Tomorrow Is Today: A Tempest Series Bonus Short Story

By Julie Cross

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he's in college, throws lots of parties, is interested in a girl he can't have, and oh yeah, he can travel back through time.
But it's not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there's no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it's just harmless fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466804173

Julie Cross

Julie Cross lves in central Illinois with her husband and three children. Julie is a YMCA Gymnastics Program Director, which means she works with lots of teenagers, who help to inspire the characters she creates. Tempest is her first novel for young adults.

Book preview

May 14, 2009, 6:30pm

I don’t get what we’re supposed to be doing, Holly said as she spread her worksheets all over the gym floor.

I moved next to Holly, who was stretched out on her stomach with a pen in her hand. Well…the first one is just a bunch of nonsense questions that you answer and then seal it up in an envelope so no one can see it.

And the point is…?

Mr. Wellborn holds onto them and mails it to you before camp staff training starts next year and you get to see how much you’ve grown in a year, I said.

She laughed and rolled her eyes. God, that’s corny…maybe I’ll leave mine blank.

Just tell him your life is a blank slate right now, I teased. Today is the first day of the rest of your life…

Adam, what are you writing? Holly asked.

Telling you might put your life at risk.

Holly laughed and set her future questionnaire aside. The other assignment is just making camp lesson plans for the first week?

Uh huh, I said, flipping through my own pages. We got rosters too, so we can start learning names.

What’s the point? Holly said. Most of these kids probably pay someone to go to camp for them so they can sit at home and play video games like a normal child.

I shouldn’t laugh since I was one of those kids, but I couldn’t help it. Holly making fun of privileged children had become a high point of our two months of counselor training.

When Holly got up to turn in her lesson plan, I took the opportunity to talk to Adam. It’s your birthday tomorrow, right?

Yeah…

My roommates are throwing a party, I said, lowering my voice so the invite wouldn’t spread like wildfire. My dorm isn’t that big. You know…end of the year celebration. Do you wanna come? Maybe we can do a little more time-travel experimenting in a different setting.

A grin spread across Adam’s face. Awesome…actually, I have a few ideas already.

I figured.

He jumped into several ideas for possible experiments and theories to test. I listened for a few minutes and then found my eyes wandering as Holly sprawled out on the floor again, not nearly as close as before. She had her blonde hair tucked behind her ears, flip flops kicked off and lying next to her. I memorized the way her pen moved fluidly across the page. It was almost sexy, which is totally bizarre. Maybe I’m secretly imagining her doodling my name all over her paper. But I’m not sure Holly is the kind of girl to do that. And I’m not sure I want her to be.

She must have felt me staring because her head turned slowly in my direction and her cheeks flushed.

You’re filling out the corny questionnaire, aren’t you, Holly? I said to cover for my five minute long session of checking her out. I had a feeling you’d be all about that.

Adam snorted beside me and I assumed I was right. Holly didn’t actually want to leave her answers blank.

Her eyes returned to the page, but I could see her smiling a little and found myself doing the same. Then I dug for my own paper and wrote my name on the top. See, Holly…I’m totally into this too. No need to feel embarrassed.

Me too, Adam said. Can’t wait to talk to my future self.

As soon as he said that, Adam and I both glanced at each other and started cracking up. The irony was just way too good to not laugh.

May, 15, 2009, 8:30pm

Jackson! My man!

I turned in the direction of the voice. Two guys I didn’t even recognize stepped through the doors of the NYU dorm room I shared with my two roommates. We had a large suite, but had nearly reached capacity and it was still really early.

Hey! What’s up? I said, nodding at the random guys. Behind them, smiling sheepishly, stood Adam Silverman. He stepped tentatively from his world of New Jersey high school and into the world of college parties in the Village. I waved at him, grinning as I moved toward the door. One of my roommates, Danny, was already shaking his head and partially blocking Adam’s way in. No way, Jackson! No babies allowed! We agreed.

He’s eighteen. Today.

Oh man, Danny groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. There’s more.

It took me a second to see the two additional high school babies behind Adam. Holly Flynn entered the living room, followed by a very tall, skinny guy who looked even more nervous to be here than Adam did. He stuck out his hand. I’m David…thanks for letting us crash your party…this is pretty awesome.

