"So...what do we do now?"

As I reached behind me to close Miss Delane's classroom door, I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You know," Aimee wore her backpack, "like what do we now that the date of the play has been moved?"

"Oh. I don't know, continue with our reading? It doesn't really change much, in my opinion."

Believe me, my true thoughts were far less nonchalant about the situation than my words were. In fact, part of me was so sure that any second then, I was bound to wake up. And not just wake up on any day, but the day of the play itself.

Yeah, sometimes the universe can be that much of a bitch to me.

Aimee sighed. "Well lucky you then, 'cause for some reason this is a lot for me to take in."

I frowned. "What? Why would it be?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because I always just sort of had everything mapped out in my head. We'd go see Miss Delane, she'll tell us when she wants us to start acting out scenes in front of her, we'd practice on our own, then eventually she'd start organizing practice sessions with all the cast members. Now it's like everything I thought has just gone... whoosh."

A spike of irritation shot through me as I heard all that. I probably would have snapped at her if I hadn't remembered that she didn't understand what the shift of the play really meant for me. Hell, she didn't even know why I didn't want to do the play in the first place, and I sure as hell wasn't about to tell her!

So instead of lashing out, I tried the path of reason. "Yeah, but is 'whoosh' necessarily a bad thing? Look at it this way, at least now we have more time to go over the script. Which means we'll be less likely to have to go over it during rehearsal, or forget our lines during the actual play."

Aimee pursed her lips for a bit, then replied, "True."

She fell silent, but a while later she began speaking again. Unfortunately you and I would probably never know what she had said then, because my attention had already transferred to something else.

More accurately, someone else. The someone who was at that very moment rummaging through his locker as he conversed with the three apes that stood beside him.

Suddenly, I was snapped out of my thoughts by a sharp sound, which happened to be that of Aimee's fingers clicking together in front of my face.
My eyes were met with her glaring face when I faced her once again.

"Welcome back to Earth. I wonder if you heard anything I was saying while you were up in-"

The sound of a locker slamming interrupted her words, cutting off my attention from her in the process.

Noticing my target had gotten on the move, I began to prowl quickly towards him, repeating the words I'd rehearsed last night in my head.

"Hey!"

Without looking back at her, I called back, "We'd continue this discussion after school!"

"I'm covering a shift at work today!"

"Yeah, see you!"

"Are you even listening to me?"

He noticed me approaching then, and soon after his eyes, along with those of his henchmen, were fixed on me.

I walked on till I was a few feet away from them, then stopped. Before I could even get a word out, one of them barked, "The fuck do you want, Smith?"

That came from Aarav, by the way. You may recall him as the guy who, in an earlier chapter, wanted to beat Seth up for dumping his sister.

Without taking my eyes of Dylan, I replied, "I'm only here for Dylan. The rest of you can leave."

All at once, simultaneous growls were thrown my way, until Dylan said, "It's cool, guys. Go on to the cafeteria, I'll soon be there."

There were a few grunts after that, but soon after the other guys obeyed his commands (though they called me less than flattering things as they walked away).

Dylan crossed his arms. "Well? What do you want, Smith?"

"Nothing much, really. I just need you to do a favor for me."

As you can imagine, he scoffed. "That's it? You must be out of your freaking mind."

Not wasting any time, he walked past me, murmuring, "Can't believe I actually stayed back to hear this shit."

Turning round, I smirked. "My apologies, I wasn't aware of how terrible your memory truly is. You owe me a favor, remember?"

He looked over his shoulder and glared at me. "I don't owe you shit."

"Good, because I'd hate to imagine that you'd give me shit service after all the trouble I went through to get Aimee on board with your movie plans the other day."

Dylan's feet came to a stop shortly after I'd finished speaking. For a while, he didn't say anything, then he growled, "I don't remember my 'movie plans' involving her bringing some other guy with her."

I shrugged. "And I don't remember telling her to do so, but oh well. That doesn't change the fact that you owe me a favor."

Another spell of silence followed my words, but I wasn't worried. Because even as Dylan went on staring daggers at me, I could see his jaw tightening more and more by the second.

He was struggling to fight against his very nature, but somewhere deep down I think he knew he was bound to lose.

True to my thoughts, his mouth opened and spat out, "Fine. What do you want?"
. . .

Immediately I got home that day, I rushed to the gym at the back of the main house. I didn't eat before doing so, or attempt to find out if anyone was in the main house. Heck, I didn't even bother to drop my bag in my room! I just tossed it in front of the gym door, took of my shirt, strapped on some gloves, and began pounding the punching bag inside.

It was only until my body was starting to become less responsive to my commands that I finally decided to call it a day. Even then, despite the fact my face was practically dripping and my legs were struggling to hold me up, my mind was still running helter-skelter.

At that time, about an hour had passed since I'd arrived home, so it was about five pm. I first walked up to my bathroom in order to take a long, warm bath (emphasis on the 'long'. I must have soaked in the water for at least thirty minutes). I ate dinner after, which was nothing more than some slices of bread and a bowl of sliced fruits.

