'Baby I'm preying on you tonight. Hunt you down, eat you alive. Just like animals, anim'

"Hello." I sleepily answered the call.

"Is the real Barbara back?"

"Cameron? Why are you calling me by this time of the night?"

"I think she's back. Well, I'm at a party and I remembered opposite universe Barbara loves parties so I thought 'why not invite her?' "

There's loud music playing in the background so I know he's not lying. "Cameron, it's 10:40 pm. How do you expect me to leave my house at 10:40 pm? Do you want me to get kidnapped?"

"I could come pick you up."

I ignored him and continued, "Look,you just ruined a good dream I was having and now I have to go back and try to continue from where I left. I'll talk to you in the morning."

"I really like the other Barbara" he whined.

"Goodnight Cam."I hung up and looked at my phone. 10:43 pm. Party. Hmph!

I was about putting it down when I saw an Instagram notification. Normally, I would have thought 'why did I leave my data connection on?' but this was a different case. This was a DM from someone I didn't expect to see again. Not like I've seen him physically though. The guy I had a 10 seconds crush on. And he sent me a message in the middle of the night. And no, it wasn't a long romantic poem or even a cheesy sentence. He just sent the simplest words, no word his phone could type. Hi.

_________________

"Good morning aunt"

"Good morning Barbara. How are... What the fuck!!!"

"What?!" I immediately spun around to find what made her scream like that. I found nothing.

"Is this real? I mean, that thing in your hands. I'm not dreaming am I ?"

"No, you're not. " I dropped the tray on her bedside table and pinched her to prove my point.

"Ouch! Alright, it's real. Now why? Did someone call you lazy? Did anyone say something to..."

"No aunt. No one did anything. I just decided to prepare breakfast this morning and you should be thanking me instead. I've been standing here for five minutes waiting for a thank you."

"A thank you? You made me bread and eggs for a thank you."

"And tea." I added.

"Let's make a deal. You make me lunch and I give you a hundred thank yous. I'll even write it down. In my secondary school days, our seniors normally made us write those stuff: 'I will not disrespect my seniors anymore' hundred times."

"You went to a boarding school?"

"Yes, I did. And.. Mmm. This sandwich is just perfect. And you know just the right amount of pepper to add."

Right amount of pepper meant adding much pepper until your eyes watered.

"Aren't you going to school today?"

"I am. I'm just waiting for Cameron. He said we should go together today."

"Hmm." She gave me a knowing look.

"He's not my boyfriend." I immediately defended.

"I didn't say anything." She smiled and sipped her tea. "Be careful okay. "

"Sure."

'Baby I'm preying on you tonight. Hunt you down ea'. Who set this thing as my ringtone?

"Cam?"

"I'm outside. You ready?"

"No. Not at all. Give me thirty minutes."

"Haven't had your bath?"

"Affirmative. Just thirty minutes okay?"

He didn't say anything so I hung up.

"Boyfriend?" Aunt Marie asked again. I shook my head. "Whatever you say."

_______________

"So, which of the Barbaras do I get to walk with today?" He asked immediately I closed the door.

"There's only one Barbara. Me."

"Whatever you say,princess."

"Oh royal servant, can we hurry to school?"

"Yes. But her Royal highness must not step her feet on the same soil that we commoners do. If you permit me, I shall carry you to school. " he bent his back, motioning me to hop on. .

"Oh no. No. I want to walk today."

"Does her royal Highness know it's getting really late?" Aunt Marie shouted from the window. She'd been watching our little play.

We laughed and walked faster.

"My offer still stands."

"I'm too heavy. You'll break your back. "

"Yeah. You're right. No girl will want a guy with a broken back."

"Too bad. You'll lose your total number of girlfriends by half."

"Yes. And I don't want to lose them. They're very useful to me. "

I don't know why but something about the way he said it made me feel.... Somehow.

"We're not walking to school. Are we?"

"No. We're not. We're taking the bus."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"We get to school on time. Yay." I said with no trace of happiness in my voice.

We took the bus to school and Cameron still managed to make it fun. We played stupid games I didn't even know existed. I mean, how is slapping people a 'common' game. Someone slaps you unexpectedly and you slap the next person and so on. It was painful when it was done to me but I enjoyed watching other people get slapped. Does that make me a sadist? No. I'd have to be the one to slap everyone for that to be true.