No problem, man. Glad you could come.

The music got cranked up about five more notches and Adam grabbed my sleeve and pulled me into the kitchen.

Sorry, they begged me to come, he said in a hushed voice. "Well…more Holly

Reviews for Tomorrow Is Today

[radioactivebookworm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Goodreads Synopsis: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, throws lots of parties, is interested in a girl he can’t have, and oh yeah, he can travel back through time.But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.My Review: Review: I really liked this story, and I’ll definitely be checking out the novel that this came before. There wasn’t really a point to it, as far as I could tell, aside from showing that Jackson could time travel, and how he met Holly. It was cute and I really enjoyed reading it. The world was well thought out, and the characters were already developed, and I really liked that. I like how it was written in days, times, it was really handy when he was time traveling, and I’m glad we got to know a little of the lesser known things about the characters, that’s always interesting. It was interesting when Jackson was thinking about if he was older because of the jumps, I'd never thought about that before and I liked it. I really like time traveling, it’s an awesome topic and I wish there were more books based on that, so I’m hoping I can find Tempest soon so I can get started on it. Check it out! I’m sure you’ll think It was as cute as I thought it was. Thanks for reading. (Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

[aurora.schnarr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Goodreads Synopsis: The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, throws lots of parties, is interested in a girl he can’t have, and oh yeah, he can travel back through time.But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.My Review: Review: I really liked this story, and I’ll definitely be checking out the novel that this came before. There wasn’t really a point to it, as far as I could tell, aside from showing that Jackson could time travel, and how he met Holly. It was cute and I really enjoyed reading it. The world was well thought out, and the characters were already developed, and I really liked that. I like how it was written in days, times, it was really handy when he was time traveling, and I’m glad we got to know a little of the lesser known things about the characters, that’s always interesting. It was interesting when Jackson was thinking about if he was older because of the jumps, I'd never thought about that before and I liked it. I really like time traveling, it’s an awesome topic and I wish there were more books based on that, so I’m hoping I can find Tempest soon so I can get started on it. Check it out! I’m sure you’ll think It was as cute as I thought it was. Thanks for reading. (Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

[catya77 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jackson is trying to come to terms with being a college student, in love with a friend, and being able to time travel. How will everything fit?A concise yet descriptive narrative leads and introduces readers to the turmoils the characters as well as the characters. Authentic and generally caring characters make the adventures more heart tugging.Overall, a cute read.

[cranberrytarts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a short story that falls between Cross's full length releases. I decided to try it to get a feel for her writing. I really enjoyed it. Though I was missing quite a bit of the backstory, I had no trouble picking things up. I'll be trying the first book in the series.

[lauraashlee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A little pointless aside from being a look at Jackson and Holly before they got togeger. Not sure what I was expecting, but I can take or leave this one. I'm eager for more of the real story.

[pacey1927 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to chime in my two cents on this bonus short story from the point of view of a reader who has already had the opportunity to read "Tempest". "Tempest" was positively delightful. I enjoyed it very much and give it about a four star rating. I know that I will actively seek out any more books in this series. I loved the characters and the story is very uniquely woven. However, this short story was unimpressive in comparison. Actually I am very glad that I read "Tempest" first or I might not have gone on to read it and I would've missed out on such an exciting book. "Tomorrow is Today" isn't bad. But I think that it doesn't do a very clear job of explaining the time travel and Jackson's abilities. The short story actually tells of how Jackson came to begin dating Holly whereas in "Tempest" the two are actually already a committed couple. There is little excitement in this short story. In fact the most entertaining bit involved a child getting away from their camp group (where Holly and Jackson are counselors) and Jackson tries to use his time travel gift as an aid in finding her.I think that although Tempest is a good action story, it really won me over by the depth of the characters and their relationships. Jackson and his sister. Jackson and his father. Jackson and Holly. They were realistic and they were beautifully illustrated. In "Tomorrow Is Today" there isn't enough space and time to get into all that. The story feels like the vaguest hint of whats to come and as I knew what Cross did with the initial book, I was left somewhat disappointed. That said, the story is free. It was nice visiting with the characters again. Just don't let this book influence you negatively. I would hate to see a reader not enjoy this story and then miss out on "Tempest".