The next two periods flew by as I was now eager to get the day over with. The incident with Amber sucked all of the fun out of this second chance I was given. The next opportunity I get with the guardian angel, I'm going to abort this whole thing.

My last class of the day was Band class. I found my tenor saxophone in the band instrument closet and went out to meet everyone else. I said hi to Fay and Ron who were also in the band. Ron was the Alto sax section leader. Fay was the drum major. Yes, I know what you're thinking. I had a crush on the drum major. I think the fact that I had to see her every day in multiple classes and for band practice and band trips contributed to me never really getting over her during my time in school.

Fay came up to me asking how I was holding up since Gym class. I told her I was over it. It was only a partial lie. I really just wanted to take my mind off of it. Which is why I didn't bring it up to Ron. Ego bruises take time.

Earlier in the day I was wondering how I was going to fake my way through band class. But I actually wasn't as hard as I'd imagined. I was certainly a little rusty remembering which key combinations produced which note. What helped was that I had forgotten that I was actually the Tenor Saxophone section leader my senior year. I had 3 other tenors in my group. All that's to say was I was able to fake it by letting my underclass section carry me until I got up to speed. They carried me for a little bit until my skill and muscle memories resurfaced.

Actually, playing music made me forget about Amber and the excitement of doing all of this after 20 years returned.

At my school, band class actually turned into after-school band practice when the school day ends. When the class bell rang, the band made their way to our school's football field to rehearse our field show. I was nervous at first, but I was able to get by solely on vague 20 year old memories and letting my fellow saxophonist’s make all of the first moves and I'd just follow.

Band practice was over. Let's get home and end this day. After I put my sax away, I met up with Ron and we walked to his truck. "You ready for the test? Nervous?"

The driving test! Crap I forgot about that.

"Not at all." I said. Well at least this should be the easiest test of the day.

When I got home, my mom was waiting for me. She handed me the keys to my car. “Do you have your permit?” she asked.

“Umm” I said. “Let me check.” I dug through my backpack again. Student ID. Mom and Dad’s credit card. Library Card. A punch card for a fast food restaurant. Driver’s Permit! “Got it!”

I smiled as I unlocked my car and sat down in the driver's seat. She joined me in the passenger seat. Sitting down in my old car just felt right. A small comfort in a crazy day. I started the car, and the radio was preset to the Top 40 station. Hanson's "MM'Bop" was playing. "Oh hell no!" I cried as I turned the radio off. My mom laughed.

We arrived at the Department of Motor Vehicles just in time for my appointment. When it was time, the test facilitator called my name and we walked to my car. He was an older bald gentleman. He had a no-nonsense tone to his voice. Former cop? Former military? Former school principal?

He talked me through the test and I followed his instructions. I drove around the driving track, stopping at Stop signs and making left and right turns. I performed a perfect K turn. Lastly he had me parallel park. This is a skill I sometimes still use. It's been a few years since I used it on the streets of Baltimore. I aced that portion of the test too.

He had me stop and was writing some notes on his clipboard when he stopped and looked up at me.

"What are you doing?" he said bluntly.

I was speechless. Did he give me an instruction that I didn't hear? Don't piss off the driving instructor Tony.

"I gave you explicit instructions to not do the same things as Tony and try to actually take advantage of a second chance." he said.

The guardian angel again! This guy/girl just chooses the worst times to pop in.

"What are you talking about?" I said. “I've done things differently."

"No you didn't. " He replied. "While I understand that your memories of this day are 20 years old, today has gone nearly exactly the same as it did the first time around. Everything down to even playing with yourself in the shower."

"Hey. Wait I didn't.." I tried to interject. "But I kicked ass on my Comp-Sci project. I aced this drivers' test."

"Tony aced that project too. Tony passed the drivers test. Did you forget?" He chucked for a moment. "Now granted Tony did NOT get to first base in gym class. So I do give you partial credit for getting plowed over by a girl while heading to second base."

That made me angry. I had successfully forgotten gym class up until he just brought it back up. "No. I'm done. I want out. Send me home."

"No. You're not done. You didn't finish a single part of your mission. You hid. You tried not to stand out. All you did was waste 10 hours." he stated,

"Listen." I said, dejected. "Thank you for this gift. I'm sorry I'm not able to play this game of yours anymore. I promise I won't envy high school kids again at your bar. Just let me go home."

"I can't do that." he said. "You accepted the terms when you took that shot and signed the contract"

"What terms?" I said. "There was no contract. I didn't sign anything." As I said that, I had this feeling I was forgetting something.

He pulled a receipt from his clipboard. I was the receipt from the pub last night. Or at least I thought it was the receipt. It had words on the top which I couldn't make out. At the bottom was the tip I left and my signature.

"This is our contract." he said.

"That's not fair!" I exclaimed. "I thought that was the merchant copy of the credit card transaction." I don't believe it. I was fooled and tricked into this. I don't even know what that damn thing says. "Can I read it?"

"Sure. Though you should've read it last night" he said handing it to me. "Man," I thought to myself. "This is as bad as the Terms of Service on every single web site and app store."

The top of the receipt written in big bold letters was "Second Chances". I started reading the paragraph under it. "I, Anthony Demarco, have agreed to enroll in the Second Chances program. I will return to a time and place in my own lifetime to redo two weeks of my life. The price of this enrollment is that I will alter an event during these two weeks that will have a positive impact on someone other than myself."

"That's it That's all it says?" I said. I can't believe this. "What is this event I need to change? What happens if I don't do it?"

The angel exhaled and looked me directly in the eyes. "I chose you because you have the unique position to right a wrong. The fact that you actually had regrets was just icing on the cake. The catch is that I can't tell you what that is. The reason being is that you have to want to do it on your own accord. If you knew what you had to do, you'd do it because you had to. We have rules we need to abide by too. One of those rules is that we terminate contact with you when your two weeks are up."

"So that means.." I started, but he interrupted.

"It means that at the end of two weeks you remain, Christina. And the only way you get back to 2018 is.... the long way." He took the "contract" back. The paper faded from his hand.

"Well that's a lot of help" I said. "You want me to do something, but you're not saying what".

"Just because I can't tell you doesn't mean I can't nudge you." he replied. "in fact, I've already started to help. Only Christina has the ability to alter the event in question. There is no situation where Tony could do it. We ran through the simulations. But I'm also telling you to relax and have fun. You can start actually doing what YOU came here to do. Doing that actually improves your ability to do what I need you to do."

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, dejected. "What was that again? This day didn't go anywhere near the way I planned."

"Here's a refresher", the angel said. Suddenly he morphed into me - into Tony. He spoke up. "I wanted to date more. Join more things. Go to parties. Put myself out there. Enjoy my youth. Somewhere inside me there's a 17 year old screaming that he missed out on.. something..."

I rested my forehead on the steering wheel. Wow. I didn't realize how pathetic I sounded. But he was right about this afternoon. I was so willing to just go through the motions to get through the day. I think that may have been what I did that first time around. Always wanting to skip to the end.

My clone morphed back into the driving instructor. He continued, "So go home. Tomorrow is a new day. Put yourself out there."

I nodded.

"Oh - and you did not come to a complete stop at the 2nd stop sign." He added. "Don't worry, he didn't notice. He's a few days from retirement and might be a little senile. You're lucky. Next time, come to a complete stop."

After a few seconds of scribbling on his clipboard, he looked at me. "Congratulations, Ms. Demarco, you passed. Take this certificate and your permit to Line #4, and they'll get your licence processed."

I feigned a smile. I have a lot to do, and I'm not sure where to start.