What a year!

OMG! I can’t believe it’s 2013 already, what a mental year 2012 was! I’ve just been looking back and all the stuff I’ve done and thinking about New Year’s resolutions for 2013.

I’ve been so lucky this last year – I got to go to the Olympics and on a sort-of holiday to Edinburgh, not to mention all the crazy time travel missions I’ve been on.

My first mission nearly turned into a massive disaster – I ended up in some weird competition with a nasty little boy called Edward. But I let my competitiveness get the better of me and not only did I nearly make him drown himself in a lake, but I didn’t answer my phone in time and got stuck in 1588!

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/stuck-in-1588-now-what/

When I eventually returned, Kaz had some really bad news: SHARP were having real trouble in the future with a rogue organization called STRAP and I finally found out why they needed time travellers and what the point of all these missions were, but not before SHARP hauled me back to the dark ages in the middle of a frost and I got hypothermia!

I wrote all about it in February:

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/02/

My little brush with hypothermia turned out to work in my favour and I was visited by some really important people from the future – they told me all about the real purpose of SHARP about a mysterious thing that had happened called the Dark Chaos

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/the-real-purpose-of-sharp/

And then, can you believe it, STRAP (the bad guys) tried to contact me and recruit me as a time traveller. I was really confused, but Kaz helped reassure me that I was on the good guys’ team and confided in me that STRAP was trying to recruit other kids to travel back in time to really dangerous places.

That was when I first heard about Alex…

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/who-on-earth-is-alex/

Alex was a time traveller who was working for STRAP, but I needed to find him and warn him about how much danger he was really in, I mean, STRAP had already sent him on one dangerous mission where he ended up climbing up a cliff face without any safety ropes!

But I was too late and by the time I’d got anywhere close to locating him, STRAP had sent him on a disastrous mission; STRAP’s communication lines had gone down and he was stuck in a medieval Scottish prison!

So SHARP sent me to save him…

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/rescueing-alex-mclean/

But even though I’d rescued him, we hardly had any time to talk. I was so busy trying to save him that I didn’t get chance to chat or even get his number. So then I had to start all over again trying to find him. At last, I’d found somebody else who time travels!

It turned out Alex lived in Edinburgh, so after a few failed attempts, I somehow managed to get Mark and Griff to agree to come to Edinburgh with me and it was really lucky, cos Griff’s aunt lived there, so we had a sort-of reason to go.

And then, literally on the way to Edinburgh, I got an awesome mission from SHARP and I went back in time to Scotland during the Great Cause. Which was when one of Scotland’s kings died (Alexander somebody I think) there was no one to succeed him. So the bishops (who were dead powerful at that time for some weird reason) asked King Edward I of England to help them choose – which was always going to be a bad idea! Edward had to chose between John Balliol and Robert de Brus (Robert the Bruce’s grandfather). He chose Balliol and de Brus’ supporters lost all their land and stuff. But then Edward wanted Balliol to fight against the French, but instead, Balliol sided with the French and Edward got really mad and invaded Scotland. He was heading to Berwick-on-Tweed and was going to kill everyone there. So I went back to warn them all…

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/time-travelling-on-a-train/

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/the-english-are-coming/

We had to go to a climbing wall place to find Alex, cos he’s well into climbing – which was awesome. We met Alex and he was really cool and SHARP even sent us on a mission together:

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/double-agents/

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/the-real-pirates-of-the-caribbean/

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/rescuing-the-pirates-of-the-caribbean/

And then it was the Olympics – having the Olympics in Britain was so cool! We watched loads of it in Edinburgh, and when we got home. I was gutted I couldn’t see all of the Paralympics cos I had to go back to school for the last bits of it. But we did manage to get tickets to see BMX racing – I ended up writing loads of stuff about the Olympics:

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/category/olympics/

That summer was the best ever! But then things started getting weird again: There was another STRAP time traveller, Sarah. STRAP had found someone way too young to time travel, cos it messes up your bone growth if you’re under 12 or 13 or something, and they’d put her in loads of danger too.

So I went on another mission to find another time traveller who was in danger! This all happened around November time:

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/11/

December was much quieter, I was learning some awesome stuff at school and thinking about entering a competition for next year:

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/theres-no-way-mum-and-dad-will-let-me-do-this-is-there/

Plus SHARP were starting to use my blog as a way to contact other time travellers – there’s loads of people reading my blog, all over the word – I’ve had about 2,500 hits in total – I wonder If any of those readers are time travellers too?

