Afterlife Dream

"Enough!!!"

The shrill scream, followed by the sound of something being smacked onto the ground echoed through the sports hall, causing everyone to stop whatever they were doing and gape at the girl who shouted.

It was the beautiful blond girl. She had her hair tied up into a bun at the back of her head. Some distance away from her, her badminton racked lay pitifully on the ground.

"Lara Baker!!!"

The girl glared at the badminton coach who made a beeline toward her. She was angry, but the girl named Lara Baker did not feel guilty at all. The girl even continued glaring at the coach as if she had done the former some injustice.

The coach grabbed Lara Baker by her arm.

"Come with me now, young lady!"

I was still sitting there with my pen hovering over my notebook.

Wait, did this happen in the first two days?

No, it didn\'t.

I would know if it happened. Even if I was not sitting on the bench for two days, I would have noticed if something like this happened.

"Coach," I called out suddenly. The coach quickly approached me. He maybe thought that I was uncomfortable somewhere. That was good because I was about to say exactly that.

I pulled a grimace and pressed on my stomach. "Coach, I think I ate too much for lunch. Excuse me, can I go to the bathroom?"

I could literally hear him say "Oh my God this isn\'t happening" in his mind. This was what I hated so much whenever I was still going to school. The teachers were concerned about this sickly boy in the class. They did not want to treat me differently but they couldn\'t help it. They just did not want to get blamed if things went wrong.

"Coach, don\'t worry," I ensured him. "I am fine really. I just need to go to the toilet to, you know."

I tilted my head with a smile. The coach breathed out and smiled with relief. "Oh. Sure. Danny, go ahead. No worries."

If I were him, I would be suspicious to see a kid going off to the toilet with a pen and a notebook in his hands. But I guess maybe he was just so glad to be of service that he did not question me further.

I went out of the sports hall and started to look for Lara Baker. I did not have to look far. She was being scolded outside of the sports hall by the badminton coach.

"Seriously, Lara!" she snapped. "Not sure what is happening to you. It is your first day of school, why are you even making trouble?"

Lara did not answer. She crossed her arms before her chest in indignation, but she said nothing. She merely kept silent and let the angry words wash over her. In the end, the coach ran out of things to say. Huffing and puffing, she punished Lara to clean the badminton storage room.

Lara Baker was a beautiful girl, but she was also a rebel. After the coach left, she did not go to the badminton storage room at all. Instead, she looked around as if she was searching for something. Her gaze landed on me, who was indeed looking at her from outside of the sports hall.

"You," she said as she closed the distance between us.

I stood there, stiffly rooted to the spot. Not sure if I should escape this glaring girl or not. She looked like she wanted to hit me.

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

"I uh..."

What should I even say?

That she was something irregular that happened during these three days of eternally repeating events? Was she going to tell others that I was crazy?

I could not even tell my parents, let alone a hot-headed stranger.

The girl looked at me for a long time before she decided that my answer was not worth her time.

"Forget it," she said.

She walked away and headed out of the high school ground.

I was not sure what I wanted to do, but she was my only clue.

"Wait!" I shouted and chased after her.

She turned around and frowned at me. "What is it?"

"I... I just..."

"If you have nothing to say to me, stop following me around," she snapped.

Just like that, the conversation ended and I went back to the sports hall to continue sitting on my bench.

It had yet to end, I thought as I wrote in my notebook.

On the first day, I met Lara Baker when I accidentally bumped my lunch tray against hers after lunch.

On the second day, I did not recall seeing her at all.

On the third day, I met her twice. After I added black sesame seed to my fried Asian noodles and after she suddenly threw a temper during the sports period.

I tapped with the other end of the pen on my notebook. We had sports at the same time. Even if we did not run into each other tomorrow during lunch, I would see her again after lunch.

As usual, Danny showed up again at my doorstep before he went out to his baseball practice.

"Danny, do you want to come and see me play?" he asked.

The question that was very appealing two days ago now made me cringe. As much as it stroked my ego to hit a home run three times in three consecutive days, the baseball practice in itself was quite tiring.

"Pass," I said. I would rather stay at home and think about what I could do tomorrow to end this unreasonable loop.

"Aw," Jaden hung his head in disappointment.

"What\'s wrong?" I asked.

He always went alone to his baseball practice anyway. Why did he look so unmotivated today?

Jaden pursed his lips and gave me puppy eyes.

"I just don\'t want to go alone today. Can you not come and watch me play?"

Sigh.

"Mmkay. Let\'s go."

We did go together and I watched him play. When the coach approached me with his offer, though, I rejected him right away.

"Awww. What a pity. Maybe next time?" he asked hopefully.

I grinned at him. "Next time," I promised. The next time was not going to come because this time was going to repeat itself a lot.

While I sat there and waited for the baseball practice to end, I went through my notebook. I did a lot of changes on the second and third day. Those from the second day did not have any impact as the day still repeated itself. No idea yet about the third day.

If the same day repeated itself the next morning, then I should try changing something I had not changed yet.

Breakfast? No. Too trivial.

Going to school? Hmm maybe. But I didn\'t know how to pull it off. It was my first day going to school. I should be brimming with energy.

Mom\'s new job?

I tapped at my lips while furrowing my brows.

No, how was that relevant? Plus I could not do that to Mom.

Alright then. Why not risk it once and for all? This time I was going to pay very close attention to whatever was happening around me.

I scribbled 23rd September (1) and 23rd September (2) to signify the repeating days.

The next morning came. I knew that the day repeated itself before I even opened my eyes. It was 23rd September all over again, my first day at school. The third one. The birds were chirping in a similar way. Mom entered my room at the exact same time, 07.02.

"Oh, Danny, you are awake!"

I did my very best to look weak and pitiful.

"Mom..." I drawled with a broken voice. "Mom, I do not feel good..."

The grin on Mom\'s face was quickly replaced with terror. She rushed to my bed as fast as a mother cheetah.

"Danny, what\'s wrong??? Where is it hurting?"

I felt so bad for lying to Mom. Tears were glistening in her eyes. I guessed that she never truly believed in my miraculous recovery. She might be dreading this very moment all along.

"I just feel a little dizzy," I lied like a seasoned actor.

"Dizzy??? Dizzy how? Dizzy like you are about to faint, or dizzy like you are seeing two or three images at the same time?"

"Uh."

Not sure. I did not want to fake fainting so I chose the second one.

"I think I am seeing two of you, Mom."

"This is bad!!" Mom announced. "We are going back to the hospital, now!!!"

"..."

Dad was called into the room. He was all pale when he arrived at my bed.

"Danny? Can you see me properly?"

"Erm... No, Dad. You are so blurry."

Dad hauled one of my arms across his shoulder and lifted me easily from the bed.

"Get the car ready, now!"

"On it!" Mom shouted somewhere outside.

I gulped. I hoped I did not exaggerate too much.