It was World History class, and once again I was utterly bored. The topic for this lesson was the fall of the Soviet Union, which of course in 1995 was recent history. While it was peculiar to listen to my teacher talk about events that I had remembered in the long past as only a few years, I wasn’t paying close attention. Instead, I was thumbing through a notebook with a list of names on it.

  This wasn’t The Butterfly Manifesto, which behind its cartoon cover lay decades of future events I had written down. I never took that notebook out of my room anymore. If it were to be lost, I would have to remember everything from my previous timeline again, which in all honesty was more difficult to do the longer I relived the past. It would be even more disastrous if someone picked it up and read it; I doubted anyone would take it seriously, but a notebook full of accurate predictions about the future was no small thing. Even if it had a pink butterfly on it.

  The regular notebook I was paging through today contained a list of names. Practically no one would understand what a “dot com” was in a world before the internet took off, but I was well aware of what was coming. There was a list of dozens of innocuous domain names that I had planned to reserve the names to, since at this point in time all it took was a small fee to reserve a web address. I intentionally didn’t choose any names like twitter.com or youtube.com, since they wouldn’t exist for over a decade. I also didn’t choose any name brands, like McDonalds.com or Disney.com, since they were probably taken by now.

  Instead, I applied for some very common sounding names. Names like shopping.com, mortgage.com, and onlinedating.com. I wasn’t sure if they were available, but I was hoping that at least some of them would be when I had Dad send in my applications a few days ago. I had to sell off a few of my stocks in order to pay for them, but I knew it would be worth it. Even if I only got a handful of them, it would be a win. I knew I shouldn’t keep staring at the list, but I couldn’t help it. The wait was killing me.

  The bell rang, signalling it was time for lunch. I slapped the notebook closed, and hugging my books to my chest I made for the door. I headed for the main commons, where my locker was, to drop off my stuff. The hallway was a chaotic, noisy sea of bodies, and not for the first time was I annoyed about being a girl surrounded by upper classmen who were taller than me. I followed the tide and eventually made it to my locker.

  As I turned the combination, I heard a voice behind my shoulder. “Hey, girl.”

  I turned my head, seeing a thick boy leaning against the locker next to me. He was nearly a foot taller than me, wearing a letter jacket which had white patches for football and a big “96” indicating that he was a senior. There was a certain dullness to his eyes, and an ugly buzz cut to match.

  I turned back to my locker. “Hello,” I muttered coldly.

  “My name’s Jim. I’m one of the linesmen on the varsity team, you know,” he bragged, trying to sound casual.

  “I didn’t ask,” I replied as the hairs on my neck rose.

  Jim seemed to not hear me, and continued. “You’re a freshman, right? I’ve seen you around. You got a name?”

  “Let me save you the trouble,” I answered, slamming my locker closed. “I have a boyfriend already. On the freshman team. It would be kind of sad for a freshman to go out with an upper classman, you know?”

  Jim scratched his head, confused. “I think a lot of freshmen would like dating a senior.”

  “I meant sad for the senior,” I said curtly before turning and walking away.

  It wasn’t the first time I had been talked up by a boy since high school started, though he had been the first senior to do so. You’d think that he would bother girls his own age, but he probably already went through all of them and was now working through the new crop. I found the majority of boys in my high school to be thugs; always trying to impress girls by being stupid and cocky. Maybe it worked on some girls, but not me.

  I met up with Erin and Danielle on the way to the cafeteria, where I shared my newest story about the latest meathead trying to flirt with me. They nodded knowingly, as dealing with idiots was a daily occurrence for us. After filling our lunch trays we found the table where the rest of our friends were sitting and joined them. It was seconds before the table burst into smatterings of girl talk.

  “Hey girls, I have a little bit of news,” I announced to the table.

  “Oh, you’re finally going to marry Jake?” Danielle teased.

  “Very funny. No, I wanted to tell you all that I put in my name for freshman class treasurer, and I wanted to know if I could have your support.”

  I had decided to add student government to my list of credentials. In my previous life, Matthew was a slacker and never really joined many clubs. If I wanted better options for college, I figured I had better work on Maya’s high school career early. The computer club was merely to get internet access, and I wasn’t sure how cheerleading would fare on applications. I decided that as Maya I was going to get in early and be at the top of my class, and not just academically.

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  “Oh, you would be so good at that, Maya!” gushed Erin. “You’re so organized. We’ll make sure everyone on the cheer squad votes for you.” The table nodded in agreement.

  “Very much appreciated, ladies!” I beamed. “I don’t think anyone else really cares about the role, so I think I’ll be a shoe-in.”

  “Actually,” Carla muttered through bites of sandwich, “I think Sarah Poole is going to run too.”

