I am so sorry I didn't update on Monday. December is one of the busiest months for me. This weekend, I have volunteer work on Saturday morning; a play with my aunt Saturday afternoon/evening; and a family gathering on Sunday if that schedule tells you anything. I also have a bunch of school work to do. I'm so sorry if my updates are a little all over the place this month.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Michelle should've known what would happen next, but the thing with Tommy really threw her for a loop.

Michelle opened her eyes the following morning. She still felt lethargic and nauseous, but she assumed that it was either the time-going-backwards-thing or even the realization that time was indeed going backwards taking its toll on her. She glanced at the calendar above her bed and beside her window and saw that only two days on February were crossed out. She'd lost another day.

"Michelle!" her mother called as she rapped her knuckles against the bedroom door. "Your classmates will be here soon to practice that play you're in. You best start getting ready."

No. No way…

Way.

Michelle quickly realized that it was the day Michael, Jordan, Paige, and Luke came over to rehearse the suicide scene in Romeo and Juliet and Tommy ensured that they saw Michelle without a shirt on. By the way, Tommy, that is a cruel prank, and if she wasn't his sister and afraid of getting trouble, she would've broken his nose. Girls don't take those kind of pranks lightly.

Anyway, Michelle quickly rejoiced when she realized that she could change what happened.

Couldn't she?

When the knock came, Michelle tried to get her feet to move in the direction of the door to answer it herself, but for some reason, she back pedaled and started ascending the stairs.

No. This wasn't right. Why weren't her feet obeying her mind? Her mind was saying answer the door, and her feet were apparently thinking nope. We have to go this way, and you don't get a say in the matter.

Michelle walked into her room and locked the door. Amongst the involuntary movement of her feet, she could still change small things. Last time, she hadn't locked the door. She wasn't making that mistake again.

Michelle tried to dress as fast as her body would let her, but it wasn't fast enough.

"Michelle said to come upstairs," Tommy was saying, and she heard multiple sets of feet approaching her door.

At least the door was locked.

The knob turned, and the door opened.

What?

Just like last time, Michael, Jordan, and the two extras-Paige Sheridan and Luke Caster- got a full view of Michelle standing in her skinny jeans and her bra.

Michael and Jordan-the jerks of the school- began taking pictures with their cell phones while Luke and Paige laughed.

"That door was locked!" Michelle snapped at her brother as she tried to finish dressing before anymore photos could be taken.

Tommy shrugged. "Your lock is broken, remember?"

Michelle did remember now. Tommy broke it when he burst through her door while she'd been about to lock it. It broke the lock so badly, their dad almost had to get a new doorknob. He'd managed to fix it the day after Michelle's birthday… which hadn't happened yet.

The cake… the door… the pictures…

Was Michelle really powerless to change anything?

She got her answer a week… before.

When Michelle woke up after the broken lock incident, she found herself staring at the calendar of January. It was a week before the broken lock incident.

Time was going backwards faster, and Michelle didn't know how to reverse it.

She discovered what that day was, and it took all her will power not to scream in frustration when she realized what would happen that day.

It was the day of the misplaced jacket.

Michelle was talking with her friends on the edge of the school yard after the school bell rang. They'd left their bags and purses leaning against the fence, and Michelle spotted Tommy standing over by them.

That was when she realized what would happen, and she tried to move. She tried to travel across the ground and tell Tommy to buzz off before the Missing Jacket Incident occurred, but Michelle couldn't move her feet. She was immobile, and the thought of the approaching disaster rendered her speechless.

After talking with her friends (well, they did most of the talking), they headed for their bags, and Michelle noticed that Tommy was gone. She wanted to run, to explain, but she couldn't turn around. She couldn't speak. The disaster would happen no matter how much Michelle wanted to prevent it.

"Where's my jacket?" Stephanie Bernard demanded.

"No one leaves until we find it," she snarled before grabbing Alea's bag and rifling through it.

"Hey, what's that in Michelle's backpack?" Lily Waters asked.

Stephanie ripped Michelle's backpack off of her shoulders without any warning and pulled out her balled up jacket.

Stephanie's face went red with anger.

Michelle sighed and said nothing as rumors began to spread across the grounds like a wild fire. Thief. Bully. Liar. And so much more. It was nothing compared to what the following day had been like, but that didn't make it any less torturous.

It was official. Michelle had to suffer through every bad event she'd experienced as time raced backwards, and she couldn't change a thing.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. A few more chapters until the biggest part of the story, the part that changes almost everything you knew before. Next chapter takes place when Michelle is fourteen, and then the following chapter is her thirteenth birthday. The turning point will happen around chapter 13 or 14.

Thanks for reading!