We finally made it. I stepped off the bus and took in the sight of the huge temple in front of us. “Remember children. No running, touching things, or rough play. This temple is really old and we don’t want to ruin the history.” I don’t know why teachers say this. When you tell a kid not to do something, they’re going to do it. It’s just human nature. And just as I predicted, every single kid ran towards the temple at full speed. I decided walking was a better option. It also gave me brownie points with the teacher. As I walked into the temple, my mouth almost dropped wide open. It was so big and mysterious. I decided to take inspiration from this place and write about it in my story. There was stone everywhere and the sun was beaming through the cracks. There were also many different hallways leading to different chambers underground. As I was admiring the temple, I felt a hand grab my wrist. I was about to smack the ever-living bejeezus out of whoever it was before I noticed it was Zachary. I still wanted to smack him but I decided against it for some reason. 

“Hey, Zachary. What are you doing?!” Without saying a word, he pulled me towards one of the hallways. 

“Hey! Where are we going?!” I asked him, but he stayed quiet. After running for a while, I finally freed my wrist from his grasp. 

“You could tell me where we’re going before you just kidnapped me-” 

“Look,” He said, cutting me off. Annoyed, I turned to look at whatever he was pointing at. I looked around for a while when my eyes landed on it. It was this strange-looking remote. It looked too futuristic to be in this temple. 

“Do you see it? Isn’t it weird-looking?” He then proceeded to pick it up. 

“Didn’t the teacher tell us not to touch anything?” 

“Yeah. She told us not to touch anything that belonged in the temple, but this clearly doesn’t belong.” 

I took a closer look at the remote. It was made of a crystally blue material. It had one button on it. “What if this button blows up the world?” I wouldn’t mind that to be honest. 

“I don’t think we should press it just in case.” 

“I think you should keep it,” Zach said, holding it cautiously. 

Why would I do that? If I do that, I will press the button. I am the wrong person to trust.

“Oh sure. I will hold on to it for now. I have pockets to hide it.” 

Please be a button to blow up the world. Please, please, please!

The rest of the trip was not what I expected. I thought we would have free time to explore but nothing ever goes my way. After the teacher gathered all the children, we learned about the history of how the temple was made. Whenever someone asked why the temple was built, the teacher would say that the information was classified. I don’t believe them. I think it was made for unholy reasons that they don’t want us to know about. Also, I got away with hiding the remote. No one noticed it was missing. I haven’t pressed the button yet either. I am going to save that for when I am alone in my ultimate relaxation spot, my treehouse.  Once the trip was over, we all loaded back into the bus. Unfortunately, Zachary wanted to mess with the remote so he decided to sit with me during the bus ride home. The whole way home he theorized what would happen if he pressed the button. None of his theories were as good as the first. He thought maybe it would make everyone in the world happy, or it could rewind time. He even thought it could teleport us. He has a wild imagination. If he was quieter and hated the world like me, we could be good friends and write dark poetry together. But he’s not, so we won’t. 

When I got home, I went straight to my treehouse. I took out the remote and almost clicked the button. But then I stopped and thought about it. If this does destroy the world, would I want that? Do I want to die before my life has started? Before I showed the world what I’m capable of? I thought for a few seconds and I immediately knew the answer. I pressed the button and tensed up. I waited...and waited...and waited...and waited for something to happen. But nothing ever did. I relaxed and felt silly. I thought something was actually going to happen? How stupid could I be? I think Zachary is rubbing off on me. I went to my room, stuffed the remote in my drawer, and went to bed annoyed at myself. I dreamt of a world of nothingness, how peaceful that would be. I went to school the next day extremely disappointed. 

“You pressed the button, didn’t you?” Zachary came behind me asking. How did he even guess that? Was I that obvious? 

“I did. But only because I wanted to see what would happen and keep you safe. Luckily, nothing happened.” 

I wanted to say “unfortunately, nothing happened” but then he would ask why I would say that and I wasn’t sure how to answer that. 

“That was dangerous. You should be more careful with your life. You only have one, ya know.” 