  I glanced over to a nearby table, to where another group of girls was sitting. They weren’t enemies or anything, but my group didn’t particularly like their group for a thousand dramatic reasons. Sarah was in that group, though I didn’t know her well because she went to a different middle school. However, my memories of Matthew’s timeline said that she had been a very diligent student. If I recalled, she had been class president and valedictorian, and fairly popular in her own right.

  To Maya, however, she was now a rival. If I was going to upgrade my high school career from Matthew’s, I suddenly had competition. Only moments ago I had a laissez-faire attitude towards being treasurer, seeing it as an easy win that no one cared about. Now, something ignited in me and I was determined to trounce my new competition. Maybe I was so bored reliving high school that I had to invent things to pass the time. Whatever it was, I was going to win.

  I folded my hands conspiratorially on the table and grinned evilly. “It would be a shame if a member of the cheer squad were to lose, don’t you think?”

  Erin’s eyes widened as she sipped her milk. “Dang, Maya. You can be a little scary sometimes, you know?”

  It was agreed with the members of our table that we would spread the word. Not only would we get everyone on the cheerleading squad to vote for me, we would also spread it to everyone we knew. As soon as I told Jake he agreed to tell the entire freshman football team as well as his basketball buddies. I even managed to convince the guys in the computer club to agree to vote for me. I’m sure they wouldn’t usually bother, but when the cute girl who has an impressive knowledge about computers and comic books asks you for something, you don’t say no.

  A week later, a ballot box was passed around in our homeroom class. Sarah happened to be in the same classroom as me, since our last names both started with P’s, and there was a moment when we locked eyes. No fire erupted, but there was a spot of tension. I checked off my name and placed it in the box, feeling pretty confident.

  The next morning, the results were posted on the bulletin board. I held my breath as I checked, and sure enough there it was: Maya Peterson - Treasurer. I had done it! Erin hugged me tight as we jumped up and down in celebration. We excitedly chittered away at each other, making plans to tell the rest of the cheer squad of our victory. Erin congratulated me one last time before heading to her first period class. I grinned and took one last look at the board.

  It was then that I saw Sarah, who was staring at the board herself. She was hugging her books to her chest, and wore a disappointed frown on her face. She saw me looking at her, and quietly walked over to me.

  “Hey, Maya. Congratulations,” she said. “I’m sure you’re going to do a really good job.” There was no sign of bitterness in her voice. Certainly, a little wistful, but she genuinely conceded and was fair.

  I returned a tight-lipped and forced smile. “Thank you, Sarah. I’m sure you would have done a good job, too.”

  Sarah nodded. “I guess I’ll just have to try harder next time. I’ll see you later.”

  As she walked away, waves of guilt tore through me. Sarah wasn’t a bad kid or anything, she was just a girl who wanted to be active in her school. The fact that she took it well and was a good sport made me feel worse. A heavy, sinking weight in my gut form and for the first time I considered how much I was cheating in my second life. It was like arm wrestling a toddler. I had only run for treasurer as camouflage, to build a cover as a studious teenage girl. I had already lived through high school in Matthew’s timeline, and knew exactly how to game the system. Sarah was doing it for the first time.

  All day members of my squad congratulated me, and while each time I smiled gratefully, each time was like a needle in my skin. It was even worse when it was Jake’s turn to congratulate me and he gave me a huge hug. My body reacted pleasantly to being held by a boy I liked, but my brain admonished me for it. It was yet another source of guilt, that I was receiving boons due only to a time traveling fluke.

  When the bus dropped me off at home that afternoon, I was still feeling ashamed. I told Mom straight away that I had won the election, and if Jake’s praise made me feel like dirt, Mom’s praise buried me six feet deeper. I was about to head down to my room to lose myself in my guitar, when Mom handed me a package that had arrived by courier. I recognized the name Network Solutions on the sender’s address, so I rushed downstairs and tore it open.

  Inside was a collection of confirmation letters as well as rejections for the domains that I attempted to claim, I had sent in about fifty requests, most had been poached already and I was denied. However, about twenty of them had been confirmed, such as invest.com, insurance.com, and casino.com. I was shocked that shopping.com hadn’t been taken yet, and now it was mine. There were receipts for each of my domain names as well as a certification form for each one.

  It occurred to me that I was doing the same thing in the business world that I had done to Sarah Poole; using my foreknowledge to game the system and profit. It was more nebulous, however, since the individuals I had poached these precious domain names from were nameless and not a nice girl simply trying to succeed at school. It was inevitable that I was going to essentially steal from others, even though no one but myself would see it that way.

  As I stared at the certificates, which would someday profit me handsomely, I resolved to myself that I had to make sure that my schemes were worth it. I had to succeed not just for myself, but to benefit as many people as possible. These certificates meant resources and wealth, which I knew I would have to use for the greater good. But when it came to my life as Maya, I needed to proceed carefully. Not take more than I should.

  First things first. I had to figure out something nice to do for Sarah.