Okay. New plan. Joshua had already cast the spell when I was home, so all I had to do was keep him from doing it, right? Easy enough, right? Except how was I going to do it without arousing suspicion? I don’t think he’d believe me if I told him I was reliving today. Hell, I doubt anyone would believe me. I wouldn’t believe me either.

  I had to think of a plan. Only I didn’t know enough to make a plan. Sure, I had the advantage of this reset, but I didn’t know when it would end, or how I could make it end. All I could do was wing it and pray I could get enough chances to figure this out.

  As I was taking a shower a seed of an idea took root in my brain. It was so simple, yet it might work. Overthinking the problem could have been part of the problem. I hurried to dry off and get dressed. I didn’t bother drying my mane of hair as I went downstairs to the kitchen.

  Mom was sitting in the breakfast nook, reading the paper as she drank her coffee. “Israel,” she said warmly without looking up. Exactly like the last time.

  “Hey, Mom, can Joshua come over for dinner tonight?” It was time to see how much going off the script was going to impact today. I figured if Joshua was here, he couldn’t cast the spell, and Manny wouldn’t attack anyone. No one would die, and if I figured it out I could move on with my life and stop this loop before I went through it too many times. Was it possible I would go insane from reliving this day too much?

  Mom looked up at me and arched an eyebrow. “I don’t see why not. I’m planning on a special surprise for dinner tonight anyway.”

  Of course I knew exactly what the special was, but I acted dumb, of course. “Oh yeah? Can’t wait to try it. I bet Joshua will love it.”

  Mom smiled. “He usually does, doesn’t he? Quite an adventurous palate, unlike a certain son of mine.”

  “Sorry, Mom. I’m basic that way.”

  She sipped her coffee. “You must get it from your father.”

  “I’ll be sure to let Joshua know he’s invited. Thanks, Mom.”

  “Any reason why you wanted him to come over tonight instead of tomorrow?”

  Crap. I forgot about that. “He’s going to help me with my algebra homework,” I said. Not exactly a lie, because until the loop started I was bound to fail that pop quiz.

  “You always did have problems with math,” Mom said, returning her attention to her paper.

  That was my cue to scoot. “Yeah, and I better go before I’m late for school. See you tonight.”

  As I got into my jeep I had a good feeling this plan was going to work. All I had to do was stop Joshua from casting the spell and I could get out of the loop and back into the normal flow of things.

  All I had to do was talk Joshua into changing his social calendar. Piece of cake, since he’s antisocial and has only one friend, Yours Truly.

  Joshua, no surprise, was in the locker room getting dressed for gym. “Hey Joshua,” I said as I stripped off my tank top. I saw no reason to change that part of the script. Besides, it was my favorite tank top.

  “Hey Izzy,” Joshua said as he tied his shoes.

  “Want to come over tonight for dinner? Mom’s making something, which means it’s bound to be weird. So you’ll love it.”

  Joshua looked up at me, his face scrunched in confusion. “Tonight? I thought I was coming over tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, but I have an ulterior motive,” I said. “I could use some extra tutoring in Algebra II this week.” A lie of omission was a lie, but I did need that tutoring. Acing the pop quiz today wasn’t going to save my failing grade, so any help I could get was welcome.

  Joshua looked down at his shoes as if afraid to look at me. Did he see the lie in my aura? I’d have to ask him once I got out of this loop. “I don’t know,” he said. “I might have plans.”

  “Aw, come on,” I said. “It’s a school night. What kind of plans could you have?”

  He shot me a glare, but hey at least he stopped staring at his shoes. “I have a life, Izzy.”

  I held up my hands in a pacifying gesture. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult you. I do need the help, though.”

  Joshua’s glare eased into a gentle smile. “You must be in trouble with algebra if you’re asking for an extra session.”

  “You have no idea about the trouble I’m in.” And if my plan worked he would need to find out. Of course knowing me I’d tell him after I got out of the loop.

  “I’ll think about it,” Joshua said as he stood up. “Now I have to have Coach wreck me in whatever sadistic torture he’s come up with today.”

  “I bet it's dodgeball,” I said as I followed him out to the basketball court. I didn’t need to see the look he gave me when Coach Greenst announced the torture of the day, but I still smiled. Might as well try to have some fun while trapped in this loop.

  Needless to say, I won. It helped that I knew how the game was going to pan out. Of course I have unfair advantages even when I don’t know, right?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “All right, hit the showers!” Coach Greenst said, then pointed at me. “Izzy, my office. Now.”

  “Sorry, Coach, the answer is no. I’m not interested in playing basketball.”

  He looked at me as if I revealed to him his wife was cheating on him. “How did you know I was going to offer you a spot?”

  “Because football season is almost over, and I’m almost six and a half feet tall. I can do the math.”

  He glared at some of the stragglers who stuck around to listen in on our chat and they took off. “What will it take for you to say yes? A free pass in Algebra II?”

  I shook my head. “Nah, I’m starting to do better in that class.” Or at least with one pop quiz.

  He smirked at me. “Oh? That’s not what I hear.”

  “Don’t worry, Coach. I’m going to ace the next pop quiz I take. I know I look like I'm all muscles and no brains, but I’ve been applying myself. The brain’s a muscle too, you know.”

  Coach’s smirk widened. “Actually, it’s not a muscle, Izzy. It’s an organ.”

  “Oh.” I shook my head with a chuckle. “I guess I should study my biology as much as I’ve been studying algebra.”

