CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

My ears are ringing as I try making my way through the panicking crowd moving against me. There are pieces of the ceiling falling everywhere, some of them hitting people. When I clear a way, I sprint toward where we sat, but the more I advance the more fire there is, as if our seats were the ones to blow up. 

    "TYSON! CHLOE!" I try shouting past the horrible noises, to no avail. I get to our seats and the stench surrounds this place. I look around frenzied, and I find pieces Chloe's shirt over what appears to be the now half-charcoal body of my dead best friend! I look away and get reminded of what I ate for lunch, as I puke my guts out. 

    The following seconds felt like minutes upon minutes passing by, the entire world was spinning as I was trying to make sense of it all. What just happened? I can't get a single clear thought, and I'm shifting between crying, shouting and completely panicking. I hear a cracking sound and look up to see a large piece of cement charging at me.

***

"AAAAAHRGH!" I screech and open my eyes, jumping off my bed. "Wha.. How?" I mutter silently, trying to make sense of everything.

    I'm sweating like a pig. Was this all just a nightmare? No, no way, it was so real, the noises, the looks, the smells. I feel traumatised, but it also seems as if nothing has happened....

    I look at the clock, 8:24AM, is this for real? I get ready and head to school, arriving late (again?). Everything looks normal, like nothing happened, was this all in my head? Was I just dreaming all of it?

    I open the class door carelessly, forgetting the teacher was standing right next to it. Wait, forgetting? This is wrong, this is all wrong! 

    The teacher looks at me, hurt and angry, and says something, but I can't concentrate enough to listen, and all that comes out of my mouth is some weird, awkward noises. She sees I'm not in focus and gently asks me to take a seat, trying to calm me down.

    As I make my way towards my seat, people are laughing at the events that just happened, but I'm too impatient to mind. This is all one sick joke. I can see Chloe sitting behind her table, and my eyes tear up from the relief.

    "That was hilarious right there! Earth to Todd, yo check this out" Michael says and hands me the dope. I take it and bob forwards to evade Chloe's smack, but when I turn around I can see she didn't even try hitting me, instead, on her face is a concerned look.

    Chloe talks, "Dude, are you high or something? And where.."

    "Chloe, something is very, VERY wrong with me" I interrupt her before she manages to ask about yesterday.

    "What?" Chloe asks.

    "Please, when we leave for second period, stay with me, we need to talk, urgently"

    "I.. I don't understand" She looks confused, but who wouldn't be?

    "Just.. Do it, please?" I almost beg.

I wait impatiently until the bells ring and I half-rush to the exit, I think my bladder is about to burst from the stress I'm experiencing, but I don't care.

    When Chloe gets out of the class, she looks around for a few moments before finding me leaning on the wall to her left and approaches me.

    "Are you alright? Todd what's going on?" She asks, concerned.

    "No. Look, I'm gonna say something that will sound totally ridiculous, but please, you've got to believe me!" I say quickly and by her looks I realise I sound very tense, so I try calming myself down. "I've been through this day before, I arrived late, I bumped into Mrs. Palmer and you smacked me from behind"

    "Uhh...."

    "Please, just listen for a second" I say, pleading her to take me seriously. "Whether you believe me or not, it doesn't matter yet, ok? I just need you to listen, and to trust me"

    "You're scaring me a little" She says.

    "I know, I'm sorry. Anyway, I think I've been through this day before" I try explaining.

    "Wait, so.... Like Groundhog's Day?" Chloe asks. "Are you supposed to win me over in order to get out of this loop?" She giggles.

    "Stop it, I wake up every time I die" I start. "There's a bomb in the stadium, it's going to explode mid-ceremony, when the bells ring for sixth period, and it's going to kill a lot of students here!"

    "Dude, grow up" Chloe grew tired of my story, so I grab her by the shoulders and put a very serious face on, "I'm not joking, you may think I'm lying, you may think I'm just making jokes, but I'm totally serious. So even if you don't believe me, please just skip the ceremony with me, just this once. You know how seriously I take this day, I wouldn't do this to you unless I had a very good reason."

    "Ok! Ok, chill. I'll skip the ceremony with you, but what about everyone else?" She asks, and she's right as always, why did I not think about everyone else? I only thought about going for Tyson and making him stay with us, but I did not think about the others.

    An idea pops to my mind "I think we should pull the fire alarm and evacuate everyone before the bomb explodes" 

    "Good idea, and if you have to repeat this day again for some reason, say 'pink wasabi', and I'll believe whatever you have to say" She says, confusing me for a moment "I made up this phrase for if ever someone says he can turn time back, as a proof" That is why Chloe is my best friend, she has just the right amount of nerd inside.

I can't believe I managed to convince Chloe of staying out of the ceremony with me, and she helped me keep Tyson out as well. They may not believe me yet, but I'm sure they will, after the bomb explodes, I just hope we'll be able to save everyone else.

    "So.... When should we pull the alarm?" asks Tyson 

    "We can't pull it too early, because after a fire minutes people will realise it's a false alarm, but we need to leave a time frame long enough to evacuate the building" Chloe thought it through.

We wait outside the stadium for what feels like hours until it is 12:30PM, time to pull the alarm. I walk to the fire alarm, break its glass with the small hammer and pull the lever. 

    After a few seconds of silence we realise the alarm is not functioning properly, so I start running toward the court to warn everyone to get out of the building, but I bump into none other than Jake f*****g Miller, apparently those guys got kicked out without my help. Before I even attempt to start running again, I am sent crashing into the wall. Jake and Cole proceed to perform a series of kicks, before getting bored of me and leaving the building. 

    "What's delaying you?" Tyson arrives and sees me on the floor, "S**t what happened?" he asks.

    "Doesn't matter, go evacuate everyone" I choke a sob.

    Tyson runs to the court and starts shouting "Fire! Fire! There's a fire in the building!", but before anyone cares enough to evacuate the building I hear a loud BOOM! 

    We were too late....