Don't ruin it!

'Quick and painless.' Was the thought running through Mai's head, as she yanked the locker door open, with her eyes closed. It reminded her of the tension she felt when one would have their tooth pulled out. For Mai, it was always better to get it over and done with, but this was where the trouble started, she needed to open her eyes.

Slowly opening her eyes she could finally see what was inside.

'What is all this…It's so messy!' She thought, as she could smell something horrid coming from the locker, and noticed there was a moldy green sandwich in there. She quickly looked to see if there was any sign of clothes at all and there was none, so she quickly closed the door.

After taking a step away from the locker, she immediately went to open up one of the windows and took a breath of fresh air. Her hands were no longer shaking and her heartbeat was back to normal.

'The clothes weren't in there, that means that it definitely wasn't Simon. Why would he take my clothes and then randomly put them in there on another day, so he was set up.' She thought to herself smiling, but soon her eyebrows furrowed. 'However, I need to give him an earful for making me smell his horrid locker. What is wrong with him? Why is he even saving that?'

Still, other than stinky sandwich she had bigger worries to worry about. Someone clearly in the school had an agenda against either her or Chris, but there was a problem, she didn't have a clue when the clothes would be planted in there.

It was impossible to look over the locker for the whole time, and she imagined that if Simon was framed for such a thing, even if she believed he didn't do it, it wouldn't be the same for his classmates.

'This problem is giving me quite the headache.' Mai thought.

Thinking about it for a little while longer, she realized there really was only one thing she could do. To go back into the future and try to get some more solid facts. Now that she knew the other world was real, and what happened there corresponded with what happened to her here, she could talk to Simon again and find out everything that she needed to.

'What if Simon isn't available like last time? And what happens if I stay overnight in that world?' She started to think, as she worried about the rules. Maybe it was something she needed to test since she still hadn't spent an entire day in the other world yet. If she had slept, would she wake up where she was, or would a day pass with her body having passed out?

Maybe there was even a different Mai controlling her body. Nevertheless, she had a plan now and was ready to leave the school. It was late and the only other people that were inside were the teachers who worked almost overnight.

As she was leaving, she walked peacefully on her way home, thinking of everything that had happened so far. Then when she finally arrived at the convenience store that would be on her way back, she could see someone.

"What!" She said, "Simon, what are you doing here? I was at the school for over an hour, and you're still in your school uniform, don't tell me you-"

"That's right." Simon replied. "I waited for you. I assumed you would be on classroom duty, I didn't think you would take this long though. If I waited any longer. I was about to go looking for you."

The two of them looked at each other a little awkwardly, and as she looked at Simon's shy face turning away from her, she couldn't stop thinking about what Chris had said.

"I'm sorry." Mai said. "Maybe I took things a little too far with you, but I stand by what I said."

Hearing this, with his puppy dog eyes, Simon turned and it looked like he was about to tear up. When he pulled this face, Mai almost felt guilty for what she said.

Trying to ignore it, she went and got on the back of the bike, and soon the two of them were cycling away once again.

"So what exactly did you do that took you so long?" Simon asked.

"Just trying to stop my best friend from making an idiot of himself." She joked.

"Best friend? But you don't have any…" Simon was about to say friends again, but soon smiled and peddled even faster as he was rushing to get back.

The rest of the conversation between the two was silent, but while riding with the wind blowing her hair and looking at the sunset she thought it was peaceful. Right now, she was quite happy with her life, with her main worries just being boy trouble and other things.

Yet, in the future. The Mai from then seemed even happier. In the photos and more, so why? How did things end up horribly wrong in the future? Before she realized it, the two of them had returned and Mai was dropped off at the front of her house.

'Okay, now all I need to do is cry into this gem. What should I use, Chili sauce, or cut some onions before I go to sleep? Maybe I can store my tears somewhere and put them on the crystal whenever I need.'

"Mai!" Simon called out still on his bike with his face looking towards the ground. He stayed oddly still until he lifted up his head with a determined look. "You want to know why I kissed you, right?"

Hearing this, her heart started to beat rapidly again.

'No, what are you doing Simon, don't say it! Don't tell me. Let's just continue being friends. Just don't say anything!' She screamed inside.

"It's because, I like you Mai, I always have, and I don't think my feelings for you will ever go away. I just wanted to tell you this now because I've decided. I won't lose out to Chris!"