Alternate Timelines

**Alternate timelines** are altered versions of the timeline. Unlike parallel universes, alternate timelines do not seem to diverge from the universe, but instead rewrite history to the point of wiping out the original timeline. Whenever Shelby and Cyd use their time traveling powers, they create an alternate timeline where things are different that replaces the previous one.

## Major Alternate Timelines

### Season 1

Sometimes when Cyd and Shelby time travel, the changes they make in the timeline are so major that they completely change the course of the story and the lives of the people around them.

#### A Time to Travel

* **Frenemies Timeline**: In A Time to Travel, Cyd and Shelby accidentally time travel two years into the future to 2017. In this timeline, Cyd and Shelby stopped being friends during the beginning of their freshman year of high school because Cyd accidentally got in Shelby's way during her big ask to the dance. Because of that, they never talked or time traveled again during the next two years. Cyd moves in with another friend while Shelby became best friends with Marci. In this timeline, nobody is aware of Cyd and Shelby's time travel powers, therefore, Naldo and Barry never try to figure them out and accidentally destroy their science lab, so it is still intact by 2017. When Shelby and Cyd make up and return back to 2015, this timeline is erased and replaced with one where they are friends and go on time travel adventures.

#### A Time to Rob and Slam

* **Rob and Shelby Dating Timeline**: When Shelby and Cyd go back to February 14, 2015 (8th grade) to stop an unknown girl from breaking Rob's heart, they learn that it was actually Shelby who did that, so Shelby says yes to the offer to go on a date with him. When Shelby and Cyd return to the Fall of 2015 (9th grade), they realize she is still dating him. This timeline appears to be the same, expect that Shelby is dating the Rob. Later on the day, Rob breaks up with Shelby and they learn that no matter what timeline, the Rob always becomes a jerk, so they erase this timeline and replace it with the previous one.

#### The Butterscotch Effect

* **Heart Rocket Timeline**: Cyd and Shelby travel back to 2010 to the day that Barry was pushed out of the way to see Dr. Flemming speak at the high school. They allow Barry into the auditorium by distracting the high school kids with pizza. Barry was able to see Dr. Fleming. However, the doctor mocks Barry's scientific theories, so Barry swears off science forever. He later meets Naldo that same day, and they form the rock band Heart Rocket. By 2015, the pizza guy is now a part of their band. Shelby and Cyd see that their band is terrible, and Barry and Naldo decide to drop out high school.
* **Evil Barry Timeline**: Shelby and Cyd try to go back to 2010 and stop him from seeing Dr. Fleming to restore the timeline. However, Cyd leaves a pudding cup that distracts Naldo on that day. Because of this, Naldo and Barry never meet and Barry becomes evil. By 2015, Barry is a brooding loner who speaks in a strange accent. He says that Naldo and him have nothing to do with each other. Later, Barry enacts revenge on the science club for ruining him chances of meeting Dr. Flemming by controlling their robots to attack everyone. The timeline is erased and restored when the girls return to 2010 and Cyd throws the pudding cup away and Naldo and Barry meet. Naldo stops Barry from becoming a "super villain."

#### Jump to the Future Lab

* **Norm is fired timeline**: When Shelby and Cyd go to Globo-Digi-Dyne to follow Shelby's father and see if he knows anything about the future lab, they set off a chain of events that causes them, Naldo, Barry, Chet, and Bret to end up on the stage during Janet's presentation for her Globo-Digi-Bots. Janet fires Norm in this timeline when she figures out they are his kids and said he was never going to get the promotion because he lacked passion, energy, and initiative. This timeline is erased when Shelby and Cyd go back to morning.
* **Norm is promoted timeline**: In the morning, Shelby and Cyd never go to Globo-Digi-Dyne, and instead, Shelby tells her father that in case anything is happening at his job, he should show passion, energy, and initiative, the same words Janet tells him in the *Norm is fired timeline.* Norm ends up getting the promotion and is assigned to the future lab.

#### Cyd & Shelby's Haunted Escape

* **Teleportation Timeline**: Shelby and Cyd uses the experimental teleportation device from Barry to go to New York. They go into a Haunted Escape House and meet Riley and Lucas from *Girl Meets World.* They later become ghosts due to a side effect of the teleportation and the other two cannot see them or hear them. They cannot touch each other to time travel. They end up possessing Riley and Lucas in order to time travel, which leaves them confused. They time travel back to before they teleport, back in their normal bodies, meaning they never met and possessed Riley and Lucas.