  “One day I’m going to find out what you want, Izzy, and then you’ll be joining at least one sport.”

  “I hear I’m good at dodgeball, Coach. Maybe you should convince the school to get an official team.”

  Coach looked at me thoughtfully. “There’s an idea.” He jerked a thumb at the showers. “Now get showered up before you’re late for class.”

  “Yes sir,” I said and did as told.

  I almost didn't make it to Algebra II before the bell rang. I was lucky, though, and made it in time to welcome Miss Jarnigan along with the rest of the class. I gotta admit, acting surprised at the pop quiz could have used some work. Because I didn’t react at all, and I thought I saw Miss Jarnigan flash me an arched eyebrow. Oops.

  Since I don’t have a photographic memory, I flubbed some of the test questions. For the most part I did well but I still took my time because I didn’t want anyone to think I was cheating. I'm a lot of things, but cheating is only for cheat meals. I cheat on my diet all the time.

  Like last time Miss Jarnigan went over the answers when everyone had finished the quiz. Again, I didn’t do too bad but I came too close to an A-minus. As in, two points shy of it. I’d have to be careful if I went through the loop again.

  God, I hope I didn’t have to go through it again. As far as I knew, this was my second time, but could I have been unaware? Could I have suffered memory loss before? What if I’d been going through this, going through the motions on repeat without realizing it?

  Christ, what if I’d gone temporarily insane?

  The class bell cut short my spiraling descent into a black depression. Before I could leave the classroom Miss Jarnigan called out to me. “Izzy, can I have a word?”

  “Sure, ma’am,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Usually your groans are the loudest when I announce a pop quiz, but today you didn’t react at all,” she said. “It was almost as if you knew.”

  Uh oh. She did notice. I needed to up my acting game next time. “My horoscope today told me I’d be facing an unpleasant surprise,” I said. “So when you announced that quiz, I guess I accepted my fate.”

  “And yet you passed with a B-plus.”

  “I have a good tutor and a great teacher.”

  She smiled at that. “I haven’t been feeling like a great teacher with your past test scores.”

  “It took some time for the lessons to finally sink in.”

  “Well, if you ever need any help don’t hesitate to ask me.”

  “Thanks, Miss Jarnigan. I’ll do my best to not let you down.” I still planned to flub a couple more questions on purpose so nobody would accuse me of cheating. I’d rather repeat this loop a hundred times than have her think I was cheating in her class.

  During the next period I went to the library and looked up a couple of books on magic. If having Joshua over for dinner didn’t work I’d have to have a backup plan. Of course, since this was me, I'd even need a backup plan for the backup plan. Unfortunately the books I found were stage magic. None of them had anything to do with real magic, which I guess made sense. Guess a public school frowned on real occult books in their stacks.

  Oh well, I guess I’d have to go right to the source. Said source being my best friend. After I dealt with Manny, that is.

  I moved around a corner in time to see Manny approaching Joshua. His back was to me so I grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. “Hey, Manny,” I said, then pushed him into the boy’s bathroom like he weighed nothing.

  “Izzy, what are you doing?” Joshua said, eyes widening at my casual display of strength.

  “Don’t worry about it, Joshua,” I said. “I’m going to deal with Manny. Be right back.”

  Manny was still on the ground and looking around the bathroom as if he didn’t know where he was. I kind of pushed him through the door pretty hard, so chances were he was recovering from that. A teacher might come to investigate the noise so I had to make this quick.

  “Manny, the bullying stops now,” I said, crouching in front of him. “If you understand what I said, nod your head.”

  Manny gave me a spacey look. “How strong are you?”

  “Stronger than you, Manny. Now focus,” I said, snapping my fingers. “The bullying stops now. Understand?”

  “Y-yeah, I understand. Hell, you hit harder than my Dad.”

  I stood up and reached a hand out to help him before the words sunk into my thick head. “Wait, how do you know I hit harder than your dad?”

  He shot me a horrified look. “Don’t tell anyone, Izzy. Please, if he finds out I told someone he’ll take it out on Mom.”

  Dammit, was Manny’s own father abusing him? It might explain why he killed him during the last loop. Instead of taking his rage out on me, he took out his other rage on his Dad. “Dude, if your Dad’s beating you, you have to tell someone. Come on, we can talk to Miss Jarnigan.” I reached out my hand again, and for a second Manny stared at it. I was afraid he was going to reject the offer, but then he surprised me by grabbing my hand.

  I helped him up and we stood there staring at each other. I had issues with my Dad, but he never laid a hand on me. I wasn’t sure what to say. What could I say?

  “I don’t want him to hit Mom,” Manny said.

  “He won’t,” I said.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I won’t let him.”

  Manny snorted, regaining some of his bully swagger. I resisted the urge to clock him across the head. “What can you do, Kevinson? Sure, you might be strong, but Dad’s an ex-Marine. He'll cripple you if you try to lay a hand on him.”

  “Then I’ll call the cops when he’s alone and your Mom’s safe, simple as that.” Or I’d visit him when I was furrier. Either way worked for me. “But first let’s go talk to Miss Jarnigan. She might have a better idea on how to handle this situation.”

  I poked my head out the door and didn’t see Joshua anywhere. I hoped he was in Study Hall. As I escorted Manny to Miss Jarnigan’s classroom I wondered if this was going to break the loop. Was I going through this to save Manny from what might have been a long cycle of abuse? I didn’t know, but I was going to try at the very least.

  Even a bully deserves a chance to do better.