“I heard this movie’s supposed to be pretty good,” said Jake as we sidled into our seats in the movie theater.

  “Oh yeah, it’s really good!” I replied. “Toy Story is totally a classic movie. I’ve seen it lots of times.”

  Jake raised his eyebrows as we took our seats. “I thought it just came out a few days ago.”

  My cheeks went pink. “Er, I mean it’s one of those movies you can see a lot of times. I, um, haven’t seen it yet,” I lied. Of course I remembered seeing this movie a dozen times from Matthew’s memories, but in November of 1995 Maya was seeing it for the first time. I hated it when I forgot to keep mum about my knowledge of the future.

  “Well, the graphics look good. Popcorn?”

  I leaned towards Jake, popping a few kernels into my mouth. As I did, I hooked onto his arm and rested my head against his shoulder. He rested his head on mine in response. Despite the awkwardness of our homecoming kiss, Jake and I were continuing to see each other. I had told him after it happened that I didn’t want to go too fast, and I was uncomfortable with being too physical, though I didn’t explain what was going inside of my head. Despite both of us being high school freshmen, the fact that I had adult memories meant that it wouldn’t be right, no matter how nice it felt.

  To my surprise, Jake was completely fine with it. I wasn’t expecting a fifteen year-old boy to be okay with dating and not kissing, but he agreed almost immediately. He wanted to keep dating, but didn’t want to go “too crazy;” his words, not mine. We still spent a lot of time together, holding hands and being affectionate, but I was firm in not letting it go further than that. Maybe a little peck on his cheeks or lips…but no more!

  As we cuddled together in the theater, the lights began to dim and the trailers began. This of course was followed by the familiar theme music as the world was introduced to this animation masterpiece. I knew the movie by heart, and while I was pretending to see it for the first time, like everyone else in the theater, my mind was buzzing about the movie, just not in the same way.

  There were reports that Pixar was going to announce their initial public offering after the release of Toy Story, and I was already calculating. It was going to be my first attempt at taking advantage of a big release and a quick cash out, but I had taken notes and made a plan. Though, for the moment, I was going to lose myself in ninety minutes of classic cinema with my boyfriend.

  The following Monday, Dad was sitting on the sofa happily reading the sports section of the Star Tribune. “Dad, do you have a second?” I asked with my bundle of papers in hand.

  “Sure sweetie, what’s up?”

  “I’m going to make the call I told you about. The day trade? I need you to call the broker. It’ll only take a second.”

  “Sure, hon,” he said as he set down his paper and walked over to the corded phone in the kitchen. He dialed the number I gave him, and they soon answered.

  “Bill Henderson? Yes, it’s David Peterson; how are you? Good, good. I’m going to put you on with my daughter Maya here, and she’s going to walk you through the specifics of the new stock she told me about. Here she is.”

  Dad handed me the receiver with a happy nod, before returning to the sitting room and his paper. I put the phone to my ear. “Hello, Mr. Henderson. I hope you’re well.”

  “Good afternoon, Maya. What can we do for your dad today?”

  I cleared my throat, putting myself into business mode. “A few things. I’d like to place a couple of advance orders for Wednesday, the twenty-ninth, for the custodial account and my father’s account. The first is a buy order for the Pixar IPO, ticker P-I-X-R. Twenty thousand dollars’ worth, and the second from my father’s account for two thousand. To be executed at the market open.”

  I heard some scribbling on the other side of the line. “Got it,” he eventually responded.

  “Concurrently, please place a corresponding market-on-close order to liquidate the entire position that same day. We’re treating this as a short-term momentum play and want to lock in the day’s gains.”

  There was an exhale of air on his end, followed by another round of scribbling. “Okay, you’re all set for Wednesday. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “Yes please,” I continued. “Two administrative tasks while I have you. First, with this year’s trades, my taxes are going to be more complicated. We were hoping you might have a recommendation for a good local CPA, separate from my father’s.” Another bout of scribbling. “Second, could you make sure to send over the consolidated 1099-B form as soon as it’s ready in the new year? I’d like to get a head start on the paperwork.”

  “That is…erm…yes, we can take care of that right away. Just need your dad to confirm.”

  “One sec,” I said as I brought the receiver to Dad who was back to reading his paper. “Here Dad, just say you confirm.” I held the phone to his head, and Dad gave his consent and thanked him for his time.

  As I hung up the phone, Dad shouted over to the kitchen, “We all good, sweetheart?”

  “We sure are. You’re going to make over a thousand dollars on Wednesday.”

  Dad laughed, not looking up from his paper. “Sounds good to me! Also, would you mind taking the garbage down to the garage?”

  ***

  Winter passed by in a blur. Between schoolwork, student council meetings, and cheerleading for the basketball team my daily life as a high school freshman was in full swing. It was a relief during winter break when I was able to take a breather and spread my time between my secret double life as an investor. I placed my gains from my thirty-five grand Pixar sale into a couple of other positions that I were sure to be safe bets, though I kept a couple thousand in my bank account for fun. Occasionally I would find time to jam on my guitar when my social calendar allowed me a moment.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  1996 began, and once again I was doing a full gauntlet of classes. Funnily enough, one of my classes this term was economics, which I was sure wouldn’t be much of a problem. On top of my other extracurriculars, I took advantage of the internet access that the computer club allowed me to monitor my Iomega stock as it continued its several month-long rise. It was nice being able to log into the internet at school, but I was going to have to do something about getting access at home.

  I had, if not a friendship, a rapport with the other members of the computer club who had been Matthew’s friends in his timeline. They were still a bit bewildered as to why a cheerleader was coming regularly to a club that simply existed so that they could play Doom. In Maya’s timeline, I never really played video games, and while I had fond memories of them I simply didn’t have the time or the desire.

