Heather

its a chilly afternoon in November, I am resting on my bed, admiring the view from outside. The weather outside is breezy as it ruffles the leaves against my window, the sun shining bright on the neighborhood, giving it a filter like look. The scent of vanilla hanging in the air, the house is quiet with only the sound of the wind as it blows across the neighborhood.

A feeling of peace and joy overflows me as an outcome of the silence in the house, then i remember that i have an exam the day after and the feeling is suddenly replaced by anxiousness and my stomach starts to flip. I hear a distant sound of someone speaking and that's when i know, my parents are home and so is my annoying older sister.

surprisingly, i don't hear their heavy footsteps against the wooden staircase stair case, all i hear is the distant sound of my parents discussing something in a low tone, as if telling a secret. My curiosity has the better of me, as i jump from my bed, and land my foot on the warm carpet of my room. The door flies open before i even touch the cold metal of the handle. My older sister Emily, storms in, annoyed and full of rage as usual, her golden blonde hair in a messy bun, her makeup smudged.

"Did you tell mom and dad that i was going to the party with Jess yesterday!?" she screams at me.

I am confused, i don't even know which party she is talking about.

"what do you mean Emily? I didn't tell them i promise". I say, fully defending myself. She eyes me suspiciously, her stare hard and cold on me, burning  into my skin.

"yeah right." she says as she leaves the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the negative energy she had just created.

***

"Make sure your laptops fully charged." commands our Math teacher. We are taking our exams online since our school 'cares about the environment and doesn't want to waste paper'. Yeah right.

I have my phone beside me opened on our school's i message group. It mainly consists of over 50 students from my grade (most of them don't talkat all) we discuss lessons and answer each others questions so it really helps me.

a few minutes in and I am done with exam before everyone else. I get bored and look around my room, thinking of what to do to pass my time. Then an idea lights up in my brain like a slowly lit fire and I text my best friend Olivia, just finished my exam, wanna prank someone? 

I patiently wait for her to respond as I think of the prank. I am sure she'll say yes since we do pranks all the time. My phone chimes with a text message,  "lets do it, who's our target though'

I think hard and deep, then an idea pops in my head again, "Lemme pick a random name and ask for the exam answers."

Olivia disagrees and claims that the prank is silly, and I keep telling her that it doesn't matter as long as we have fun and don't cause serious problems. We have a little fight till she gives up on me and on the prank as well. I decide that i want to do it alone. So I open the I Message group chat and scroll through the contacts until my finger lands on the contact, Parker.

His name sounds familiar to me but I shrug it off. He is one of those students who don't text in the group and probably an outsider too.

I press on 'Private message' and text him, I ask him if he has the answers for the exam. I wait for him to answer,  and I figure he isn't finished with his exam yet. I leave I message and scroll through Instagram as every thought buries the prank, Parker and the text message until I no longer remember them.

I scroll through Instagram for god knows how long, until my phone chimes with a text message from Parker, and the thoughts and excitement are alive again. I don't. The message says.