“Sweetie, please, just tell me what’s wrong,” my mom implored.

I stared directly ahead as the car approached the school. “Like I said, Mom, it’s nothing. I fell down the stairs.”

“I’m not stupid, Derek! Your grades are slipping, you’re almost never in a good mood, and last week you come home covered in cuts and bruises? I know what’s happening here,” she lectured.

“Trust me, you don’t…” I muttered.

“Then tell me!” she pleaded, pulling the car into the parking lot before taking a deep breath and turning to face me. “Derek, listen, to me this looks like bullying. I saw it when I was in school, and I don’t want to see it happening to you. If you just tell me who’s doing this, we can put a stop to it once and for all.”

I met my mother’s eyes. Kind, reassuring, and hopelessly naive. I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if Henry got pulled into a meeting about his conduct. It would make any kind of bullying my mom was imagining look like a gentle ribbing.

“It’s nothing,” I insisted, knowing I wasn’t fooling her. What was I supposed to say? That my injuries were a result of a brainwashed, superpowered Valerie throwing me around like a ragdoll?

My mom’s face fell, her disappointment etching itself into her expression. “Fine, but this conversation isn’t over. I’m not going to let you keep getting hurt.” she insisted.

I said nothing, hopping out of the car and trying to shake off the lingering tension. I felt like an asshole, but if I told her the truth she’d think I had a drug problem. In a few months I’d be off to college, and this whole saga would be chalked up to classic teenage angst.

Grabbing the handle of the front door, I momentarily seized up. Last time I walked into school I was quite literally greeted by an explosion. This time, thankfully, I was met with the familiar hustle and bustle of school life. I surveyed the scene, looking for anything out of place that could hint at any Henry-related weirdness, but it seemed normal at a glance.

It was when I began making my way to biology that things began to feel out of place. For one, I hadn’t spotted anybody I knew. No Emily, no Mai, no Lan. I couldn’t recognize a single face as I weaved my way through the crowds thronging the hall. It was then that I realized it wasn’t just the students’ faces that were unfamiliar—so were their outfits.

In place of the usual blues and browns, almost everyone seemed to be dressed in either bright neons or studded leather. What they all had in common, however, was their hair. I’m a reasonably tall dude, but even I was struggling to see over the sheer volume of hair in the crowded hallways.

Everything finally clicked when I passed by a wall-mounted trophy case. It was in the same spot it usually was, but somehow it was a bit less eye-catching. I looked closer, examining the various trophies, medals, and photos mounted on the other side of the glass, only to find something off about them.

There wasn’t a single award past 1986.

Now, our school were hardly championship contenders, but not a single win in the past 40 years? At that point you wouldn’t even bother displaying trophies. I scanned the crowds once more, observing the distinct, matching styles of the various cliques. Tall, burly guys in letterman jackets, nerds in high pants, plaid shirts, and thick glasses, and skater kids that looked like parodies of themselves, dressed in backwards baseball hats and pants so loose I was surprised they were still on.

Henry had sent the school back to the 80s.

I found myself strangely calm despite the bizarre situation. I was definitely a fish out of water here, but that’s how I felt most days anyways. The only real difference was that I didn’t have to worry about protecting my friends today. I didn’t even need to worry about classes, it wasn’t like my absence would be noticed when I wouldn’t be born for another few decades. Maybe, despite everything, I could take it easy today.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a round of gasps followed by raucous laughter erupting from down the hall. Curious, I made my way through the horde of bystanders to see what had caused the commotion. What I saw was a smug-looking jock standing over a girl on the ground, with a biker-looking chick wrapped around his arm. They were the spitting image of the bully characters in those old teen movies.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there!” the jock bellowed, his cronies behind him laughing on cue. The girl at his side, donning ripped jeans and a leather jacket, smirked sadistically as she watched the fallen girl feel around for her glasses. I wanted to help her, but I knew Henry was around here somewhere, and I’d stick out like a sore thumb among this crowd. What really shocked me was that everyone else just watched as this poor girl crawled around. Hell, a good chunk of them were laughing!

“Knock it off, Mark!” I heard a voice call out through the crowd. A young woman emerged from the crowd, undeterred by the inaction of the crowd. She had dark hair tied in a ponytail and a glare that could stop a charging bear in its tracks. The jock, Mark, took a performative step back, raising his hands in mock surrender.

“It’s cool, officer, she just tripped,” he explained, the cocky grin never leaving his face.

His companion laughed like a hyena while she gripped his bicep. “Yeah Chrissy, why don’t you go bother someone else?”

