He was sleeping when he rolled straight towards the wall of his bed, banging his head hard on the wall. “OW!” He sat up, holding his head in pain and thinking, Why am I so dumb? Why can’t I be like everyone else? He slowly twirled his feet off the bed onto the floor and slouched his back, resting his face onto his hands. He let out a big sigh and stood up to walk to his door.

He unlocked his door and slammed it open to hear, “OW! JASON!” Jason looked up to see that he slammed his door on his mom, with a deep cut on her face, dark red blood oozing out of her face. He slapped his hand onto his mouth with his eyes wide open.

She looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed angrily and her mouth in a pout. “JASON! WHAT DID WE SAY ABOUT SLAMMING THE DOOR OPEN!” she yelled.

Jason slapped his face five times and said, “Don’t slam the door open because someone might be there.” She had a tear in her eye. She forced her tears back, trying to look strong. He could tell she wanted to cry, though. His mom rushed to the bathroom, tears streaming down her face. He slapped his face once more and then went downstairs to eat breakfast.

Jason walked in the kitchen, looking down, and opened the cabinet to find a little bit of Cocoa Krispies left. He looked in the refrigerator to find the milk. He grabbed a bowl out of the dish rack and poured in the Cocoa Krispies to get the box stolen by his little brother. “Haha! Maybe you should have poured in your cereal faster!” He groaned and rolled his eyes at his brother. He decided to just have the milk. He got a cup from the dishwasher and poured in the milk slowly to find chunks of milk slowly coming out into the cup.

Jason yelled at himself. “SERIOUSLY? YOU MESS UP TOO MUCH, JASON!” He stomped his foot so loudly that everyone gathered together upstairs to look down at him yelling at himself and slamming the table, having a tantrum.

He tightened his fist, and he angrily stepped up the stairs. Each stair he became calmer. At the last step, he took a deep breath and walked to the bathroom. He snatched his toothbrush and toothpaste and started brushing his teeth.

He checked his watch: 7:18. “I’M LATE!!” he screamed. He dashed downstairs, nearly slipping but managing to grab his backpack. He looked out the window to see if he missed his bus only to see the bus speeding through the neighborhood. He let out a big sigh and walked all the way to school.

When Jason got to school, he went to his locker to get his stuff. Why is no one here? he thought. He checked his watch again: 8:50. His eyes widened, and his whole body was shaking. “I’M LATE! I’M LATE! I’M LATE!” he screamed loudly. He raced through the hall, up the stairs, and into the door. He slowly opened the door to see everyone staring at him while he was breathing in and out loudly, and his face was as red as a tomato. Everyone started to smile, and all of the smiles turned into laughs. Jason’s face turned very pale like a ghost. His face turned into a frown, and he fell into his seat.

The school day was long, boring, and humiliating. People always bullied Jason and made fun of him if he made a mistake. He hated school. He always went on the bus and looked out the window, stressed out and so exhausted.

Usually when Jason got on the bus, he would be bombarded with noise. His head would feel like it was going to explode. Screaming kids, yelling bus driver, loud music playing, fights. He often would have the misfortune of sitting next to that kid eating an old bologna sandwich. The smell would make him sick to his stomach.

Just when he thought things were bad, it was about to get worse. Something was coming. He heard stomping coming towards him on the bus. It was sharp and steady. Jason looked up to see a very tall boy. The boy had dark blue eyes and light brown curly hair. He was also very pale and very skinny. He opened his mouth, and his teeth were scary; each tooth looked like a vampire fang. The boy yanked Jason’s shirt so close that the boy’s face tickled Jason’s ear. “I saw you. You were looking at my friends and me. Don’t look at us again, alright?” He sounded serious, so Jason just froze and didn’t say a word. Jason clenched his teeth, and he tightly gripped the bus seat, staring at the boy straight in the eyes with his eyes wide open. “That’s what I thought,” the boy said with an evil smile, pushing Jason against the window.

Jason forcibly opened the door and slammed it closed. He threw his backpack across the floor and ran to his room. He locked the door and slammed his head against the wall approximately three times and then fell on his bed.

A few hours later, Jason got up from his bed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He walked over to his desk and sat down. He turned on his extremely bright desk light, squinting. He saw his calendar waiting for him on his desk, so he gently picked it up and opened it up to April. He saw that his birthday was the next day. He groaned and smacked his desk since the next day was a Tuesday.

The next day was Jason’s birthday. He surprisingly woke up at exactly 5:00 AM. He sat up straight with a smile. He got out of bed and stood up with good posture and walked to his door quickly. He gently turned the door knob and slowly opened the door. His mom wasn’t there. Relieved, he skipped his way down the stairs, looking overjoyed. He walked over to the kitchen to see his two brothers eating slices of toast. Jason greeted them.

