Of Time and Space

By Heather Lawson

Billie is just an ordinary kid living an ordinary life. But when a girl mysteriously appears in his living room claiming to be from the future - normal goes out the window.

Billie discovers that she has been sent from the future to protect him and a strange object called a Glorb. It should be a simple task, but Ki'ara didn't come from the future alone.

A troublesome alien, Erom, tells them that a group called the Orlind are tracking Billie and will stop at nothing to get their hands on the Glorb.

Now Billie must work with Ki'ara and Erom to protect the Glorb and save the world. Past, present, and future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Lawson
• Release date: Apr 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301784882

Heather Lawson

Heather Lawson is a 28 year old full-time bookseller, part-time novelist from Dundee in Scotland. Since the age of 7, Heather has enjoyed crafting worlds and characters to create new stories, but it wasn’t until 2007 that she completed her first, full-length novel with a little help from National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In 2012, Heather’s novel That’s Charming was shortlisted for the Hot Key Books/Guardian Young Writer’s Prize. When she’s not writing, Heather is most likely to be found parked in front of a TV, playing videos games, or sketching. She is also currently studying for her BA in English Literature with a focus on Creative Writing with the Open University.

Book preview

Of Time and Space

Heather Lawson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 Heather Lawson

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Chapter One

Billie, get out of bed!

Billie groaned as he rolled over; his bed was always so comfortable first thing in the morning—or afternoon as he now saw that it was. His clock was sitting in front of him on the bedside table, its face showing that it was, in fact, after two. He had nothing in particular to get up for. Billie was a rather ordinary boy of seventeen. He lived at home with his mother—the voice screaming at him—and spent all of his free time doing as little as possible; especially on a Saturday, as today was.

School had been horrible the day before. The last thing he wanted to do was get up. He tried not to think about it but as he was trying not to think about it, all he could do was think about it. He groaned as he rolled over again so he was staring at the ceiling and ran a hand through his tousled brown hair. It had been during Art class—usually his favourite class. He had been sitting at his desk, minding his own business, when their teacher had entered and told the class that they would be doing life drawing that afternoon. Their previous life drawing classes had all been with clothed models, that day’s was a nude model. A male nude model at that. The majority of the class were girls and the giggling started as soon as the man de-robed. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that—even though they all had to draw him—the girls seemed to think it was funny that Billie was staring at a naked man.

The whispers and rumours spread around the school that afternoon. Billie’s into guys. So not true, but nothing can dis-spell a rumour like that. Worst afternoon at school ever. He was almost glad it had been a Friday, he didn’t think he could handle a whole week of the taunting. He hoped that something would happen over the weekend to take the heat off of himself.

Billie! His mother’s voice roared up the stairs again. He sighed.

I’m up! he roared back.

There was no reply. He sank his head back onto the pillow. He supposed he should get up; he had coursework to be getting on with after all. Throwing the duvet off, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and placed them on the floor, wriggling his toes on the soft carpet. He always liked that feeling; it made him smile. He stood, stretching for a moment in front of his window before pulling up the blind. It was a beautiful afternoon, the sun shining brightly into his room. He shielded his eyes against the sudden brightness and moved to his door. An afternoon shower seemed welcoming. He stripped out of his bed clothes and threw them into the hamper in the corner of the bathroom before he stepped into the stream.

He had been in the shower for all of five minutes when there was a banging on the door.

Get out butt-munch!

His brother had returned from football practice. Wonderful. He sighed, quickened his pace as he applied the shampoo to his hair, and quickly hopped out of the shower as soon as he was finished. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he opened the door to find his brother and his girlfriend snogging against his bedroom door. He rolled his eyes and coughed to get their attention.

About time, his brother, Anthony, muttered. He shoved him to one side as he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

Billie suddenly felt awkward, standing in the presence of his brother’s girlfriend in nothing but a towel. He stepped towards his door and reached for the handle, trying not to look at her as he kept a tight grip on his towel, hoping against hope that she would simply let him past. He should be so lucky.

Looking good Bill, she said, her voice quiet so his brother wouldn’t hear her.

Can you move please? Billie said, still not looking at her.

What? Like this?

He took a step away from his door as she slid closer to him. He sighed and became suddenly fascinated with the closet door so he wouldn’t have to look at her. If he was being honest, he did like her. Chelsea was a gorgeous girl; blonde hair, curves in all the right places. He was saved, ironically, by his brother leaving the bathroom again.

Come on babe, let’s leave the dork, Anthony laughed, holding out his hand for Chelsea to take.

Billie let out a breath and entered his room, throwing himself back down onto the bed. Why did his life have to be so complicated?

***

An hour later, Billie sat slumped on the couch watching the television with no real interest. His mother had gone out for the day with a couple of her friends, and his brother and Chelsea were in Anthony’s room. He flicked through a few more channels without really settling on anything in particular. He had brought his books down with him and dumped them on the table in front of him. That was when he first came down, he hadn’t looked at it since.

Finally settling on a music channel, Billie threw the remote on the sofa cushion beside him and dragged the table closer so he could start his work. An essay for his History class, an essay for his Art class, diagrams for Chemistry—all of it due by Monday, as well as a mock exam for Maths for Tuesday. Why did he have to take these classes? The only one he enjoyed was Art, the rest was his mother’s choices for him. He had no idea why he had let her choose for him—probably because he didn’t know what to choose himself.

He pulled the Chemistry diagrams closer to him, picking up his pencil and tapping it against the table as he looked over the assignment. He didn’t have any interest in Chemistry; he didn’t understand half the things the teacher said most of the time. He often copied his answers from the cute, button nosed girl that was forced to sit beside him. He attempted to read the first question, something about molecules and Hydrogen. His brain was already feeling fuzzy.

Aha! I made it!

Billie recoiled back into the sofa at the same time as grabbing a cushion and the remote and holding them out like a sword and shield. A girl was standing in the corner of the room beside the television, gazing around with curiosity. She was wearing a silver jumpsuit and had her ginger curls tied messily in a ponytail.

Wow, people in the twenty-first century really did live on basics. How do they survive without all the buttons? the girl was saying. She had failed to acknowledge Billie so far.

Who are you? How did you get in here? Billie asked, brandishing the remote at her.

Oh! You must be Billie! the girl moved towards him.

Billie shook the remote violently as she approached him—he had no idea who this crazy girl was, or how she knew his name, but he didn’t want her coming anywhere near