SCREEN NAME: Katharina Gerlach
TITLE: Terry and the Folding Rule of Time
GENRE: MG Fantasy (time travel)
I slammed the door of my locker hard enough that it bounced open again. The magnetic name tag my Mom gave me fell off, but no one cared. They were all too busy trying to get to class on time. Not me though. I hated old Bodger on the best of days but most of all when he taught science. Especially on a Monday morning. I was looking forward to forget about him in one and a half years.
I picked up my name tag and stuck it back to the inside of the door. TERESA ROOTS. It was Mom’s idea. She thought it would remind my schoolmates that I am not a boy despite my mostly close cropped hair. I chewed on a straw-colored strand of my bangs. The pink flowers around the writing set my nerves on edge each time, but so far, no one had done me a favor and stolen the tag. I couldn’t throw it away either, or Mom would be furious. She always found out things like that. If she had her way, I would wear skirts – not washed out jeans – and paint my bedroom pink with a unicorn border.
I closed my locker more gently and sauntered to our classroom. In my imagination, I anticipated old Bodger’s face when he sat down and noticed that the upholstery of his chair was soaking wet. I smiled a little. Not too much. That would alert him, and he’d guess right away it was me who snuck into class before first bell.