Future Traded Yestoday

8

Something strange happened today and I'm still not quite sure how to feel about it. I enjoyed this something strange, that was for sure, but I think it's put us all on a slight edge.

It started off when the alarm didn't wake us up. Or maybe it tried to and I didn't hear it when it was my designated day to wake everyone up. Either way, we all slept until at least noon until our unspoken leader awoke and ran around to get us all up.

We've never gotten ready that fast, and I'm completely sure we only got ready that fast because we didn't know what happened when we were late. We just knew we didn't want to be any later than we already were.

So we sprinted right past the cafeteria even though it was the end of the lunch time slot and we wouldn't be able to eat until a lot later tonight. We all made sure to arrive in the practice room at the same time so one of us couldn't get scolded more than another, and I know the kid younger than me was visibly shaking.

I think I was too.

A man who I'm pretty sure was the principal and founder of the school was in the practice room with our vocal and rap instructors, the three of them casually talking between each other. I know all of us were scared beyond belief now-- some of us better at hiding it than others. I was not.

The three adults glanced over at us, gave us a look I couldn't quite read, and then laughed.

"I must've forgotten to tell them today's schedule," the vocal instructor laughed, causing the other two adults to laugh as we stood there. Our eyes were probably bigger than a deer's in headlights.

Eventually our rap instructor was nice enough to fill in the gaping holes of knowledge for us. They had decided we had worked hard enough these past few months and needed a break, so they disabled our alarm and set up games for us to play in the gymnasium.

At this point I zoned out, trying to get over the fact that I wasn't going to be punished today. I knew something had been said about a student being pulled from class for us so we could have even teams of five, but that wasn't my concern.

We once again sprinted to our destination, but this time because we couldn't contain ourselves. We finally had a day off and were given permission to play games. I think in the back of our minds we knew this wasn't going to happen again for a long time.

An assortment of nets and balls were set up around the spare gymnasium for us and someone started up a game of football before I could even register what everything was for. We actually got so into the game that we never noticed when the kid that had been sent from class entered the gymnasium.

Imagine that. The principal sending for a student to join you on your day off just so you could have even teams.

I'm sure if we had been thinking- or if we had been paying attention to the whispers in the hallway- we would've thought maybe he was going to join us and this was a test rather than a break.

But we weren't thinking. We were kids and we were playing despite having no clue who this new kid was. Eventually we learned that he had been at the school as long as I have, and at some point we started calling him the twin of the Japanese guy because they looked similar.

We played football until we were too tired to run anymore, to which we then split up and played badminton and pingpong. They weren't any less exhausting than football, but that was because we were all too competitive.

Well, most of us are too competitive. It just ends up rubbing off on the rest of us.

The games lasted until it was time for dinner, all of us eating as much as we wanted without another thought. In other words, we ate a lot between the ten of us. Especially because other than the random kid we hadn't ate in a whole day.

For the first time in a long time, we were full and smiling.