Despite the fact my notification tone was on its maximum volume, I couldn't stop myself from occasionally picking up my phone and checking to see if I'd gotten a particular notification for a message as I ate. Even after I put my phone down, my eyes hardly left it.

After repeating this cycle severally, my mind finally decided that I couldn't continue like that. So once I was done eating, I headed to the living room and began searching through my collection of games for something to distract myself with.

I eventually settled on a racing game that I remember I stopped playing before then because I'd reached a particularly challenging level in it. At that moment I was especially grateful that I had, because the challenge turned out to be just what I needed to take my mind off my phone.

Some time later, I heard the front door open, then the sound of footsteps approaching. Soon after, the door of the living room I was in was pushed open further and I heard, "Hey, Angelo."

Pausing the game, I looked back at Annie and replied, "Hey - when did you get your hair done?

She shrugged off her jacket and tossed it on the couch, before collapsing on the couch as well. "Just this afternoon."

I frowned as I compared her former dark, shiny locks which had gone down to her back to the fiery-red, shoulder length form they'd become.

"It's...bright."

"Thank you."

"That wasn't necessarily a compliment."

"Well I'm too tired to think about it as otherwise."

I snickered at that, then turned back to the TV. However before I played the game, I added, "Actually, I really do fuck with this new hairstyle of yours."

"Angelo-" Annie let out a yawn, "-language."

Still smiling to myself, I scoffed, then fully turned my attention back to the game.

Or rather, at least I tried to. Let's just say that whatever jitters I was feeling greatly multiplied after Annie had gotten back home. Which basically means that I was crashing a lot more in the game than I had been prior to her return.

Knowing all this, I hope you can understand why I practically pounced on my phone when it let out a sharp 'beep'.

Even before I'd read the notification, I knew it was from Dylan. He was the only person in my contact list whose notification tone differed from the 'ding' I was used to.

If he was messaging me, it could only mean two things: He'd either gotten the job done, or he hadn't. Either way, it was worth reading.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath in a failed attempt to slow down my racing heart, then began reading the texts he'd sent.

Dylan: Hey

Dylan: So I spoke to one of my guys, and apparently they know the guy you were referring to.

My fingers flew rapidly across the screen as I replied.

Me: Wonderful! So, how soon do you think you'll be able to get the job done?

It only took him a few seconds to typed out his response.

Dylan: Already got it. I'm sending it you right now.

At that moment, all Dylan had to was name an amount, and I'd have sent the money to him.

Me: Good. Consider your debt to me repaid once I receive it.

Dylan: Believe me, you don't have to remind me. The upload should be done in a few seconds.

He was probably right, but those seconds seemed to drag on for me. But at last the video popped up, and I wasted no time in downloading it onto my phone. Once the download had finished, I wirelessly connected my phone to the TV.

After doing so, I walked over to the couch and gently shook Annie, who had fallen asleep there. Her eyes fluttered open, then she straightened herself up and yawned. "Oh wow, I didn't realize I fell asleep here. Thanks for waking me-"

"Yeah sure, but before you go to your room, would you mind if I quickly played something for you?"

Rubbing at her eyes, she frowned. "Can't it wait?"

"It won't take long."

She sighed. "Alright."

So I played the video. Now I'm not going to describe in great detail what happened in the video, but just know that Annie was wide awake by the end of it.

Oh, and her mouth and eyes were wide open as well.

Slowly, she said, "Did I just see-"

"-Aiden getting pelted by raw eggs in front of the most popular bar in town? Yes, yes you did."

Annie's mouth opened and shut severally, but no sound left it. You can probably guess how I was feeling as I watched her reaction.

After a few moments, she managed to let out a squeaky, "But...How..."

"Did I manage this? I'm glad you asked! Remember that dinner you forced me to go to where I first met Aiden? Well, I do recall him saying he works at a bar. A guy I know owes me a favor, so I told him to ask people he hangs out with who frequent bars if they know Aiden. Since apparently one of them did, the rest of the plan was quite simple: all they had to was wait for him to exit the bar, and the rest is history."

For quite a while after my revelation, all Annie seemed to be able to do was stare at me in amazement.

At last, she breathed, "Wow."

"Wow indeed."

Getting up from the couch, she cleared her throat. "W-well, as your guardian I have to say that I strongly disapprove of this. That was a blatant waste of good eggs."

Still smirking, I shook my head. "You're right. I'm devastated to think I arranged for such."

She picked up her jacket, then began heading to the door. "As you should be. Of course, you would be getting punished. In fact, send that video to me, so I can re-watch it severally until I have a good enough idea of what your punishment should be!"

Despite the fact the video was already being sent to her, I replied, "Hmm, you're right! I wouldn't want you to lack inspiration in deriving the punishment I get for this!"

"Good!"

I didn't hear about my punishment the next day. Or the day after that.

In fact, legend has it that till this day, Annie is still searching for that inspiration.
. . .

After 253467666 years, here's the update! 😅 Thanks for being so understanding about my midterms, and for the well wishes as well!

What did you think of this chapter? Don't forget to leave your thoughts in comments, and please drop a vote if you like it!

Till next time!