Free Falling

Dani, like every other high school senior in her class at that moment, was panicking. She sat in her desk staring down at her final exam, horrified.
I knew I should have studied! she violently chastised herself, grabbing fistfuls of her ratty, dirty-blonde hair and leaning her elbows on the desk. As with every other day of the week, she had dawdled until there was no time to fully do her hair or pick out a good outfit. That oversight was the last thing on her mind now, however.
Her teacher leered at her from the heavy wooden desk at the front of the room. There was a mutual feeling of enmity between teacher and student, and Dani had anticipated the end of her time in high school since it had begun. I wish I could go back a few weeks now…
Ignoring the looks the looks all the jocks, the popular kids, and her crush were shooting her way, she clasped her hands together dramatically and looked heavenward.
Please, God, if you’re real, SAAVE MEE! I’ll do ANYTHING! I’ll even go to college! Just get me out of this class! Start a fire or something!
As if on cue, a white light surrounded her, and she disappeared from the room in a flash.
XXX
Everything swirled purple, and gravity seemed to have decided to take a vacation for once. She was falling through nothing, feeling quite stationary in spite of the sensation. If Dani had been capable of thought at that moment, it would have consisted mostly of swear words. As it was, all she could do was thrash as she tumbled to heaven knows where.
XXX
After a few moments, reality returned. Painfully. An expletive escaped her mouth as gravity returned and she landed on her posterior. As everything came back in to focus, she realized she was in an unfamiliar alleyway. Reaching to her side in a panic, she breathed a sigh of relief as she found that her leather messenger bag still hung from her shoulders. That happy discovery was short lived, as it were, due to another shocking development which she quickly noticed.
“…What the HECK is that?” Dani asked herself. The “It” in question seemed to be a floating light source, the size and shape of a basketball, bobbing just a few feet away.
“Good, time to get to work!” a cheerful voice erupted from nowhere and everywhere at once. Dani, startled, scooted backwards and looked around.
“Who’s there!?”
“It’s me… come on, get up, you need to get started!” the voice returned, just as the floating orb swooped terrifyingly close to her face. Backing up further, Dani found her back to the wall. She made a strangled noise before she could collect her thoughts.
“… Are you… God…?” she tentatively inquired. The voice laughed. “Because… right before this happened, I prayed to get out of finals…” she weakly continued.
“I wish. No. Allow me to explain.” The ball’s light pulsed at its momentary pause. “You see, multiple dimensions exist in reality. I work for a company that is supposed to ‘fix’ a section of these dimensions. We have thousands of active field agents, and you, ma’am, have just been hired.” If it was possible for the thing to be smiling, Dani imagined that it would have as it perkily rattled off the spiel.
“What do you mean, field agent?” The girl almost sneered. Multiple universes didn’t exist…
“I mean, my dear, that you will be spending a good deal of time fixing problems in the universe. We’ve already installed the foresight software, so if you are about to royally screw things up, you will be warned,” the orb trilled.
“What? I’m not GOING to fix ANYTHING, I have finals to do!... What do you mean, software?”
“You asked to be let out of the finals. That was agreement enough. You have to see this through now,” it retorted, seeming a bit snippy. “We’ve cut your hair so that you fit in, and clothes that are appropriate for the time period can be found in your satchel.” Dani’s hand went up to her hair at the statement. To her dismay, her awesome hair, her hair that she had grown out for veritable months, had been cut off. She snarled ferally at this discovery.
“You. Cut. My. Hair?” she quietly and venomously asked. Undaunted, the sphere continued to speak.
“So, I need to get going, I have other field agents to monitor. You’ll do just fine. The bag has everything you need,” it finished. In a flash similar to the one that had swallowed Dani, the sphere disappeared.
“HEY! DON’T LEAVE ME HERE!” Dani bellowed, finally getting to her feet. Ears flushed with anger, she released a guttural yell and kicked the wall. All she succeeded in doing was hurting her foot. She shook off the pain and started to walk towards the street at the end of the alleyway.
She looked up upon reaching her destination. Everything looked… wrong. The brick buildings, the street that didn’t look like any she had seen, the people walking…
The people were all dressed like something out of history. Dani laughed.
“This is all fake, isn’t it?” she asked no-one in particular. “I’m on camera, aren’t I,” she nodded, more of a statement than a question. She grabbed the lapel of a well-dressed man as he started to get in to an old-timey car. “Hey, buddy, enough is enough! What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Excuse me? Let go of my shirt, boy!” Dani didn’t comply with the demand.
“Listen, drop the act, alright? It’s not funny! Tell me what’s going on!” she hollered. His face wrinkled into genuine anger.
She didn’t have time to register that he wasn’t faking before his fist connected with her face. She crumpled to the ground as he stepped over her and into the car. After the man drove off, she sat up and rubbed her head.
“…I guess it’s all real then…”
XXX
She was in the thirties. It was hard to believe, but the newspapers left on park benches all agreed. Now, she stood in front of a shop window, having changed into the period-appropriate clothes found in her bag. The suspenders were kind of pushing her fashion limits, but she was beyond caring.
She genuinely looked like a boy, now. Her friends and sister always loved to tease her, saying that she had the “body of a nine-year-old boy,” and for once she wasn’t terribly upset about that. It would probably be easier for her to do things if people thought she was a guy. She wondered if women were even allowed to vote now… she never really payed attention in History class, which she was majorly regretting now.
She was distracted from her reflection by a shout from the alley to her right. Peeking around the corner, she saw a small boy getting whaled on by a much larger one. Neither could have been more than ten years old. Shocked, she ran into the alleyway.
“Hey! HEY!” the larger one turned around, a positively menacing look on his beefy face. The boy he was beating on stood up with his fists still clenched, looking a bit out of it, the blood smeared on his face highlighting the bright blue-green hue of his eyes.
“Wha’da’ya want, you twit?” the attacker thundered, voice rather deep for someone of his age.
“Look, just leave that guy alone, you’ve already beat him into a pulp, ok?” Indeed, the boy was weaving a bit as he stood, and his eyes were out of focus. Dani worried that he might have a concussion.
“Quit bumping your gums and leave, this isn’t none of your business!” the brute roared. Dani stepped back a moment, but looking again at the bloodied boy, she sighed and prepared to fight. Once she had thrown her bag off to the side, the attacker advanced, murder in his eyes.
Dani wasn’t sure what to do, so she just closed her eyes and swung as hard as she could when the kid was in range. Something inside of her changed when she did… a strange tingle ran down her arm and she felt a lot more force behind her punch than she should have been able to create. At the boy’s howl, she opened her eyes and saw him doubled over in pain and crying.
She wasn’t about to question how she did that. Retrieving her bag, she ran to the unsteady victim and started to steer him out of the alleyway. He couldn’t walk, so she wasted no time scooping him up and carrying him away. He tried to slur something through the blood pouring from his nose, but Dani shushed him between her involuntary grunts. They would figure things out once they were far away from that jerk.

Notes