  That being said, from conversations I had with the club members I did decide to make a few purchases that Matthew would have appreciated in his day. I would occasionally go to the game shops and comic stores and make innocuous purchases of certain video games and collectible cards. I didn’t open them, of course. Maya didn’t play Magic The Gathering, or Nintendo, but I did store the sealed boxes in a bin in the storage area. More of an idle hobby than an investment, since I knew someday how valuable they would be. Another tribute to Matthew’s life, I suppose.

  In mid-April my friend Erin and I were at the mall doing some clothes shopping. The Spring Social was coming up at the end of the month, we were girling it out for that dance since freshmen weren’t allowed at Prom. Erin was trying to find a dress that she liked that would look good on her, and I was happy to help her look. I was fund-raising for the Spring Social, and it seemed like whenever an event was upcoming that I was helping there was always a generous donation to put us over the top. Funny how that worked.

  “What do you think about this one?” asked Erin as she stepped out of the dressing room. She had on a light green dress with ruffles as she posed for me.

  “That is super cute! I think it’s a winner!”

  Erin had a big happy grin on her face, until she glazed down at the price tag. “Oh shoot,” she sighed, “fifty dollars.”

  It wasn’t the first time I felt a disconnect from my peers when it came to money. Just the other day I flipped the newly available Yahoo stock when they started publicly trading, and in one day earned over twenty-five grand. It was added to my already growing portfolio, which at this point was well over three hundred grand, tied up in various positions. I barely touched it, not wanting to make people suspicious, but it was discomforting to know I was sitting on a pile of money and pretending I wasn’t.

  “Oh well,” said Erin dejectedly. “Maybe next time.”

  “You know,” I suggested, “I could get it for you, as an early birthday present or something.”

  “Maya, my birthday’s not until October! I can’t have you buying something like this!”

  “It’s fine. My dad gave me a little extra cash for the Social, but I was going to have my mom alter one of my other dresses.” It was the best lie I could come up with on the spot.

  “Well, if it’s okay with you…alright! But I owe you!”

  It still didn’t help the divide I felt between everyone around me, but I knew that I had to keep as quiet as possible about the money I was making. However, I wanted to make sure my teenage years were as normal as possible, and that meant not throwing around money like it’s going out of style. Besides, a day where my friends and I get to look fabulous in the spring was way more fun than all of the money moving I was doing. I wanted to make sure that when I won, everyone around me won, and that included Erin.

  Speaking of wins, the day I had been waiting all year for finally arrived in May. I had been analyzing a company called Iomega everyday; I knew this particular story well and what was coming. I couldn’t remember the exact day that this company crashed and burned, but I was ready for it. Days before, I had made my usual call to Mr. Henderson with Dad as a proxy once again.

  “Hello, Bill. I’ll put you on with Maya,” Dad said as he handed me the phone before walking back to the garage. For the past few months having Dad initiate the call to the broker was a formality, but bless his heart, Dad didn’t really ask questions. He was all too happy about his positions in Microsoft which continued to do so well.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Peterson.” Mr. Henderson was very used to dealing with me these past few months. “What’s our move today?”

  “I want to place a limit order on Iomega,” I responded, all business. “Ticker I-O-M-G.”

  “A limit?” Mr. Henderson gasped. “The momentum on this is incredible. You could ride this higher, if you sold at market right now, then –”

  “I want the order to be set at one hundred. Once it reaches it, liquidate everything.”

  “Now, Maya,” Mr. Henderson stated, clearly at a loss. “You could ride this to one-twenty, or one-thirty. The growth on this has been incredible, and I would hate to blow past it.”

  “One hundred,” I repeated. “As soon as it’s there.”

  There was silence on the other end, with an eventually sad clicking of a keyboard. ‘The order is in, Miss Peterson.” It came out as a hoarse whisper. “Is there anything else?”

  “Not at this time. I will talk to you soon, Mr. Henderson.”

  Just a few days later, Iomega finally reached one hundred per share. It fluctuated a bit more, and went up ever so slightly. I couldn’t remember what its peak was in Matthew’s timeline, but I had used one hundred as a decent amount. If I had known the exact day this all occurred, I could have made even more. As it stood, by the closing of the market that day I had cashed out my five thousand dollar investment, and some quick math confirmed how much I made.

  It was nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Cash.

  I nearly fainted when my calculations were confirmed a few days later, as the money was transferred to my account. All here, minus the brokerage fee, of course. As I remembered how to breathe, I checked CNN once again, as they were covering the meteoric rise of Iomega, but that day there was a surprising turn; Iomega had peaked, but the only person aware of what was going to happen was a mere high school cheerleader.

  Iomega was a classic example of the dot-com boom years before everything went down. It had an incredible rise, but very soon it was going to tumble because this particular technology was going to be obsolete. At least, that’s what Matthew remembered happening. It was an interesting piece of trivia that I was more than happy to utilize in Maya’s timeline.

  I switched off the TV, and went down into my room, giggling to myself. A quarter of a million dollars in one day! I thought to myself. And this was on top of my other positions! I went into my closet, pulling out The Butterfly Manifesto from its hiding place. I sat on the edge of my bed, turning to my financial section and going to 1996. IOMEGA CRASHES, MAY 1996, it said. BUY LOW, SELL AT THIS TIME FOR PROFIT(?) I quietly took out a pen, and with my hand shaking, put a check mark next to that section. I tapped my pen against my lips, as I looked at the next entry.

  STOCK SLOWLY DIES ALL YEAR. DON’T SHORT IT. A PUT OPTION FOR DECEMBER, MAYBE?

  I probably should have felt bad about making yet another profit from this company failing, but it was just business, after all. Setting aside the Manifesto, I reached over to my guitar and slung it around my shoulders. Clamping the headphones to my ears, I picked up my pick and started to jam.