"Hey, Kaitlyn, how are you?" Mark asked over the phone as he sat in his car outside of an office building.
"I'm doing well, what do you need?" A girl responded from the other end. Mark sighed.
"Ow, hurtful. I don't only call when I need something." Mark said.
"I suppose that's true, but when you don't it's to brag, so, what are you bragging about this time?" The girl responded.
"Oh, I'm not bragging, I'm inviting you to spend a few days at my place." Mark said.
"What for?" Kaitlyn asked.
"I think Elizabeth needs to be around some other family members. She's been going through a lot in school. Lizbeth thought of the idea." Mark explained.
"Your daughter? Why invite me?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Our parents are a bit... Extreme... Plus, Hugo's a bit of a brute, I'd rather wait a while before she meets him, at least let him get a bit smarter." Mark said.
"And your wife's family?" She asked.
"Recluses and or crimelords." Mark answered swiftly.
"Wait, really? You married into a family with known crimelords?" Kaitlyn asked.
"They only became crimelords after I married, but I suppose. The rest of her family just disappears off of the grid and reappears every few years for a day or two. I don't really know why though." Mark said with an added thought.
"Huh, interesting... Well, I suppose I don't mind coming over, but I want to stay for two weeks, I start a job in three weeks, and I wouldn't mind a little vacation before it." Kaitlyn said.
"And you say I'm the greedy one." Mark quipped.
"Oh shut it, I'm not the one trying to destroy a company from the inside." Kaitlyn responded.
"Am not, I'm trying to take it over." Mark refuted the claims.
"See? Greedy." Kaitlyn responded.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Mark said as he changed the subject. "Anyway, I'll get the tickets sent to you, they'll be there tomorrow." Mark said.
"Alright, sounds good." Kaitlyn said as she hung up the phone.
'She's going to annoy me to death...' Mark thought to himself as he leaned back in his seat. 'It's not like I'm doing this because I want money. I'm just angry with them is all. So, might as well teach them a lesson, right?' Mark pondered a few thoughts as his alarm went off. 'Right, to work I go.' Mark thought to himself as he exited his car and went into the building.
...
'I need to change my strategy...' Elizabeth thought to herself. 'Just ignoring them isn't helping and I doubt guilt will do much since they're practically given power by the teacher...' Elizabeth thought to herself as a bell rung. She sat straight up and faced the chalkboard.
"Anyway, I hate it, ever since my parents had another kid I've barely gotten any attention." A kid spoke to another as they entered the class.
'The teacher's late.' Elizabeth noted. 'As are most people.' Elizabeth thought to herself as she ignored the other children.
"Do they even realize you don't like it?" The other kid asked.
"No, not as far as I can tell." The first kid said.
'Now or never.' Elizabeth thought to herself as she stood up. She walked over to the other two children in the class. "Do you like candy?" She asked.
"Yeah, why?" The first kid asked.
"If, and only if, you stop others from messing with me I will give you three candy a week, of course, the amount is negotiable." Elizabeth said.
"Why would I do that? Messing with you is fun." The kid said.
"You'd essentially be swapping one temporary pleasure with another, more addictive pleasure, namely your own sugar addiction." Elizabeth said.
"What does that mean?" Both of the kids asked with a confused expression. Elizabeth sighed.
'Wording Elizabeth, wording!' She criticized herself. "Okay, you would at the basic core of your action, be switching your fun activity to one that you are likely to want to do more, also, you will have a steady supply of that fun activity." Elizabeth explained.
"Okay, but how much?" Both of them asked at the same time.
"The amount must be agreed upon by both the supplier, me, and consumer, you, the start amount is three." Elizabeth said. "Oh, also, deductions and additions will be made based on your effectiveness." Elizabeth added.
"What does that mean?" The second kid asked.
"If you do poorly and everyone continues bullying bullying me you will get less than what was originally said and if you do well and the bullying completely stops you get more." Elizabeth explained.
"Okay... How about seven?" The first kid asked.
"Four." Elizabeth said.
"Eight?" The second kid asked. Elizabeth sighed.
'Dealing with children who hardly understand how to do addition is annoying...' She thought to herself. "Five, that's the highest I'm going and you will get it every monday. And yes, five each. Of course, that still depends on how well you do." Elizabeth stated.
They both thought for a moment. "I'll do it." They said in unison.
"Good, I hope to see some notable changes by noon today." Elizabeth said.
...
"Hey, how was school today?" Mark asked as Elizabeth entered the car.
"Better." Elizabeth said lightly.
"Well, that's good. Hopefully that trend continues." Mark said with a gentle smile.
"I hope so as well." Elizabeth said as he seatbelt buckled. "Father, can we go to the candy shop on Sunday? I have some money that I saved." Elizabeth asked.
"Sure, why don't we bring your mother as well?" Mark recommended. Elizabeth nodded.
"Good idea." Elizabeth said said with a bright smile.
...
"No, no, no! She's going too fast." Mathew yelled into the void of space he is in. "Damnit! Damnit all! This plan will only work if all of us do things properly!" Mathew yelled as he sat and thought.
"I get what you mean, but calm down, no use getting so worked up." Another Mathew appeared from behind him and spoke.
"What would you know? You're just an apparition of my mind." Mathew said.
"I'm still you. Besides, we can still work with this timeline, just move cautiously and stop getting involved in their lives so much, limit yourself to once a year. Trust me, I get how much you want to help them, but not in this timeline." The clone responded.
"Alright, alright. We can still salvage this timeline, we already scrapped the last dozen, and the last one was just weird." Mathew said as he drifted into thought. "Alright, let's keep working." He said as he snapped back to his room.