Endless Friday

LVIII

     I woke suddenly as if from a nightmare. I quickly pulled out my journal and opened it up on instinct. I forgot to mention that the journals everyone got were all really small and could fit in just about everyone's pockets. And it seemed to be the only thing that didn't reset. I still had a little blood on it from when I crashed trying to drive for the first time, don't ask, on the dark brown leather cover. Every cover had it's owner's full name on it. And inside it's pages were many tally marks and notes I had written over time. It was the best kind of note book since it never reset like the non magical ones. So I still had some quotes from motivational speakers and scientists debating about this "Endless Friday." 

     I looked at my tallys once again and marked one more so no one could take it away and keep me from, "respawning." I then looked up and sighed in relief at my peaceful room. It thankfully wasn't on fire like it had been a couple rounds ago. I looked around at everything. The innocent little sunshine shining in through my innocent little window and onto my innocent little desk with my innocent little homework on it. 

     I rolled my eyes once again at the homework on my desk and got up. I decided to change things up a little this time with my outfit so I wore my least favorite color shirt instead of my favorite color shirt. Ha! Take that, world!!. I was probably going insane too, just slower than Devix and his gang. :} 

Once dressed I didn't even care to grab my homework and just grabbed my empty backpack so I could make it look like I was going to school. I then slid my way down the stairs to grab some food and rush out as quickly as possible. 

     "Looks like someone's in a hurry." My mom smiled. My dad was sitting in his chair reading the newspaper like an old timer. He never really cared about the latest technology that much. But he wasn't against it either. 

     "School." I blunted with a mouth full of pb&j sandwich. It was hard talking to my parents since they had joined The Mindless a while back. We had had a family meeting and they agreed to burn their journals in the fireplace. I pretended to agree but instead of throwing it in when it was time, I held it tightly and ran out the back door and hid somewhere they wouldn't find me. I didn't want to just forget and give up. That was the chicken's way out! I needed to win whatever game whoever had given these journals to us had set up. 

     I quickly left without any more conversations and strode over to the place where everyone understood. A place only we could go to feel truly at home. 

----------------------------------------

     "Alright, looks like there have been a few neglected journals since our last meeting." The leader of the circle, Mr. Zanderson, coughed. Everyone in the circle of collapseable chairs bowed their heads in respect as if those gestured to had just died. It often seemed like it in this place since those people never came back. 

     Our little meetings always took place every five rounds, inside the middle school gym since May 10th was the day it was being cleaned out. We chose to gather earlier in the day before the workers showed up. This little community was like some sort of apocalypse survivors group, mostly just to be there for eachother through these tough times. 

     "Alright, glad to see those who are still with us. Now, who here has been a little wreckless since this whole thing started?" Mr. Zanderson asked as he himself raised his hand. Everyone else raised their hand. Even Little Jimmy, who was only about seven. He was the youngest of us all there. Some chuckled as they saw the little boy with his hand bashfully raised for all to see. Of course even I had to raise my hand a little. As fun as it might have seemed at first, it eventually had gotten boring stealing my mom's car for a joy ride however. What?! If you hadn't done something wreckless in a time like this then were you even human?! 

     And from that, everyone began talking about their last few times around since we had last met. We were also told the news about some government officials or something deciding on going through the nation and burning everyone's journals with the hopes that the insane ones like Devix would stop and time would magically continue as it was supposed to. The news was a little scary since my journal was almost like my extra life thing. Without it, I would just become one of the Mindless and live through the same day over and over again without even realizing it.

     And like every fifth go around, we went through all the secret codes that only us understanding knew so we could find and speak with one another and none of the Mindless would understand. I personally enjoyed all the secret sign language. It made me feel like a secret agent in a way. And then after about an hour, the meeting ended and all of us dispersed. 

----------------------------------

     I was passing school because I just wanted to and saw my best friend run up to me. I no longer kept a clock with me since what even was the point, so I just guessed school had gotten out finally. 

     "Hey, why wrren't you in school?!" He asked me with his little innocent and kind smile. I just frowned and kept looking down at the rocks I was kicking around. He didn't like me ignoring him. Neither did I. I just no longer had anything to talk with him about since he had joined the Mindless a few rounds ago. At the beginning he had promised he would stick it out with me. That he would remember. That he would stay by my side no matter what. But then he never came back to the meetings, and later, I found out why. To be honest, I still felt sour about his betrayal. I decided to be angry since everything would just reset anyways. 

     "Listen, just leave me alone! You're the one who betrayed me! You made a promise that you would never forget! You promised!! Well just look at yourself now! No clue, about ANYTHING!!" I steamed as I turned to yell at him. His sorry and confused face hurt me on the inside. At least I now knew how he would have felt if it had been the other way around. He gulped, having nothing to say. 

     "Wh- what are you even talking about?" He asked me with the least of worried looks he could pull off at the moment. I just turned and stomped off. Even if I did explain, he would only fortet. For some reason, he seemed like a completely different person, even though he was still the same. He just, wasn't my friend. I almost felt like driving off that bridge again with all the endless pain inside me. But it was no use. I would just wake up feeling worse. I needed to keep hope that everything would get better. Somehow, everything would be fine. I would win this!