Time Looped

During the next dozen loops, Will focused on obtaining every possible piece of information from the desk. Avoiding the fight with Jace had reduced the length of his loops back to ten minutes, which didn’t leave enough time for him to decipher all the scribbles and numbers in one go.

He had made a few times to dash into the girl’s bathroom, despite his reluctance, but each time some unexpected event had prevented him from succeeding. For starters, the annoying pair of girls from the school entrance would spend the entire time till first period chatting about themselves and some K-pop band. Will had tried to wait them out. When that hadn’t worked, he’d attempted to annoy them with a conversation or even create some distraction further down the hall. All the attempts ended in utter failure. The single time he had managed to find the correct combo and get them out of the way, the coach emerged ruining any chance he had of entering. It was almost as if the universe was hinting that this wasn’t the way to go.

Daniel’s desk, in contrast, was not nearly as elusive. Even with the constant distractions in the face of Alex, Helen, and the jocks, Will had managed bit by bit to learn the basic notes by heart. Some, like the future rogue skills, proved to be informative, though not immediately useful. A few additional scribbles gave examples of rogue skills combinations that allowed access to otherwise unreachable areas of the school—such as the roof—with minimal time and effort. That was all fine and good, but to try any of them, he needed to boost his level, and Will remained clueless how to do so.

The useless hint that he’d received from the restroom mirror was also there, hidden among the other scribbles of the desk. Its meaning still eluded him. He’d only defeated an opponent once in all his loops, but even then, there hadn’t been an indication that his rogue level had increased.

“Thinking of changing desks?” Alex asked his usual question. “Doubt anyone else would. I heard Daniel kept a stash of some new study drug beneath the desk.”

“There’s no stash,” Will grumbled. “I already checked.”

“For real?” Alex sounded more disappointed than surprised. No doubt it would have been a lot more interesting if Will had found some mysterious ampule with a cryptic label on it.

“There’s a bit of gum, if you want.”

“Nah, bro. I’m good.” The goofball quickly moved back, waving his hands in disgust. “I trust you. Still is sus as hell.”

“Alex, have you seen Daniel doing all this?”

“Err, sure.” Alex looked at the ceiling with a ponderous expression.

Will himself had been trying to remember for several loops, and while he could think of several instances in which his classmate had scribbled something or other, it wasn’t enough to achieve a tenth of the final result. It was almost as if the desk had been new—at least as new as a school desk could be—one day, and completely covered the next.

“I don’t think he did it during class,” Will said. “Someone would have noticed.”

“He did it after class?” Alex’s eyes widened. “Lit.”

Not the word Will would use. That created even more questions than before.

“Do you have a mirror with you?” Will asked.

“Sure.” His friend grinned, then took out a phone from his pocket. “Ta-da!”

“That’s a phone.”

“Yeah?” The other couldn’t understand the difference. “It has two cameras—front and back. Better than a mirror!”

“Do you have a mirror mirror?”

“Nah, no way. Only old grandmas have that crap.” He thought for a moment. “There are mirrors in the toilet.”

“Apart from those.”

“In the gym?”

The gym! Of course. Will hadn’t even thought of that. Given how far away it was, reaching it in ten minutes would be difficult, but maybe not impossible. As long as he got the rogue skills before that, he could—

“But that’s locked till third period,” Alex added.

“Great…”

“I don’t know, fam. Nurse’s office? What do you need a mirror for? You hooked up?” he lowered his voice, glancing around in an attempt to find some clue.

Nurse’s office. That was somewhere Will could reach. Maybe it was worth having a go? He already knew that the woman would be there.

“Seriously?” Alex shoved him with a grin. “Who?”

“Miss Perfect,” Will replied. With a few minutes left, he might as well have some fun.

“Bro-o-o!” The goofball patted him on the shoulder. “So much rizz! How?”

“You really want to know?”

Alex eagerly nodded, as Will knew he would. Such a juicy piece of gossip couldn’t be missed. Such a rumor could be spread throughout the school for days. On the other hand, it was more likely that it would only last a few seconds. Looking at his friend, Will couldn’t help but smile as the reset message appeared.

Restarting eternity.

Poor guy, Will thought, heading directly for the entrance. He didn’t have much time, so he had to get on with his plan as quickly as possible.

“Watch it, jerk!” one of the pair of girls shouted, as he brushed them on his way into the hall. From there he went to the boy’s bathroom—as he had done a dozen times—touched the mirrors in the correct order, as he had done a dozen times, then went back out again.

It could be said that Will was a terrible actor. He had managed to butcher all the school plays he’d been part of to the point that teachers quickly learned not to give him even tree roles. There was no way he could fake an injury. The only option was to self-inflict a real one.

As he proceeded to close the bathroom door, this time he put his left hand there and pulled it.

Bam!

The pain vastly exceeded his expectations, bringing tears to his eyes and more than a few words of choice to his mind.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Will bent over, holding his hand. When he’d started, he didn’t think he’d slammed the door so hard, and yet he felt as if someone had hit his hand with a sledgehammer.

“What the hell’s going on?” the coach rushed to the scene. "Geeze, kid!” he rushed to the boy. “What’s up with you? Are you hurt?”

In his mind, Will said, “I slammed the door on my fingers.” What came out of his mouth was a combination of unintelligible groans.