Yes, Zachary. I understand the basic knowledge about the human body. If we die, we are dead. 

“Yeah. I’ll be more careful next time. Thanks for looking out for me.” 

“That’s what friends do! Also, is it alright if I come over again tonight? I think we should investigate the remote more.” 

No, it is not. Just leave me alone. I am in a bad mood since the world didn’t blow up. I don’t want to be let down again.

 “Sure. You can just walk home with me. Don’t forget to tell your mom,” I said as I was walking away. I wanted to just bury myself alive, I was livid. Why can’t he do this by himself? He doesn’t need my help. I told him what I know, now he should be done torturing me.

Since I wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible when I got home, I decided to try the remote again. I pulled it out of my pocket. The bell just rang for everyone to get back to class and I wanted to push it before class started. I pushed the button, expecting nothing to happen but, this time, something really strange happened. Everything around me started going super fast. All the kids were running at unnatural speeds and the noise was unbearable. The people talking in the hallway sounded high-pitched. After a few seconds, everyone was gone. All the students had seemed to disappear. I was so confused. What just happened? I concluded that I was just delusional and that I need more rest. I went to my next class. When I walked into the classroom, the teacher strutted up to me. 

“Where have you been?” she asked in her stupid shriveled voice. I stared at her, puzzled. 

“What do you mean, Miss? I came before the bell rang.” 

“What are you talking about? Class began 5 minutes ago.”

 What was she talking about? The bell hasn't rung yet. What is going on? 

I got off easy because I barely got in trouble at school. For the rest of the class, I was so focused on what to do next. Should I push the button again? Or do I just wait until Zachary comes over to my house? The final option was to throw it away and tell Zachary I lost it. But I have to admit, I am curious about what happened. I gave into my curiosity, which was probably a horrible idea. I took the remote out of my pocket and hid it under the desk. As soon as I pushed the button, once again, everything around me seemed to be happening much faster than it should. I had a few theories but only one stood out to me the most. Was this button fast-forwarding time? I stared at the clock. The hands were going faster. The big hand went 5 minutes in the future before it stopped. Nobody around me seemed to react. They kept listening to the teacher as if nothing happened. I stuffed the remote back in my pocket and didn’t touch it for the rest of the day. On my way home, Zachary stopped me. 

“Wait up Shiori!” I winced at the sound of his voice. I turned towards him. 

“Sorry. I forgot about our meet-up.” 

“It’s ok. Shall we get going?” 

“Before we do, I have a question.” 

“Yeah, what’s up?” 

“Do you mind if we press it at the park?” I asked. “I think it would be a better place to test if anything happens there.” 

“I think that’s a great idea. And if nothing does happen, we can hang out for a while.” 

“That would be nice.”

On the way to the park, we were silent. For some reason, Zachary hadn’t said a word to me. Not that I’m complaining, it was just weird. I wondered if something was on his mind. When we finally arrived at the park, we sat at the nearest bench. The sun had started to set. I took the remote out of my pocket. I might as well do the courteous thing and ask if Zachary wants a turn. 

I asked, “Do you want to press it this time?” 

Zachary thought for a moment, then replied,” No, I think it's better if you do it.” 

Maybe he's letting me do it just in case it explodes. It didn't matter because I wanted to test my theory anyway so I took out my phone to watch the time. It was currently 4:00 PM. I pressed the button. Nothing around us was moving, so it seemed like nothing was happening. But, when I looked at the clock, 1 whole minute would go by every few seconds. When it turned to 4:05 PM, it stopped and time went back to normal speed.

I looked over at Zachary. “Did you see that?” 

“See what?” 

“The clock. Time was moving faster than normal.” 

He cocked his eyebrows. “Are you sure? It seemed to be going at a normal pace to me.” 

“What are you talking about? The minute number changes every minute, not every second,” I said, trying to keep my voice from rising.

“I know that. That is common sense.” 

“Then why do you say what happened wasn’t weird?” 

“The only thing that is weird is that you sat here for 5 minutes straight, ignoring me.” 