#### Cyd and Shelby Strike Back

* **No Globo-Digi-Dyne Timeline**: Cyd and Shelby go back to August 27, 1991 to stop a young Janet Smythe from being shocked by a lamp in her garage which inspired her to create wireless technology and found the company Globo-Digi-Dyne. When they try to stop her the first time, they end up getting caught by many of her traps she had set up and time traveling back to the beginning and avoiding the traps. As they learn to avoid the traps by repeatedly jumping back, they discover their ability to time travel is compromised and need to save their power to return to the present. They navigate successfully through the traps and break Janet's lamp. However, Janet enters the garage again and sees them, but she ends up getting tied up by her own trap. Janet cannot see them as they time travel back to the present. Later she gets out of her own trap and sees that the two girls were gone. Presumably, young Janet watches the security camera footage and watches Shelby and Cyd disappear. When that happens, she spends the next 25 years trying to figure out who the two girls were instead of funding her company. In the No Globo-Digi-Dyne timeline, Norm never works at Globo-Digi-Dyne, but at other accounting companies. Shelby and Cyd still end up meeting in 2006, but in 2008, Shelby's father's car breaks down. Because of this, he doesn't make it to a job interview get the job he needed to continue living in Portland, so the Marcus family moves to Alaska. Cyd never ends up moving in with Shelby in 2015, so her parents end up taking her and her dog Diesel to Peru with them. Naldo and Barry are still best friends, but Barry only remembers Shelby as an old neighbor, not a close friend. At some point between 2008 and 2015, Janet Smythe coincidentally buys the Marcus family's home. She changes the inside to have red walls and different furniture and appliances. Shelby's bedroom was converted into a science lab. Barry meets Janet as his new neighbor and uses her as a mentor for independent science credit for school. Barry ends up not going on a date with Marci in this timeline like he did earlier in the episode. Shelby and Cyd call each other as soon as they jump to the present. When Shelby and Cyd travel back to Portland, things take a bad turn when Shelby sees Janet living in the house. Shelby finds Janet briefly hospitable to her, with apparently no recollection of what happened in 1991, and texts Cyd about Janet, but then finds out the truth when she goes up to her old room. Janet does indeed remember what the girls did, including the time travel, and seeks revenge. She realizes Shelby could not time travel alone and waits for Cyd to show, then lures her by using Shelby's phone and texting as her. With the two girls tied up, Janet unveils a molecular disrupter and vows to find out how the girls know about time travel. Janet decides Shelby should go into the chamber first, but Cyd offers to go instead. Shelby becomes free of the ropes, thanks to Diesel's spiky collar, and attempts to rescue Cyd while being hit by lasers, only to find she is too late. Until Cyd tricks Janet by coming out from behind the chamber and shocks Janet unconscious. The girls then go back to 1991, erasing the *No Globo-Digi-Dyne timeline.*
* **Tachyometer timeline**: Shelby and Cyd travel back to August 27, 1991 again, and stay in the back of the garage. They let Janet get shocked by the wires, which inspires her to create wireless technology. Thinking the timeline was restored back to normal, they return to the present. However, they don't know that they left tachyon particles behind, which Janet sees and collects with a mason jar. She says she doesn't know what they are, but is going to find out. Janet still creates Globo-Digi-Dyne, but after 2006, the buildings' color scheme changes from white and blue to a more sinister grey and red. She creates a new device that detects tachyon particles called the Tachyometer. When Shelby and Cyd return to 2015, everything in the timeline seems normal for them. They also go to the scene at the beginning of the episode between Marci and Barry and tell them that they like each other, causing awkwardness between the two instead of the conversation they had at the beginning of the episode.

#### A Time to Double Date

* **MMA fight timeline**: Cyd and Shelby have important events for each other on the same night, so they use time travel to go to both. First, Cyd and Shelby do Cyd's MMA fight, Shelby sits next to Cyd, who punches her shoulder, so Shelby switches places with a guy named Drake, who ends up meeting Drake and falling in love with him because he can take a hit and lets Cyd punch him.
* **Craft Fair timeline**: They go back so Cyd can be there for Shelby at the craft fair, and the MMA party never happened. Cyd helps Shelby meet a guy named Joaquin and they get together. The next day, Shelby sees Joaquin at school. Cyd tries to talk to Drake, but the problem is that Drake never met her because the party was cancelled, so Drake thinks she is crazy. Cyd and Shelby realize that they need to go separately to their events if they both want to meet their boys in the same timeline.
* **Both events happen timeline**: When they both are separated, Shelby meets Joaquin, but ends up messing up completely and scaring him off. At the MMA fight, Cyd asks Karen, the girl sitting next to Drake if they can switch, but Karen refuses and tries to flirt with him instead. Cyd tries punching Drake, and he runs off with Karen. Cyd and Shelby both have the idea to go to the other event. Cyd meets Joaquin and they end up hitting it off instead. Shelby interrupts the conversation where Karen is boring Drake to death about frozen vegetables and they end up hitting it off. This timeline ends up being the timeline that stays.

#### Jump to the '50's

* **Kristi timeline**: When Shelby and Cyd go back to 1958 to see her grandmother Rita meet her grandfather Paul, she ends up meeting the wrong Paul, meaning that Shelby's mom and Shelby are replaced with different people. Shelby's hair and eyes turn brown, and eventually she transforms completely into a different girl named Kristi. However, when Rita leaves Paul, it fixes the timeline and Shelby goes back to normal. Nothing is known about the Kristi timeline since the timeline is restored before they can return to 2015.