The young woman, Chrissy, redirected her glare to the girl wrapped around Mark’s arm. “I don’t know, Sadie, why don’t you stop being a bitch? There are better ways to cope with your mom’s pill addiction.”

Whatever ambient laughter existed in the growing crowd died alongside the sadistic joy on Sadie’s face.

“You fucking bitch!” she screamed, lunging forward only to be held back by Mark. Chrissy didn’t even flinch.

“C’mon Sadie, we’re leaving,” he said, his gaze lingering on Chrissy as he carried his furious girlfriend away. With the excitement having passed, Chrissy picked up the fallen girl’s glasses and handed them to her.

“Thanks Chrissy…” she muttered, her voice sullen but appreciative.

“Did you actually fall?” Chrissy asked, her tone flat.

“Of course not, Mark shoved me,” she answered, audibly downtrodden.

“Prick,” Chrissy sighed, crossing her arms, “It’s not your fault, Patty, but you need to start standing up for yourself if you want jerks like him to leave you alone.”

“I know,” Patty said, dusting off her jeans as she got to her feet, “You just make it look so easy.”

“Yeah, well, it took practice,” Chrissy said, leaning against a nearby locker.

The two chatted further, but I lost track of their conversation. My mind was somewhere else entirely. The girl, Patty, looked familiar as soon as I saw her. Between the curly, light-brown hair and the robust figure concealed under conservative clothes, she looked remarkably similar to Emily. Then I remembered: Emily’s mom is named Patricia. Not only that, Emily and I were friends because our moms knew each other in high school.

My mother’s name is Christina.

Not that I needed her name, I’d seen that same furious glare many times before, albeit on the face of a much older woman.

“Hey, what are you staring at?” Chrissy called out to me.

“U-Um, sorry!” I stammered before speedwalking away.

In a daze, I hurried out one of the side doors, rushing to get some fresh air outside. Should I do something to protect her? Did I need to? Was she Henry’s type? Shit, what if he did something and she tried to confront him? How could I keep Henry away from my mom?

Lost in thought, I stumbled directly into a familiar figure. Sadie, Mark’s wild girlfriend, recoiled from the impact of the collision, dropping her cigarette onto the pavement below. To my horror, she wasn’t alone. Mark, the bully who shoved Patty, was standing right next to her.

“Watch where you’re going, dipshit!” Sadie screamed, clearly still upset from the earlier incident.

“O-oh, my bad, sorry,” I muttered, trying to slide past her, only to get blocked by Mark’s hulking figure.

“Sorry? That won’t cut it, bud. You don’t disrespect my girlfriend and get away with it.” Mark growled, grabbing me by the shoulders and pinning me to the wall. Sadie watched on with a terrifying twinkle in her eye, clearly delighting in Mark’s cruelty on her behalf.

“It was an accident, really!” I pleaded, but Mark simply shook his head.

“Well, I suppose this’ll be an accident, too,” he said, readying a meaty fist aimed at my face.

“W-wait!” I heard a soft, voice call out from behind me. I turned to see Patty, still visibly shaken from her earlier encounter, somehow mustering the courage to interrupt my beating. Mark loosened his grip, redirecting his focus to the more familiar target of his abuse.

“Back off, Patty-cakes, I’m settling a score here,” Mark scolded as Sadie watched on with bemusement.

“Y-yeah, well so am I!” she exclaimed, her voice quivering. “I’m tired of you pushing me around—pushing all of us around—and it stops today!”

“Oh, does it now?” Mark chuckled, reaching out and grabbing Patty by the wrist, “And how exactly are you gonna make it stop?”

“I-I… Um…” Patty stammered, but it was clear she had no further plan. It seemed she’d been a bit too inspired by my mother’s words. A grin crept across Mark’s face, realizing that Patty was helpless in front of him. He yanked her by the arm, handing the nerdy girl off to Sadie.

“Here babe, hold this,” Mark said.

“Sure thing!” Sadie responded with venomous glee, holding Patty by her wrists as Mark returned his attention to me.

“Now, where were we?” he taunted, placing a hand over my mouth and readying his fist. I flinched, shutting my eyes tightly and preparing for the beating, only to be met with nothing. Cautiously, I opened my eyes, seeing Mark with his fist readied just as he was before, but something was amiss. He and Sadie were unnaturally still, sneers frozen on their faces, while Patty was similarly immobilized. This scenario was familiar to me, and I knew what it meant.

