Completely Still

Chapter 4~

I stood up, trying to process what was happening. I glanced at the clock. It wasn't moving. Why is this happening? Am I dreaming? Did I faint? Am I hallucinating? I sat back down and pinched myself. Nope, not a dream. A waved my hand in front of Claire's face, who was in the middle of writing down the answer to the first question. "Uh hello?" I continued to wave my hand in front of her face. Then the noise came back, and Claire noticed what I was doing. "Zoey? Are you ok? What are you doing?" Claire asked. "Oh yeah, just another headache, making sure I'm not hallucinating..." I responded, still not completely sure what had happened. I continued my math, like nothing about me freezing time had just happened
                                                                 
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The rest of the day I didn't really pay attention, I just kinda sat there wondering if I could do it again. Was this why I got my headaches? Because of some kind of ability I has no idea about until now? When I headed home, I didn't really do much. I didn't text anyone, I only had piano, so that left me with lots of time to ponder on the fact that I froze time and wonder on how I could do it again. I also managed to finish the homework from yesterday that I forgot to do along with today's homework. When it came time for me to go to bed I still wondered if I was the only one.

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The rest of the week wasn't very interesting, me just glancing at the clock every now and then just in case time was frozen, but it never was anyway. The day when it was particularly interesting was on Friday. I woke up and ate breakfast, and hurried to my room to dress into my uniform. While I was in the washroom, just finishing brushing my teeth, the headache came back. I stopped what I was doing, shut my eyes, and controlled it. I opened my eyes to stillness. So I really can stop time. I looked around, and headed to the kitchen. My mom was there, packing my bag with her mouth open, like she was in the middle of saying something. I realized that I should use my ability while it lasted, so I went back to the washroom and took extra care brushing my hair, making it perfect just because I had the time. I put on some lip gloss and bam! I was ready. Time was still not going, so I went on to watch some YouTube videos. Midway through The Last Skitzo, I heard sound again. "Zoey! Let's go!" I heard my mom cry. So that's what she was going to say! I ran to the kitchen, put on my bag and left to school.

I got to school, happy to see Claire had brought the grade 3 yearbook, with a crowd gathering. I came up, and Claire spotted me. "Claire, you have to yourself 4 years ago! Remember when we did the cereal box project?" she asked me, with others responding with an "oh yeah!" Or a "I remember that!". We had a nostalgia party until the bell rang, and still continued with the kids in our class. When we got to class, Claire put the yearbook away and I sat down and got to work. We had a group science assignment due in week, and so I was researching what plasma was and how it is used, typical sciencey stuff like that. My group, however, was much better then the one on Tuesday. In it was Claire, Emily, Gale, Sarah and Marley. It was the only all girls group so we tried not to get to loud and not go into the group Victor was in. I just finished researching about ionization and deionization when the bell rang. "Ok class, you can head outside!" called Mrs Korin, and with that Claire and I headed out. Recess wasn't particularly interesting, only when I went to the washroom was it odd.

I walked down the hall, and someone tapped me from behind. I was very surprised to see... Owen? Wait what? "What do you want? If you want to make fun of me make it quick, I need to go the washroom." I said with every last bit of annoyance I could find in my body. "Uh right... I just wanted to say sorry for being a jerk to you. I thought you faked it, but I do feel bad because now I see that you truly had pain all along. Sorry about that." he said, kind of awkwardly, which to I responded with a look of confusion. "Mmk then, so you think you can just slide away so many moments of humiliation? I didn't think so. But thanks for trying." I said, turning around and not looking back until I glanced around to see him limping. So he got hurt and realized I got hurt every day and went to apologize. But why? I wondered, heading to go back out.

The bell rang before I got to the peace garden, so I headed straight to the line. I met up with Claire who was talking to Sarah. Sarah had quite the depressed look on her face, which is very rare for the happy girl Sarah usually was. "Sarah! You look so depressed! What's wrong today?" I asked. "Sigh, well Gale kind of abandoned me to be with, well I'd rather not name, you know?" Typical Sarah. Never wants to hurt anyone. "Sarah, something similar happened recently as well. You don't need to worry, we will always welcome you, or anyone as long as it's not Victor or any weirdo like that..." I said, trying to make the situation better. "Thanks you guys, I didn't really expect Gale to ever really do that, but people change I guess?" Sarah responded, a smile beginning to form, to which I was thankful for. "Now come on, let's head inside!" Claire said, smiling, probably because of how quickly Sarah can make you happy from a simple smile.

The rest of the morning we spent working on paragraphs about ourselves. However, at around 10:40 Mr. Winston came. Gym! I forgot! At least we would be playing dodgeball, like he promised the day before. "Zoey, we're playing dodgeball!" Claire exclaimed with excitement. "Yup, I have ears you know! He said so yesterday." I responded. "Oh, yeah... Never mind then!" Claire said, while we began to head to the gym. Once we got there, Mr Winston chose the teams, I was with Claire, Sarah, and Marley, along with Elisa and Heather. There were also good boy throwers on our team, so we could actually have a chance at winning. This included Tristan, Owen and Sam, who were very good at aim. Mr Winston blew the whistle and we all ran to the middle for the scramble to get a ball without getting hit by the other team in the process. I grabbed a ball, but then my pain came. I closed my eyes tightly, and opened them to no sound. I was getting better at the controlling part. Wait, I thought to myself. I could use freeze and unfreeze time to easily win. This should be fun.