It doesn't make sense

The ball was still, but time hadn't slowed for sure.

Altin's heartbeat proved that. It was still beating very fast after rushing with the ball a moment ago.

One second passes, then two, then three...

Eventually, a full minute passed.

And then...

The ball fell vertically, straight like any ball should drop, should it be hung in the air and released.

"What the hell am I seeing?" Altin wondered. "Am I dreaming? Everyone seems to be looking at the same thing, and they are just as surprised as I am." Altin decided to do a reality test.

Reality tests were something he got used to making. In real life, pinching your nose, then blowing through it hurts, but not when you're dreaming. When you're dreaming, air will always go through your nostrils, even as you pinched your nose in the dream. That was Altin's favorite Reality Test.

Altin was a dreamer: as a result, he often dreamt day and night. He had even dreamt that he was dreaming, sometimes. When something unexpected happened, reality tests reassured him he wasn't dreaming.

So Altin pinched his nose... and blew.

"Ouch!" He exclaimed. "So this is real. But what is happening ?"

Fortunately, right at this moment...

"GUYS! Did you see that ?" Somebody asked loudly in the stands.

"I saw the ball stop in mid-air and then falling straight!" Someone answered.

"It really stopped there all of a sudden!" Another one.

"I saw that too!" And yet another boy exclaimed.

Soon enough, the whole audience started to discuss what they saw loudly. Finally, it became clear that everyone saw the same thing happening.

Suddenly, the whistle screamed. The referee had decided to stop the game.

"I need to talk about this with my team," Altin thought. He couldn't wait to share and confirm what happened with the rest of the team. That was fascinating. And weird. All of that at the same time.

A ball literally mysteriously stopped in the middle of the air. It was a never-seen-before event!

Altin ran towards Julien, still faithfully guarding the goal.

At the same time, François and Paul also ran back toward their camp.

The opposite team did the same.

Nobody was in the mood to continue.

A moment later, all of Altin's team was gathered.

"Did you all see what I saw ?" Altin asked.

"The ball seemed to freeze," François, muscles bulging and skin sweating, said.

"I saw the ball slowing down in mid-air, then stop, and only seconds after, fall," Julien added, imitating the trajectory of the ball with his finger.

"It surprised even me," Paul said. That was a lot to say, given that Paul was interested in pretty much nothing except games and TV shows.

"I think we all saw the same thing. So that was real. What could have happened?" Altin asked, facing Julien.

Julien adjusted his glasses. He attempted to explain: "A soccer ball can't hang in the air unless something was pulling at it or trapping it somehow. Perhaps there's a spider net where the ball crossed, then it broke?".

François seemed to disagree with Julien. He said: "I've never seen a spider net stop a ball in mid-air. In all of my games, the closest thing I saw was a bird running into the ball. But, unfortunately, the bird died and even so, the ball didn't hang in the air for even a second !".

"Perhaps there was a strong spider net over there." Julien attempted.

"We won't know until we take a look ourselves." Altin proposed.

"Ok then, let's go. " François suggested.

On that, all four of them went to see the referee.

"We think that maybe there is a spider net that needs to be cleared over there. Do you mind if we borrow the ladder from the maintenance room?" François asked.

The referee replied: "Go ahead. I'm curious as well about what has happened. I can see the other team is discussing among themselves, so we are in no rush to start the game again. However, we can make sure that won't happen again first!"

"Thanks! " François said.

"Let's go together. You'll need my help to carry the ladder," Altin said to François. He would help his only three friends whenever he could, except if it involved sleeping or eating less.

"Sure thing," François answered.

They proceeded to the maintenance room.

FLASH!

Somebody had just taken a photo with a blinding flash. No doubt, this would make a good story for the Instagram of the group. Several more people were already pulling their phones to take pictures of the place where the anomaly had happened, hoping to see anything supernatural.

Altin watched with curiosity, but soon enough, he arrived at the maintenance room door. The room was inside the gym, close to the wall joining with the entrance. It was meant to be easily accessible from inside and outside the gym so that the staff could do maintenance easily.

François pushed the door. They entered. Laid against the wall stood a high ladder, held by two foldable iron feet. It looked stable enough and would do the job to reach the ceiling just fine. The ladder was meant for the lights up in the ceiling or the various metal appendages.

"Carry the back, and I'll carry the front. Deal?" François inquired.

"Deal." Altin agreed.

François and Altin carried the ladder back to where the anomaly occurred.

They laid the ladder on the ground, and François started climbing up.

As he was already 2 meters high, a ball flew over his head.

"Oups! It would be best if you guys wait before we're done sending balls over there. We think that maybe if we throw some balls over there, then we'll see the thing occur again." A tall boy said. He was the captain of the opposite team, Jean. While François's team wanted to inspect the ceiling with a ladder, Jean's team had decided to try instead to reproduce the anomaly by sending balls flying where the previous one had frozen up.

François was annoyed. He nearly had received the ball on his head, WHILE climbing the ladder. "WE'RE ALREADY HERE; YOU WAIT TILL WE'RE DONE!" François warned.

Pssst! Another ball flew by.

"No, you WAIT while we see for ourselves." Jean opposed.

"François, go down! Let's wait a bit! Maybe they can have the ball freeze up again !" Altin negotiated. He was reluctant to see François hurt, but he was also curious whether a similar strike would reproduce the anomaly.

On that, François climbed down the ladder.

He was pissed. Even Altin was pissed. Having thrown balls near the ladder was dangerous because it could have destabilized the ladder and have made François fall.

