A color shifting lava lamp was standing on Carl's desk. He had movie posters of the Twilight movies on the wall above the bed.

"Nice room."

Carl smiled at Courtney.

"Thanks. You're the first friend I'm inviting over to my house."

Courtney looked shocked at Carl.

"Why? Didn't anyone want to come for even, let's say, your birthday parties?"

"No. They were probably scared by the bullies."

The bullies were Trent and Simon. Trent was 14 years old and Simon was 16. Even though Trent was younger than Simon, he was a lot scarier in his behavior. He walked around, looking like he was better than everyone else. Sometimes, he stared at people a long time just to scare them. Carl didn't like him at all.

Courtney looked at Carl, feeling sorry for him. She patted his shoulder.

"You don't need to feel scared anymore. You have me."

Carl nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks, Courtney."

They smiled at each other. Suddenly, Carl saw the hair of two guys hiding under the window outside. He came closer and they made teasing faces. Carl couldn't believe it. Trent and Simon probably followed them all the way to his house just to tease them. Carl got out of the house, to Trent.

"What should I do to make you stop teasing me!?"

Trent shrugged.

"I don't know. Ask me nicely to unhypnotize all the girls, maybe?"

"Not Courtney!"

"Then, you'll never know if she loves you or not."

Carl groaned, gritting his teeth.

"It isn't necessary!"

"Yes, it is!"

Simon looked confused.

"Excuse me, what!?"

Trent sighed.

"I didn't hypnotize them to make him happy. I thought he would hate it."

Simon shook his head, slowly.

"You know what? Screw being a bully. You're worse than me. This made me realize how silly it is to bully people."

Simon walked away from there, his hands in the pocket of his black hoodie. Trent turned towards Carl.

"Now, see what you've done..."

"What!? I didn't do anything. You did."

Trent looked at Carl with hatred before walking away. Courtney, who saw what happened, went to the window and watched Trent walk away too.

"He's not worth your attention. Just ignore him."

Carl sighed deeply.

"If that was ever possible... He will probably follow me forever."

"Things change, Carl."

Carl turned from the window towards Courtney.

"Yeah. You're right. This will not go on forever. At least not when school's finished."

They smiled at each other. Suddenly, Carl saw all the girls from a long distance. They were running to the house. Carl didn't want his parents to see them. It would be so cringe if they would think that all these girls were his girlfriends.

"Oh no..."

Courtney nodded agreeing.

"Yep..."

Lizzie ringed on the doorbell. Ross opened, confused.

"Who are you?"

Lizzie grinned.

"Could we go see Carl? We'd love to."

Ross shook his head.

"No. Is this a prank or something?"

"No, it isn't. You have to believe us."

Ross sighed.

"Okay, one of you can come in. It's enough with two girls in this house. Carl's room doesn't fit all of you."

"Great!"

Lizzie walked into Carl's room, smiling. Her brown eyes were glimmering. She had a brown sweatshirt on that matched her eye color perfectly.

"I'm here, Carl!", she chirped.

Carl sighed deeply.

"I'm going to ask Trent to unhypnotize you all."

Carl turned towards Courtney.

"But not you, Courtney."

Lizzie looked at Carl, furious. She picked up the chair that was in front of Carl's desk and threw it at him. The girls who were outside, looking at them from the window, looked shocked and felt sorry for Carl. Lizzie shook her head, slowly.

"I'm going away from here, Carl. Although my heart is broken!!"

Carl stared at her. He got headache by the chair so he touched his head. The chair didn't have a single scratch. Lizzie marched out of the house to the other girls.

"Let's get away from here..."

Carl took a bag of peas from the freezer and put it on his head while he walked back to the room, taking a seat on the bed beside Courtney.

"I know why she threw a chair at me. Because she's hypnotized. How could Trent be so stupid?"

Courtney shrugged.

"I don't know."

"I'm gonna call him and ask him to unhypnotize everyone except you."

"Sure."

Carl called Trent who sat in the couch in his living room, eating popcorn while he was watching a horror movie. Trent answered, sighing.

"Who is this? I hope it's not Ghostface..."

Trent makes a scary sound.

"No... It's Carl."

"I'm hanging up on you soon."

"No! I want you to unhypnotize all the girls except Courtney."

"I can't. Courtney has to get unhypnotized too. Bye!"

Trent turned off the call. He took a big amount of popcorn in his right hand.

"And when will he change his mind? Hopefully never."

Carl groaned and put the phone on the bed.

"Some people never learn..."

The next day, it was school again. The class was having a drama lesson and they'd got an assignment by their teacher, Peter.

"You're going to shoot and edit short films for one hour without writing anything before."

Everybody cheered, happily.

"I'm going to put you in groups and you'll work in separate theater rooms. The first section of you, stay here. The second section of you, go to Room B. The third section goes to Room C."

Carl and Courtney stayed, Harry and Trent walked to Room B and Lizzie went to Room C.

Harry sighed.

"What are we going to do? We don't even have a script..."

Trent nodded.

"Yeah... That's why you're going to let me handle the script."

"Oh... So, you're good at coming up with ideas?"

"Yeah."

Trent picked up his phone and filmed Harry.

"Make a terrified face."

Harry looked at the camera, terrified. Trent came closer with the phone, talking in a slow, monstrous voice.

"I'm gonna get ya..."