April 22, 2016 — 7:45 AM
Arin Vale had three problems.
First, someone had sent him a mysterious message warning him not to interfere with the past.
Second, his broken pocket watch had started moving again.
Third, he had a mathematics test in twenty minutes, and he hadn't finished revising.
"You're staring at that question like it's personally offended you."
Arin looked up.
Kyle Alexander dropped into the seat beside him and placed a packet of biscuits on the desk.
"What's that for?" Arin asked.
"Breakfast. You look like someone who forgot to eat."
"I ate."
"What?"
Arin paused. "Food."
Kyle stared at him.
"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. My best friend is going to become a scientist."
Arin snatched a biscuit.
"Keep talking and I'll use you as my first experiment."
"See? That's the spirit."
For a few moments, everything felt normal.
Then someone placed a mathematics notebook on Arin's desk.
"Your solution to question seven is wrong."
Arin looked up.
A tall boy with neatly combed black hair stood beside him. His uniform was immaculate, his expression calm, and his eyes carried the confidence of someone who rarely needed to repeat himself.
Cassian Voss.
The school's top student.
Arin remembered him well.
In his first life, Cassian had been the person everyone compared him to. Perfect grades, perfect discipline, perfect answers. Teachers praised him, students admired him, and Arin had secretly resented him for years.
They had barely spoken back then.
But this Cassian was looking directly at him.
"Good morning to you too," Arin said.
Cassian ignored the greeting and tapped the notebook.
"You used the wrong formula."
Arin checked the solution.
Cassian was right.
"...Thanks."
Kyle looked between them.
"Wait. Did Arin Vale just accept correction without starting an argument?"
"Would you prefer that I start one?" Arin asked.
"No, I'm just recording a historic event."
Cassian picked up the notebook.
"You've improved recently."
Arin raised an eyebrow. "Have I?"
"Your answers in yesterday's practice session were considerably better than your previous work. Your participation in class has also increased."
"You're keeping track of me?"
"I'm keeping track of the competition."
Cassian's gaze shifted to Kyle.
"And since you're entering as a team, I suppose you're keeping track of him too."
Kyle grinned. "Don't worry. I'll try not to embarrass you when we win."
Cassian's expression didn't change.
"Confidence is useful. Evidence is better."
He turned to Arin.
"Let's see which one you have."
Then he walked away.
Kyle watched him go.
"I hate how he talks."
"You hate how everyone talks."
"Incorrect. I like how I talk."
Arin laughed, but his attention remained on Cassian.
In his first life, Cassian had been a rival he never had the courage to challenge.
This time, Arin wasn't interested in proving he was better.
He wanted to prove he could become better.
There was a difference.
And Cassian Voss was about to make him understand just how large that difference was.
2. A Challenge at the Notice Board
By lunchtime, the academic competition had become the school's favourite topic.
A notice had been pinned outside the staff room.
INTER-CLASS ACADEMIC CHALLENGE
Written examination
Problem-solving round
Team presentation
Final ranking based on combined performance
Students crowded around the notice board, searching for their names.
Kyle pushed through the crowd.
"There! Our names are there!"
Arin found them listed beneath Class XII.
Team 7: Arin Vale and Kyle Alexander.
For a moment, he simply stared.
In his previous life, he had never entered this competition.
He'd convinced himself that he wasn't smart enough, that the top students would always win, that there was no point embarrassing himself.
He had withdrawn before anyone could judge him.
Now his name stood on the same list as everyone else's.
"Hey."
Kyle nudged him.
"We're actually doing this."
"Looks like it."
"You're supposed to say something inspiring."
Arin thought for a moment.
"Let's not make fools of ourselves."
Kyle sighed dramatically.
"That is the least inspiring sentence I've ever heard."
"Then inspire yourself."
Before Kyle could reply, a voice interrupted them.
"Team Seven."
Cassian stood a few steps away, holding a copy of the competition rules.
"I'd like to propose something."
Kyle folded his arms. "If this involves surrendering before we begin, the answer is no."
"It involves a practice challenge."
Cassian held up a sheet of paper.
"Five questions. Fifteen minutes. You and I solve them independently. We'll compare answers afterward."
Arin studied him.
