Chapter 2: A Second Chance
Mrs. Grant gave Tyler one last glance before shaking her head. "Try to stay awake this time, Mr. Reyes."
She turned back toward the chalkboard, picking up a piece of white chalk and resuming her lecture like nothing had happened.
The classroom settled again—some students snickering, others already half-asleep themselves.
But Tyler wasn’t paying attention to any of it.
He sat there, frozen, his hands resting on the old wooden desk. His fingers slowly curled into the grooves etched by years of bored teenagers. These familiar scratches had familiar feels.
His heart pounded as he scanned the room. Every face was younger and vaguely familiar.
But the most important thing was that there was smartphones or laptops in sight. Desks were arranged in straight lines instead of group clusters. The smell of worn textbooks and cheap cleaning detergent hit him like a wave.
This wasn’t a dream.
For the final confirmation, he looked down at himself and he saw that his skin was smoother, his arms leaner, and he was wearing a hoodie he hadn’t seen in over a decade.
This was real.