The Curse

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Messed-up Time

[Ding Ding Ding]

When the bell rang the teacher started collecting the answer sheet papers. Some students were relieved, crying, begging for an extra minute and Alison could have sworn she saw a soul flying out of a student's body. Alison belonged to the first category.

As the students exited the classroom the teacher didn't forget to remind the students, "Don't forget you have the second examination in two hours, don't go anywhere and study."

The students' expressions that were already bad turned worse; Alison laughed nervously while exiting the room. She grabbed her books from her locker and headed down to the canteen where she promised to meet her friends after the exam.

Alison couldn't believe her eyes; she saw two of her friends not in school uniform. She slowly approached them and sat down beside Jane. She gave confused stares to two of her friends and stared blankly at Leo. Her friends were too busy stuffing their faces with food and so she kept staring at Leo the only one finished with his food for an explanation.

"Remember when Jane wanted to go to a museum? Ella and Chris messed up the timing thought it was in the morning." Leo explained the situation

Alison chuckled, she looked at Chris and Ella and said, "the both of you can't even go even if you got the timing right." Chris and Ella were confused. "We have another exam coming up in two hours. Did you forget?"

Ella choked on her food; Chris sat there frozen with a pale face. If they came here not wearing a uniform that meant they couldn't do this morning's exam paper.

"So, the reason I didn't see the both of you this morning was because of this? HAHAHAHAHA!! Amazing! I feel a lot better now after the exam." Alison laughed for a while then asked, "What did the teacher say?"

"They told us to go to the principal's office," Ella replied. Alison was about to ask more, Ella continued, "since we came to school and just forgot our uniforms, the principal let us take the exam tomorrow."

Alison and Jane loudly blurted 'No Way'; Leo was as shocked as them. The school has strict rules for the exams. One of them was, if one missed an exam, they won't be able to take the exam the next day.

Alison, Jane and Leo were shocked for a second then turned back normal the next second, just then Chris said something.

"We were permitted to take the exam tomorrow but she didn't let us off easy, you know." Chris rolled his eyes and continued, "We have to clean the classrooms on our floor. If that's bad enough, I'm going to have it worse later when I get home."

. . .

Jane and Leo were in Science class while Alison, Chris and Ella were in Business class. Science class didn't have a second exam for the day so Jane and Leo have agreed to lend their uniforms to Ella and Chris while they visit the museum.

Alison's original plan was to revise with the time she had but that plan was forgotten and instead she was talking with Chris and Ella. And so, after the exam, Alison was so sure she flunked the examination. When she saw Chris' and Ella's expressions, she knew they must have flunked too. Well, at least she wasn't alone. It was a math paper, in all the students who flunked defence, the paper was a hard one.

They went down and waited in the school lobby. All the way down, they kept debating about aliens. Alison was curious about something, "How did you get away with not wearing a uniform to school from home?"

"My dad was still asleep, my brothers are still on a trip and won't be back until later today. So, no one was able to stop me this morning." Ella answered first.

Chris answered after her, "First of all, we are in this position because of Ella. She gave me the wrong time, but whatever, I forgive you. My mom left first so she didn't see me this morning. She is going to chew me out when she comes home." Chris was so close to crying.

Alison found that funny and sarcastically said, "Good luck lol"

They were continuing their argument about aliens when Chris got a message from his mother saying that her driver will pick him up to take him straight home. At the same time, Ella's brothers came to pick her up and they drove off.

Alison went home after Ella and Chris.

. . .

As soon as Alison arrived home in the kitchen, she heard her parents' car driving into the garage. In a few minutes, her parents were in the kitchen unpacking groceries. Since she knew where they went, she wanted to ask.

Alison stood in front of her mother and asked, "Any new news?"

"Nothing new, still the same." Alison's mother replied while organizing the groceries. She paused for a while then suggested, "you should visit him tomorrow after school."

Alison didn't say anything and kept her head down. Her father came near her and patted her head saying, "he's fine, cheer up kiddo." Alison's father didn't want the conversation to end on a sad note so he changed the topic, "Speaking of school, how did my daughter do on her exams today?"

Alison lifted her head hearing her father's cheerful voice. He had a happy face. What was he happy about? He just came back from the hospital. What was there to be happy about?

"Well, I definitely will pass the business studies examination but I left half of the math paper blank so definitely will fail that exam."

Her father laughed and said, "it's okay. Pretty sure I also failed math when I was in high school. Anyway, remember the badminton court that was about to open? It just opened today. Let's go all go there this weekend. Your midterms end tomorrow, right?

Alison was laughing in her mind. She could feel her mother's glare at her father when he said it's okay so Alison nodded her head agreeing to the badminton plan and headed upstairs to her room while laughing at her father getting scolded.