"Why?"
"Because I want to know whether your recent improvement is real."
Kyle stepped forward.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I don't believe one good performance makes someone a strong competitor."
Cassian looked at Arin.
"Do you?"
The crowd around them had begun to pay attention.
Arin recognised the situation immediately.
In his first life, he would have felt humiliated. He would have made an excuse, laughed it off, or pretended that he didn't care.
He might even have refused the challenge just to avoid the possibility of losing.
But he had spent enough of his life avoiding things.
"Fine," Arin said. "Let's do it."
Cassian's expression shifted slightly.
Perhaps he had expected Arin to refuse.
"After school. Library study room."
"Deal."
Cassian walked away.
Kyle turned toward Arin.
"Are you sure about this?"
"No."
"Excellent. We're doomed."
"But I'm doing it anyway."
Kyle studied him for a moment, then smiled.
"All right. Then let's give him a reason to regret challenging us."
3. The Difference Between Remembering and Learning
That afternoon, Arin sat in the library with five questions in front of him.
Cassian sat opposite him.
Kyle had taken the seat beside Arin, looking far too cheerful for someone about to be academically tested in public.
"Fifteen minutes," Cassian announced.
He started the timer.
Arin looked at the first question.
Then the second.
His mind immediately began searching for answers from his previous life.
He remembered examination patterns. Familiar concepts. Questions that had appeared in later tests.
For one brief second, he thought he could use those memories to get ahead.
Then he stopped.
What happens when the question changes?
His future memories were incomplete. Events were already shifting. And he couldn't spend the rest of his life depending on answers he remembered from a future that might no longer exist.
He picked up his pen.
He would solve the questions properly.
One step at a time.
The first question took longer than expected.
The second was harder.
By the third, sweat had gathered on his palm.
Across the table, Cassian wrote steadily.
Kyle frowned at his own paper, occasionally muttering things that sounded suspiciously like complaints against mathematics itself.
The timer rang.
"Pens down," Cassian said.
Arin put his pen aside.
He wasn't confident about all five answers.
But he knew exactly how he had arrived at the ones he had completed.
Cassian examined the papers.
"Three correct," he said after checking Arin's work.
Kyle leaned forward.
"Out of five?"
"Yes."
"That's not terrible!"
Cassian looked at him.
"I didn't say it was."
He checked Kyle's paper next.
"Three correct."
Kyle sat up proudly.
"Ha! Equal scores."
"Your third answer is correct by accident," Cassian replied.
Kyle's smile vanished.
"Take that back."
"You used an incorrect method and arrived at the correct answer."
"Still counts."
"Not if you cannot repeat it."
Arin tried not to laugh.
Cassian returned the papers.
"You both have potential. But potential is what people talk about when they haven't achieved anything yet."
He tapped Arin's paper.
"You, especially. You hesitate too much. You second-guess answers you understand, then rush through questions you don't."
Arin stared at him.
The words stung because they were true.
Cassian continued.
"Your problem isn't that you're incapable. It's that you don't trust your own preparation."
For once, Arin had no sarcastic reply.
Because he'd spent ten years living with that exact problem.
Cassian gathered his books.
"Practise the questions you got wrong. The next challenge will be harder."
He paused at the door.
"And Arin?"
"Yes?"
"I hope you keep improving. I'd be disappointed if you became interesting only for a week."
Then he left.
Kyle watched the door close.
"Was that a compliment?"
"I think so."
"Someone should teach that guy how to compliment people."
Arin looked down at his paper.
Three correct answers.
Two mistakes.
In his first life, he would have focused on the mistakes until he felt too discouraged to continue.
Today, he circled them.
Tomorrow, he would solve them again.
It wasn't a dramatic victory.
But it was progress.
And progress, Arin was beginning to realise, was built from victories nobody else noticed.
4. The Girl with the Notebook
Arin and Kyle left the library just before sunset.
Near the school gates, Mira Solen stood beneath a tree, reading something in her notebook.
When she noticed them, she closed it.
"How did the challenge go?" she asked.
Kyle groaned.
"We survived Cassian Voss. Barely."
"Who won?"
"Nobody," Arin answered. "We got the same number correct."
Mira looked at him with mild surprise.
