Malcolm was not freaking out. Okay, his palms were sweating and his knees were shaking, but that was just part of being a teenager right? Right. He had everything completely under control. Yes your plan for watching Groundhog Day is absolutely going to stop whatever is happening here. A nasty voice in his head told him and Malcom scowled as he told his inside voice to shut up. He hadn't completely ruled out the possibility of him going crazy yet, but Malcolm really didn't feel like going down that rabbit hole at the minute. He was only fourteen after all. Surely, he had time before his brain turned completely into mush. Didn't he?
So Malcolm turned on the TV and began frantically flipping through the channels hoping against hope that he would come across what he was looking for. Much to his annoyance he kept stumbling across a news channel or a football game and Malcolm was becoming more and more tempted to just give up on his(admittely stupid) plan and find something else to do. Finally by some stroke of luck Malcolm finally stumbled upon the movie he was looking for and he sighed in relief. It was even more lucky that it just so happened that the movie had just started playing on the channel as well, so he wouldn't miss anything.
He knew that most of his plan depended on him being able to watch the movie before his parents came home. Normally Malcolm wouldn't have been too worried about that, but he wasn't sick "yesterday" and so he had no idea if that meant Lois would come and check on him. He shuddered what to think about what would happen if Lois came home early and saw that not only was Malcolm wide awake, but he was also watching television when he should've been too sick to move.
Sure, Malcolm liked to play a brave front when it came to his mother most of the time, but Lois Wilkerson wasn't like your average "nice" mother and her wrath was not something to be taken lightly. Heck the last time Malcolm pretended to be sick, Lois made him sleep outside in the yard for a whole week. He wasn't entirely convinced that his mother wouldn't do that again.
Malcolm lay back on the couch and just decided to watch as much of the movie as he could in the unknown amount of time. Like Malcolm had remembered, the movie started off with the main character-Phil living his normal(albeit boring) life and Malcolm snorted as he realized that he could more or less relate to what was going on in Phil's life right now. This situation he was currently in was probably the most interesting thing to ever happen to him and yet it was also driving him nuts, so he couldn't see the good in it all either.
The movie ticked by slowly as Malcolm watched as Phil gradually started becoming more and more selfless until he was finally able to end the constant reliving of Groundhog Day. Sure the moral of the story was nice and all, but there was a huge problem. Phil was an adult in the movie while Malcolm was just a lousy ninth grader. A ninth grader who had recently gotten the nickname of Stain thanks in no part to his own mother. He scowled again at that memory, although to be fair at least this time his mother wouldn't be dragging him out of her car and Cynthia wouldn't have the chance to come up with the rumor. Malcolm still didn't get why Cynthia would have risked her social life like that for him. Truth be told Malcolm hadn't always been the greatest friend to her and he usually spent more time with Stevie than he did with Cynthia.
Malcolm decided to bring his thoughts back to himself as he needed to figure out how to stop this thing from occurring any longer. He really didn't want to have to go through as many days as Phil was going through if he could help it. A small smile graced his features as he realized that he did have one thing going for him that Phil from the movie did not. Malcolm was technically a genius. Having an IQ of 165 meant that he was extremely smart and had been the smartest kid in the Krelboyne class and had once used his abilities so much that he caused his own classmates to have a mental breakdown because they couldn't keep up with him. However, Malcolm never liked to put all the blame on himself for that one, since Mr. Herkabe had come up with that stupid system-that Malcolm had exploited- in the first place.
Okay so how do I even solve this problem in the first place? I may be a genius, but this is still beyond my experience. Malcolm thought in frustration just as he heard his mother's voice shriek "MALCOLM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Malcolm winced inwardly as he turned around and saw a furious Lois with her hands on her hips. Her eyes were gleaming dangerously and Malcolm thought her nose was flaring a bit as well. He guessed that she had come to check on him early and he was too busy watching the TV to even notice her coming into the house.
"Mom-" Malcolm began, but Lois cut him off.
"I don't want to hear it," Lois snapped. "You are grounded for the next week and you can start your punishment by cleaning out the bathroom."
"The whole bathroom?" Malcolm asked her incredulously thinking that this punishment was beyond unfair. Then again, Malcolm wasn't all too sure that his mother cared too much about that part.
"Now," Lois commanded him with a larger scowl on her face and Malcolm grumbled under his breath, but he did what she said anyway. As he walked to the bathroom, he couldn't help but hope partly that he could relive this day again and prevent his punishment from happening.
Hey, look who finally managed to update this. I'm not sure when the next update will be as real life is still quite busy.
Thanks for reading!
