Would You?
Time travel had just become commercially available, but only extremely wealthy people could afford it. For thirty four million pounds, you could now go back to any point in your own life and redo it from that point onwards, with your past body containing your present day memories. Most rich people simply used this technology to make themselves even richer – perhaps a fifty year old businessman might go back twenty years and buy shares in all the companies that he knew would do well in the future. Maybe he would bet a lot of money on sporting events he knew the outcome of. But… he was not allowed to steal someone else’s idea outright. He could not, for instance, create Facebook before Mark Zuckerberg did. To do so would change the world too much, and change could have dangerous consequences.
To ensure that no-one altered history too much, every time traveller had to wear a special watch called a Watcher. Essentially, it was a watch with a camera hidden inside it, through which every time traveller was monitored by someone in the future. If the time traveller tried in any significant way to change the course of human history, they would instantly be transported back to the present and never be allowed to use the technology again. This technology was only available for a person wanting to improve their own life or the lives of those closest to them.
Trent had no interest in human history. He had made his fortune with a simple invention that had become a wildly popular home product in over forty different countries. But despite his wealth, he had rarely been happy. He wasn’t married, he had no children and most of his friends were his business associates.
Trent’s plan was simple: he would go back to when he was nine years old, at the start of Year 5 of his primary school. He would correct every social mistake he’d made that year. He would stand up to the class bully, smacking him right in the mouth the first time he bothered him. He would ask the girl he’d always liked to be his girlfriend, utilising the confidence he had found later in his life, but never had at this age. He would of course be the smartest kid in the whole school, instead of constantly struggling to keep up in class, as he had back then. He would also be the coolest kid in school, knowing songs no-one else had ever heard (and already being an accomplished guitar player) and knowing all the best movies and TV shows to recommend before they even came out. Yes, life for Trent would be so much easier for him the second time around, he was sure of it. In fact, he had no intention of ever returning to his present. Everything he’d miss from that time, he was sure he could wait a few decades to see again.
What happens between himself and the school bully?
What happens with the girl he always liked?
Will his plan work? Will he be the coolest kid in the school? Or is his plan too simple?