The Conspiracy Theory of June 17

4.

"Everyone sit tight because I'm going to start from the beginning."

The three others don't look too interested, completely opposite to the three of us, who are bursting with curiosity, about a million questions whizzing around in our minds.

"First and foremost, we: as in Lucy, Amanda, her mother, Drew, Shayleigh, Amelia and I, are part of the CSS - Conspiracy Stoppers Squad."

We're only one sentence in and a dozen questions pop up in my brain, each one wanting to be heard and acknowledged. Questions I had before, and new ones. CSS is the name of my primary school, and Lucy is a girl from my primary school who I knew...I fight the urge to speak.

"Please hold your questions till the end." says Mrs Renee, looking straight at me. The way she speaks...its like she can read my mind.

"CSS was founded by Lucy Moo. She named it after her primary school. I guess that answers your first two questions, Alessia." She looks over to me quite blankly.

I stare at her in awe. Drew's chuckling behind me. Amelia's smirking, but looking away. The only people who are not smiling, or chuckling, are Jessie and Jada, who are mirroring my expression.

"Sorry, won't do that again. I know thoughts are private."

She can read minds?!?

"Yes," she replies. "More or less. But we'll yet back to that later. Let's just get back to the story."

And so, she continues, quite normally of course. I try to ignore all the memories of Lucy that are circling my brain and concentrate. "Where was I? Oh yes, Lucy. She had this dream, kind of like you guys, all strange and nonsensical. She told her mother Amanda about it. You see, Lucy and her mother, well, they're from the future. Well, they were, until they fled to the 'past' or our time, scared of what was happening over there. They forgot all about it, shut out every last memory until it was like those times never happened. But just when Amanda thought she could let go of her past, Lucy had this dream. Everyone with me so far?"

We all quickly nod, not wanting her to stop, not even the three of us, who were wondering how time machines existed right under our noses, and of course, how in the world mind reading was possible.

"She had this dream, and many more dreams after that. They didn't mean much to Lucy, but the were quite confronting for Amanda because they started to remind her of those times in the future. They were quite distressing, especially for a little girl like Lucy. In an attempt to stop them, she and her daughter got together and started to methodically make something out of it – like what you three did" she pointed to us, "from what Drew's told me."

I don't think we tried to make sense of the dream, but I don't contradict her.

Mrs Renee stops, and paces in front of us. "It escalated to this. Adding me, Drew and Amelia, who all have connections to this that I'll get to in a moment. We believe that whatever happened – whatever caused Amanda and her daughter to flee is still happening, but it's getting worse. To make this sort of claim though, we need a solid theory. Evidence or proof." At this point she stops, and leans against her desk, coffee mug in hand. She stares past us at the back wall.

"Amanda hasn't succeeded in getting a solid theory yet. But your dream – your dream could be the key to making a good theory. Or at the very least, your theory – that one you made in maths class – could help us figure out how it all involves us."

"How does it involve us?" This time, Amelia is talking, and her voice is louder than I've ever heard it be before. "It's because I believe that I am wanted by these people in the future."