(This has to be a joke…right?)

Once again, Chris looked inside the classroom. He stood there, waiting for some sort of action, any action, but nobody moved an inch from their positions. He knocked slightly in the window’s glass to call their attention, but the sound only echoed inside the room.

-Hey! Is someone there?! Hello! – He started to hit the glass with both hands open while shouting loud enough for them to hear it and, nothing. The students just keep staring ahead to a blank blackboard.

Quietly, Chris distanced himself from the window without taking his gaze from the classroom. A cold sweat was running down from his forehead and goosebumps were happening on his back, making him tremble a little from the shock of what he was seeing.

-Hey…did you... - He turned himself to the girl and was about to say something, when he saw she was just looking at him with an innocent smile in her face, waiting for him to continue – Nevermind…

It was not the right question to ask the girl. All the students, maybe even the entire school, just froze in one place and the first thing he was going to do in this situation was to accuse who can possibly be his only ally.

(I can’t just blame her for everything.)

He wasn’t calm at all, Chris knew that. There would be so many questions for him to make about it but all of them were obscured by the fear of the unknown. He breathed in and exhaled to clear his mind before he started anything.

-Do you know how this happened? - After calming himself, Chris asked the girl again.

The girl thought for a moment before opening her mouth, but it was a fluke and she continued to think. Chris watched as the girl tried, many times, to say something, but she gives up and thinks again as if this was a very difficult answer to the final question in an exam.

(Seriously, do you need all of the drama?)

All he wanted was her opinion about it before doing any assumptions. If she didn’t know anything, then he, maybe alongside her, would just search for some sort of information. Still, watching her thinking so hard made him calmer than before.

-Ah! I know. - The girl hit her palm with a fist and smiled towards Chris. Full of confidence, she said - Wasn’t it like this normally?

-…Yeah…right…

(It was no use after all.)

It was quicker to deduce that she didn’t have any sort of useful information for this scenario. Rather than wasting time correcting her, it was better to try to get in the classroom first and investigate. With that in mind, Chris went to the classroom’s door and tried to open it. To his surprise, it was locked.

-Of course it would.

-I’m telling you this didn’t change at all.

He thought for a moment and went to check the others classrooms in the hallway. Just like the first one, all of them locked. For a moment, a thought crossed his mind. He could break the window and go inside, but this was a desperate measure and it didn’t look like the students were in a dire situation for him to resort to it, and there were still doors he didn’t check yet.

-Hey, Chris, can you hear me?

Since the classrooms were off limits, Chris went to the school’s entrance. Pushing the crash bar of one door, he opened it without any resistance and saw the usual school’s front he walked since high school started.

(Weird...why this door wasn’t locked?)

After checking all the ground floor, Chris thought someone might want to trap them inside, so he was expecting the entrance to be the same as the classrooms, but now anyone can just leave the school. He wanted to step outside and see if anything changed there, but suddenly, his body was pulled back.

-Whoa!

Releasing a cry of surprise, Chris was thrown on the ground. He immediately tried to get up, but something plunged on top of him, making him lay on the floor. When he looked up, the girl’s eyes were right at his face.

-I’m talking to you, you know?

Her face was so close to his that their foreheads were touching each other and she was putting strength for them to be that way. Chris tried to move his arms to push her away but they were locked by her legs as she was straddling on his torso.

-Can you please move?

-Not until you talk with me.

To show her resolve, the girl closed a bit more her legs to make sure he couldn’t move at all. There was no way of him getting out from that position, Chris knew that, still, it was too embarrassing to be like that, especially since she was staring directly at him.

He tried to turn his head to the side but the girl, fearing he wouldn’t look at her, grabbed his head with both her hands and turned his sight at her again.

-So? What is your answer? – The girl was even closer than before, to the point both of their noses were touching as well.

-Ok, Ok! I will talk to you! – With a slightly red face, Chris gave up while looking at her blue and red eyes.

Seen he was cooperative, the girl giggled and said:

-See? It wasn’t that hard.

With that, the girl lifted her body and stand up, freeing Chris from her wrap. Realizing she got up, he lifted himself from the floor and stand in front of her.

-What do you want to talk?

-Why were you doing that before?

-Did you look around us right now?

With his hand, Chris did a gesture to show the girl the classrooms filled with people frozen as if they were statues. He knew she wasn’t familiar with common sense but even she would perceive this was weird.

-I told you before, this is normal.

-No, it’s not.

He wanted to avoid trying to argue with her about it since there was a more important matter at hand, but she persisted with the same topic even now. If that was what she wanted to talk about, Chris didn’t have a choice but to follow her peace.

-Are you sure about it?

-A hundred percent sure.

From nine to thirteen, five days a week and some Saturdays if there are classes. Chris followed this routine since he started high school this year. If this happened before today, then he would notice.

-Then… what happened this morning?

-What are you talking about?

Hearing her question, Chris looked at her confused. When he came to school, everything was normal. Also, inside the classroom, his classmates were acting as usual. The only thing that happened was the girl being a new student and that was all.

-The stuff about this morning. C’mon, don’t tell me you don’t remember?

(This will lead to nowhere…)

If this continued, they would run around in circles without learning anything about the situation at Chris’ school. Instead of trying to answer her questions, he decided it was better to convince her.

-…Look, I know you want to help, but if we stay talking about this, we will not make any progress, so why not we go around trying to find something useful?

With that said, Chris started to walk slowly towards the stairs to go to the second floor. It was too early to assume that all the school was like the first floor. But when he was heading there...

-…Where were you this morning?

He heard her asking questions once again.

-Please, let’s not continue with this and go.

He stopped for a moment to say that to her and resumed his walk towards the stairs. Reaching the first step, Chris climbed up but was shocked to see the girl was in the standing between floors.

