"You're still here?"
Once again, Shac saw the very same yellow duckling from yesterday. "How are you still here? It's been a whole day."
Sitting down, he slowly reached for the duckling. "Slowly… got… you!" He successfully caught the duckling with his right hand. "I'm surprised you didn't try to run." Seeing the duck on his palm, he smiled at how small the little creature was. Gently, he petted the duckling's little head with his other hand.
"Why are you still here?"
… The duck didn't respond.
"Ah, I see." he chuckled. "Not that I expected you to." Shac continued talking despite the silent treatment of the duckling. "But it's strange. I saw you near the school yesterday, and now you're back here. Have you been wandering all night? And where's your mother? Your siblings? No one?"
Despite talking to it, the duck still didn't respond. He noticed how odd it was for a single duckling to be roaming around the sidewalk for a whole day without any company.
Normally you would see them following the mother, but this duck has been here without others since yesterday…
"What should I do with you?" Feeling sorry for the duckling, he looked at it with sad eyes.
"Oh crap!" He suddenly remembered. "I'm going to be late!"
Heavily occupied by the presence of the duckling, he had totally forgotten about his morning routine. He glanced at the duckling on his palm.
"What about you?"
The duck didn't respond.
"Forget it. I'll just bring you along." Without thinking any further, he decided to take the duckling to school. "I'll take that as a yes." Imagining as if the duckling responded, he carefully enclosed it with both hands and dashed off, knowing that being late was a matter of life and death.
"Don't worry it won't take too long."
But… I'm about to be late!!!
× × × × × × × × × ×
Shit… As I expected the class already started. Ah… I hope she doesn't notice me.
Shac, being late, slowly tried sneaking through the back of the room, holding the duckling with both of his hand. But…
"I can see you well."
Scratching his head, he laughed awkwardly. "Hehehe."
"Go take your seat."
"Yes, ma'am."
… his plan of sneaking didn't work out.
And here I thought I was sneaky enough. I'm pretty sure I made no noise. Convincing himself that he was indeed sneaky enough.
"You good? What happened?" Ivan asked.
"Just met a duckling on the road."
"A duckling? Really?"
"Yeah."
"Shac and Ivan, you do know what the both of you are doing, right?" Hearing the sudden call, both of them straightened up in their seats.
The teacher let out a sigh. "Go solve this problem, Shac."
What!? Why? I just got arrived… "…" Shac stood up, noticing the teacher was about to get pissed at him for being late.
"What's that?" the teacher asked.
"What is?" Shac asked, confused.
"Why are your hands enclosed like that?"
Enclosed?… Ah! "You see, ma'am…" He scratches his head as he spoke.
This might be a good chance. If she will believe me, then… "I saved this duckling from getting run over earlier."
"Oh… You saved it?" The teacher responded skeptically, clearly suspecting he was lying. "So why did you bring it here?"
"I was about to be late, so I ran as fast as I could, leading to the current situation." Sorry about this, duckling. I have to lie for a bit.
Still, the teacher couldn't let herself be fooled so easily. "Hm… Let's leave it at that… Anyways, go do the task first."
She… She clearly didn't believe me…
Holding the duck with his left palm, Shac uses his right arm to solve the problem in his front of the board. But he noticed something as he was about to solve it…
This looks familiar, didn't we do this already yesterday?
"Didn't we already solve this yesterday?" He asked, noticing how familiar the equation was.
"You're not going to find your way out."
What… "That's not my intention…" Shac looked away and instead just focused on answering the equation.
This should be easy… If I remember right this is how you solve it… Well, we did solve the same thing as yesterday.
Without feeling troubled by the equation in front of his eyes, he managed to solve the equation with ease.
"That was fast." the teacher said, amused.
I just told you that this was already solved yesterday. Shac then proceeded to go back to his seat.
The teacher then continued on her way to teach the equations.
Woah… for real?
Shac noticed how perfectly the topic from yesterday matched today's topic. What's happening? It's the same topic? He looked at Ivan, hoping to ask, but immediately remembered the teacher would notice any small noises. Better not provoke her again he thought.
Shac watched as everyone tried to answer the equations on the board, as it turns out, everyone was struggling hard on solving the equation.
So… It looks like they never saw this equation at all… But how is that possible? What is actually happening in here? I thought we already had this yesterday… Or am I mistaken??? But how would I be mistaken? It was yesterday! There's no way I would forget about it.
Shac then looked at the creature on the table. "You good?" he asked in a low voice, looking at the little creature on his table and patting it slowly.
I better hide you or else she will get annoyed again. He hid the duckling under the table. Luckily, you're the perfect size for this.
The yellow duckling perfectly fits at the small drawer under the table.
I must say, this duckling is really quiet. I haven't heard a single noise from it since earlier. Not that I mind… Then suddenly the duck… "quack!"
"Eh-" Everyone immediately looked towards the source of the noise.
Shac noticed everyone's gaze, along with that very person he wouldn't want to pissed of, his teacher. He immediately looked away as he noticed the same gaze from his teacher as earlier.
