Seed Pocket

Chapter 5: The Day When Everyone Seemed Off

The next day when I got up to go to school, I noticed that Mom was still home.

"What's up, Mom? Why are you still home? Shouldn't you be at work right now?" I asked, confused.

"O-oh! Right! Yeah. I'm... um... running a little behind today. That's all," Mom stuttered nervously.

"Is something wrong, Mom? You seem nervous."

"N-no! I'm fine. Just peachy. I'm just frazzled since my alarm didn't go off this morning."

"Ok. I'm going to school now. I hope everything goes ok today," I said as I left the house, slightly concerned.

The walk to school was strange too. I kept getting a strange feeling that I was being watched. Every time I looked back, nobody was there. I guess I'm just paranoid. I hope school is normal today. It wasn't. We stood up and bowed when Mrs. Sakura walked in like we normally do, but she seemed surprised and flustered.

"What are you all doing? Aren't you supposed to be seated?" she asked, confused.

"But Mrs. Sakura, we do this every day," the class president responded, also confused.

"O-oh! That's right! Sorry, I forgot! I... uh... didn't get enough sleep last night. Yes, that's what it is!"

The class mumbled to themselves. I heard things like, "Is she ok?" and "Our teacher is crazy!" I had to agree. First Mom and now Mrs. Sakura. Did one of them mess with the adults today? That's got to be it! How am I going to catch them though? I sighed. I guess I'll have to wait until they decide to try and kill me.

The rest of the day was just as strange. All of my teachers acted just as crazy as Mrs. Sakura. I have to get to the bottom of this. How are we supposed to learn anything if the teachers don't even know what they're supposed to be teaching? How do I go about it though? I shouldn't just shout about Kyabe or the Seed Pocket. That'd just make everyone think I'm crazy too. I'll just ask Kyabe and see what she thinks.

The school day finally ended. One good thing that came out of this was no homework. That was the only good thing. I hurried home to find Mom there.

"Mom? What are you doing here? I thought work didn't get off until 6:30?" I asked, confused for the hundredth time today.

"O-oh! Um... well, I got off early because... today's a holiday! Yeah. That's right!" she said nervously.

"What holiday? I've never heard of a holiday where you get off early from work like that. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine! Don't worry about me! Why don't you go do your work from school? Your... uh..."

"Homework?" I offered.

"Y-yeah! Your homework! Why don't you go do that?" Mom said as she pushed me up the stairs.

"O-ok. I hope you feel better soon," I said as I walked to my room.

Something is off. For some reason, Mom didn't... feel right. Alarm bells started going off in my head. I need to talk to Kyabe. Now. I threw the door open and saw that Kyabe wasn't there.

"Kyabe? Where are you?" I asked frantically as I searched the room.

"What are you doing, Hana? I thought I asked you to do your homework," Mom demanded from the doorway.

"O-oh! I was trying to find a pencil," I said nervously.

"Do you name all your pencils after annoying little cabbages?"

"W-what did you just say, Mom?" I asked suspiciously.

"O-oh nothing, dear!"

I walked over to Mom and stared into her eyes. I had a bad feeling about this. Mom sighed.