The Shoelaces

"So Cooper," begins Apollo, "When can I anticipate to be reimbursed for my hospital bills? Since, I'm not sure if you recall, I nearly drew my last breath. And it goes without saying that it's all your fault."

"What are you talking about?" asks Cooper.

"It was a chapter ago," I explain. Talk about short term memory loss.

"No, I meant Apollo's hospital visit wasn't my fault. It wasn't my fault God decided he should have a bee allergy."

"Do you wanna pay your own hospital bills or something?" asks Andy as he cracks his knuckles.

As he says that, Andy bumps into a lad walking in the opposite direction of us and caused him to trip and violently crash onto the nice and cool hallway floors. Ouch.

"Woah my bad, you good?" Andy asks while lending a hand to the face-planted guy. I noticed that that guy's shoelaces were tied together.

"Thanks," the guy says as he was being lifted up. He dusted himself off a bit. 

"Wait." I stop him before he walks away. "Why are your shoelaces tied together?"

"It's to make my strides as small as possible. Wide strides make you seem like you're in a rush, which is uncool. Don't you know about the trends in this school? You should keep up with the times." He points to the window outside and I couldn't believe my eyes: 70% of the students outside were walking with their shoelaces tied together.

"I suppose there's one group of people to ask about this," Andy says. We all knew. The popular kids. You can spot them from a mile away. They hang around each other and attract large crowds. Found them in a classroom.

So we pushed through the crowd and found the main guys sitting in a circle talking to each other. Josh, Joel, and Jason. Luckily, Jason and I share the same history class.

"Hey, what's up?" I say to Jason.

"Yo Remi, not much. Life's been good though. What brings you here?"

"We just wanted to know what's up with everyone walking around with their shoelaces tied together."

"Oh yeah, that." Jason pointed to his and his buddies' shoes. Sure enough, their shoelaces were tied together as well.

"Don't tell me..."

"Yes, we started it. This is a stance. Society moves too fast and doesn't know how to take a break. We need to slow down and appreciate the present instead of worrying about the future."

The people surrounding us applauded.

"Wow," Cooper says, "That's deep. That really puts things into perspective. Do you guys know what I'm thinking right now?"

"This does not sound dubious in the slightest bit," Apollo utters anxiously.

"You're acting like I'm going to commit a crime. However, I was just gonna say we should try tying our shoes together."

I look down at my shoes. They were Crocs. Is there really a bad time to wear those?

"Do you wear anything besides Crocs?" asks Jason. A good observation.

"I wear indoor slippers at home," I point out.

"Well, that's no good then. Why don't I hand you an old pair of J's that I haven't worn in years. I'm something of a shoe connoisseur myself. Plus, I'm pretty sure we have the same shoe size." He is like half a foot taller than me.

"Really?"

"Yeah I will, just meet me in front of my locker and I will lend you them. We need more people supporting the cause after all."

"So, I guess it's settled," said Cooper, "We will tie our shoes together tomorrow."

"What's the point?" Apollo asking the real questions here.

"What else are we gonna do with our time?" Andy responds. "Plus, it would be funny if Cooper trips and falls."

We exit the classroom. Lunch was about to end so we parted ways with obligatory emotional handshakes. I walk up the stairs. Each step I take, the clock keeps ticking. I stand still in the middle of the staircase, but time keeps moving. There was really no point in standing around, so I reached the top of the stairs and stared at the row of stairs I just traversed. Society moves too fast, right? The clock moves faster.

Too fast because the bell rang as I admired my progress. I sprint to my next class.

...

Anyways, here's the next day (and yes, I had a good night's rest):

The sun's out, shining onto my vitamin deficient skin, with the clear blue sky being shown on a bright Friday morning. I walk to school as fast as I can and met up with Apollo and Andy in front of the school. It seems that everyone around us is used to walking with very small strides and some people have gotten some pretty decorative shoelaces.

I look around and ask the boys, "Where did Cooper go?"

They point down and sure enough he was there, faced down. It seems he's getting tired of getting up just to fall face first again.

"How does the ground taste?" I ask as it's clear that he has taken multiple free samples. He looks up at me and doesn't respond.

"Him falling was funny at first, but after the fifth time in half an hour, it's starting to get pretty old," said Andy.

"Can somebody help me up?" Cooper says while extending an arm out to us.