Then to top the year off, SHARP gave me an awesome Christmas present, I went back to the first ever football match, which was on boxing day in 1860. It was a bit weird really, but still dead interesting.

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/first-ever-football-match-boxing-day-1860/

What’s crazy though is I get loads of hits on the one they sent me on last year, the Christmas Truce match in 1914 during World War I.  That was unbelievable!

https://travellingthroughtimeispossible.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/christmas-truce-1915-i-was-there/

So all that happened in just one year!

I wonder what 2013 will bring. Oh, and my New Year’s resolution? To find more time travellers and go on loads of awesome missions – bring it on!!!!

The English are coming!

I pressed the green button. The whirring sound came closer and closer until…nothing.

I landed in a mixture of mud and hay with high walls and flanking towers just in the distance. SHARP had left some clothes for me: there was a big white sheet thing that I guess I was supposed to wear as a tunic and then there were these woolen tights, they were kind of grubby and really itchy. There was a kilt-type thing that tied round the waist and then an almost modern-looking shirt. And then there was a coat of chain mail that didn’t have any sleeves. It was so heavy – I almost struggled to pick it up! Finally I put on some flimsy looking slippers made from leather and a woolen hat that looked more like a hood that had been detached from a hoodie.

I started to hike up a small hill; the shoes gave me, like, absolutely no grip at all and the weight of the chain mail vest made every step feel like I was climbing a mountain.

SHARP hadn’t given me a specific identity so I assumed I was just one of the ‘normal’ people.

Just as I was nearing the walls of a smallish castle, a boy around my age came running towards me. He was wearing the same as me, except his chain mail had a red shield on with a yellow lion inside. It took me a while to work out where I’d seen that before – it was on the Scotland team’s football shirts.

I realized I’d zoned out thinking about the world cup and I was stood grinning at this boy and not listening to a word he was saying.
“Are you with Robert Bruce?” he asked.

I wasn’t sure if yes or no was the right answer, so I kind of shrugged, but I’m not sure my shoulders even managed to rise under the weight of the armour.

“You better not be, or Balliol will kill you! Did you hear Bruce has sided with the English? Balliol’s so mad, he gave all of Bruce’s land away!”

The English – I had to warn them about the English, which felt kind of weird since I was English.
“Yes, that’s why I’m here. King Edward is coming, you have to flee!”

“He’s not our king!” he shouted.

Oops, I got the feeling I’d said something wrong there.

“I know,” I said. I didn’t. I didn’t even know who King Edward was. “Edward is going to attack, it’s going to bad – everyone should escape now.”

A flash of fear went across his face.

“Are you sure?” he asked pushing his hands down on my already heavy shoulders.

I nodded and before I could say, “Yes,” he was already running towards the castle. I tried my best to run after him, my shoes slipping on the wet grass.

He jostled past lots of people until he was in the middle of a large courtyard and then he shouted, pointing directly at me, “The English are coming!”

My run had quickly turned into a laboured stagger over the brow of the hill. I was greeted by a lot of shouting and gesturing in my direction. And then a rather large, bearded man grabbed my arm and dragged in front of the group of men.

“Who told you?”

“Errr… err…”

“Come on, boy!”

I wracked my brains, I knew nothing about Scottish history, and then I remembered that boy had talked about Robert Bruce.

“I heard Robert Bruce talk about it,” I sputtered, “he said Edward was bringing an army, you have to flee!”

“He’s Robert Bruce’s boy,” he shouted to the crowd, “lock him up!”

Two men stepped forward and dragged me away, each one holding me under my armpits.

I shouted back at the crowd, “He’s going to kill everyone, you have to leave – now!”

And then I was dragged around a corner and thrown into a dark, damp room. It smelt like that Viking museum in York.

Great, I’m in a Scottish medieval prison, yet again!

Suddenly I felt a vibrating coming through the floor, it was my phone.

“Huh?” said one of the guards.

I quickly pressed the green button before they could reach for it and the whirring sound came, once again from the distance.

I landed with a bump against the plastic door of the cubicle. I could hear banging on the other side. I struggled to get rid of the heavy Scottish clothes and put my modern day stuff back on in he tiny toilet cubicle.

“Come on, lad, we know you’re in there. There’s a hefty fine if you’ve not got a ticket, so you can either show us your ticket or alight the carriage.”

They must have thought I was trying to jump the train by hiding in the loos.

I dug around in my jeans pocket, and dug out my ticket and unlocked the door. I felt about a foot taller without all of that metal on me.

I waved my ticket in front of the ticket master’s face and walked back down the carriage.

As I sat down the train started to roll away from the station.