"And you're not upset?"
"Should I be?"
"Last year, you refused to participate in a classroom quiz because you were worried about getting an answer wrong."
Arin went still.
He'd forgotten about that.
Or perhaps he'd tried to.
Mira tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"People don't usually change this much without a reason."
Kyle glanced at Arin.
"He's trying harder. Is that a crime?"
"No."
"Then stop investigating him like he's a suspect."
Mira's eyes moved from Kyle to Arin.
"I'm not investigating him."
"Really?" Kyle asked. "Because you ask a lot of suspicious questions."
For the first time, Mira smiled.
"Maybe I'm just curious."
"Well, satisfy your curiosity somewhere else. We have important work to do."
Kyle marched toward the gate.
Arin followed, but Mira called after him.
"Arin?"
He turned.
She approached him, speaking quietly enough that Kyle couldn't hear.
"Did you receive a strange message last night?"
Arin's smile disappeared.
Mira noticed.
"I thought so."
"How do you know about that?"
"I don't know what it said. But something happened yesterday evening. The school clock stopped at 11:17, then started again."
Arin felt a chill travel down his back.
"The clock tower?"
Mira nodded.
"I checked the time because my watch stopped too. For exactly seventeen seconds, every clock I could see showed the same time."
"Eleven seventeen."
"Yes."
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
Then Mira opened her notebook just enough for him to see a page.
Several dates were written in neat handwriting.
Some had been crossed out.
Beside April 21, she'd written:
THE FUTURE CHANGES.
Beneath it was a new sentence.
April 22 — Cassian Voss challenges Arin Vale.
Arin stared at the page.
"How did you know that would happen?"
Mira closed the notebook.
"I didn't."
"Then why did you write it?"
"Because I wrote it before it happened."
Arin's thoughts raced.
Was Mira experiencing the same impossible changes he was? Did she know about the watch? Had she somehow returned from the future too?
He wanted to ask all three questions.
Instead, Mira said something that frightened him even more.
"Whatever you're trying to fix, Arin, don't assume you're the only person who remembers how things used to be."
Then she walked away.
Arin remained beneath the tree long after she disappeared.
For the first time since waking up in 2016, he wondered whether his second chance belonged to him alone.
5. An Unexpected Invitation
That night, Arin sat at his desk, reviewing the two questions he'd answered incorrectly.
He solved the first one.
Then the second.
Then he closed the notebook and solved both again without looking at his previous work.
This time, he got them right.
A small smile crossed his face.
"Not bad," he whispered.
His phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number appeared.
Unknown: Cassian Voss isn't your biggest problem.
Arin immediately sat up.
Another message followed.
Unknown: Be careful about who you trust.
He tried to open the sender's details.
Nothing appeared.
Then his pocket watch clicked.
Arin turned toward it.
The second hand moved backward.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The watch stopped.
Its hands pointed to 11:17.
Arin reached for it, but before his fingers touched the metal, his phone vibrated again.
This time, the message came from Cassian.
Cassian: I reviewed today's answers.
Cassian: You're better than I expected.
Arin blinked.
A third message appeared.
Cassian: There's another competition next month. Individual entries are allowed.
Cassian: I'm entering.
Arin waited.
Then another message arrived.
Cassian: You should enter too.
Arin stared at the screen.
Was Cassian challenging him again—or offering him an opportunity?
He typed his reply.
Arin: I'll think about it.
Cassian answered almost immediately.
Cassian: Don't think too long. People who hesitate usually give their opportunities to someone else.
Arin set the phone down.
Ten years ago, he would have ignored the invitation. He would have convinced himself that someone like Cassian was destined to win, and that trying was simply another way to fail.
But he wasn't that boy anymore.
Or at least, he was trying not to be.
He opened his notebook and wrote one sentence across the top of a fresh page.
I don't have to become the best overnight. I just have to stop running away.
Then he returned to studying.
Outside, the school clock tower stood silent beneath the night sky.
Its hands remained frozen at 11:17.
And in a room several streets away, someone opened a notebook, found Arin's name written on a page, and drew a line through it.
"He's changing things too quickly," a quiet voice murmured.
The notebook closed.
"Then we'd better change our plans."