We each took turns dapping him up and entered school, leaving Cooper to reflect on his own actions. We couldn't really abandon him because Apollo and Andy's shoelaces were tied together but Cooper would have a hard time catching up with us. Because my brain is comprised of one very large neuron, I had enough capacity to remember to stop by Jason's locker. Surprisingly, Jason also remembered. 

"Sup, man," says Jason as he spins around his combination lock. "You ready?"

"Just hand over the fresh pair of overpriced footwear already," I said.

"Excited now, aren't you?" Jason says while searching through his locker. "I don't blame you. I would be too if I was going to change the world as we know it." 

He hands over a pair of shoes that were tied together. You can tell these shoes used to be a vibrant red but got dirtied up over time. They also are really big with white and black designs. The white parts of the shoes got so much dried up mud on it, as expected. I gave him my pair of kicks and put on his shoes. He stores my shoes in his locker. I tie the shoes I'm wearing together. I look like I'm wearing clown shoes.

"Those look really interesting on you," Andy observes accurately.

"Says the one walking around with his shoes tied together," I said.

"Despite there being over five minutes prior to the first bell ringing, why don't we all part ways and report to our first classes considering the fact that walking will take eons," suggests Apollo.

"Smart man," I said.

We split up and walked as fast as we could possibly walk with our shoes tied together. I'm glad my first class is on the first floor. I wouldn't want to be Cooper who has his first class on the third floor. Loser. Anyways speaking of that loser, I thought to myself that I should check up on the poor guy after leaving him.

"Hey Cooper, how are you doing?" My message reads.

I wait a couple of seconds. No response. Whatever, I should be trying to make it to my first class instead of worrying about a guy who probably fell enough times to get free facial reconstruction surgery. It took a lot of shuffling but I made it to the door. I open it and entered and just before I reached my seat, I tripped but caught myself with my desk. I nearly dislocated my wrists saving myself from that jawbreaker. Here I am thinking English class wasn't going to be that bad. Curse these NBA clown shoes. I put down my backpack and rested my head on the desk. Might've snoozed a bit though.

Because nobody wants to analyze poems or find out the deep meaning behind the symbolism or the aphorisms or the alcoholism or all the other types of "isms," I'm going to have to skip time a little like King Crimson.

After a couple classes, it was finally time for lunch. So, I scooted my way to our usual meeting spot, which is Apollo's math class on the second floor. I had to bunny hop up the stairs. By the time I made it to that math class, I realized I was the second to last one to make it. Obviously, Cooper wasn't there before me. However, another thing I realized was Apollo and Andy's shoes weren't tied together anymore. They were just eating their packed up lunches like they didn't have to shuffle their way to this classroom. 

"What took you so long?" asks Andy. He looks at my exhausted face, then he looks at my tied up shoes. "Oh. Sorry I asked."

"Never mind that," I say while unlinking my shoes, "What happened to the challenge?"

"I couldn't bear my shoes being bind up together despite if it being for one day," explains Apollo, "To say it was an inconvenience would be an understatement."

"This was a bad time waster," Andy says, "It was dumb from start to finish. Can't believe practically the whole school was into this."

I took a seat with them.

"I guess Cooper wins this one," I said.

Speak of the frog devil, Cooper shuffled his way to the entrance and takes a seat next to me. He has multiple bruises on his face and he looks done with life.

"Yo..." Cooper croaks.

"Did the library send another gang 'cause you forgot to pay again?" asks Andy.

"No, however, I am getting the hang of walking with my shoelaces tied," said Cooper.

I put my hand on Cooper's shoulder and said, "Look, we all gave up. Why don't you just stop as well before you get any more permanent brain damage?"

"You know what? No. Because of this, I've became more cool. I'm sure this is gonna get me more maidens."

"Like you had any to begin with." I said. I guess I'm not cool enough to get with the trends. Luckily the weekend is around the corner so I won't have to worry about it for a couple days. If only there was a way to get everyone back to normal. How can I be as influential as those guys? 

I thought about it but gave up as the school day ended. I even thought about it while getting back my shoes from Jason. I guess life doesn't always go as you want and I just have to live with it. Whatever, as always, I'll put everything off tomorrow. 

...

I wake up feeling like I could achieve world domination. This is it, I could change the school. I decided to go to a local Starbucks for some coffee to change up my usual weekend. The sky is overcast on this fine morning, which is somewhat comforting somehow.

