Afterlife Dream

I was no longer disturbed by the fact that I did not understand a single thing that came out of Miss Hayes' mouth. Simply because I no longer paid attention to the lesson. I was a little too busy trying to overcome the shock about what was happening to me.

Why was the day repeating?

Was I crazy?

Was it maybe really just the first day and I just had a dream about the future or something?

History class repeated itself.

So did English.

When lunchtime came, I dragged my feet languidly to the canteen.

I had pasta yesterday. I still remembered the creamy carbonara sauce as it melted away in my mouth.

What should I eat for lunch this time?

The same thing?

Wait, I did read about time loop stories before. The person who got trapped had to make a different choice in order to save the day. The question was, what needed to be saved? I didn't know.

I ended up getting a hotdog with fries. As I lined up to pay, I kept going through everything that happened the day before.

After lunch, we would have sports. I would be the benchwarmer. And then, I would go home and Jaden would take me to his baseball practice. The coach would offer to let me play. I would hit a home run on my third hitting trial. We would go home, pick some pizzas, celebrate Mom's new job... and then we went to sleep with bellies full of good food.

What was supposed to be different?

"Sorry, Daniel. Do you mind sitting out today's game? You can watch while the others play. Next lesson I will let you play."

Ironically, it was already the next lesson and I was still sitting on the bench and watching people play. I slumped to the bench and started to look around the vast sports hall.

I did not know how to make a difference. Truthfully, I already caused some disturbance this morning.

The only reason why I did not realize the day was repeating right after I woke up was because the day before I was so excited about my first day that I woke up earliest of everyone else.

I was already down for breakfast before Mom even started making breakfast.

This morning, I slept in because we had the pizza the night before. That was why I had to deal with Jaden's morning toilet breakdown. And I almost got us into an accident by blabbing about Mom's new job before she even got it. I guess she was having an interview or something today. She didn't even know that she got the job already but then I started talking about the job.

Gosh, it must have freaked her out. It freaked me out.

Everything went the exact same way that afternoon. Mom looked extremely proud in her new uniform. "Honestly I was so nervous during the interview, but I had a feeling that I would get the job," Mom said while we were enjoying our pizzas.

"How so, dear?" Dad asked.

"Well..."

Mom munched away the rest of the tuna pizza before she answered. "Danny said something really weird this morning. He said that I got a new job, and he asked me where my suit was."

Dad and Jaden turned to look at me, flabbergasted.

"Wow. Danny, are you a prophet or something? Why did you say that?"

I swallowed.

What was I supposed to say? That I knew what was going to happen because the day was repeating itself?

Mom's face from this morning flashed in front of my eyes. "Truthfully, I still have some qualms about leaving Daniel out of my sight for the first time after all these years..."

No.

I could not tell them.

They would think that I was crazy and before I knew it, the next morning I would not wake up in my own bedroom anymore but in the mental hospital ward.

I definitely could not tell them.

When I closed my eyes to sleep that night, I prayed extra hard.

God, please, please, let the day change.

Please release me from this time loop.

I wanted my life to go on.

When morning came, the birds were chirping loudly outside my window. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that my room was still dark because the window curtains had not been drawn to the sides.

During the few minutes that I took to remember what happened to me, the door opened and Mom came in.

She broke into a grin when she saw me. "Oh, Danny, you are awake!"

I stared at Mom.

She crossed my bedroom and pulled the window curtains aside. The warm sunlight flooded my bedroom. I had to shield my eyes from the sudden brightness.

"Since you are already awake, why don't you go and take a shower?" Mom asked.

I gingerly climbed off the bed.

"Mom, I... what day is it today?"

"It's Monday, silly boy. It's your first day of school!"

My heart lurched to the bottom of my stomach. The day repeated itself yet again.

Jaden was already occupying the bathroom by the time I went down.

We had the same kind of breakfast.

I remained silent inside the car while Mom was chattering about what an exciting day it was, earning occasional "Hmm"s and "Yes, Mom" from me. I gazed out of the window and saw the same truck that almost collided with our car yesterday. It carried a bunch of motorcycles.

"Woahh," Jaden piped up next to me.

"Cool!!!" he shouted.

I turned to look at Jaden. Now that I thought about it, Jaden did say the same thing on the very first day, the real first day. Only that at that time I was too busy with myself to pay attention to anything else.

After I was introduced to my class and took my seat next to Jason, I opened my notebook and jotted down everything that I could remember from the past two days and this morning. What remained the same and what changed?

On the first day, I woke up extra early. I took my bath before Jaden came down and hogged the bathroom.

On the second day, I woke up extra late. I had to take my bath in my parents' bedroom.

On the third day, I woke up just in time. I took my bath in my parents' bedroom.

I ate the same kind of breakfast for three days straight. I was starting to get sick of it.

On the first and third day, nothing happened during the car ride.

On the second day, I almost killed us all.

The introduction to Mrs. Briggs, Miss Hayes, and the whole class was still the same for all three days.

The math lesson was the same. The history lesson was the same. The English lesson was still the same.

I brought my notebook with me for the lunch break.

On the first day, I had pasta carbonara with extra cheese.

On the second day, I had a hotdog with fries.

On the third day, I...

I decided to get the fried noodles. When I passed by the bowl of black sesame seed, I halted and poured a spoonful of it into my plate. It might not be a conventional combination but why not? I remembered that I also did it on my first day, for the pasta carbonara...

I took my lunch tray and bumped against someone. The both of us almost dropped our lunch trays then and there.

"Sorry!" I quickly apologized. My eyes met with a pair of glaring, blue eyes. It was her. The beautiful girl from my first day. For some reason, she looked especially bad-mooded today.

"Be more careful," she scolded me while walking off to the cashier to pay. Her brother joined her not long after, not without throwing a look at me.

Was that even necessary? What a rude girl. It was not as if I purposefully bumped into her.

Maybe I should note that down...

"Danny! Hey, Danny!"

Mm, another thing to note. Jaden was sitting at the same spot for lunch for three days now, and I did too. I eyed his plate. He ate the same food for three days : the burger with fries.

When he noticed that I eyed his plate, he asked, "What is it? Are you regretting your poor choice of lunch?"

"Why poor choice?" I asked, looking down at my plate.

Okay, maybe the fried Asian noodles should not be eaten with a spoonful of black sesame seeds. Then again it was a little too late to regret it now. The best thing I could do was to force the food down my throat and be done with it. I made an additional note to my record to never again eat fried Asian noodles with black sesame seeds. It tasted horrendous.

After lunch, we had sports. I continued scribbling in my notebook as I sat on the bench. And then in the middle of the sports period, something else happened.