Time Stop

The annoying sound of my alarm was the first thing that woke me up that morning, together with my dog barking at the sheer presence of an alarm clock. It’s always relaxing to listen to a mix of loud alarm sounds, and dog barks in the middle of the morning. I got up just like usual, and I was getting ready for school. It was a hot summer morning. I checked my phone, and those 34 degrees were feeling like 60. I would love to just return to bed, and have my fan blow in my face forever. But I know that I can’t do that, school awaits me.

I went to the bathroom to wash my face, but was surprised that my dog was barking behind me. Quickly after, I heard the sound of another alarm going off. My alarm clock usually only sets off one time, and I know for a fact that I pressed turn off, not snooze. I went back to my room, and was surprised after looking at it. After turning the alarm off, I realized that it said it was 7 AM. Not a big deal, right? No, it is. I wake up at 7 every morning, but didn’t I just wake up? I checked my phone immediately, and the time was the same. It said “7:00”. But how come? I woke up just a few minutes ago at 7, did my clock and phone reset?

I didn’t think anymore about it, and took off the batteries of the alarm clock. Just to make sure. I went back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. Next, I ate a bowl of cereal, and got my school uniform. I was ready to go out, but I had a glimpse at the time once more before I left. To my shock, it said “7:00”. I usually leave the house at 7:30, so how was it still the same time as when I woke up? What is going on? I made sure that my time settings on my phone were correct, and they were. But it didn’t feel right, something was wrong. I guess it has to be a problem on my phone, even though the same thing happened with the alarm clock. It must be 7:30 for sure, so I got out, and tried to get to my bus.

I was waiting. Waited a bit more. Okay, now it was getting a bit too long. That was definitely more than 10 minutes, but the bus still isn’t here, and I don’t see anyone at the bus stop. Usually, after I get out of the house, there are a lot of students here, and the bus comes in exactly 5 minutes. I try to time everything correctly, and I know that I didn’t act slow this morning, so missing the bus wasn’t the case. I reached for my phone once again, and there it was. The same numbers I kept on seeing: 7:00. The time on my phone still hasn’t changed. I couldn’t figure out what was causing this, and I waited for a long time, so I thought about walking to school. It’s 30 minutes away, but the bus would’ve been a better option. I just hope that I won’t be late, because I still have no clue of the exact time. I kept on checking the time on my phone as a habit, but I also forgot that it wasn’t even working. It was still 7 AM, but I started walking faster, just to be sure. My sense of time was slowly getting faded. School might be over already, and I wouldn’t know.

I finally reached the school, and made my way through the main gate, but what did I see? Emptiness. No students, no teachers, no delinquents standing on the sidewalk. It’s like it was the weekend. I know for a fact that it was Monday. My phone said it too, but I don’t think I can trust it anymore. The actual problem is the time, I arrived at school, but it still said 7. My next plan was to just wait, I didn’t have anything else to do.

I went to my classroom, but the door was locked. I was waiting in front of it, and hoping to see a teacher. Did I see anyone? No, still nothing. I started a timer on my phone to have some kind of sense, but the timer didn’t go over zero. It didn’t move at all. I was confused. My head was the next best thing I could use. I started counting in my head, and after exactly 29 minutes, and 12 seconds, there were still no teachers or students. What in the world was going on? Is this some kind of prank, that only I am not aware of? At this point, I didn’t even care about school anymore, so I got back out to the schoolyard. After standing there for a few more minutes (don’t even know if I should use that word anymore), I made my way back to my house. All of this walking for nothing. The stress was getting to me, and I was slowly getting more and more scared. Did time move at all? Am I frozen here forever?

My phone still said 7 AM, and the feeling of seeing that forever made me feel worse. My idiot self just came to the conclusion to call a classmate, to check if anyone was even alive. Was time stopped, or is this a bad prank? The phone rang, and rang. I kept on counting in my head, and it was taking a while.

Exactly after 12 minutes, someone finally picked up. I felt a sense of relief. I was shocked to even hear a “hello”. Before I could even say anything back, I checked the time on my phone again. I obviously didn’t expect anything different, but I was just making sure, and it was part of my habit. Yet to my surprise…

...it actually said “7:01”.