I walk in and waited in line when someone who gave off very familiar energy walks near me after receiving her drink. We exchanged looks. Now I don't want to assume but she looks just like a friend I had in elementary school, but it would be very awkward and I know my brain would replay that moment when I go to sleep tonight if I mistake her for another perso-

"Remi?" she asks, interrupting my inner monologue.

"Oh hey that's me," I say very casually as if I wasn't overthinking it a couple sentences ago. 

This is Tomoko, a friend I made in elementary school but somehow drifted apart after going to middle school. I remembered she was into anime and manga and all that, which made me get into it a little. We went to different middle schools and contact became less frequent, but it is what it is.

Now looking at her, not much changed. She's still a couple inches shorter than me but her hair grew out, being from her shoulders to now her lower back. She's wearing an oversized t-shirt and skirt with a chain coming off of the side. Her white shoes are as clean as ever, but nothing could compare to all the smudges covering my Crocs.

"I'm gonna sit down now, so when you get your drink, come sit with me and let's catch up, okay?" Tomoko says. I agreed and she sat down at the table with her stuff. I get my limited edition large Frogguccino and sat down. She has her laptop here and right next to it is a frog bucket hat. Great fashion sense.

"So what's been going on with you lately?" Tomoko asks.

I take a deep breath as the PTSD from the past two days came back to me.

"Basically, my school thought it's cool to tie their shoelaces together and it's pretty dumb but everyone's doing it. I tried joining in but it's hard to walk and..." I cover my eyes with my hand from the shock of the experience. "I just want everything to go back to normal. Maybe you have a solution because I can't think of anything."

"It sounds like you've been going through a lot," she says and I nod. "Well, I'm not sure if you know, but a surefire way to stop a trend is to distract everyone with a new one. Remember what happened to Fall Guys?"

It all makes sense. Why didn't I think of that?

"Wow," I started. "You sound really knowledgeable when it comes to these kinds of things."

"Of course, that's why I started V-tubing."

"Wait, really? That's impressive and sounds like a lot of work."

"Yeah, it's even more work than using a thesaurus for Apollo's dialogue even though I have like 20 viewers." 

Huh, that's interesting. Plus, 20 viewers is a decent amount. That's more than how many friends I have. We continued talking some more, talking about what we've been doing recently and all, and at the end we exchanged phone numbers so we have alternative ways to communicate other than coincidental Starbucks meetings. 

My weekend precedes as normal except for the fact that I couldn't think of a better trend, plus I don't even have a fraction of influence as Jason or the other guys. I talked about it with the boys and they have no ideas either, so the best thing we came up with was to push everyone who had their laces tied. Cooper thinks that it's cool so we're going to have to get him Velcro's or something because we can't have him walking with his shoelaces tied together for the rest of his life.

...

I woke up, greeted my fire extinguisher, and got ready for the day. I don't care if I'm shamed for not having my shoelaces tied even though I don't own a proper pair of shoes. It's whatever.

I got to school and as I walk to Apollo and Andy, I notice that no one's tying their shoelaces together. Huh, that's weird. I guess trends could also die over time.

"Guys!" We turn around to see Cooper shuffling forward towards us with his shoelaces tied together. We walk towards him.

"Hey," I start. "You do realize that everyone stopped doing that right? You could go back to normal."

"No," Cooper refuses. "I've gotten so good at this, I could stay like this forever. Heck, I could start the trend again."

"You know, I think I've caught wind about a new trend circulating the campus that's making people really popular," Apollo says.

"Really?" Cooper is intrigued.

"Indeed. Instead of tying your shoelaces together, you tie your shoelace from a tree branch and wrap it around your neck and jump off. It's like bungee jumping, it's pretty cool."

"Woah, I gotta try this," He runs off to the nearest tree.

"Are we gonna stop him?" I ask.

"Nah," Andy says, "Everyone's probably going to see him and yell stuff like 'Don't jump!' or 'You have so much to live for!'"

"Eh good enough,"

We walk inside the school. Another Monday, another painfully long day. It's whatever, at least I won't have to try out a new trend. You know what another Monday means? Another new beginning. That's right, if you cried last Monday because school started, then you could make the effort this week to not cry. Not that anything will get better, but it's better than crying. So if last week, Cooper does something dumb, this week, I'll prevent it by duct taping him to a wall. I'm feeling better already. Welp, time to start class.