“I nicked your seat, mate,” Mark said, squeezing my shoulder as I sat down. I winced – I think that damn chain mail had left bruises!

My phone buzzed with a text message.

From: Kaz
Weird I didn’t think Kaz had a phone, or you could text through different space/time continuums.

‘Thanks for your help, Danny! Thanks to you many people believed your warning and fled for the woods – including King Balliol himself!’

John Balliol

All in a day’s work!

Next stop, Edinburgh.

And then I spotted this sign as we rolled out of the station, which filled in a few gaps…

2nd attempt at finding Alex

Can you believe it was easier to find this guy in medieval Scotland than it is in the 21^st century? I must be going at this the wrong way. I wracked, or is it racked, my brain for ages…and then I had a brainwave walking to school.

I’d almost drifted away from a conversation Mark and Griff were having about gymnastics lessons or something. Griff’s really good at gymnastics – he’s only 13 but he reckons he’s strong enough already to try ‘the rings’ and ‘the high bars’. He’s gives it all that talk, but I’ve seen it on the telly, those guys are ripped with muscles and even though he’s been doing it since he was like five or something – there’s no way could do moves like that – not yet anyway.

I didn’t say that though, I just kind of grunted in approval and let him carry on – apparently his parents won’t let him do it anyway – not till he’s 14 they say.

“No, I’ve got an idea though…”
He left this silence just hanging there, waiting for one of us to say, “What?”
Mark said it first.
“I’m going to call up, pretend to be my dad or something and book myself onto the high bar class – then I’ll just tell them I’m going to do vault or something instead. My ‘rents don’t usually hang around to watch – they go and sit in Starbucks or do the Tesco shopping, so they’ll never know.”
“Unless you break your neck,” I said.
“Oh, don’t be so sensible, Danny,” they both moaned.

And then the idea hit me, it was so obvious – I could just call up and pretend to be Alex. Although I’d probably have to fake a Scottish accent!

So that evening I waited until everyone was downstairs watching Eastenders and I called the climbing company again. First I googled ‘how to talk with a Scottish accent and came across this helpful website: http://www.wikihow.com/Talk-With-a-Scottish-Accent

“Aye, this is Alex McLean.” I remembered his last name.
“Oh, Hallo Alex, how are ye?”
“Err… well, I dinnae know when me next climbing lesson is.” My accent was horrible, she must have noticed. “Me Dad has goan ahn thrown oot the reminder.”
“Ok, ye’s doon for the next fower Sat’daes at 10AM.”
“Thanks!” I said and hung up, phew that was close.

So now I know where Alex will be for the next four weekends, now all I have to do is get to Scotland…

I found Alex – sort of

I’ve been wondering what to do about Alex for week now. I did a quick google search for Alex after I’d got all of Kaz’s message but didn’t find anything at all. And then I started getting paranoid again. I know SHARP have been pretty good to me, I only had one scare, but they got me back pretty quick. And then what about STRAP? It’s only SHARP that have told me bad things about them and Anniz seemed really nice.

I tried to forget it all and focus on school and normal stuff, but there was always this niggling thought at the back of my mind – what if this boy was really in danger and I’m just running around playing football ignoring it.

And then it hit me … a wet and muddy football flew right into the side of my face.

“Heads up!” shouted Mark.

The ball bobbled away past the sideline and everyone groaned at me.

“I gotta go,” I said and ran home as fast as I could – I didn’t even feel my phone buzzing in my pocket.

I decided I should try harder to find Alex, after all I could go visit him, and between us we might be able to work out who to trust. Now all I had to do was find him and then find an excuse to give my mum about why I needed to go to Scotland – on my own.

I must have spent hours online searching climbing clubs in Edinburgh and I finally had a list of clubs to call when I heard the front door go.

“Danny?”

I didn’t say anything. She might still think I was out and I could pretend I had headphones in or something when I finally came downstairs.

“You’re home early, come and move your bags please – what have a told you about leaving them in the hallway?”

Dammit, how did I forget about my bags, and anyway, it was Jenny she was always telling to stop leaving things lying around!”

“Danny?”

“Yep, coming…” I finally said and closed all the windows on my screen, just in case any nosey parkers were lurking on the landing.

When I got back upstairs the room was glowing blue.

“What the…?”

I quickly leapt to close the door behind me and rushed over to the phone.

<Urgent mission>

<Details of current travel option>

<Date>

<May 1314>

<Place Stirling Castle, Scotland>

<Instructions>

< After landing you must immediately find ALEX McLEAN, he is stuck in a very dangerous situation – the boy whose identity he has taken is due back in the time zone within the next 10 minutes. He must not find Alex>

Alex McLean, was I too late?