"Parker. MISS PARKER!!!"
"Yes sir." I looked up from my phone to see the angry man screaming my name. I've not seen him before and I wonder what he's doing in Mrs clavel's class. It's when he says 2y² +7y = -3.

"What?". I looked down and saw that I had an F in my game.

" Here." He handed me the marker like he was giving me a gift. "Go and solve it."

"What?" I said a second time. I'm good at maths but not early in the morning. Or when I have to solve it in front of the whole class.

"The answers are -3 and -½." Cameron whispered before I left my seat.

"Wait!" The new maths teacher shouted as I got to the board. I paused. "I want you to show work of every step you take. "

"Okay."

2y² + 7y = -3
2y² +7y +3 = 0
2y² +6y +y +3 = 0
2y(y+3) +1(y+3) = 0
(2y+1)=0 or (y+3) = 0
2y+1=0 or y+3=0
y= -½ or -3

Before I could drop the marker, the teacher started clapping.

"I'm impressed. This shows that I shouldn't listen to rumours in this school. A group of people said you were the dumbest person in the class. But when I saw you,you didn't look dumb to me."

I don't know which one makes me angrier; the fact that people still spread lies about me or that this man wanted to show my 'dumbness' to the whole class. I can feel my face getting red as I walk back to my seat.

"Why are you mad? You got it right."

"Did you hear what he said? He wanted to embarrass me in front of the whole class. He didn't call me out at random. What if I didn't get it right? What if!"

"Calm down. The most important thing is that you did. By the way, I was playing 'hardest game ever' on your phone and series of texts from almond Jordan kept popping up on the notification. You both are friends?"

"Not really." We weren't even acquaintances.

I made a mental note to text him once the class was over. I didn't. I texted him immediately I took my phone from Cameron. The 'series of texts' weren't what I expected. He'd taken one of my Instagram pictures and edited it with yet another simple message attached to it.

@Almond_Jordan: sorry I didn't ask for permission before using your picture. It was just too beautiful I couldn't resist working on it.

Finish. Just that. And the picture.

Beauty in nature.
Did it mean I'm naturally beautiful
Or

The grass is beautiful
Or

There's beauty (me) in nature (the grass).

I didn't understand a damn thing but my pride wouldn't let me ask him. Instead I texted him a thank you.

Almond_Jordan: you should see the comments. Now I'm wondering why I didn't know you earlier. Are you new to Instagram?

Barbara_parker: yes. I think I joined about a month ago.

Almond_Jordan: explains much.

Three periods later, I think Almond_Jordan, I mean, Almond has become my new friend. We still don't know much about each other but at least I know he's almost 19, wants to be a pilot,artist,singer,businessman. I don't know how he's going to accomplish all that though.

"It's time for lunch break" Cameron announced in my ear. He's been announcing things like "time for biology.", "Time for chemistry" so I know when to stand up.

Now I'm beginning to feel bad. I totally ignored him through out those classes.

"Are you mad at me?" I asked as he packed his books reminding me that I had a lot to copy.

"Mad that you spent the whole time chatting with the famous almond Jordan? No. Not at all."

"I didn't know he was famous." I defended. "Alright. I'm sorry."

"I'm not angry."

"Well, you shouldn't be. You should've just chatted with one of your numerous girlfriends." That came out wrong. It sounded like I only talked to Almond because I was jealous of Cameron.

"Are you jealous?" He smirked.

"Nope."

"You are."

"No!"

"Last person to get to the cafeteria buys lunch!" And he ran out.

I'm not jealous.

So almond Jordan is back in the picture and Cameron might or might not have numerous girlfriends.

It took me a lot of time to write this because I kept writing in present instead of past tense. Eg. says instead of said. I blame the numerous Collen hoover books I've been reading recently.

Also, has anyone heard of the game 'hardest game ever'? It's so hard and addictive.

Thanks to MagishaMags534 for the words of encouragement. You made me post this chapter today.

I might be doing this more often( updating randomly) till I go back to school.

Till then,
❤