In Time

As It Is

"You've got to be kidding me." I shook my head, wishing that the sight in front of me was a figment of my imagination. An open bulletin board in front of the office had been decorated by an unknown student. It was a memorial. Kind of.

There were nine total photos arranged in a three by three grid with a name under each. Every single person on that board were students who had gone missing over the past ten years; all of them were seniors. Two were glaringly different because I could recognize the faces: Claudius Amontadillo and Skylar Hill. Claudius had been three grade levels above me, and Skylar was only a year older.

Skylar was a close friend.

Feeling sick, I turned away from the board and pushed my way out of the quickly forming crowd. The bathroom was only a few feet away, and I struggled to keep myself from running inside. Once I was there, though, I picked the stall at the end, checking for feet as I went. I locked the door and stood with my backpack to the door. I didn't bother even taking it off as I waited for the familiar tears to come.

For the first time, I felt nothing. My cheeks were unstained, free from my tears. So, I did what anyone else would do in my situation when I heard the bell mark the end of the passing period: I composed myself, left the stall, and headed towards the cafeteria for lunch. For some reason, my feet stopped at the bulletin board one more time. I noticed that there was a small slip of paper stapled near the bottom of the display.

It was a list of observations. One point made was that all of the victims were seniors. Another discussed the pattern of the victims being lower-class or in the foster care system. The last bullet point stood out because it was a question: "Why haven't the police found the perpetrators yet?" The question was valid. There are cameras everywhere nowadays, and students vanishing on school grounds without photographic evidence of anything out of the ordinary occuring was suspect.

I turned away from the board and from my thoughts. I couldn't think about this right now, so I forced my feet to start moving. The lockers passed by in a blur, and suddenly, I was in line for food that I had no intention of eating. A hand abruptly clasped by shoulder, and I jumped out of my stupor. Turning around, I came face to face with Mikey, my best friend. I glared at him, making eye contact with his blue eyes for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, he looked down bashfully, and I swear I could hear a puppy whimpering in the background when he muttered an apology.

Usually, he wouldn't say sorry for something as silly as that, but I think he could tell I was in a bad mood. I decided to give him a smile, trying to show him that I was just joking, and he cracked a smile in return.

"So, did you hear about the planet that NASA discovered a few years ago? Apparently, this one shows signs of life! They just need to keep perfecting the technology that we will need to travel. Isn't that so cool?" Mikey rambled. I sighed and inched forward in line.

"Mikey, I doubt NASA is actually anywhere near developing the technology we would need to travel billions of lightyears away. Even if they did, the rich would be the first ones on that rocket or whatever it is." I felt bad for being so brutally honest, but Mikey was too much of an optimist. Last time he got his hopes crushed by reality, he moped for a month. I had to drag him to school every day, and I almost started brushing his teeth for him.

After reaching the counter full of food, we both grabbed our food and headed to our table full of friends. Mikey already stuffed a cookie in his mouth and tried to argue as we walked. "How do you know that, though? They have a segment on the channel this evening, and they are going to talk about it and everything."

I sighed, and he started trying to get me to watch the segment. Eventually, he starts poking my arm repeatedly in the same spot, and I angrily start poking him back. It's only a few seconds later before I realize that Mikey seemed unaffected by my attacks.

"Fine, I'll watch it," I grumbled. I was planning on watching it anyways, but he started poking me before I could say anything. Of course, I dug my heels in then.

We finally reached our table, and Mikey and I sat down next to each other. Jonah sits across from me, smirking because he saw the entire poking fiasco. Next to him, Gretel starts laughing as she takes in my defeated posture.

"I'm pretty sure you almost dropped your food, Shriya," Jonah snickers. I respond with a glare and cross my arms.

"Aw, come on. It's not so big a deal that you have to pretend you're a goblin to effectively show how upset you are," Gretel says with a smile. It takes me a second to understand what Gretel is trying to say, but when I realize she basically told me I look like a petty, little goblin, scarlet colors my cheeks.

My mouth opened and closed multiple times as I tried to think of a comeback, but I settled for an "mmph, you're wrong." After a moment, I authoritatively state my opinion on the subject: "Alright, if I'm a goblin, then you all are my underlings." I may have also muttered that they definitely act like it when they delight in my misery.

After I took a bite of my rationed sandwich, I changed the topic. "Did the serving sizes get reduced? I mean, there weren't even any sides today!"

"Didn't you hear? The midwest just got hit with a heatwave, and they think it's going to result in a drought. They decided to preemptively start reducing rations in case it gets bad," Jonah replied.

Gretel only shrugged. "Honestly, you don't have to ask if the rations were reduced if they look smaller. At this point, you just know they were." With that, silence ensued as everyone focused on relishing the final bites of their food. We didn't need to talk to enjoy each others' presence.

A few minutes passed before Mikey broke the spell of quiet that had fallen over us. "Shriya, I know you saw the board. I want you to know that we're all here for you. I mean, we all were friends with Skylar, although you knew her best...," he trailed off, noticing me chewing on a bite of my sandwich with a little more fervor at his words. This was the topic that had put me on edge all day, and I was far moodier than normal.

I took a breath and slowly turned to everyone at the table. "Thanks."

With that, I finished off my sandwich, and the bell dismissed us from lunch.

Okay, okay, I know. It had a bit of "filler" vibe to it because I really wanted to show what "normal" in this world is like. However, there were some important details in there that I wanted to get in :)

The story will pick up from here on out. I'm trying to not write super short chapters like I am tempted to, but if you guys think the next few chapters drag too much, please tell me!

Also, I really am going to try to follow an upload schedule. I put my homework before writing usually, and I procrastinate when doing homework. So...I end up putting this off too :( I'm going to try and form better habits.

Click the little star if you liked the chapter!