The bell rang. The kids cheered.
“Okay, guys,” Ms. Maybee told her fourth-grade class, “see you Monday!”
Everyone got up and started shoving stuff into backpacks. Except for Abby and Doc. They stayed slumped in their chairs.
Between school, soccer, and fixing history, it had been a tiring week.
Ms. Maybee walked up to them. “I know I’m fascinating, but you really do have to leave.”
Abby yawned. Doc nodded sleepily.
They stumbled toward the library, eyes half closed. They shuffled past the checkout desk.
“Abby and Doc! The ones who broke history!”
That woke them up a bit. They turned to see who’d spoken.
It was a girl. About nine, their age. She stood in front of the librarian’s bulletin board, which was filled with photos of students in their Halloween costumes.
“I’m homeschooled, but they let me use the library. I’ve heard about the strange things that have been happening. Abe Lincoln becoming a pro wrestler! Abigail Adams on a pirate ship! It was you, right? The ones who broke history?”
“It was really more Lincoln’s fault,” Doc said.
“That’s what I heard,” Sally said.
“We’ve been trying to fix things,” Abby said.
“Must be fun!” Sally shouted.
Abby and Doc looked at each other. They weren’t sure if they were supposed to talk about this. And anyway, they didn’t have the energy to explain.
“Well, it was nice to meet you,” Abby said.
“Yeah,” Doc said. “See you.”
They trudged between tall shelves to the back of the library.
Sally followed. “Where are you going now? The Wild West? King Arthur’s Court?”
“We’re going to wait for our mom,” Doc said.
“Oh.”
They stopped in front of the door to the storage room.
“She’s a teacher here,” Abby said. “We sit back in this storage room after school, do homework and stuff, till she’s ready to leave.”
Sally smiled. “Well, guess I’ll get back to my reading. See you later?”
“Yeah,” Doc said, yawning. “Sure.”
Abby and Doc went into the storage room and shut the door. The small space had bookshelves, a table, two chairs, and a tall cardboard box that somehow took Abby and Doc to times and places they read about in history class.
People from history could use the box, too. That’s how all the trouble began. Abraham Lincoln had jumped out of the box and announced he was quitting history—and became a pro wrestler instead. Doc and Abby convinced him to go back to being president of the United States. But other people from history saw what Lincoln had done. If Lincoln could travel through time, so could they. Abigail Adams, the first lady, joined a pirate ship. The cowboy Nat Love flew to the moon.
Getting everyone back where they belonged was exhausting. All Doc and Abby wanted to do now was rest.
They threw down their backpacks and fell into the chairs. Abby took off her glasses, folded her arms on the table, and rested her head in her arms. Doc put his feet up on the table and tilted his head back. His baseball hat dropped to the floor.
They both closed their eyes, hoping for a nice long nap.
Which they would not get.