This is bad… Without even letting them talk, he immediately rises up and walks outside the classroom, holding the duckling in both of his palms. Shac closes the door, leaving everyone at the room surprised by the sudden noise of the yellow duckling.
He couldn't help but let out a sigh. "What a day, don't you think?" looking at the duckling, wondering what could it be thinking of, but as always the duck didn't respond. After the commotion that the duck created, Shac found himself sitting on the side of the hallway… "We should until the class ended…" … waiting until the class ended.
"Still what do you think happened today?" looking at the yellow duckling in his palms.
It feels like I repeated the day yesterday… Or it could be just my mind playing with me…
I don't even know anymore, it's too confusing…
"quack!"
"Oh you think so too? This is the first time you responded to me! But… repeating a day huh. That's something you can only imagine happening at movies."
An odd and realistic dream, being unable to breathe. And meeting the duck at the same place, at the same time. Plus, having the same topic as yesterday, but it seems no one remembered it.
Thinking about it, meeting the duckling at the same place and same time is too much to say a coincidence… This could only mean that I'm repeating the same event.
"That's too much of a stretch." He laughs as he thought of something that wouldn't even happen in reality, and he spends his remaining time thinking about the unusual events this past few hours. But none seemed to make any sense.
× × × × × × × × × ×
Minutes have passed, and the class has already ended.
"Yo!" Shac felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Oh hey."
"You good?" Ivan asked, noticing how quiet Shac was.
"Yeah of course." He responded in a low voice.
"Hmmm… Good to hear that, go get your bag already."
"Right, wait can you handle this guy first?" Shac handed the yellow duckling to Ivan, and walks towards the room to get his bag, unaware that class had already ended. It didn't take him a minute to grab his backpack back. "Thanks for handling him with care."
…
"Hey." Shac tapped Ivan as he didn't notice him.
"Oh, what?" Ivan responded, startled. "Didn't noticed you."
"Why were you looking so intense?" Shac wondered.
"Oh, nothing like that. I just find it odd that you brought this little creature here."
"Odd huh, I didn't think much about it, I just brought it here since I was about to be late. But right, it's not normal to bring a duckling at the school just because I was about to late."
"Is that how you normally do things?" He asked as he looks back at the duckling. "Is this a male?" Ivan wondered.
Shac shakes his head. "What? I don't know, of course. Why were you even asking that?"
Ivan chuckled. "Just wondering if it's a male or female."
"Sad to say, I'm not knowledgeable about those things. Does the gender even matters?"
"Uh… I don't know, I'm just wondering. But not knowing the gender, I guess we're same then when it comes to that" Ivan smiled as he handed back the duckling to Shac.
"Enough of that, let's go grab something first." Shac interjected.
"Sure sure, and it's my treat today."
After the class ended, Shac and Ivan proceeded directly to the canteen without any delay.
× × × × × × × × × ×
At the canteen, there's so much noise, but it didn't stop both Shac and Ivan from finishing their lunch, especially how Ivan treated Shac for the lunch this day.
"Thanks for the treat." Shac expressed his gratitude.
"No problem, you know what to do next time." Ivan replied.
"I know I know, Consider it done." They exchanged waves before parting ways in opposite directions, leaving the canteen. Shac grabs the ducking and places it above his shoulder. "You good up there?"
"quack!" The duck responded.
"I see I see." He smiled. "Don't move too much or else your going to fall."
"quack!"
"Good, that's the way."
Now, what should I do with this duck? I can bring him home probably? But I don't know what type of food ducks eat. Could be probably some leftovers? Or some duck food? I… I don't know. As long as it lives, that's what matters the most.
Deep in thought, Shac failed to notice the surge of students approaching from ahead of them, accidentally bumping into another student's shoulder.
"Wh-" The duck fell from his shoulder, and suddenly a weak crunchy sound emerge.
"What was that?" a student wondered aloud, as he lifts his right foot, something was beneath of his foot.
What…
Revealing the lifeless body of the yellow duckling.
"Hey!" Shac pushed the student away as he approached the motionless body of the yellow duckling on the floor. "Sorry!' Shac immediately apologized as he pushed the student aside.
It didn't take too long for the hallway to fell silent as the students observed the scene.
"I'm sor-" the student began to apologize, but was cut off suddenly.
Huh? Shac took a glance from where the sound came from… It turns out that the student suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed on the floor.
Wait what…
It didn't take too long for others to collapse the same way… Multiple sound of students collapsing to the ground can be heard as it didn't stop.
Wha- I can't… breathe… again…
Shac again looks around the area, he noticed several more students losing their consciousness.
They… are… Clutching his chest and struggling to breathe, he attempted to inhale deeply but failed. "No… not… again…"
Is… this… it? As Shac struggled to breathe, his vision starts to get blurry, unable to breathe. Slowly losing his vision, he found himself on the ground, staring directly at the dead duckling. "A-hm… sor… ry…" He apologized as he struggled to breathe.
Ah… shit… As his consciousness slowly faded away, the last thing he saw before his vision were fully gone, was the lifeless body of the yellow duckling.