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Author's Chapter Notes:

First Amendment is an important right...

 

She really hated randomly jumping. Not only did it make her feel like crap when she arrived at her destination, but more often than not she was lying face down when she arrived. Julie could feel her face starting to itch and the smell of grass making it apparent she had reached her destination.

“Kevin?” She asked as she bolted up and looked around. She grabbed a handful of grass and pulled it up throwing it out in front of her when she realized Kevin did not travel with her. “Dammit!”

She looked around trying to gauge what time period she was in. Judging by the few people walking around it looked like she was in the late sixties possibly the early seventies. Some of the people were carrying books heading towards buildings not far off. They were students, she was on a college campus.

She debated with herself if she should stay where she was was or if she should move closer to the buildings. If she stayed put she had less of a chance of altering history or being found out. If she moved closer to the buildings she might be able to figure out where she was and find a way to get a message to the future. She noticed a gathering of students near a large grassy area towards the middle of the campus.

She fell in step behind a guy walking towards the buildings. “Hey,” She ventured to talk to him. “What's going on?” She pointed to the gathering students.

“Protesting the war.” He replied and sped up his walking. He walked past the protestors and into a nearby building. Leaving Julie standing in the open she wandered closer to what looked like a common area. Protesting a war, the style of clothing the students were wearing. It was a Vietnam War protest she was sure of it. But it did not answer her question as to where she was, or even when. Protests happened frequently during the duration of the war.

She noticed more gathering but even more filing into the buildings. She saw a sign with the name of the school, it appeared to read 'Kent State University.' The name sounded familiar but she couldn't think of anything immediately that came to mind that happened. The group grew in size. Julie guessed there were probably over a thousand people gathered now.

She walked towards the protestors anxious to see a war protest up close. She was sure there would be enough people in the crowd that she could go unseen. She could listen to what was being said, she didn't have to actively participate. When she got closer the sound of a ringing bell startled her and she jumped slightly.

The protest had begun, she only got to listen for a few minutes as soon another group approached dressed in riot gear and a voice coming from somewhere else was asking the group to disperse. The group wasn't budging, their shouts continued, many of them turned to the national guard and yelled at them.

“Shit,” Julie muttered as she suddenly remembered about shootings that occurred during a war protest in Kent, Ohio at the University. She scanned the faces of the group, catching a familiar face in the group of National Guard. She squinted her eyes to try to get a better look at the guy. She had to be seeing things, Nick was not there, he was not dressed as a member of the National Guard about to open fire on the students. She shook her head then turned to move away from the group.

She was still in the thick of the group when she heard the Guard open fire. She grabbed the person closest to her and dropped to the ground. As she lay on the ground holding the other person she mentally slapped herself. What if this person was one of the ones who was supposed to be injured, or worse, killed at the protest that day?

The sound of the bullets and screams from the students seemed to be all around her. What she slightly recalled was only a few seconds in history seemed to feel like an hour as she crouched on the ground.

When the firing was finished she continued to stay close to the ground. She couldn't remember if anything more happened. After a few minutes the person next to her stirred and stood up, she followed suit taking in the scene in front of her. Most everyone was looking around in shock about what had just happened. Screams were coming from every which way. She could see professors moving students around, trying to organize them to get them off of the campus and home to safety.

Julie started to run the opposite direction, she didn't get far though.

“Hey,” Someone shouted after her. She didn't stop to look who was calling her. She just ran. Before she could get too far she fell to the ground, the pain in her stomach taking hold of her.

She was relieved when she opened her eyes that she was no longer on a college campus and she was not laying face down anywhere. She looked around, a large group was still gathered not far from her but judging by the clothing and the buildings that surrounded her, she was no longer in the seventies. She knew this image, she couldn't forget it, she lived through it. She was looking at the Occupy Wall Street protests.

Another protest, she could either hang out with the group, she might be able to find a way to get something back to the project or Kevin, or she could leave the scene before something happened. She couldn't remember exactly what happened during the protests, she had a vague idea about them, some memories of police violence. She chose the latter and moved away from the group, walking among the throng of people going about their day on the streets of New York. She did not know the streets well so she just kept walking, hoping she would not end up anywhere she would regret. She definitely did not want to head down any alleys in New York so she hid in the open.

As she turned down a street to further distance herself from the protest happening on Wall Street, she noticed a blond man walking towards her. The man's hands were shoved in his pockets and the collar was turned up but there was no mistaking the face. Julie turned and quickly started walking in the other direction, the pace he was walking at, he would soon overcome here.

As she ran across the street a car squealed to a halt and she stopped staring at the driver, her heart beating a mile a minute in her chest. She forgot to keep moving.

“Ma'am are you okay?” A man behind her asked. The man in the overcoat was standing behind her, grabbing her elbow to help her cross. As they finished crossing, Julie stared at his face. It was not Nick's face she saw, the man looked nothing like Nick now that she saw him closer.

“Are you alright?” he asked her again, concern apparent on his face.

“I'm fine,” she managed to mutter.

“Something looked like it spooked you back there,” he smiled to her as people pushed past them to cross the street.

“It was nothing; I just remembered that I left the kettle on at home.” She lied. The man shrugged accepting the excuse and continued walking to where ever it was he was going before.

Julie took a few deep breaths and sat down at a table at an outside cafe. It wasn't long before a server was asking if she could get her anything. Julie asked for water and a sandwich after she remembered she still had her wallet with her.

She tried to relax as she waited for her sandwich. She hoped that she would not jump through time again before she had a chance to get food in her stomach. She groaned as she felt pain in her stomach, but sighed when it made a gurgle noise instead of increasing in pain. She was just hungry.

The sandwich did not take long and she devoured it, drinking the water down just as fast as she could. The server refilled her glass twice before she finished her sandwich. Julie threw some cash down on the table, glad she still carried money from twenty-twelve in her wallet most of the time instead of twenty-thirty currency she still felt was strange. Not that many people in twenty-thirty used cash. Most of them used a card or had been implanted with a chip that when scanned automatically took the money.

Julie stood and felt her stomach rebel at the food that she put in her stomach. Her stomach cramped and soon was screaming out in pain. She moved away from the cafe and down the nearest alley. Nobody needed to see her disappear. She leaned against the wall and waited for the nausea. Almost as if on cue, the nausea swept through her and she crouched low as everything swept through her.

When the pain and nausea ceased, Julie opened her eyes and looked around. She was on the steps of The Library. Confused, she took advantage of the location and ran up the stairs, pressing her palm to the pad. The warmth flowing through her was welcoming. She ran inside and back downstairs to find Howie to let him know that it had happened again.

She sighed in relief when Kevin appeared in the hallway. “Did you jump? I was just holding you, you screamed out and I tried to hold you as tight as I could so I would go with you.” He took her in his arms as they continued to walk to Howie's office. So the jumps did not take two weeks from her this time. She smiled up at Kevin and started to relive what she had seen, minus confusing the man for Nick.