For all I know, I’m only seeing things because I didn’t eat last night. Not to mention how tired I feel. Which is surprising, seeing as I got good sleep last night and I’m usually never this tired. I don’t think I should bring it up unless I’m positive it’s something not normal.

When I go to say something else, I’m stopped by the unexpected ringing of the bell. Class just started, so why did the bell ring to excuse us? Everyone else is getting up and leaving class likes it’s normal. Sensei isn’t even saying anything about it.

Another strange thing that people are acting as if it’s normal. I have no other choice but to go with the flow and follow them out. Can’t risk making my mom wait if I’m wrong. The only thing I can do is say goodbye to Yukio and run out.

Only once I run out the door, I’m stopped after I almost slip and almost fall down.

I regain my footing to see the ground is covered in ice. “Weird” I think, wondering where it came from. A question I get an answer to when I feel my head being covered in something wet and cold. It’s snow. The first time in my life that I have seen it.

This shouldn’t be possible. Not only has it never snowed in my town before, it’s also not scientifically possible. It’s 22°C out right now! Too warm for it to ever snow, let alone freeze the ground. It’s not even cold enough to wear a jacket!

No one seems to even notice that it’s snowing! Am I the only one that finds this strange? One would think even if the other kids didn’t find it weird, they would still want to play in it, but there’s no sort of emotion at all. Not even a single snowball! They’re all walking about their days as normal.

It’s worrying me, but my mom waiting in the car is the more pressing matter. When I should be sticking around and asking everyone else what they think about the snow, I’m instead running back to the car as usual. The snow hitting my face as I run leaves me with nothing but frustration. My parents stupid rules have to get in the way of everything I do.

After I get inside the car, I do something stupid. I try talking to my mom about it "Mom, do you see the weather right now?” I know she's probably not the best person to ask, but it's not like I have any other options.

She lets out a sound of disgust "Yes I see it. What about it?”

Her cold response leaves me surprised. There’s no way she finds this normal "It's snowing! It’s never even rained here, let alone snowed! The weather isn’t even cold enough for snow to be possible! Do you not think that's weird?”

I could tell the volume of my voice is annoying her "Did you hit your head at school today? It snows here all the time! Stop playing whatever game this is! God you’re such a disappointment! Why can’t you just be normal like all the other kids?”

Where is this coming from? It’s not normal for her to suddenly attack me like this. That’s usually more of my dad’s thing. If her goal was to shut me up, then it worked. I don’t want to say anything else to her as I buckle my seatbelt.

When I don’t say anything else in response, she begins driving back to the house in silence.

All my concentration is aimed out the window, looking at the strangeness that is the snow. Peoples driving doesn’t appear to be affected at all. There were even a few people driving convertibles with their roofs down. They were completely covered in snow, acting like it was no big deal. Like they didn’t even notice it was piling up in their passenger seat.

But the thing I find more notable is just the lack of cars on the road. At a time like this, shouldn’t it be rush hour? We just left school, yet there’s barely any other cars around us? And all the vehicles on the road looked like they were copy and pasted. Every truck was blue, all the convertibles were yellow, and the cars that looked like Yukio’s were all red. It was so strange.

I can’t recall if it’s ever been like this before. Actually, I never recall looking out the window before.

And I’m alone in thinking all of this looks strange. My mom goes through the whole ride without saying a word about anything. Everything looks normal to her. The only time she says something to me is right after we pull into the driveway, and she sees me looking towards Yukio’s house.

"Are you waiting for your neighbor girl again?”

My mind was so preoccupied that I hadn’t even realized what I was doing “Of course not.” I turn away and look at the floor “Today was just really stressful and I’m tired.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the red car pulling into Yukio’s driveway. I dare not look up from the floor of the vehicle with my mom watching. But even without looking, I can see that she doesn’t wave to me this time.

"Wow she didn't even say hi to you today. Trouble in paradise?"

I don’t care what she says. I’m just relived she listened to me “Like I said, we’re only classmates. We’re not even that close.”

Wanting to end the conversation, I’m the first one to get out of the car. The crunching of snow beneath my feat as I walk to the door sounds unnatural in this heat. All I want to do is get back inside of my house and try to relax my brain for a bit. But as I open the door to my house, it becomes apparent that my brain is not going to get any chances to relax tonight.

Somehow… the interior of my house has been reversed.

Where the stairs were always to the right of me as soon as I walked in, they were now sitting to my left. The living room and dining room are now on the right, where I can see my dad sitting at the table. I feel dizzy. My brain is having trouble processing everything I’m seeing.

I’m so confused that I turn to my mom once more for answers "Mom what happened to the house?”

She angrily pushes by me and puts her purse down in the living room where she always would "Fuck, what are you talking about now? There is nothing wrong with the house!”

Her cussing at me makes me take a step back. It wasn’t something she did often, and I couldn’t understand why she was so upset. I tried leaning against the rail on the stairs, except they weren’t there. Luckily I’m able to catch myself before falling back.

And with everything going on, out of nowhere, the house begins to shake.

It’s a small earthquake, but still enough for me to worry. So I run through the house to the kitchen table and take shelter under it. A pretty useless notion, as the shaking stops as soon as I take cover. Better safe than sorry though.

"What the hell are you doing?” my dad shouts from above the table. Which I don’t know why he’s shouting. I’m only doing what I was taught in school in the case there was an earthquake.

I crawl out from under the table to see both parents now angrily standing in front of me "I was getting under the table because of the earthquake.”

"What are you talking about. What earth quake?" my dad says, confusing me “Don't make dumb jokes like that. What we want to know is why you went running through the house with your shoes on? Are you trying to make us mad?”

"Wait, that's what you're mad at?" I feel like I'm loosing my mind right now "There was an earth quake just now... how did you not feel it?”

My dad wasn’t having any of what I was saying "Seriously what is wrong with you? You know what, I don’t care, I’m tired of this. Don't worry about dinner tonight. Go up to your room and stay there. I don't want to see you for the rest of the night.”

I open my mouth to say something, but refrain. At this point, I’m just completely done with everything. Honestly a night alone in my room sounds like the best thing for me right now.

Without saying anything else, I walk by them and head towards the stairs. Only everything is backwards now. Which means my room is also on the other side of the house, no longer overlooking Yukio’s house. Something that never even mattered, having never seen her from there.

When I get into my mirrored room, I lay down on my beds new location and just close my eyes for a moment. I need a minute to wrap my head around everything that happened today. It has just been so overwhelming. I need to rest.

All I can hope for is everything going back to normal tomorrow.