Today started out like every other day. I woke up in the morning at 6:30am, got straight in the shower then got dressed. Next on the list; goto school.
My name is James. I’m 18, in senior year highschool, and am about 5 foot 4. My hair is brown, my eyes are brown and I'm not athletic but I'm not overweight either.
When mom pulled up outside of school there were only a couple of other people around, as it was barely after 7:30 when the school unlocks. I got out of the car, said goodbye, and then started walking towards the school library. Pretty much everyone who showed up early to school would sit in the library until homeroom roll call. The school had spent quite a bit of money on the library and thus it was very big. I found the corner that I liked to sit in, where you usually aren't disturbed by anyone this early and sat down.
I pulled out my laptop and was about to start work on some chemistry homework when windows popped up with the all too familiar low battery warning. Lucky for me however I always come to school with my charger and quickly got it out of my bag and plugged one end into my laptop. As I bent down to plug the other end into the wall I noticed a dusty air vent that looked like it was hanging ¼ open off the wall. I was curious as to what the back of the air vent looked like and had never seen the vents open before, so I reached over and pulled it all the way off.
Well it sure was dusty alright. I started sneezing after only 10 seconds of looking around. In my fit of sneezing and wiping my nose I realised that there was a brown leather book sitting just inside the air vent. When I picked it up and examined it, I noticed that the back and front cover was blank. The book looked ancient. As I flicked open the cover the pages instantly gave off an ‘I’ve been sitting here for hundreds of years’ type smell. Oddly as I started to flick through the book however, I couldn’t find a single page that wasn’t blank. Thinking it must’ve been someone’s unused notebook from ages ago, I just left it sitting open on the desk that I was sitting at and went back to doing some chemistry homework.
Half an hour went by as I was trying to tell the difference between ion charges and oxidation numbers when I happened to glance over at the book and realised that strange cursive writing had appeared on the page. Initially I thought I must’ve missed it, but then I remembered distinctly putting the book down on two blank pages.
The text read, “This book belongs to…” and then what appeared to be hundreds of crossed out names before finally coming to what I assumed was the most recent; a guy named jack smith. Then the next page continued, “Whatever is written from here on out will morph reality to it’s word.”
Confused at what this all meant and where the words came from, I quickly looked through the book again for any signs of other text and information, but there was still nothing. In fact there was now less than nothing because the text that was there just a second ago had now vanished. Intrigued however I flicked to the first page in the book and wrote “I am James” then I paused for a moment before crossing out “James” and replacing it with “Jack”. Slightly weirded out by the whole thing I put the book in my bag then packed up my laptop and charger before heading off to homeroom as the bell had begun to ring.
When I got to homeroom I sat down at a desk and waited for the teacher to start calling out the roll. I was starting to day dream slightly when I was pulled out of it after noticing the teacher saying jack repeatedly. Confused, I looked up and saw that the teacher was looking right at me with a couple of other students also looking over waiting for me to respond.
“Well are you here Jack? Or are you just too cool to answer when your name is called out on the roll?” the teacher asked whilst never looking away from me. Confused, I asked if the teacher was talking to me, to which he replied, “Well there ain’t another jack in this class is there.” before continuing on with the roll. Wondering what was going on I quickly remembered that I had written “I am jack” moments beforehand and put two and two together. I pulled out the book and decided to test some more out.
I wrote, “All teachers must start and conclude roll call by singing a lullaby to the class.” Then I intently looked up at the teacher as he was just finishing off the roll and was amazed as he started to sing “twinkle twinkle little star.”
I think it was when a fly almost flew into my mouth when I realised that I had been staring at him with an open expression of shock on my face. I couldn’t believe this was happening. The bell rang, signifying the end of homeroom and that it was time to start heading to period one. I got up, swung my bag onto my back and kept the book clutched to my chest. I felt so powerful in that moment. Walking down the school hall watching as everyone passed me by. It didn’t feel like I was looking at people anymore. Everyone and everything now appeared to me as a blank canvas would appear to an artist. And that’s when I realised it. All the names that had come before mine in the book. How much had they changed the world that I’ve just considered normal.
I stopped by the boys bathroom before heading to class and locked myself in one of the cubicles. I was so excited. Almost unbelievably so. But that was what was so fascinating to me. This whole thing seemed unbelievable. I got out a pencil and flicked to a blank page.
My head was blank. I couldn’t think of what to do. Then I heard some random guy enter the bathroom and start using one of the cubicles. Then I got an Idea. I began to write “When someone begins to pee within a public bathroom they aren't allowed to cease until fully exiting the bathroom.” As soon as I had dotted the full stop. I heard my test subject walk over towards the sink with his belt clanking against the floor and his stream splashing off of every inch of the wall and floor on his way over. That’s when I opened the stall door and peered out. He saw me in the mirror whilst he was checking his hair, and gave me a weird look. Then he washed his hands and pulled his pants up to just below his hips. It was when he closed the door behind him with his foot and pulled his pants up the rest of the way that I heard the splash of his piss against the floor stop. This time I saw my shocked expression in the mirror. And it quickly turned into a smirky grin. I stepped around the yellow pool all the way back out into the hall. Where I only found a handful of kids procrastinating getting to first period.
First period was a drag. The english teacher was going on about the great gatsby and the american dream and boi was it putting me to sleep. When I moved my arms to the desk to act as a sort of pillow I realised I was still clutching the old leather book. At that moment I was suddenly wide awake again. “This didn’t have to be so boring,” I said. And with that I threw open the book and sharpened my pencil.
The English teacher, Miss Samantha Mcmillian, was in her early twenties and was the crush of most of the boys in the school. She had nice perky boobs and wore skirts that were definitely too short for the female students dress code. She had a very bubbly attitude and would often join in with the gossip of the students who sat in the front row. In Fact she was pretty informal with the students to the point of insisting they call her “Miss Sammy”.
After a while of staring at Miss Sammy’s hips move around the front of the classroom, I came up with an Idea of what to write.
“All female teachers were prohibited to wear underwear of any kind.”
Then just before continuing I decided to see how far I could push the book and wrote out “The owner of this book has the ability to pause and unpause time at will.”
Then it happened. Well at first nothing did. It was as if nothing had changed when I finished writing but then I thought about everything stopping, and it did.
