A Day in Life

I have always been one of the few, but never the only one.

I woke up as usual at 7:14 a.m. in the morning before my mobile alarm started ringing at 7:15.

Got up from my bed, went to the washroom, got fresh, brushed my teeth, washed my face with the cold water, and half asleep went to my hostel’s mess which was located just on the ground floor of the 8-storeyed hostel building I had been living in for the last 6-months.

Half asleep, I picked up a plate from the pile alongside a spoon and extended it towards the guy serving the breakfast. I didn’t even look at the contents of my breakfast, I just took everything that was there and sat back at one of the tables.

When I finally opened my eyes, I looked around myself and found that I wasn’t the only one in the mess eating my breakfast, there were a few others as well.

This time too, I was one of the few.

But it didn’t bother me so I focused on my breakfast; a sandwich, a banana, and a glass of milk that ought not to be called a glass because of its minuscule size but was still somehow categorized as one.

I hate sandwiches, though.

“Well whatever, time to dig in”, I exclaimed trying to fake enthusiasm over eating this stuff but my voice gave me away and I stopped with the formalities.

…

Finishing the unimpressive breakfast, I got up and put my plate in the sink before finally washing my hands and leaving through the exit.

There, I noticed a bunch of my friends from other rooms eating their breakfast, when they noticed me, they waved their hands as a gesture of greeting to which I replied by doing the same with a smile on my face.

I had gotten even sleepier.

Back to the room, I put away my ID card and room key on my study table and went inside the bathroom.

It took me 13 minutes to take a bath.

At 8:13 I got out of the bathroom with freshly changed clothes, I opened up a new pack of chewing gum and went back to the washroom to excrete out all the food that I might have accumulated in the last 30 minutes or so.

I was still half asleep.

No, I actually felt even more sleepy now. The cold water had cooled off my head and I was feeling numb all over my body, I guess now I was probably 66% asleep.

Trodding through the room, I reached my study desk, put my notebook, laptop, and its charger inside my bag, and left the room all the while making no noise lest my roommates wake up and ruin my day.

Walking through the pathway, I breathed in the fresh morning air and looked at the sky that stretched deep across the horizon, my sleepiness level decreased and now I was once again back to the half-asleep stage.

With heavy steps, I got to the classroom said hi to my friends opened my laptop, and started my as-usual-trying-to-connect-with-the-wifi act. For those who don’t know what it is… well… they don’t know, in short, I was just wasting my time, just like all the others.

In midst of all this wastage of precious time, the teacher arrived in the class all the while making sure he didn’t make any noise(which he did) so he can catch someone off guard and start off his day with some good luck, but sucks for him, the people in my class were like ninjas.

We felt his presence way before he even entered the classroom and looked at him the moment he entered.

Visibly shocked and disappointed he gave a slight grunt and asked the person sitting closest to the projector to switch it on, which not by some coincidence but by the seating plan ended up being me, and I as usual just pretended to not have heard him.

In the end, the boy sitting beside me felt uncomfortable from the death stare the teacher was giving me and he reluctantly switched on the projector without making any noise, it was only then that I finally looked at the teacher.

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Now I was 75% asleep.

The teacher, contrary to my expectations, instead of opening the PPTs opened a spreadsheet.

The moment that spreadsheet logo appeared on the whiteboard, the entire class stopped talking.

There was a deadly silence in the class or should I say “pin-drop silence” as my teachers used to say in the elementary school.

“These are your marks from the last test”, the teacher announced as if we already were not aware after looking at that damned logo.

Scanning through the crowd of students shivering in fear, the teacher had a proud smile on his face until his eyes met with mine and his face contorted into a frown.

He really hates me, huh.

I thought but didn’t care much.

“You all performed very poorly in the last test, only one student got full marks”, the teacher announced, his voice dripping with dissatisfaction.

The students got tensed, even I got tensed, now I was only 60% asleep!

The teacher once again looked around himself and zoomed in on the spreadsheet, nothing but a single number was there on the whiteboard.

“36”, someone said.

Roll number 36, the bastard who got full marks, this time, unfortunately, I became the only one.

***

Classes ended, it was 4 p.m., and I was roaming here and there in a dense forest.

“Don’t step on the plants otherwise suspension! This is a nursey, not a forest!”, a woman shouted from a bit far away.

I was roaming in a nursery.

As to why I was doing that, well…. it was to collect data on various plants in my university premises for a machine learning project of mine.

Sounds complicated? Well… it is.

Looking around the nursery, I was taking pictures of each and every beautiful-looking plant around me all the while writing their name, genus, lifespan, and whatnot.

Looking at all the wonders of nature was sort of a surreal experience for me.

Right now, I was only 33% asleep.

Busy looking at the plants, I was immersed in their beauty when suddenly I had a feeling of being watched from behind.

Turning backward I examined my surroundings but didn’t find anyone.

Strange.

I thought and turned back to my original position in almost a flash.

There was no ghost in front of me.

Disappointment washed all over me but I didn’t mind and resumed my work once again when suddenly a chill ran down my spine.

It was the kind of chill that I have never felt as if something entirely alien had happened to me.

I looked around myself only to find that nothing had happened.

“I guess it’s time to go back home”, I declared to myself and traced my steps back to the exit.

Walking through the rows of plants and trees, I found the atmosphere around me to be extremely quiet, it was as if I was the only one in the nursery, no, it was as if I was all alone in the world.

I don’t know why I thought of the situation like that maybe it’s because of reading all those light novels.

But… if by any chance I really am alone in this world, and if by some coincidence I am unable to leave this place, then how am I going to survive?

This useless thought came into my mind for the umpteenth time.

I wanted to shut this thought but my heart didn’t have the same opinion, my hands almost involuntarily reached the pocket of my pants and I pulled out my mobile to search for ways of survival on the internet, but then something unexpected happened.

There was no network connection on my mobile.

Baffled, I hurried back to the exit but I seemed to have gotten lost.

I couldn’t find any exit. Or should I say that there wasn’t any exit where it was supposed to be?

I have a fair amount of confidence in my navigation skills and I at least am not the type of person to forget my way to a place I have more than a dozen times been to.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed my mind and walked in a random direction.

I followed the bushy path and realized that the road I was treading on was different from the nursey I remember.

My heart kept on beating violently as if it was going to jump out of my chest.

My breaths started getting shorter and heavier and after walking for some time I finally got out of the nursery.

But what lay before me wasn’t the environmental science building that I had sort of gotten used to, no, it was…

“Hey! What the hell were you doing in that forest?! Do you know what time is it now!?”, a sudden voice brought me out of my daze.

I looked at the source of the voice.

It was a man wearing some sort of cloak. He had a sword hanging by the side of his waist and he was looking at me with suspicion and anger on his.

Could it be that the situation I have always imagined actually has come to life?

I guess… I have been transported to another world.