I woke up with a shock. I looked around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But something felt off. I decided to just dismiss it. "W- what time is it?" I thought, still somewhat groggy.

I turned over to look at the clock. 6:37 in the morning. Perfect. School started at eight in the morning, it took me about five minutes to get to school, and it only takes me a half hour to get ready altogether. I had almost a full hour to just relax before school.

What should I do? I could watch tv, eat a bigger breakfast, or try and see if Jayden was up. He decided to see if Jayden was up yet.

Byoom

>> Hey. You up yet?

>> Suprisingly. Actually, I couldn't fall asleep last night, so I can say that I've been up for a while. How about you? How did you sleep?

>> I slept really good. I think. I can't really tell how I sleep because, well, I'm asleep.

>> Lol. Yeah. Anyways, I'm going to try to get some actual sleep now. I will see you at school, hopefully.

>> See you at school.

Click

Jayden never liked to talk that much on a phone. She usually ends conversations on the phone quickly, like she did today.

"Oh, I'm doing it again. Sorry," was her usual response when she thought she was talking on the phone for too long.

Anyways, I need to get busy on getting ready for school. I will hand it back to the writer.

Thank you, Jack.

He got out of bed, got dressed, and went downstairs. He found a note on the counter. Some of it familiar, some of it not so much.

Dear Jack,

I had to go to work early. Your lunch is in the fridge. I put something special in it today. I hope you enjoy it.

Love,
Mom.

He walked over to the fridge and opened it to find his lunch in its usual place, in the middle on the front row so it was easy to see. He looked inside. On the top was a small pack of four cookies. Nice. So that was the special something.

Before he realized what he was doing he whispered, "Thank you." A single tear rolled down his cheek. He quickly wiped it off and picked his lunch up, moved it by his book bag and set it down.

He still had some time to spare so he decided to watch some tv.

Eventually, the time came that he needed to leave. He picked up his lunch and book bag and left the house.

It was still mostly dark out. So far a normal day. He was walking to school, and after a minute of walking he realized he hadn't seen Jayden yet. He could go back at the risk of being late to school. He thought, "Sorry Jayden. You probably just slept in by accident anyways."

As he walked even further he noticed there weren't that many people out yet. Usually there were more people outside by now. He decided to look at the sky again. He suddenly realized it was darker than normal outside, not what it was normally supposed to be. He decided to ask someone what time it was just to be sure he didn't wake up too early.

He saw a man with a long grey beard up ahead. "I'll ask him," he thought. He walked up to him. "Excuse me sir, can you tell me what time it is?"
The man looked somewhat confused. Then he gained an expression on his face very close to realization. He pulled out his phone. He spoke slowly, obviously not a native speaker. "Th- three.... Two.... Une." He smiled, proud of his own little accomplishment.

Jack smiled back at the man. "Thank you for the help."

As Jack walked away from the man. He pondered why he got up so early. Three twenty-one! All the clocks he looked at said the right time. And when his alarm went off, his phone didn't say no three in the morning. Something was off. Way off. Either his mom was playing a prank on him or someone broke into the house. But nothing in the house seemed changed. All the doors were locked, no windows smashed. He decided he needed to head back home and figure out what happened.