“I haven’t been ignoring you for that long,” I yelled. “ It has been like 5 seconds since we sat down.” 

“Are you sure you’re ok? Did you hit your head or something?” 

“Here! You try it then.”  I threw the remote at him. “ I’m going home and you can tell me about your findings tomorrow.”

 I got up and left. I was a little pissed off that he didn’t believe me. I know that I probably wouldn’t have believed him had he told me the same thing but, still. I couldn’t care less at that point if I was being unfair or petty. Also, It was also a pretty good excuse not to hang out with him.

The next day, I decided to take the bus to school instead of walking. I don’t like rushing to my homeroom each morning. Maybe I could even get breakfast this time. These thoughts immediately evaporated as soon as I got on the bus and saw Zachary right in front of me. I did a full 180 and got right back off the bus. 

“Wait Shiori! I wanted to tell you something.” 

Zachary had followed me off the bus. I kept walking, pretending not to hear him. Unfortunately, he was pretty fast on his feet. 

“I said wait. Are you ignoring me?” he said.

 I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. 

“No, I'm not. I just didn't hear you. That is all.” 

“If you say so. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for not believing you. I tried out the remote while watching the clock and you were right!” 

At least he has the decency to admit when he’s wrong. “Yeah, I probably wouldn’t have believed me either.” Saying that seemed to put him at ease. I guess he was upset by the fact that I might be mad at him. Strange. 

“So, what are we gonna do bout this?” Zachary asked while fiddling with the remote. 

“I honestly have no idea. Maybe we should just get rid of it.” I thought that was a good call. “I dunno. I think we should keep it, just in case.” 

“Just in case what?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe a boring class?” 

Every single class is boring, dumb*ss, I thought to myself. I've dealt with those just fine so far. Trying to keep my annoyance inside, I replied, “There are too many of those. Plus, we don’t know its full capabilities. It could do something else besides fast forward time.” 

“Come on, have fun every once in a while! Live a little,” He exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. “What happened to ‘you only have one life, be careful,’” I mocked him. 

“Maybe I’m trying something new! So? What do you say we just try it?” 

I didn’t want to sound like a chicken but I didn’t think this was a good idea. In the end, I ended up agreeing “I guess. But I think it would be better if I held on to it.” 

“Wait, what? Why's that?” 

“Nobody besides you is around me all day and I never get in trouble. If I keep it hidden, it's less likely to be found. But you're always around people. Someone could see it, then they would ask questions an-” 

“K, k. I understand,” Zachary replied as he somberly handed over the remote. The only reason I wanted the remote was so he couldn’t use it. If he had the accessibility to use it whenever he wanted, he would for sure f*ck something up. 

    Also, I know I said I wouldn’t use it but, it was too tempting not to. Every single time Zachary and I were talking, I just kept pressing the button, speeding through the conversations. Lunch was now a Zachary-free zone. I would eat my lunch as fast as I could, then when I was finished, I would fast forward until lunch was over. It was so nice to have my old life back again. It took about three days for Zachary to notice. To be honest, I'm surprised he didn’t figure it out sooner. 

“Why do you keep using it? Didn’t you say it might be dangerous?” Zach looked pretty pissed for once.
    “Oh sorry. I meant it was dangerous for you to use it.” 

“That's not fair. I need it too.” 

“What could you possibly use it for?” Uh oh, I’m starting to get heated. I need to calm down before this gets out of hand. 

“That's none of your business. Now give it here!” Suddenly, Zachary reached for the remote in my hand. 

“Hey, cut it out!” I dodged his hand fast enough. 

“You can’t keep it! I was the one who found it. I was nice enough to inform you about it!” 

“I didn’t ask you to!” 

“I thought I could share it with you because I thought I could trust you!” 

“Well, who’s fault is that?! I actually never wanted to be your friend in the first pl-” 

Before I had a chance to finish my sentence, while Zachary was still trying to steal the remote from me, it slipped from my hands. It fell to the pavement with a crash. We both stood there, shell shocked by what happened. After a few seconds, I picked up my backpack and stormed home, leaving the partly damaged remote behind.