A crowd gathered, eager to find out what was going on and film it live. Will had come to know all the faces, even those of people who didn’t belong to his class. After so many loops, it was difficult not to start noticing particular details.

“Go to class!” The coach barked at the crowd. “There’s nothing to see.”

His words had little effect.

“I’ll warn the nurse,” Helen ran down the corridor.

This was the second time she was fast to react. Will would have been impressed if he wasn’t trembling in pain. How come he never knew he was this fragile? He’d done enough sports in the past to get accustomed to wounds and pain. When he was younger, he’d even broken his arm. The pain back then was nothing compared to what he was experiencing now.

“Stone? You alright there?” the coach asked.

Will nodded, despite feeling like throwing up.

“Hang on. We’re almost there.”

The nurse’s office was just as he remembered it. Suppressing the pain through his force of will, he looked about as he was dragged in, all the time searching for mirrors.

“Put him on the bed,” the nurse said.

“He slammed a door on his fingers,” the coach explained.

As he did, the boy spotted the mirror. It was in the corner right above the small sink. Only a few steps separated Will from it, but in the present circumstances, it might as well have been a thousand.

“I think there’s—” the coach tried to say, but was quickly interrupted.

“Tell the vice principal and call his parents.” The woman took charge. “Helen, you go to class and tell the teacher to excuse him.”

“Sure,” the girl replied, and quickly left.

That was new. Apparently, if the wound wasn’t life threatening, she had no reason to stay behind. All the better. Now he’d have a better chance of reaching the mirror before the loop was over.

“You better go,” the nurse told the man. “You’ll only be in the way. I need to see if there’s anything broken, then bandage him up.

With a silent nod, the coach left the nurse’s office.

“That’s a bit better. Now, let me see what we have here.”

Moving his fingers remained a lot more painful than last time. It was as if a knife had cut into his fingers, making them pulse at the slightest touch.

“Slammed a door on them? I thought that only happened to old people,” she tried to lighten the mood with a joke. “How exactly did you manage?”

“I wanted to close the door quickly before class,” Will grunted.

“Next time, try to focus on what you’re doing, okay?” The woman stood up and went to one of the medical cabinets. “It doesn’t look serious, but best have an X-ray to be sure. I’ll tell your parents about it when they get here.”

“I think I can move my fingers,” the boy lied.

“Well, don’t.” She gave him an annoyed glance. “You’re lucky it wasn’t worse.”

“Can I get a glass of water?” With a minute to eight, the only chance was to drop any subtlety and go for it. Either that, or in the next loop, he’d have to go through the entire thing again. Maybe that time he wouldn’t slam the door so hard, though. “I’ve been feeling a bit dizzy…”

It was always possible to invent a few other symptoms. In his mind, Will was already doing that. Thankfully, it didn’t come to it.

“That’s normal. I’ll get you a soda once I’m done bandaging your hand.” She took two rolls of tape and bandages.

“Can I go get it before that?” he stood up.

“Lie back down.” Her expression remained warm and friendly, but her tone wasn’t. “I’ll get it for you.”

Yes! Will thought.

Placing the bandages on a nearby shelf, the nurse slowly made her way to the door.

Come on! Come on! Will screamed internally.

How was it that ten minutes always passed so fast? It hardly mattered what he did; as soon as he made any sort of progress, it was already time to restart everything from scratch. Next loop, he was going to wait up for the jocks in the corridor and beat up all of them. If his previous experience was anything to go by, that would give him around twenty extra minutes. Combined with the initial ten minutes, he’d have half an hour to go about the school and check out all of Daniel’s notes.

“Is there anything else you want to tell me?” The woman asked at the entrance. “Something that’s worrying you?”

No! “What do you mean?”

“You tell me. It’s not every day that someone slams a door on their hand just like that. Is anyone bullying you?”

“What? No.”

“I’m just saying that if you are in any sort of trouble you can tell me or the counselor. You may find it hard to believe, but I was young too once, so I know that there are things you cannot share with parents or teachers. Seeking professional assistance is always a better alternative than keeping it bottled up inside.”

“Can I just have some water, please?”

The situation could have been resolved in a whole multitude of ways. Seeing how agitated he was getting; the nurse could have remained a bit longer in an attempt to calm him down and thus exhausted all the remaining time of the loop. Not knowing what went through his mind, though, she decided to quickly leave the room. As far as she was concerned, there was no doubt that Will was a victim of bullying. Her imagination pictured him as a sensitive soul putting up a front of strength. What he really needed was to be left alone so he could cry a bit in private without anyone finding out. Under such circumstances, it was normal to oblige.

Finally! Will dashed towards the small mirror the moment the door closed. It was all a matter of seconds now. The fast reaction skill granted to him by the rogue let him get to the other side of the room in an instant. His right hand darted forward, grabbing the mirror.

The class has already been found by someone else. Next time, try sooner.

“Huh” Someone else was also caught in the loop?

Restarting eternity.

Once again, Will was back at the starting point. This time, he didn’t rush into the building. The nurse’s mirror hadn’t given him what he wanted, but instead had provided him with a lot more. After seeing the message, he knew two things for certain: that there was another class hidden within the mirror, and—more importantly—that he wasn’t alone. Someone else was in this mess with him. The big question was whether Will would be able to cooperate with that someone or he’d be forced to compete.