By the time they got to the prom it was a complete reversal. The kids who used to mock and torture her had voted for her to be their Prom Queen. It was a wonderful night.

After that night, life became easier for Jammie. She was able to move out of her mothers house by the time she had started college and she went on to study law. After graduating she and Tyrone eventually married and settled down to raise a family. The manifestations had stopped and were long forgotten.

Solving The Paradox

It's not that Rob wasn't grateful for the opportunity to get an education, for his friends and his choices in life. But as he made his way from the university campus through the snow on the cold January evening, he wondered how different his life would be now if he had taken the job his father offered him 2 years ago. Perhaps he might have been able to help Caroline and she wouldn't be in this mess, perhaps he would even be able to solve some of his own problems, not make the same mistakes.

Lost in his own thoughts as he walked over the Ryegate Bridge, he didn't hear the loud crack of a tear in the fabric of space-time. A wormhole had opened up directly in his path and he was about to walk directly into it, until he spotted something something shiny in the snow which made him pause and stoop to examine it. It was a handful of one and two pound coins, Rob couldn't believe his luck. As he scooped them up, the wormhole began to close. As he continued his steps closer to the spot where the wormhole had opened up, it grew smaller and smaller till it closed up completely. Rob continued on his journey home with the feeling perhaps his luck had changed after all?