Repeat.

**Depicts Blood, and Gunshots.**

Hello. My name is Tania Clouter. I’m homeschooled for the seventh grade. Let me explain my situation.

My day just has been the same thing the whole week.

Oddly, the exact same.

But I don't mind repetition and it is the exact thing... right...? doesn't that happen to everybody?

Same conversations...

But whatever you do one day, it's always the same thing the first day.

I'll explain.

My day starts off as usual. Monday.

I wake up. Birds singing outside my window, my classical radio alarm singing through the morning.

7:45.

I hear my mom pounding up the stairs to my room.

"Ey! Wake up! Full and busy week. Moody Monday gets out! Vamos! Get out of bed!" she yells from outside. My brother yells back, "I'm already out of bed Ma! I don't know about Tania though!"

"I'm awake Brandy!" I yell.

Brandy, that's his nickname. His full name is Brandon.

I listen to him groan from his room. I rummage through my dresser for five minutes until I find my brown T-shirt and camouflage cargo pants.

I open my door to have the overflowing smell of French toast, and hot sourdough blast into my nose on a warm Monday morning. I walk downstairs and see two plates. One had French Toast, and the other had sourdough butter bread.

"You get to pick, because you're the first one down here, Tania." My mother says from across the Kitchen bar. She moves the pan back and forth to keep the eggs from burning.

"Thank you, Ma," I say as I reach for the Butter-bread. 8 o'clock

Brandon pounds down the stairs and startles me. I cough on my bread.

He runs to the French toast, grabs one piece, and shoves it into his mouth like it was a mouthguard that football and basketball players have.

I look at him, perplexed, munching on my sourdough. He looks at me with an eyebrow up, with his mouth dribbling with cinnamon and saliva down his chin.

Ma says, "Wipe your face before leaving Brandon."

Through his stuffed mouth, he says, "I know Ma."

"And don't talk when your mouth is full of food!" She retorts back.

"Yeah Brandon," I say, my mouth partially full of food.

Ma slaps her forehead.

The door opens, and the keys jingle.

"Where are you going?" Ma asks. "My team is meeting this morning, and Coach asked us to be there early to review the tape," Brandon says, looking through his backpack.

"Ok. Have fun." Ma says, nodding.

"Bye Ma. Bye Tania."

"Bye, Brandy!"

The door shuts.

I hustle up the stairs to grab my backpack from the chair near my desk and rummage through it. I find my pen in a unique spot than usual, but I don't mind, so, I put it back into my pencil and penholder.

I walk downstairs, again, and sit down at my computer.

"Honey?"

"Yeah, Ma?"

"If you need anything for school, let me know."

"I know Ma."

I turn on my computer and start school. It usually takes me about three hours to do school. 8:30.

I read the lesson for my first class.

"Read Chapter 35 of The Wintering Willow.

This is the last chapter, write down any new characters or scenes on your sheet." I say out loud.

I finally got through the excruciatingly long chapter, and slowly, but surely got through my four other classes, which was about 12:30. I rested my eyes from my computer screen for a while, drawing faces in my notebook.

"You done with school?" Ma calls from upstairs.

"Yeah. Why?" I yell back. "Want to eat together?"

"Sure. What do you want to eat?" I say.

her footsteps thump against the floorboards, as she hobbles down.

"Maybe a sandwich. Or a burrito." Ma shrugs.

"But-" I stop to think, "I'll order it."

Ma chuckles.

We eat lunch, and around 4 o'clock I get a weird sensation in my stomach.

"You okay hun?" Ma asks.

"Yeah. Im going to my room." I say.

Once I arrive, I sit down at my desk. I draw for about an hour until I lay down on my bed.

Her eyes close, and suddenly, her eyes pop open.

Birds singing the same tune outside her window, the same classical piece from her alarm. 7:45.

She sits up, groaning.

Ma's footsteps getting old.

"Ey! Wake up! Full and busy week. Moody Monday gets out! Vamos! Get out of bed!"

My brother yells back, "I'm already out of bed Ma!"

Tania sits up. "You okay Brandy?"

"Yeah...? Why?" He yells from his room

"Nevermind," she replies.

She dresses in the same thing that she had been. For it was clean, every time she wore it. Every time she showered, the next morning, her hair was dry.

