Chapter 2 - The next Musketeers
"Hey! It was Gabrielle here who let it slip first," Kendall defended.
"Thanks, Dad!" she mocked.
Gabrielle groaned. "Ugh, shut up."
The boys slowly started to back away from the girls. They were used to girls being flirty and forward, but they'd never experienced a pickup line like this before. Jordan laughed nervously, Declan did nothing but blink, and Bennett eyed the girls, hoping to find an opening to leave.
The girls, on the other hand, mixed with slight embarrassment, face-palmed themselves. Estelle, masking her anger, grabbed Kendall by the arm and began dragging her away.
"Well, I think we've said enough here, don't mind us, continue with your night," She waved them off. The girls began walking away when Kendall shrugged Estelle off her.
"What do you think you're doing?!" She was met with a stern look from Estelle, a look that Kendall has become well acquainted with.
"How do you guys know us?" Bennett questioned again. The girls stopped short and looked at him.
"Did you not hear what I said, you're our dads."
Bennett shook his head, Jordan snorted, and Declan still stood there processing it all.
Kendall dragged herself and Estelle back in front of the boys. "It's true!" she retorted. "I'm Kendall Wallace, daughter of-" she motioned to Jordan, "Jordan Wallace."
Jordan again looked at the girl stood in front of him, wondering when he got himself a little stalker.
"That-" She motioned to Gabrielle, "Is Gabrielle Lynch, Declan Lynch's daughter." She motioned from Gabrielle, who shyly waved at Declan, to Declan, whose mouth hung open.
He wanted to say something. He just didn't know what.
"And this, as you can probably tell, is Estelle Frazier," she looked at Bennett when she said this, "Your daughter."
Bennett looked at the dark-haired girl, but Estelle just tsked and looked away.
"Look, I don't know what game you're playing here, but you should come clean and tell us who you are and how you know us-" Bennett began, wanting to end this nonsense and find out how the girls really know them.
"She's telling the truth," Gabrielle responded, easing herself back into the conversation. She received a relieved look from Kendall.
"We are your children. We really did come from another timeline, where you're all grown up-" She continued.
"You can't expect us to believe this," Jordan countered. Gabrielle failed helplessly, looking to her friends for support.
"Yeah, we're not buying it," Declan added, finally finding his words.
Gabrielle looked at him incredulously, not knowing how to respond.
"We're not kidding. You really are our dads!" Kendall said, exasperated at this point. "If I weren't your daughter, how would I know your favourite ice-cream flavour is vanilla? How would I know that you love showing off your knowledge of computers, but you prefer to keep quiet about your art?
How would I know that you prefer to have the lights off or dimmed at all times or that you love the beach but hate swimming? How would I know you're colourblind." Kendall finished almost panting from her mini-speech.
Jordan just stood there with his mouth hung wide open. The gears in his brain were turning, trying to find a reasonable explanation as to why she knew all this. He came up with nothing.
"Yeah, and like how you dad, Gabrielle spoke up again. "Prefer strawberry ice-cream and would never even if your life depended on it would admit anything was better than strawberry.
Or how you're adopted, or how you love music and sports, but you've secretly never got the hang of water polo. You dislike playing football but love watching it. You play the piano when you're sad, but the guitar when you're happy.
Or how you're constantly getting lost and forgetting directions, or how you wear at least one red item of clothing," Gabrielle said, looking at Declan, her eyes pleading with his.
Declan was taken aback; there was no way they could possibly know any of this.
"Sure, you may know some things about us, but that doesn't mean anything," Jordan responded, although it seemed like he was trying to convince himself.
Declan looked away; he didn't like how they knew this much about him.
Bennett spoke up again, "Look, girls, I am asking you once again, how did you find all this out about them?" He was worried they'd gotten through Jordan's cyber defences, but he still questioned some of the things they knew about his friends.
The last girl didn't even seem like she wanted to be a part of this.
Kendall looked on to Estelle, pleading with her to respond. Estelle stared down at Bennett for a long time. He noticed he began to sweat under her gaze. She finally turned, giving him one last cold stare before replying.
"If they don't believe you, then we shouldn't waste our time here when we could be looking for a way to get home. Now let's go." And with that, she began walking away from the group.
Kendall looked down defeated, there was so much she wanted to tell her dad, but that didn't seem like it was happening any time soon."
"C'mon E, work with us here," Gabrielle called out after Estelle. "This is most likely the reason we're back here, a chance to sort things out with them,"
Estelle stopped at her words.
"A chance to change things."
She looked back at her friend. Gabrielle didn't usually like taking the spotlight, but she was determined to change Estelle's mind.
"Look at them," She motioned to the boys. "They're young, impressionable. Our relationships with them haven't soured yet. Let's talk now and make peace. It could help change the outcome of the future, don't you want that, E?"
Estelle looked back in the direction she was walking in and took another step forward. She heard Gabrielle sigh, and Kendall let out a whisper of a curse. She sighed inwardly and turned around, coming back to the group and eyeing the boys.
"Just look at this," She told the boys as she reached into the inner pocket of her leather jacket and took out a clear plastic brick-like item.
"What is that?" Jordan questioned.
"It's a phone," she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She turned it on, and a hologram appeared on the clear plastic. She typed for a bit and then turned the phone around to show the boys the hologram picture.
"That's the three of you, seven years from now."
The boys saw themselves but older, Declan was sporting an almost beard, Jordan has a full sleeve of tattoos, and Bennett cut his hair and had it tapered to one side.
They were all smiling and laughing in the photo as they each pushed a buggy with some toddlers in them.
"You were beyond excited when you learned you'd be having daughters at the same time," she said quietly, almost sadly.
"You joked, we would be the next Musketeers," she finished.
Kendall snorted. "You even referred to me as "Proof you got laid"," She said, smiling at Jordan.
Declan leaned over to Bennett, "Now that I can believe."
They all laughed.
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