“Kipp, wake up. Come on, wake up already, you idiot”

I ignore the voice, forcing my lids to stay shut and my expression to remain neutral. I try to imagine that I am somewhere else, anywhere but here and with anyone but him. But the all too familiar scent of lemon scented floor cleaner and Freddys eucalyptus ointment makes it impossible to do so. Eventually, I let out a sigh and pry my eyes open. The sunlight from the open curtains immediately blinds my vision, casting a white halo around the boy leaning over me. His white- blond hair looks almost golden in the light and his freckled cheeks are pink with a sunburn that never seems to heal.

I lick my lips for moisture and shove him away from me before speaking.

“Date?”

He looks at me with a raised eyebrow and holds up todays newspaper. The same one I had read from front to back a dozen times already.

“Take a wild guess”

A feeling of dread settles in my stomach and I swallow hard.

“March 2nd?”, I ask, already knowing the answer.

The blond haired boy before me- Daniel sighs.

“Yep. This will be our, what? 8th March 2nd”, he asked sitting on the bed near my feet and abandoning the newspaper on my nightstand.

I look across the room, taking in the yellowing linoleum tiles and lines of neatly made beds, few with boys still half asleep beneath the sheets. Daniel was right, this would be our 8th time waking up on March 2nd…8 March 2nds in a row to be specific.

The first March 2nd was probably one of the worse days of my life. It was the day my one and only friend, Daniel Dain, was adopted by two new parents. It was also the day I would be left alone in the orphanage with nothing but snoring Freddy and boring bug-eyed Roger for company. Timothy Darlings Orphanage for Young Boys was a place I had lived in for most of my life, but it didn’t really start feeling like home until Daniel arrived here five years ago. At first our friendship was strained, his parents had just died in a car accident and he had been a six year old child unable to cope with the change. But as time passed he seemed to get more and more use to the idea of living at the orphanage; a part of me liked to think that our new friendship helped heal him just as much as it healed me. But it on March 2nd all those years of friendship went down the drain when a young bright eyed couple arrived on the doorstep to adopt him.

At first it seemed cruel that the universe would keep on repeating the day he left me over and over again, exactly the same as it had been the first time: his new parents would arrive at exactly 3pm and I would wait at the gates and watch him drive away with with his perfect new family in their perfect little car.

By the third time it happened I decided it was a blessing from the universe, a way for me to get more time with my best friend before he’d leave me forever.

But as time rolled on and the sixth March 2nd came along, Daniel and I had reached a bump in the friendship. We would squabble about any and everything until the blue little car with his new parents came around and whisked him away. The fight started when I said I was glad the day kept repeating itself. He, of course, took it the wrong way and accused me of being jealous that he finally had a chance to live a normal life. Since then the fighting was almost non stop.

“What do you want to do today? Set the library on fire? Eat all the ice cream in the freezers downstairs? Put tuna in Greg’s pillowcase?”, Daniel asks, listing off just a few of the things we once spoke about doing.

I shake my head and snuggle deeper into my sheets.

“No. Just let me sleep this time, Dan”, I groan burying my face under the thick white sheets. I have a few seconds of bliss before the bed sheets are pulled away from my body and cool air wraps around my limbs.

I glare at Daniel as I try to retrieve the sheets back from him, but he tosses them to the foot of the bed and sits on the pile.

“No, you can’t waste the day sleeping. We may be fighting right now, but you are the only other person who is aware the days are repeating. We have to stick together”, Daniel says crossing his thin arms.

I roll my eyes and stand up for a stretch.

“Well, we can stick together in bed. You sleep right there”- I point to his bed beside mine-, “and I’ll sleep right here”, I finish. It isn’t fair that Daniel gets to pick what we do each day. I’m tired of wrecking havoc all day long, all I want to do is just have oneday of rest.

Daniel opens his mouth, probably to argue with me, but he is interrupted by the sound of Mrs Terry’s voice from downstairs.

“Daniel! Kipp! Your new parents are here”, she calls from down the hallway. Daniel and I look at each other, the same confused expression on our faces. Mrs Terry has called Daniel downstairs to meet his parent everyday now at this exact time for the past 8 March 2nds, but not once has she called me before. I wasn’t the one who was suppose to get adopted today.

“What?...why is she calling me?”, I mumble, looking over at Daniel.

Daniel shrugs his shoulders and grabs my hand before pulling me out of the room.

“Let’s go find out”

When we arrive downstairs Mrs Terry is waiting for us, her red coils pinned up and a huge smile on her face. Beside her stands a slim blond woman and a tall man with salt and pepper hair and a too-bright yellow raincoat.

These aren’t the same people that adopted Daniel last time. Who are they?

“Great, come here boys”, Mrs Terry says, clapping her hands together. She places one hand on my shoulder and the other on Daniels, carefully nudging us forward.

“These will be your new parents. May and Silas”

I look up at the two people before me, trying to learn more about them. They seem kind enough with their large smiles and twinkling eyes.

I turn to look at Daniel, trying to see what he is thinking. I expect to see the same confusion mirrored on his face, but instead, his face is paper white and his bright blue eyes are as wide as saucers.

I frown. What is wrong with him?

I slip behind Mrs Terry and stand beside Daniel. I bend down and whisper in his ear:

“Everything okay?”, I ask.

Daniel shakes his head and opens his mouth before closing it and clearing his throat.

“Those are my parents”, he murmurs, staring wide eyed at the clueless couple in front of us.

“Er…yeah. Apparently they are OUR parents now. Kinda weird how the timeline changed, huh?”, I say slowly, still confused about Daniels reaction. This wasn’t the same as the last few repeated days, but Daniels reaction seems far too dramatic for such a minor change.

Daniel snaps out a bony hand and grabs my arm, pulling me close enough that his warm breath fans across my face.

“No, you don’t get if Kipp. Those are…those are my dead parents. Except…except they aren’t dead”