Tania stumbles down the stairs, Brandon trailing behind her.

She turns around to look at him. He shrugs.

"I'm serious. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a little off. I need to test something." Brandon says.

"Okay. I am going to stay out of your way." Tania says.

Brandon goes back upstairs.

Tania grabs the French toast.

Brandon starts to call out, "I call the French T-"

"I already ate it!" Tania yells.

The house is quiet, except for the sizzling of eggs from the pan in the kitchen.

Tania walks up the stairs to Brandon's room. "Hey." She says. Brandon jumps, "Hey. Yesterday I would've sworn it was Monday..." he mumbles.

"Same." Tania says, "I just want this week to be over..."

"It just started. Why do you want it to be over?" Brandon asks.

"You would call me crazy," Tania says, walking down the stairs.

"I promise I won't call you crazy," Brandon says before Tania gets down the stairs.

"Promise? Pinky Promise?" Tania asks.

"Pinky Promise." He says, sincerely.

"Okay. Well, I have no idea how to say this for you to understand..." Tania shrugs.

"Then say it flat out," Brandon says.

"Umm... It has been three weeks since I have gotten an irregular day." Tania says, "Every day, Ma says, "Ey! Wake up! Full and busy week. Moody Monday gets out! Vamos! Get out of bed!", and every day, except today, you reply, "I'm already out of bed Ma! I don't know about Tania though!", and whatever I do differently one day, it's always the same, exact, thing."

They look at each other. One wants to be understood, the other trying to understand.

Brandon picks up his backpack and rushes out of his bedroom, before he says, "I understand. We'll talk later."

"Okay! Have fun at school." Tania says, "Test out my theory!"

"Alright," Brandon says. He rushes out the door and Ma asks, "Brandon-"

"Tapes with Coach, Ma." He quickly says and closes the door.

Tania walks down the stairs to see Ma perplexed. "He didn't even let me finish my sentence, and he knew what I was going to say. Am I-"

"Yes, you are Ma," Tania replies, going to her computer.

The repeated day washes out, and the same day wakes them up, again, and again.

A day turns into a week. A week turns into a month.

"Ey! Wake up! Full and busy week. Moody Monday gets out! Vamos! Get out of bed!"

This time both kids stay silent.

They get dressed and sit down in Tania's room.

"We tried not doing school? Change one thing until it works?"

"Yes, we have."

"Have we tried going out and building a thing? find one ingredient at a time and then-"

"Yes. But Rome wasn't built in a day, buddy." Tania interrupts.

"I'm gonna go to school now." Brandon stands up and winks at his sister. He points to the window.

Tania nods and opens it.

Brandon walks downstairs, and the usual saying from Ma and the reply from Brandon.

after about 5 minutes, Tania sees him round the corner of the house. He stays silent when entering, and Tania walks out of her room.

"Where are you going, Honey?"

"Out with friends. That's why I was in my room for a while."

"Alright. Stay safe."

The door closes. Brandon waits. Tania round the corner of the house, and climbs inside. Brandon closes the window.

They sit in silence. They were gambling.

They hear footsteps and a window curtain being drawn.

They walk outside Tania's room and carefully make their way to the front of the house. Windows cover the wall and they wait.

A car pulls up to the house, and a mysterious man walks up to the house. Ma stands outside the door, welcoming him in.

They make their way back to the stairs and find Ma kneeling near the record player.

The man looks up at the stairs, and he nearly sees the kids before they dodged out of view.

They stayed there until they heard music coming from downstairs. Folklorico.

They both were thinking the same thing. Whatever they did before, it never was to this outcome.

Footsteps pounding at the floor.

They hear the rustling of clothes, and a jacket being thrown at the bottom of the stairs. They hear a cock of a gun.

Ma suddenly said something in a different language, and the man replied, "It always has been you, sempre foi, diabo."

A crack rang through the house.

Something clatters on the floor, the music stops, and a pool of blood soaks into the carpet.

Brandon hugs and comforts Tania as she cries.

Silence, except for muffled shuffling.

A voice, right behind the two.

"Well done. You caught me. But, Now. Back to square one."

Gunshots.

Blood flowed and dripped down the stairs.

And the day, never stopped repeating.