<Condition>

<Complicated and dangerous. Treachery is a common theme, many Scottish kings have been known to kill anyone in their way>

<Important Information>

< This mission will use a lot of energy as you have no grounding at this location. You may also suffer from time slip upon your return.  We understand the danger of the situation, however, you are the only person who can help Alex. If you do not go he may be stuck forever in the year 1314 and will probably be recognized as an English spy and his life may be in serious danger>

Then they added an extra message.

<Read carefully>

<We have given you an extra phone (please look in your sports bag). We have programmed Alex’s 21^st century location onto your stream. Give him the phone – he must input the SHARP coordinates to return home. DO NOT return until Alex has left, we cannot support more than one xrosmonaut at a time>

<Key in 15798 followed by the green button to accept this mission>

I stood and thought forever, staring out of the window and the gnomes opposite. They had moved position again. I moved closer to the window. I had to count them before I did anything else.

This was serious and my hands were shaking with adrenaline. What if I died? Or got stuck in 1314? SHARP were asking me to take a big risk and expected me to just trust them. But it did mean that I had found Alex.

Every second I wait Alex could be in more danger, but what if it’s trap and I’m about to get stuck in medieval times. I wish I could talk to someone about this.

What should I do?

Who on Earth is Alex?

I left my phone at home today. Mark wasn’t surprised, he said I’m always leaving it lying around recently and I never reply to his messages. I felt kind of bad, all this time travelling takes up way much more time than I’d ever thought possible – I don’t even spend this long on homework and organizing my room combined.

…And now I’ve lost the power lead to laptop so I’m going to have to get this down quick…

I have no idea what’s going on with me – I never lose anything!

So when I got home, my phone had 2 messages. One from Mark saying, “Where are you? We’re playing footie on the back field.” And the other simply said, “SHARP 15798 … Tap to view msg”

I carefully shut the door without it making a noise. If Jenny knew I was being secretive she would’ve come barging in straight away. I sat with my back against the door and tapped the screen. A 3D image expanded from the screen and filled the room with a blue glow.  But this time it wasn’t the usual straight-laced instructions; it was a message from Kaz…

<Hi Danny, sorry for the informal contact, but the usual portal isn’t working. We really need your help with something. I know I promised to prove that we were the good guys, but it’s going to be a bit harder than expected. We’ve received intelligence that STRAP have contacted another boy, like they contacted you. He’s called Alex and he lives in Scotland. It’s hard to say at this point, but we think they somehow got him mixed up with you and contacted him before they found the real you…>

And then the message stopped. How can they get a boy called Alex in Scotland confused with a boy called Danny in Nottinghamshire? That sounds really dumb to me. I kept searching for the rest of the message but there was nothing.  The room went back to normal and I became aware of a banging behind my back. Jenny was trying to get in.

“What are you up to?” she asked when I opened the door.

“Nothing,” I shrugged.

“Being secretive again?” She suggested and waltzed down the landing, “Oh, Mum says dinner’s ready.”

For the whole of dinner, Jenny wouldn’t shut up about how I was being all weird and secretive and I was just waiting for Mum or Dad to tell me off for discluding her or something. But Dad just ruffled my hair as he took his plate into the kitchen and said, “Give him a break, Jen, he’s growing up.”

I helped dry pots while Jenny washed. She’d got soap everywhere and washed everything in the wrong order. She took forever, it was so infuriatingly slow, but I knew if I moaned at her about it she’d be even less logical about it and I’d never get upstairs. Dad came and took over from me and I bolted up the stairs to see if Kaz had sent the rest of the message. If I read it now, Jenny would still be forever washing up and I’d have some peace.

Back in my room, the screen was flashing with instructions to read the rest of the message and once again the room filled with the blue glow of the expanding screen.

<Alex is in great danger. We have reason to believe that STRAP want to send him on a really dangerous mission that could not only put his life at risk, but the mission will enable them to collect human traces left from a very awful event in the past. We need your help to find Alex and warn him. The only information we have is his full name, Alex McLean, he is 14 years old and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. We have reason to believe he is interested in rock climbing. Please help us before it’s too late.>

And that was it, I stayed up all night to see if Kaz would send anything else, but that was the end of the message.

He still hadn’t proved I could trust him, and now he wanted me to find some guy who’s into rock climbing in Scotland. I don’t even know where to start looking. But first I’m going to look for my power lead before I can even think about whether to look for Alex.