A Whole Day

¶ The clock above the door read 10:02.

¶ As Mr. Sorin, the geography teacher, rambled on about some tristate area half a country away, Jake stared at the blackboard, trying to make sense of the map. The teacher, in his brilliance, had drawn the map sideways, with the compass to North pointing lazilily off to the right. Indeed, the teacher had gone the extra mile to turn the N into a Z, to match the orientation.

¶ The drawing was nice, in a way. Mr. Sorin had actually tried to add some depth with the shading, making the river valley look like it actually sank into the chalkboard! Jake's eyes trailed along the river. The.... which river was it? St. Croix? No, Mississippi! Right, St. Croix was yesterday! They were talking about St. Louis now! St. Louis, Mississippi! No, wait... Missouri! Mississippi was the river, not the state. Well, it was a state, but not the one they were talking about. That was tomorrow. Or... next week?

¶ Jake's gaze shifted out the window, his eyes following the streaks of water dribbling down the glass. He wondered if it would be raining tomorrow, too. He'd wanted to go to the park after school, but at this rate, he'd probably have to go home. Or get wet. Either worked. He looked up again, as Mr. Sorin was pointing along the chalk river, the pointer going from right to left; north to south.

¶ Why was north always up, anyway? He remembered it had something to do with European mapmakers and explorers, but the exact details were fuzzy to him. That wasn't too weird, he guessed. The really weird thing, is that whenever he tried to read a map upside down, all the landmasses seemed wrong. Something to do with how, North-Side-Up, most of the peninsulas seemed to "hang" off of their mainland, like stalactites. But flip them upside down, and it just looked weird.

¶ He wondered if he could ask the science teacher about that. If there was some reason why the peninsulas....

¶ Everyone was pulling out their books! Shoot, what had Mr. Sorin just said? Jake tried to calmly scramble his book out of his bag, watching as the student next to him turned to page 78. He wasn't even sure he knew their name. It started with G, he thought. Greg? George?

¶ Right, page 78! Jake flipped through until he found the page, which was about river trade in the 19th century. He was sure it would have been fascinating to read, but as he followed along with Mr. Sorin's reading, the teacher's monotonous droning made it impossible. And Jake's eyes just couldn't help sliding out the window...

He was in the hall, going to his next class. The Science teacher, Ms. Rachels, said his peninsulas observation was interesting, but little more than coincidence. A weird answer, coming from a science teacher, but made about as much sense as any!

Next was math. He loved math! Math made sense! He put the numbers in the equation, and simple logic reasoned out the answer! It got a bit confusing when using decimals, but that was part of the fun!

English was okay. He didn't hate it, per se. But before he'd taken English, he'd really enjoyed reading. Now, every time he picked up book, he suddenly noticed all of the plot devices, all the tropes that put the story together. And it kind of ruined the fun of reading, especially when he had to do book reports. One of which, of course, was due that day. And it was an oral presentation...

He was walking home, now. It had stopped raining, at least. Maybe he would swing by the park. There weren't any other kids there, so he didn't feel quite so self-conscious about messing around. But, after managing to go all the way around the swing once, he decided he was done for the day.

Dinner was quiet. His parents usually badgered him with questions, but tonight they just talked to eachother about... stuff. Jake wasn't really paying attention. He went upstairs, did his homework, and was just about to get into bed when he tripped on his sheets! He fell straight through the bed, all the way into the floor!

And through it!

He fell down through the kitchen! He fell south through the park. He fell left through the school! And with a shocked yell

¶ Jake jolted upright, his whole body tensed, coiled like a spring! Cold sweat beaded on his hot flushed face. Holding his breath, he looked around at the classroom.

¶ No one was looking at him. No one had heard him yell. Mr. Sorin was still droning, talking about some guy named Clark. Or Louis?

¶ Knuckling a gunky tear out of his eye, Jake looked up at the clock over the door.

¶ 10:03

¶ Jake sighed in dejection.

¶ He still had a whole day ahead of him.