"They do that again, and I'll kick them." François declared.

Altin stayed silent. He was reluctant to get into a fight.

Fifteen minutes passed, with a dozen balls flying overhead from multiple directions, at different speeds, and at different altitudes. However, no balls stopped like the first one.

A moment later, a boy walked towards Altin. He appeared a little sly, and he was a little nervous facing François: he was the opposite team's goalkeeper. "Our team, our captain included, decided to let you take a look yourselves. Maybe you'll have some luck." He then walked back toward his team. François stared threatenly.

"Their captain probably doesn't want to admit he can't find nor do anything, so he sent the underling. So let's go take a look, Altin." François told Altin.

"Ok, I'll stay on the floor," Altin agreed.

One step up, two steps up...

Steady steps brought François near the top of the layer. He was sure that the ball had been frozen there.

"That was here, right, Altin? Where the ball stopped ?" François asked while moving his arm towards the empty air ahead of him.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it!". Altin confirmed.

"Ok, so, well, nothing at all," François stated.

"Nothing? Nothing at all ?! Are you sure ?" Altin asked.

"As sure I am that you're about to double-check yourself." François double-confirmed.

That had Altin laughing: "Haha, you know me well, well, yeah, it's not that I don't believe you, but I want to see it with my own eyes. You know me."

"Yeah, I know you." François didn't take offense. He knew that Altin was a curious kid; he always had to poke his head everywhere and see for himself. Altin trusted others, but he didn't trust that they wouldn't miss something. Seeing is believing, but also, seeing helps to understand.

François climbed down, and Altin went up.

However...

He also saw nothing. Just empty void. He also didn't feel anything after waving his hand across the area where the ball stopped. Utterly mysterious.

There seemed to have been no reason behind the mysterious freeze of the ball. Had they all hallucinated for a whole minute?

Altin, François, Julien, and Paul gathered at the feet of the ladder.

"So, you two found nor saw anything special at all, right?" Julien asked.

"Nothing at all." François and Altin said at the same time.

"Maybe we all dreamt at that time, or.... a ghosht," Paul attempted to explain while nervously pulling on his messy brown hair. He paid no heed at all to his appearance. He wasn't very scientific by nature, and he was the most laid-back of all. As a result, he also believed in the supernatural. That, at least, was interesting.

"There's no way all the people here would hallucinate the same thing," Julien argued.

"Ok then, maybe Altin did something special with that kick ?" Paul said.

"I swear, I kicked like I usually do. Nothing special about it, really." Altin explained.

"Let's forget it then. Other people will look into it. Plus, many took pictures; maybe they'll find something. It's nearly 11 am; we might as well head out for an early lunch. " François suggested.

The band left the gym.

It was agreed with the opposite team to postpone the game by a week so that the staff could thoroughly inspect the gym ceiling before playing again.

---

It didn't make sense at all. No matter how long Altin thought about it, it didn't make sense at ALL!

Pretty quickly, the incident became the subject of heated discussion in the classes. It spread a bit further than the boy dorm. However, since nothing happened in the next few weeks, the subject was quickly dropped.

As for the game between Altin's team and the other, Altin's team naturally won by a two-point margin. Following that, François ended going into a fight with the captain of the opposite team, Jean. He k.o.ed him with a quick punch to the chin. In a way, both of them lost since the school charged them with extra homework for a week and a warning. With three warnings, they would be temporarily banned from the school. Despite that, François felt it was still a win. It sure fell like it.

Many believed that perhaps there had been some sort of paranormal activity. Some thought the tellers of the story exaggerated the facts. The problem was that the incident had happened too suddenly, and it was too unexpected. As a result, nobody had taken videos right at this time. There had been a picture, but it didn't prove much.

However, as the one who kicked the ball at the time, Altin knew.

He knew that his kick was perfectly normal.

He knew he hadn't felt anything special at that time.

And he knew that, most definitely, something HAD happened, something weird and something that nobody had been able to explain, even his friend Julien.

Until one day...

The next year, in January 2026.

"Hey, Altin! WAIIIITT!" A 15 y.o. boy, wearing dubious and weirdly paired clothes, shouted to stop Altin from going to the classroom on time. The boy was Paul, with his usual unkempt brown hair.

It was 7:59 am, and in one minute, classes would start. Altin was late, so he was rushing to be on time.

"Paul? Wait for what? Hurry, we're about to be late!" Altin told Paul, who had been running after him.

"No, you WAIT! Guess what I just heard during breakfast. A super weird phenomenon. You'll want to hear that now!" Paul exclaimed.

"What ?" Altin asked, mildly annoyed. He didn't want to be late. His teachers had a good opinion of him. He was cute and innocent. That helped a lot. But also, he was a very diligent student. Although not the brightest, he always did his homework and paid attention to the classes.

He felt a strong sense of owning the school for providing him a place to live and study despite being an orphan.

Paul told him. "So during breakfast, just now, I heard somebody who said that during one class yesterday, a teacher suddenly became mute. It was not like not talking, but like he was talking, and his mouth was moving, but suddenly, no sound became able to escape from his mouth. Not just that, but, but..." Paul was out of breath. He took three full seconds before continuing. "He became angry at how people started to talk among themselves, so he threw the book onto the table like he usually does when he's angry. However, this time, it didn't make a loud slam; they just heard nothing! " Another breath later...

"And guess what? This time, someone took a video! It's now going viral on Instagram! "

Altin was speechless.

The suspicion that something wasn't right with the school was growing on him.