“Hey guys! How you doing?”

“Fine, I guess,” they both said at the same time, looking gloomy and pushing their yogurts to the side. He shrugged with a smile and skipped his way to the cabinet.

There were many choices today, but he just stuck with his normal choice, Cocoa Krispies. He opened the box to see it was a full box of cereal. He smiled tremendously and saw the milk was right next to the cereal, unopened and brand new. He took a nice, clean bowl from the dish rack and poured in the cereal along with the milk. He got a plastic spoon and ate a delicious bowl of cereal. He knew something great was going to happen that day.

He checked his watch: 5:50. “I’m on time today!” Jason said cheerfully. He picked up his backpack and skipped his way to the bus. He was early today, so he sat down on the bench, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin, listening to the birds chirping and watching the flowers swaying in the breeze. The sun was brilliantly beaming, and the clouds were so puffy they looked like cotton candy. He smiled and closed his eyes, soaking in the beauty of this day.

The bus came a little bit later, and when the bus doors opened, he felt amazing, like he accomplished something. He sat down in the very front and looked outside to see neighbors walking their dogs and watering their plants.

He went to school, and it felt like every class was giving him treats and presents for his birthday. Everyone was extremely nice to him, and they barely even did school work. He got a message from his mom, and she messaged him that she could pick him up that day; he was so happy. So he got all his stuff together at his locker, but this time he made it neat. He strutted down the hall and to the lobby, feeling special. His mom was standing right there in the middle of the lobby, waiting for him. He smiled a big smile and ran over to his mom, giving her a big hug.

She smiled. “Ready to go, Jason?” she asked.

“Sure am!” He smiled at her, and together, they strolled to the car.

“Sweetie?” Jason’s mom asked.

“Yes, Mom?”

“There is a gift from Grandma on your bed when we get home. She really hopes you like it,” she said.

“Okay, Mom!” Jason said excited, bouncing up and down on the car seat.

They got home, his mom hung up her car keys on the door and Jason put down his backpack on the floor next to the door. He hurried upstairs to his room and looked down at his bed.  It was a tiny box that was pastel pink with golden ribbon. He picked it up and looked at the bottom.

From: Grandma

To: Jason

Dear Jason,

I know you’ve been having troubles throughout the years, so I really hope you like this gift.

Jason furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and gently unwrapped the golden ribbon. He placed the unwrapped ribbon on his bed and opened the small box. He looked inside to see a brand new watch. It was golden and shiny. The clock was in roman numerals, and the inside was white and silver. It had a little button on the bottom of the watch that said, “Stop.” He was confused by the button, but he slipped off his old watch and put on the new, golden watch.

He went downstairs to eat dinner, and his mom was cooking asparagus. He hated asparagus, and he pressed the button by accident. Everything stopped. Even the smoke from the pan stopped. He walked around, and nothing moved. He pressed the button again, and everything went back to normal. Everything was moving again. He was very confused but also excited. He could press the button whenever he wanted to fix anything before something bad happened. He sat down at the counter and tilted his head to the right, resting his head in his hand. He was thinking of all the things he could do with this watch.

The next day he woke up and saw it was 6:00; time to go on the bus. So he pressed the button, got ready, and took his time to get to the bus, having the best time of his life. He walked up to the bus, unpaused time, and got on the bus.

He smiled a big smile, eyes closed. He was so excited to have a watch that made everything easier. He didn’t have to worry about being late for school, saying the wrong things, and getting mad at everyone. The watch fixed everything. As long as he had the watch, his life was perfect. When he got home, he saw there was asparagus on the counter. He stopped time and changed the asparagus to carrots because he loved cooked carrots. He unstopped time and casually walked away to do his homework.

Day by day, he used the button on his watch about 20 or more times a day. He didn’t think he was using the watch too much, until the next day.

The next day, he woke up. It was 6:00 AM. He stopped time to get all his things to go to the bus. When he got to the bus, he pressed the button. He waited for it to work, a huge smile on his face. He opened his eyes, and time was still paused.

He pressed it again, and again, and again. No luck. His palms were sweating and his heart was racing. Anxiously, he smashed the button. He watched in horror as the watch shattered into what seemed like a million pieces. As he looked down at the shattered watch; his mouth was quivering. He fell down on his knees and threw his hands up in the air.

His eyes were wide, tears swelling up in his eyes. Tears were falling out of his eyes at this point, and he realized he was stuck in a frozen world, where he could never fix it again. Nothing could help him.

-Chloe Grisham