I did my absolute best to hold my pose as Henry waltzed into the scene. He glanced first at Sadie and Patty, then Mark, then directed his gaze to me. I felt my heart beating into my chest. There was no way he wouldn’t recognize my face this close. I wasn’t supposed to be here, he’d recognize me in an instant. This was the end…

“Woah… The 80s were no joke, huh,” Henry mused to himself. Wait, seriously? Did he not recognize me? I watched as Henry casually examined the human statues in front of him, waltzing in a circle around Sadie and running his hand across Patty’s rear. I felt an instinctive sense of protectiveness as he touched her, no doubt due to her visual similarities to her daughter.

“Well then, how about we make this scenario a bit more interesting,” Henry said enigmatically. He then snapped his fingers, prompting the students to return to life, though none seemed to be aware of Henry as he continued to observe from the sidelines with a satisfied grin.

“Wait, babe, let me take care of this one,” Sadie smirked, letting go of Patty and strutting toward me, brushing Mark’s arm aside. Mark relented, removing his hand from my shoulder and allowing Sadie to take over. I gulped. This psycho had tried to shred my mom to ribbons just a few minutes ago. Even with Henry’s influence, she had a crazed glint in her eye that made my hair stand on end.

Sadie slammed my shoulder into the wall, somehow even harder than Mark had, before leaning in.

“Let me show you exactly the mess you just got yourself into, dork,” she whispered into my ear before grabbing my face and pressing her lips to mine. The kiss was so passionate, and so out-of-the-blue, that I froze as the bully pushed her tongue between my lips. The lingering taste of ash from her leftover cigarette flooded my mouth as she leant further into the kiss, pinning her leg onto the wall and grinding against my waist.

“S-Sadie?! What the FUCK are you doing?!” Mark shouted, veins popping in his forehead. Sadie momentarily broke from the kiss to turn back to him.

“What does it look like? I’m teaching the little shit a lesson,” she declared confidently as her free hand slid under my waist.

“By FUCKING HIM?!” Mark roared, though he got nothing but an annoyed eyeroll in response. Amidst all the shouting, Patty merely stared wide-eyed at the scandalous scene unfolding in front of her. I simply tried my best to play along. Honestly, Sadie seemed a lot less intimidating when she was being manipulated by Henry than she was just being herself.

“Aw, the poor meathead needs a consolation prize,” Henry narrated to himself, “I guess I can throw you a bone.” With that, he snapped his fingers once more. I was distracted enough not to immediately notice what had changed, as least until I heard Patty speak.

“M-Mark, if you’re mad about Sadie, you can use me,” Patty murmured, her shy tone taking on a subtle but unmistakable sultry note.

“You?! Why the fuck would I want—” Mark began, before stopping dead in his tracks as Patty pulled her top off, revealing a pair of massive breasts that had been concealed under her conservative sweater. I was struck by the realization that Emily had inherited more than just her hair and eyes from her mother.

“I can make you feel good, do you want that?” Patty asked, stepping towards the stunned mark and cupping her massive tits in her hands.

“I… Uh…” Mark struggled, at a loss for words as his eyes lingered on the meek woman in front of him. Instinctively, he turned to his girlfriend to gauge her reaction, only to find a sight that shocked him even more.

While he was distracted, Sadie had slyly unbuttoned my fly and released my cock, already hard from the intense foreplay. She then, as Mark watched, slid her jeans off, revealing a pair of pale, shapely legs along with a tight ass and a neatly shaved pussy.

“SADIE!! WHAT THE FUCK?!” Mark screamed at his girlfriend. Sadie returned an incredulous, offended look.

“What? I’m just fucking him,” she said in the most casual tone imaginable as Henry watched on with evident amusement.

“Oh yeah?!” Mark yelled, lurching forward and sinking his hands into Patty’s tits, “Then I guess I’m just fucking her if it’s all the same to you!”

“I don’t see why not, as long as you’re messing with her,” Sadie explained casually, lifting her leg up and positioning her hips to match the height of my own. I was shocked by my own passive reactions, but there was only so much I could do with Henry directly observing us. As such, I simply allowed Sadie to push herself forward, steadying her arms on my chest as she slid onto my waiting dick. I let out a gasp as I felt her envelop me, the warm, electric pressure of her tight pussy surrounding my cock on all sides. I felt an immediate surge of pleasure the likes of which I’d never experienced before.

“Oh yeah, baby,” Sadie remarked, wrapping her arms around my neck, “I’m that fucking good.” I glanced past her to see a furious Mark glaring daggers into us before he turned to face Patty.

“You said you wanted to make me feel good, nerd? Then fucking do it,” he demanded angrily. Patty obliged, silently falling to her knees and clumsily undoing his fly. Breath heavy with anticipation, she freed Mark’s member which, to my surprise, seemed slightly smaller than mine. It wasn’t a micropenis by any stretch, but I had been expecting a monster considering the man’s hulking frame. Carefully, Patty maneuvered Mark’s cock in between her breasts before cupping them at their sides.