-…Where were you this morning?

-You…how did you…what…

Chris was sure she was behind him and he couldn’t understand how she did it. He didn’t hear any steps or felt anything passing beside him, and yet she was ahead of him. Confused, Chris looked back and forth to figure out how she did it. Then, when he turned this sight once again to the top of the stairs, the girl was right at his face.

-Ha! - Surprised, Chris stepped back and entered the hallway once again.

-…Where were you this morning? - After finishing her question, the girl kept staring at Chris waiting for his response.

-As I was saying, this will not lead us anywhere! - Although he was still trying to know how she just appeared right at his front, Chris managed to respond her.

-…Where were you this morning?

(Are you kidding me?!)

She didn’t stop asking the same question over and over again, disregarding his opinion about the topic the girl was insisting. He really wanted to just go and search for something, but in order to do that, Chris would need the girl, for more annoying as that sounded.

-I was in the classroom! Are you happy now? Let’s go already.

Why does she want to know what, neither he knew nor wanted to know. Turning his back at her, Chris headed to the next set of stairs, a bit irritated with how the girl was treating this.

-…And was there someone with you?

(Not this again!)

Just like before, when he reached the stairs, the girl was in the standing. Instead of being surprised about it, Chris climbed the stairs this time, without taking his eyes off the girl. Arriving at her side, he said:

-For the last time, forget about it and-

-…And was there someone with you? – The girl said without letting him finish.

-No, nobody was with me!

She would continue to persist with this nonsense until she was satisfied, Chris could feel it. So now, he would reassure her without letting any loose ends for them to finally start investigating the cause.

-I was alone! Alone! Me, no one else! All by myself! There was nobody in that classroom but me!

The moment he went in, the classroom was empty and he was happy to have some time for himself after all the crazy things that happened to him lately. It was a good yet short time for him since the class was going to start in ten minutes.

(…Wait…Ten minutes?)

Now that Chris was thinking about it, it was weird. Since his house was near the school, he just walked from there and would arrive with just a couple of minutes before the class, so there was supposed to be some students inside already. Yet, he was alone.

-Why weren’t they insi-

-…And before that?

With a new question in his mind, Chris wanted to think about answers to his confusion, but his thoughts were interrupted as the girl continued asking him.

-Before?

Before he reached his classroom, he entered the school and walked straight up the stairs to his floor, passing through the others hallways. Even though he didn’t meet any other student, Chris swears he was hearing the usual chatter in the halls.

(But, what if…)

What if there was no one there, this question stuck in Chris mind and he feared what the answer might be. If it were another day, this could be just a mere coincidence, but today, after seeing how the classrooms were, it was too weird for it to be one.

-So you finally noticed, huh…

As she looked at his startled face, the girl spoke her impression doing a faint smile at him. Just then Chris escaped his thoughts and faced her.

-But…but this doesn’t make sense! Earlier, I saw the sports team training outside!

If nobody was inside the classroom or even inside the school, there were students in the sports field doing their own clubs activity before the class starts. Chris saw them there, so there was no mistake about it.

-Yeah, there might be that too.

-See? Then, if that is true, then-

-But did you saw them personally?

-…

With those few words, Chris couldn’t answer the girl anymore. It’s true that he saw the sports team, from inside the classroom, so he couldn’t take a closer look at the students who were there. Did they really move normally, Chris thought.

-Dang it!

He didn’t know how it happened but he thought it must be something that occurred after the girl came to the school. Realizing his assumptions were wrong, Chris kicked the floor and sat down on a stair step, frustrated.

He wanted to do something to solve this situation but what could he really do. He failed to notice his surroundings were weird and it was so obvious that it was literally right in front of him. If it wasn’t for the girl pointing it out to him, Chris didn’t know how long he would take to notice it.

-Great…what to do now…

The entire school might be frozen or worst. It was so confusing and illogical that Chris couldn’t even begin thinking about where to start. All those questions without an answer…it was too much for him to handle, that was if he could handle.

And then, he felt something warm embracing him.

-It’s ok. I’m here with you.

When he realized, the girl was right at his side, hugging him softly as she spoke with a gentle voice.

-You don’t need to do it alone.

As Chris was listening to her, slowly, all the tension he had was leaving his body. Feeling his muscles relaxing, the girl continued.

-I’m going to help you, just like you did with me.

Surprised, Chris turned his head to see the girl, just to find her smiling at him without a doubt on her face. He finally noticed now. There was an ally right at his side.

-…Thanks. - It was a bit embarrassing for him to say it but Chris was happy none less to hear the girl saying that.

And then, the school bell sang once again. The second break time was happening right now, but there was no need to rush over his class. Still, nothing would change if they stayed in the stairs forever.

-Ok.

With determination, Chris got up. The girl didn’t trap him again and let him go without any resistance. She was about to get up as well but was surprised to see his hand extended to her.

She looked at him but Chris had his face turned to the wall. Even though she couldn’t see it clearly, there was a bit of red in his cheeks, making her a bit happy.

She grabbed his hand and stood up. With a quick glance to check the girl, Chris walked up the stairs with her following behind him. He didn’t know why but something inside him was telling that, if they were together, this wouldn’t be as difficult as he thought it would.

And then, when his feet touched the second floor.

-…What are you doing here?

A teacher was standing in the hallway. With a poker face, Chris stood there looking at the teacher.

-Are you skipping class? - The teacher walked up to Chris normally, without having any sort of difficulties.

-Oh…no, no! – Recovering himself from his surprise, Chris responded to him – You see…we were…

He turned around to try getting some help from the girl to explain this situation, but she wasn’t behind him anymore, leaving him alone. With the teacher right next to him looking at him angrily, all Chris could say was:

-I...was…looking for a bathroom?