The day never ceased in its array of surprises.

When one goes through a day in a story, the reader is supposed to learn more about the characters. Get a feel for their normalcy, their habits, their personality. Here, in his story, Evan finds himself at an impasse, at a point where he is stuck and his story cannot continue onward. His surprise stems from how strange his reality felt, in this very moment, as he breathed in the air of room 2022 and listened to the hum of the air conditioner and felt his pen tapping on his desk. Here, in this moment, a strange nostalgia filled his soul as if he was missing something.

Or, maybe his writer ran out of ideas for him. He wouldn’t doubt it. He was a ‘lone wolf’ and a boring person, after all.

But he hoped his day would light up like a candle and burn away his anxiety, only leaving behind happy thoughts and happy feelings. It was only 10:11 in fourth period. There was still time to turn things around.

His teacher actually began to teach ten minutes into the period, so he wrote fervently to keep up with the quick pace of his monotone voice. Mr. Schrödinger began right after the Civil War, summarizing in short snippets of dialogue what they were going to cover in the next four weeks.

It was here, as Evan listened to the mulling voice of Mr. Schrödinger that he saw her appear.

A girl stepped forward, from the right, in a blue dress, in the front of the room. At first, Evan thought it was part of the class. But she kept standing there, and his teacher kept speaking. He turned to his left and right, checking to see if any of his other classmates were seeing this.

Not even Jade seemed aware of her. If he was, Evan knew he would have yelled immediately about her.

Counting down the list, his options dwindled to one horrifying conclusion: He was hallucinating.

Keep a steady pulse, keep a steady pulse – Yet even as he tried to keep calm, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He placed his pen down in its specified spot to keep himself from dropping it, or marking the paper from how hard his hand shook.

The girl looked at him with round eyes, as if pleading for food. Evan made a face of confusion, one that caused her to motion with her hands.

She mouthed “come here” silently. Then, he realized.

Mute. She can’t speak.

Her hand reached for him, as if waiting for his hand to lurch forward and grab hers.

He did no such thing. He was not ready to touch an apparition, one who could cause him harm. Nor was he prepared to accept she was anything but a figment of his imagination, a ghost meant to taunt him into making a fool of himself amidst all his classmates.

But she kept insisting. She waved to him, jumped up and down, glared at him, frowned at him. Evan tried to pay attention to the board and the flick of his teacher’s wrist as he wrote, but the girl’s motions kept dragging his attention away.

He sighed, rubbing his temples and hoping his teacher would turn around so he can ask to leave to the bathroom. And he did.

“Mr. Schrödinger? May I –”

“Yes, Evan, go ahead.” As if his teacher was used to kid’s charades already.

Evan sprinted down the hall as soon as the door closed behind him. He didn’t see the girl run after him.

He sat in a bathroom stall for a long while.

To his dismay, he did not know what time it was. Without a clock or timer to guide him, minutes stretched to hours or vice versa. Time became unreal.

He wished the bathroom had a clock on the wall, the way all classrooms had so students could watch it anxiously through lessons. Evan realized he should have brought a phone, or bought a watch to wear.

As he continued to beat himself up, one thought bleeding him out only to have the next one cut him further, a small letter slipped under the stall door. Evan didn’t notice it until he was nearly in tears, his brain eating him alive.

Through blurred vision, he saw the white envelope, like a letter from God himself. Little droplets fell off his lashes as he reached to pick it up.

The front was very plain, very straightforward. To Evan. It could have been another Evan, he thought, but the letter also read Yes, Evan Levy, This is for you  on the other side.

To his dismay, he could hear the class bell chiming outside, and the muffled shuffle of students pushing out of the classroom. Soon the bathroom will be swarming. He shivered at the thought of someone finding him here, like this, crying like a baby in a stall.

So he did what he always did, at (this was an estimate) 11:45 A.M.: He picked his limp body up to go out into the world again.