#### Fight the Future - Part 1

* **The Smythe-iverse**: Cyd and Shelby travel to two years in the future (2018) into an alternate universe where Janet Smythe got the power to time travel and recreated every invention within the past twenty-five years before the inventors of the original timeline did, (such as smartphones and electric cars). Because of this, she became incredibly successful and famous, and transformed the school and the country in a dystopian, 1984-esque world where you must follow her rules or you are sent to suspended animation chambers where you are frozen. Shelby and Drake were still together, they even have the same anniversary date. However, he was the leader of Janet's junior law enforcement program. In the school, Janet put time blockers in the school so Cyd and Shelby couldn't jump back to the normal timeline. She had Barry and Naldo frozen because Janet knew that they helped create time travel, and planned to do the same to Shelby. When Shelby and Cyd defeated her, broke the time blocker, and jumped back to the present, this 2018 no longer exists and was replaced with a normal version of 2018.
* **Break up with Drake**: Upon returning to the normal 2016, Cyd and Shelby go back to when Drake knocked on Shelby's door, and Shelby broke up with him instead of agreeing to go on a date with her because she couldn't trust him after he was so evil in the Smythe-iverse.

## Minor Alternate Timelines

Sometimes when Cyd and Shelby time travel, the changes they make in the timeline are so minor that they have no major story line implications.

### Season 1

#### A Time to Cheat

* When Barry does not believe that Cyd and Shelby are time travelers, the girls create a slightly different timeline where they predict and repeat exactly what Barry said while he was saying it in order to convince him that they are time travelers.
* Shelby and Cyd travel to the day of Ms. Nesbit's test. Cyd makes a spectacle of herself while taking the test from Ms. Nesbit, confusing her and the class. When they take the test for real, they replace this timeline.
* When Ms. Nesbit tries to get Cyd and Shelby expelled, they replace this timeline when they go back and send an anonymous message to her that somebody got a copy of the test, so she has to make a new, even harder test.
* When they see that the new test is impossible, Shelby and Cyd go back and stop Ms. Nesbit from becoming a teacher, and their new teacher is named Ms. Johnson and is a lot nicer. She gets arrested in class for an unpaid parking ticket.

#### A Time to Say Thank You

* When Shelby and Cyd are going back and forth between before the Big Thank You and after it, Cyd creates an alternate timeline where she blurts out "Time travel won't help!" while she was giving them the plant, confusing Norm. Astrid doesn't seem to notice and calls him crazy when he mentions what Cyd said.

#### A Time to Jump and Jam

* Cyd and Shelby time travel back to 7th grade to get a Pizza Slam-rito in 2013. In the original timeline, 2013 Shelby stops Cyd from receiving an invitation to Jen's party by throwing the invitation away, but it the new timeline, she wasn't able to stop Jen from inviting them. Cyd and Jen spent the day together and Cyd gets Jen in trouble for stealing a case of Pizza Slam-rittos. Although Shelby and Cyd do not erase that from happening, this doesn't seem to have any major implications for Cyd other than her getting in trouble once two years ago. It's possible Jen's life was changed in this timeline, but this is unknown as she never appears again.
	+ An interesting point of continuity is that the cop who arrests Cyd and Jen in 2013 is Ms. Nesbit, who was a cop and no longer a teacher, because of Shelby and Cyd's time traveling in A Time to Cheat.

#### A Time to Rob and Slam

* Cyd and Shelby create several minor alternate timelines the day of the science class. First, they change it so that Shelby and The Rob get into a slam battle. Shelby and Cyd fix the mistakes she made during the battle several times so that Shelby wins.

#### Shake Your Booty

* Cyd and Shelby create a slight alternate timeline when they visit West Portland High School in 1978. While they are there, they end up stopping the rivalry between the disco kids and the punk kids. they also appear in Barry's father's 1978 yearbook. They also attend a disco party that was created after the punks and disco kids stopped fighting. This does not change the timeline too much however.

#### The Girls of Christmas Past

* Cyd takes Shelby to Christmas Eve in 2014 without her knowledge. When she does this, the create an alternate timeline where Cyd spends this day at the Marcus household instead of at her parents' house since she didn't live with Shelby.

#### Diesel Gets Lost in Time

* Shelby and Cyd go back one day to get Diesel who was lost in time, which changes what they did they day before.
* Shelby and Cyd go back another day at 3 in the morning to find Diesel while they were supposed to be sleeping in the original timeline.

#### Fight the Future - Part 2

* Shelby and Cyd hear that Janet Smythe is coming over for dinner, they question her about time travel and Barry and Naldo cook Beef Wellington, and Norm embarrasses himself in front of Janet. This timeline is erased, but Janet still remembers it because she had the Tachyometer.
* Shelby, Cyd, and Barry try to break into the scary Globo-Digi-Dyne, but they have to go back several times to avoid getting caught. They have to time travel to 2006 to the day her father took them to work as children and hide tools in the building for them to pick up in the present.

#### Fight the Future - Part 3

* After they get their time travel powers back, they travel to two days before Fight the Future began, erasing the events of the episodes, however, Janet still remembers it.
* The Future Cyd and Shelby reset the timeline after they defeat Janet so the battle never happened.

## Trivia

* The *No Globo-Digi-Dyne timeline* is the biggest timeline change throughout the whole series, as it completely changed the course of Shelby and Cyd's life, the life of their family and friends, and stops an entire company from being founded.