    I was so angry, I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Luckily, after a few deep breaths, I finally calmed down. It didn’t even matter to me that much whether the remote was broken or not. Just the fact that Zachary was the one to break it. It just infuriated me to no end but, I don't know why. I went to sleep wishing I could talk this over with my friend. The following day, I was contemplating whether or not to go to school. I wasn’t feeling that well anyway. But I already had an incident with being late to class, I didn’t want the teachers getting my parents involved. I solemnly walked to school, not wanting to see anyone. Of course, the world is a cruel place so the first person I see is Zachary, a spawn of the devil. 

“Shiori, I know you don’t want to talk to me today. I understand that, but please hear me out.” I kept walking like he wasn’t there. I wasn’t in the mood to speak to him. I might go off on him if I don’t just keep walking. 

“Shiori! At least let me give you something to make up for it.” 

“I'm over that,” I said. “I am just in a bad mood. Can’t you just give me some space?” 

He was pushing my buttons now. 

“Here! Take this.” 

He thrust something in my face. When my eyes focused on what it was, I was surprised. It was the remote and it looked good as new. 

“How did you do this?” I asked. 

“While I was in New York, my dad taught me some repair tips,” Zachary boasted. “This was the best I could do. I’ll let you get back to being alone now.'' After that, he gave me the remote and then walked into school.

    The whole school day, I had this mysterious feeling in my gut. Was this guilt? Did I feel bad for being mean to Zach? No, of course not. Why would I feel bad for him? He's the one who's been bugging me. He also was the one who broke the remote. It's all his fault. I kept reminding myself of that as I went to lunch. I finally had my lunch table to myself again. No Zach and none of his annoying friends. This was supposed to be a happy day. Then why did I feel so odd? I sat alone all through lunch, secretly regretting blowing up at Zach. School went by so slowly. I hated it. I probably could have used the remote but I felt like this was my punishment. If I used the remote, I would eventually get what's coming to me. I made my way home, staring at the remote while walking slower than usual. “Hey, you!” I looked up to see three boys about my age staring back at me. They all went to my school. Dustin, Jerry, and Todd. The typical, annoying, disrespectful hooligans. Always loud in class and are as dumb as bricks. They didn’t know me, but I knew them very well. Everyone did. I don’t have any idea why they are picking a fight with me. We are pretty neutral. 

“What do you have in your hands?” Jerry asked. 

“Oh, it's nothing. A t.v. remote I need to get fixed,” I lied. They wouldn’t believe me anyway if I told them the truth. I tried to keep walking past them, but they were blocking my way. Then the tallest boy, Dustin, walked up to me. We stared each other in the eyes. 

“I heard from someone that it is a special remote. That it fast-forwards time or something?” 

How would they know that? The only person who knows, other than me, is Zachary. He wouldn’t tell people, would he? As I was deep in thought, one of the other boys, Todd, came up behind me and snatched it out of my hand. I’m so dumb for having it out. I should have just thrown it away when I had the chance. I tried to get it back but it was three versus one. They just kept tossing it around like it was keep away. I felt so foolish, I should stop trying to get it back. I didn’t care, did I? When I was about to give up and let them have it, I saw a shadow creeping behind the boy who had it. As quick as the wind, the shadow took the remote and bolted towards me. It was Zach. Zach took a hold of my hand. The three boys were now chasing us. “Are you ok?” he said like he was the hero in all of this. “I’m fine, but why would you tell people about the remote? You idiot!” 

“I don't know, I just kinda let it slip. People make mistakes, ya know?” 

“Yeah. Whatever. So how are we going to get out of this mess?” I looked behind us. The three boys were still chasing us. 

“I’m gonna do something crazy.”

 “Huh?”

 “Are you ready?” 

“For what?” In the next second, Zach pulled out the remote.

”Wait, Zach, don’t press it!” 

He didn’t hear me in time. He pushed the button, then suddenly... everything went black.