My first thought was obviously not that I was caught in a time loop. The box I’d found was magical. That when I touched it I would become trapped on this particular Monday for 3 weeks. That I would need to find a….

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I’m going too fast again!

My first thought was, not surprisingly, that I must have brought it home. I definitely took it because Yang Laoshi always checks we take it. There was no other way to explain it. Just then Mum and Dad, followed by Yumo, walked into the lounge. After getting him up they were moving on to trying to get him to put his clothes on. First Mum was going to say something about hurrying up.

“Come on Yumo, you need to hurry now we’re going to be late for school,” she said softly.

Just like that I thought.

Yumo looked like he was just trying to sleep on the sofa now. Then Dad joined in, I could see that he was starting to sound annoyed now, as usual. He was going to say something about no screen time any second now…

“Yumo if you don’t start getting dressed then you can’t have screen time tonight!” he said a moment later.”

“Bingo!” Slipped out of my mouth before I realised it. They all turned to look at me.

“Yes Elise?” Dad said.

“Um nothing, Dad,” I replied but as I said it I began to wonder how I knew what he was going to say. Did my parents just always say the same things to Yumo and I? That had to be it. People must do the same things all the time, right? Like some kind of time loop.

By now Yumo was dressed and we were brushing out teeth, just like everyday. Yumo was asking me a question about our favourite teddy bears. “Elise do you think my doggy is faster or your Doggy” he asked me with his toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. Which is the exact same question he asked me yesterday. He always asking me the same things, over and over and over, so I didn’t really think about it.

Dad was shouting from the front door, “Yumo, Elise, can we please go now?” I put my yellow folder into my bag, I didn’t know what else do with it! We put on our shoes and took the lift down to the car. Little did I know we were off to what was perhaps the weirdest day of school ever! (Even weirder than the time the teachers didn’t talk all day! But I’ll tell you that story later.)