“Wait, are you serious? You can do that?” Mark asked, amazed that he was about to receive a bonafide titjob.

“Y-yeah, I’ve practiced at home to see if I could,” Patty admitted.

“Damn, who would have thought the nerd girl was a secret slut?” Mark laughed. I gritted my teeth. Even with everything she was doing for him, Mark continued to belittle her.

“Don’t pay attention to those losers,” Sadie interrupted, grabbing my head and physically moving it so our eyes met, “Focus on me.”

With that, Sadie began grinding against me, still pinning me against the wall. I felt the heat rise in my cock as it burned with Sadie’s every movement. I had always envisioned sex as something special, something tender, but Sadie was making me reconsider everything in that moment. She was a certified psycho, one I felt no emotional affection for whatsoever, yet her actions were sending waves across my entire body. I felt myself reach down, gripping her ass cheeks with hungry hands and pulling her into me. She gasped as I did, letting out a loud, sensual moan, one that didn’t go unnoticed by Mark.

As I grew more carried away with Sadie, Mark’s anger only seemed to grow. This is, until Patty began her own routine. Staring up at Mark, she kneaded her hands across her breasts, massaging his dick as it sat in between them. Despite his best efforts, Mark couldn’t maintain focus on his rage as Patty pleasured him with her body. His anger slowly succumbed to her movements as he put his hands on his hips, allowing Patty full access to his cock.

Suddenly, I felt a sting as the palm of Sadie’s hand made contact with my face.

“Hey!” she snapped, “Pay attention to me!”

Ironically, that slap did an excellent job of snapping me back to reality, or whatever this was. The situation I was in had felt so otherworldly that I had temporarily lost track of my surroundings. I had forgotten about Henry observing us with a voyeuristic grin, and about what I would need to do to stay hidden. Most of all, however, the slap had recalibrated my senses, bringing into focus the raw pleasure enamating throughout my body.

Sadie was taking me for a ride like nothing I’d ever experienced before. I found myself, almost involuntarily, clutching her ass tightly and lifting her hips off the ground. She seemed startled at first, but quickly matched my intensity, pressing into my hips and planting her lips firmly on mine. As the world around me faded away, Sadie became my sole focus. I stopped caring about Patty or Mark or even Henry as I let myself enter what I can only describe as a flow state, my movements feeding into our mutual pleasure entirely without conscious input. This, this was what sex could be.

Given the circumstances, it was impossible for me to hold out for long. I let out a loud moan as I climaxed inside Sadie, who trembled in my arms and clutched my shoulder as she reached her own orgasm. When I had finally calmed down enough to open my eyes again, I was met with the sight of Mark watching us with cold envy while Patty continued to pleasure him with her tits.

Moments later, Mark’s body tensed and he let out a series of grunts and moans, pumping his semen onto Patty’s waiting breasts. She held her tits up, doing her best to catch as much of his seed on her body as she could. We all stood there for a moment, a strange, tense silence filled the air as clarity slowly returned to the area.

“What just happened?” Mark asked, looking down at Patty’s painted chest.

“What happened,” Sadie said with a smirk as she pulled her pants back on, “Was that I taught this dipshit a lesson.”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, YOU JUST FUCKED HIM!” Mark raged, his fury returning in an instant as he gathered his bearings.

“Um, yeah? That’s how you teach people lessons,” Sadie retorted.

“YOU LET HIM CUM INSIDE YOU!! YOU HAVEN’T EVEN LET ME DO THAT!!” he roared, his wrath continuing to grow.

I simply leaned against the brick wall, dumbfounded. I’d just had the most profound sexual experience of my life, and yet Sadie had moved on like it was nothing. Henry simply watched on with his trademark bemused smirk as the situation continued to unfold.

“What the fuck is going on here?!” I heard a familiar voice call out. To my dismay, Chrissy, my mom’s past self, stormed out the doors and into the scene. I felt a pit form in my stomach. I never thought I’d have to protect her from Henry, but now that she was here I was completely powerless to do anything without exposing myself. All I could do was pray that Henry somehow chose not to intervene.

“Chrissy, it’s not what it looks like! I… Umm,” Patty sputtered, still kneeling topless in front of Mark while covered in his semen.

“You son of a bitch!” Chrissy screamed, storming up to Mark and slapping him clean across the face. Damn, she was really going to lay into him!

