[ WP ] Time travelling tourists from the future are commonplace at significant historical events . You get home and find time travellers watching you for an unknown reason .

The first time anyone realized that people from the future were coming back in time to places they did n't belong was during the Dallas gas riots in 2018. Some guy got caught in the temple or something by a rubber bullet and wound up being carted off to the hospital unconscious. Turns out when they started working on him he had all kinds of crazy advanced technology, some weird ID cards, and money that would n't be in circulation for another hundred years. 
 
 I suppose they could have just covered up everything. Gone back in time to snag the guy from the EMTs and take him back to the right time period. But I guess someone in PR realized that, honestly, admitting that there were time tourists would n't be that big of a deal and it would n't *really* affect the course of time. All it would do is clue people in to the fact that the people they stood next to in a crowd during some major event might actually be from a hundred or so years in the future. They did n't interfere. They did n't really participate. They just watched. 
 
 And so it some how became commonplace for us all to just accept that. 
 
 Crazy, I know. 
 
 Sometimes they'd show up on the news with some news people trying to interview them. Most of the time they did n't really say much. They occasionally got a little too drunk at some'party of the century' that they did n't even actually have tickets for ( but how do you kick out time travelers, you know? ) and let something slip here and there but it was never anything substantial. 
 
 I thought it was super cool for a while to watch that sort of stuff on YouTube. I do n't know why. I guess I hoped they'd give me some kind of idea about what the future was going to really be like. I was always into that sort of thing, you know? Space travel. Time travel. Anything super sci-fi was totally up my alley. 
 
 I wanted to go to school to be an engineer even though my parents were always a bit hesitant to get my hopes up on that end. We did n't really have a lot of money but I figured with all the'girls in STEM' scholarships out there I ought to be fine. Still. I did everything I could to make sure of that. I joined all the science based clubs and did all kinds of stupid national and international science fair things. 
 
 There was n't a whole lot of interest in some small town girl from Kansas but I did it. I held my own. I could put it on a college admissions essay that I had participated. 
 
 I figured that's all I would ever really do - participate. I was n't ever going to win. I was n't going to ever change the world or anything like that. I just wanted to be a part of it, I guess. 
 
 I never expected to come home and find anyone waiting for me that night. My parents both worked late on Wednesdays and it was already dark out. I'd biked home from playing Dungeons and Dragons with some friends ( and yes I know fucking nerdy that sounds, I know ) and they were there. 
 
 Waiting. 
 
 *For me. * 
 
 I knew they were n't from around here instantly. It's a small town. But it was n't just that. It was the way the held themselves and the clothes they wore. It was all too new and just a little bit off the mark. They were time travelers. There three of them. Two women and a man. They looked nice enough but if they were around then something big was going down and there was a chance it was n't exactly a good thing. 
 
 I looked around a bit nervously before I walked my bike up to the garage where they stood. `` Uh... hey,'' I said, awkwardly, then reached into my bag for the garage clicker to open the door. My parents had sacrificed the space for their cars to indulge me. My little brothers - who stayed with our grandparents on Wednesday nights - called it my'laboratory.' I had n't ever really given it a name. It was just a place I went to mess around. It was the garage. 
 
 I propped my bike up against the wall and then turned back to see the three of them still standing outside *watching* me. It was kind of creepy. 
 
 `` So...'' I started, turning back to face them. `` Can I help you guys with something or... are you trying to find your way some place? Because I do n't know where you're supposed to be but I can promise you that this is *not* it.'' 
 
 They all smiled at that. It was weird. Unnerving. 
 
 One of the women finally shook her head. `` No, we're exactly where we are supposed to be.'' 
 
 Well, that did n't make sense. `` O-kay,'' I said, a bit skeptically. `` You're sure? Because no one else is home tonight. Just me. And I've got this project I need to finish-'' 
 
 `` Oh, we know,'' the man - a bit younger than the two women - said with obvious excitement in his voice. `` That's why we're here. We just... we want to watch.'' 
 
 I looked at them confused. `` Why would you want to watch me?'' I asked, not sure what to expect. The other woman - the oldest of them - just smiled. 
 
 `` Why, hun, you're going to change the world. And it all begins tonight.''
