My alarm blared and I opened my eyes wide in surprise. I checked the time and found that I was already late! Instead of the bus, I would have to walk to school, which would take longer! I wondered why my mum didn’t wake me up.

I quickly put on my school uniform and shoved my scattered schoolbooks into my bag. I ran down the staircase, preparing to grab a piece of toast and run off. While I was buttering the slice of toast, I glanced up and my jaw fell to the ground at what I saw.

My mum was standing on the staircase. She had an exaggerated hairdo and was wearing a glamorous, sparkling red party dress with matching high heels!

Was this my mum, who practically lived in her baggy T-shirts and baggy jeans? I wondered. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was not imagining things. But ... this ‘mum’ looked so real!

“Is everything okay dear?” she asked me as she noticed my bewildered expression.

“N-n-o mum,” I managed to say. “Are you going somewhere?” I asked her.

“Just visiting a friend, darling,” she said.

The answer surprised me further, since mum never visited friends dressed like this and definitely not this early on a weekday. But then I decided to go on with my day as usual, since things could not get any weirder!

I quickly devoured my piece of toast and started running to school as fast as possible to be on time. On the way to school, I kept thinking about my best friend Aliya. She had said that she would bring pictures of her puppy named ‘Fluffy’ to school today.

Suddenly, I snapped back to reality as I heard the last bell for attendance. I ran even faster and made it to school just in time! I was panting loudly when I suddenly spotted Aliya! I could see her sulking on the school grounds.

I went up to her at once. I started to ask her about the dog photos, but then suddenly spotted small rolled up pieces of papers protruding from her pocket.

“Do you have cheat sheets in your pocket? I can’t believe you made them for the physics test today! What do you think you are doing?” I asked incredulously.

‘SHHH!!’ she said.

“Aliya Sherman! What do you think you are doing?” I exploded.

“Sarah, if you don’t like it, don’t do it, but at least don’t get me in trouble!” she said.

“I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore,” I said stomping off, making sure to make as much noise as possible. Now other students were staring at us, but I didn’t care!

“Aliya was an amazing friend. How could she behave like this?” I wondered and decided I did not want to think about this and headed to class.

Stuck deep in my thoughts, I didn’t notice someone colliding with me. I looked up and dread soaked me from the top to the bottom. It was Anita, my bully!

“H-h-hi Anita ...” I stuttered. I prepared myself for some hurtful comments about the mud splattered on my jeans, but instead, Anita took my hand and guided me to an empty classroom.

“Are you okay, Sarah?” she asked. “You look a bit peaky.”

Surprised by the unusual act of kindness and concern from her, I quickly said, “I am fine Anita. Got to go to class or I’ll be late!”

I jumped up and quickly headed to class. As soon as I entered the classroom, it suddenly became deathly silent.

From the front of the classroom, a spine-chilling voice said, “Seems like Sarah Sohail has finally decided to join us, and she’s late!”

The person speaking was the strictest teacher in school and my mentor, Sir Ahmed! I nervously sat in my seat, waiting for the punishment he would give me. Instead, he gestured to everyone to listen to him.

“Everyone, turn on your laptops and open Roblox. Your task for today is to beat your opponent in Free Fire!” he roared.

“Sir Ahmed, I did not know we had to play Roblox, so I didn’t bring my laptop,” I said. “But, shouldn’t we be solving calculus today?” I inquired.

“Sarah Sohail! First, you come late to my class. Then, you do not bring the correct material and now you are questioning my teaching style!” he yelled at me.

“This is unacceptable behaviour. You will not be allowed tomorrow in my class, and will go to the detention room instead,” he added.

I was extremely upset by now and kept my head down in disgrace for the entire lesson.

As soon as the bell rang, I ran out and, instead of going to the next class, I went to the nurse’s room.

“I have a sore throat and a headache,” I told her. I faked it well enough, and I was sent home via the school bus. I arrived home and went directly to my room. I loudly slammed the door shut and flopped onto the mattress.

I must have dozed off at some point because the next thing I remembered was mum gently waking me up. She was back to normal! She was wearing her baggy T-shirt and tea-stained jeans.

I glanced at my alarm clock and was surprised to see it was morning! I greeted my mum and asked how was her trip to her friend yesterday morning.

She looked at me, and said, “Sarah dear, is everything okay? I didn’t go anywhere!”

“But mum you were wearing your red dress...,”

Mum smiled and said, “Sarah, this is the reason I always tell you to sleep on time so that you don’t have disturbed sleep and dreams,” she poured me milk and went into the kitchen.

I was surprised to get such a reply, but then I thought it was not the time to remind each other of yesterday. So I quickly ate my cornflakes, drank a glass of milk, and quickly pecked my mum on the cheek before heading outside to board the school bus. I entered it and noticed Aliya was waving me over.

I went to her, and she signalled me to sit down beside her. Then she showed me some pictures of her puppy, Fluffy! We both cooed over them and didn’t notice the time fly as the bus stopped in front of the school.

We got off and headed toward our class when someone rudely pushed past us. It was Anita.

“Hey! Watch where you are going!” Aliya shouted at her.

“And what are you going to do about it, titch?” she mocked.

“I’m going to report you!” I said loudly.

Anita didn’t say anything just walked away. When we entered the classroom, I nervously glanced at Sir Ahmed and sat down beside Aliya. Sir Ahmed was his usual kind self, showing no sign of yesterday’s strict behaviour and I was quite puzzled.

“Everyone, take out your notebook. We are finishing our calculus work today,” he announced.

There were groans from the entire class. Just then I saw the date on the board, and I was confused. It was of yesterday’s, so I turned to Aliya and asked the date, and she told me the same one as that on the board, yesterday’s.

Then I asked her, “Why sir is not noticing that I am back in the class whereas, he had punished me.”

“Detained you? When and why?” Aliya asked while looking puzzled.

The rest of the day went on as normal, but I noticed that nothing like yesterday’s events took place today, and nobody remembered what had happened — as if it never did.

Published in Dawn, Young World, August 24th, 2024