“We had a deal, Mark! All you had to do was leave Patty alone, and you could fuck me every Friday behind the bleachers. But NO, you couldn’t even do that! Well, it’s over. You mess with either of us again and I swear to god I’ll ruin your fucking life,” she spat before helping Patty to her feet. “Come on Patty, let’s go,” she implored her friend.

…What?

Patty awkwardly patted her tits down with a tissue before throwing her sweater back on. “You really did that for me, Chrissy? You made that deal?” she asked, echoing my own frantic thoughts.

“Of course, Patty, you’re my best friend!” she exclaimed. I watched as the two girls embraced each other in a warm hug before making their way back inside the building, leaving the rest of us dumbstruck at the ease with which the revelation had been handled.

Sadie was the first to speak, and her tone was far from calm. “Are you fucking kidding me, Mark, you’ve been cheating on me!?”

Mark threw his hands in the air, “YOU JUST FUCKED ANOTHER GUY IN FRONT OF ME!!” he screamed, only to be silenced by another sharp smack across the face, this time from Sadie.

“Yeah, cause I was teaching him a lesson,” Sadie explained as though it made every amount of sense. Mark opened his mouth, but was too stunned to produce any words.

“We. Are. Done,” Sadie declared, swiveling on her heel and storming off, not even bothering to acknowledge me as she re-entered the school.

“Well, that was melodramatic,” Henry said casually, “Maybe the skater clique will have some drama going on.” With that, he followed the others and went back inside. Mark simply stood frozen in shock, his dick still hanging out of his trousers. As I rebuttoned my pants, I turned to face him.

“This might sound strange, but I think you got off easy considering the circumstances,” I said calmly before re-entering the building myself, leaving Mark outside to process on his own. Come to think of it, I’d gotten off pretty easy too. It was a miracle Henry hadn’t recognized me throughout the whole ordeal. A small part of me almost felt offended that I was so forgettable to him, but a much bigger part knew better than to be ungrateful. Today had been far, far too close a call.

I spent the rest of the day exploring the school, taking the opportunity to live out a day from another decade. I quickly learned that said decade involved a lot of smoking. The teachers smoked, the students smoked, I even caught the school mascot breaking for a cigarette. Darkly, I wondered how many of the people I saw that day would still be alive when I returned to my own time. Maybe the 80s weren’t all they were cracked up to be.

Despite everything, the rest of the day flew by, and soon enough I was leaving for the day. I caught one final glimpse of Patty and my mom on the way out, happily chatting away as though the events of that morning were nothing more than a distant memory. If their friendship was that resilient, it was hardly surprising they’d maintained it into adulthood.

As I stepped outside at the end of the day, I could immediately feel the air change. A quick glance at my surroundings confirmed I was back in my own decade. I spotted my mom’s car in the parking lot waiting to pick me up and made my way over. Opening the door, I hopped in without a word. My mom, now back to her normal age, was waiting inside, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

“Well? Are you ready to talk?” she prodded.

“About what?” I asked, our earlier argument having genuinely slipped my mind.

“About your situation! I know you’re getting bullied, Derek, and I’m not going to let you walk away from this until we have an honest conversation about it,” she stated firmly.

I knew this would be an issue, and if it kept coming up it could hurt my relationship with my mom. Thankfully, I had an idea to ensure the topic never came up again.

“Alright,” I answered, “Did you ever have to deal with bullies in high school?” I asked. She thought for a moment before answering.

“Yes, there was a real piece of work. Mark, I think his name was. Him and his girlfriend always used to pick on me and my friends,” she recalled.

“Right,” I said, feigning curiosity, “And how exactly did you deal with him?”

“W-well, I stood up to him one day and he never bothered me again,” she declared, a subtle blush forming in her cheeks. I happened to know this topic of conversation may bring up some uncomfortable memories for her.

“Alright then,” I said, burying my annoyance, “I’ll go ahead deal with my bullies exactly the way you did, Mom.”

“Oh, um, good,” she said, her earlier determination having all but vanished. An awkward silence filled the space between us that would linger for the remainder of the day. It was a small price to pay to protect my peace, if you could call it that.

Before I went to bed that night, I decided to look up Mark and Sadie. The once-powerful Mark had grown overweight and bald, and seemed to be working at a sketchy car dealership. It seemed he truly had peaked in high school. A walking stereotype through and through.

To my disappointment, I couldn’t find anything on Sadie. I’d been so curious where she’d ended up, but there was no trace of her online. We’d shared a passionate moment, but she’d moved as soon as it was done. Maybe it was for the best that I couldn’t find her, it would make it easier to move on.

Still, that encounter was something else. It was like my whole world had widened. As I laid down in bed and stared at the ceiling, a thought crept into my head.

If things worked out, could Emily and I have something like that?