Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER NINE

Fern’s mother wanted them to leave right after breakfast, but Fern made up an excuse to go for a walk. She grabbed one of her own books and told her mother it was a library book that was very overdue. Her mother gave her a dollar and sent her out into the world, but Fern wasn’t sure where she wanted to go. She knew that her friendship with Jenna disappeared entirely the day Jenna went to the bathroom and never returned, but who else could she trust?

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Fern woke up for a third straight day in the same timeline. She was staying with her aunt and uncle, who dutifully took her to appointments with the psychiatrist. She was to go three times a week to work through whatever issues she had, and it was excruciating. Her mother wasn’t talking to her or answering her calls. The best support she had was from Sarah and Paul, who kept her well-fed with wonderful home-cooked meals and delicious treats from places around town. If it weren’t for the stress of being stuck in a world that wasn’t her own, Fern would consider herself happy, but there were simply too many questions and not enough answers.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

Life in a time loop can be freeing when you discover it, but what would ever happen if it stopped?

CHAPTER SEVEN

Fern looked around and realized she was at her aunt’s house out of town. She went downstairs and found her mother and aunt sitting on the couch together with coffee mugs in front of them. Both mugs were full, and the two were having a deep conversation, which Fern interrupted with her appearance. Doria eyed her daughter with a look Fern had never seen before, concern and disgust all rolled into one.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER SIX

Fern sneezed as she stretched. It was definitely spring again, and she wondered if she was back in the same spring reality or if this was a different one. She checked the date and found that this world was following the timeline—it was the next year instead of the first. Like the previous day, this reality seemed to be the day after, but as she looked through her things during breakfast, she realized she was only dating Brain, not both him and Jenna.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER FIVE

When Fern entered Elwood City High, she was a woman on a mission. By now she knew that the footage of her reading had taken the town by storm, and while she had some support, she had some things to explain to some of the people she hurt. Though Muffy was the first person she encountered, she wasn’t who Fern was aiming for. Fern was looking for Jenna, but the determined Crosswire wouldn’t let Fern pass.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER FOUR

Fern’s walk to school was pleasant despite the anger seething within her. Now that she saw how this game was being played, she was determined not to be a part of it anymore, at least the “tearing my life apart” aspect of what her poetry could do. She planned to do something she’d never intentionally done before, and that was to not turn in anything at all.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER THREE

Fern was still studying the calendar when her mother stepped into the kitchen. Doria smiled as she eyed the date. She looked to her coffee pot and exhaled before moving to the sink. If she wanted coffee, she’d have to make it the old fashioned way, which was more work than she wanted to put in but it had to be done.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

CHAPTER TWO

Around ten, Fern was called out of class to attend a short rehearsal before the actual talk. This didn’t happen the first time she read, if she ever really read in the first place, but she was grateful for this change. It gave her a chance to really look at what she’d written yet again, and she thought it would be a way to gauge the possibilities of how this crowd could react.

Time Stopped (but the seasons kept changing)

Summary: Fern hates public speaking, especially when she has to read her school assignments to her peers. But this assembly is different because her work could have unintended consequences…and because it keeps happening. Every day is a new day but the scenario is the same. Fern is stuck in a time loop and she has no idea how to escape. Can also be found here on ff.net.

Life in a time loop can be freeing when you discover it, but what would ever happen if it stopped?

CHAPTER ONE

Fern looked up to Elwood City High with contempt. It was a frigid day, far too cold for people to actually be going to school and work like normal, yet here she was, walking to school in what felt like ten layers. She had no choice today, her mother said, because today was the day she was going to read her winning poem in front of the entire school. She’d written it for a contest (because she had to for her English class), and now she’d won and had to read it for the entire school in order to claim her “prize,” a commemorative placard and a pat on the back from the district’s superintendent.

Not Done Yet

Summary: The women of Elwood City have plenty of problems, problems that seem overwhelming, but they aren’t going to let these problems stop them. In this piece, each of these women has a problem, but none of them will let these problems stop them. They’re Not Done Yet.

For reference, Kate is 15, DW is 18, and Arthur’s generation is 22 years old.

Warnings: Rated T for adult situations, drug references, some foul language, and minor sexual content. More warnings may be added as needed, but the rating will not exceed T/PG-13.

Can also be found here.

CHAPTER ONE
They were gone. Jane reached for her nightstand and slid the drawer open. She leaned over to really peek in there to see if the bottle was there or not, to see if it was empty or full. She wasn’t surprised to find the bottle was completely gone.