The front door to the Sparrow household squeaked loudly as it opened. Shade cringed at the sound as he walked into his home as quietly as possible. He shut the door and locked it before making his way through the living room to the kitchen. He placed his backpack down into a kitchen chair before walking over to the fridge to find food. He grabbed a fast food bag his mother left for him out and examined the food inside before deciding against it. He moved to the freezer where he pulled out pizza rolls. He grabbed a plate and poured pizza rolls onto his plate. He threw the empty bag into the trash before moving over to the microwave.

          He grabbed a drink from the fridge and walked back over to the microwave and waited for the food to finish. When it finished, he grabbed the plate and moved to the living room. He looked at the TV, seeing some paid programming show playing. The boy crouched down to sit in front of the small table. He put his plate and drink down in front of him before turning to grab the remote of the table.

          He paused when he noticed his mothers eyes were open, "Did I wake you?" The woman shook her head.

          "Did you just get home?" She rubbed her eyes with one hand and moved the other up to check the time on her watch."It's one in the morning, Shade."

          "Work asked me to close."

          "Shoulda said no, Shade Shea Sparrow. It's a school night," the woman yawned before turning her back to the boy. The boy scrunched his face up in disgust at the mention of his middle name. "Make sure you go straight to sleep when you're done eating. Love you," she muttered as she buried her face into the couch.

          "I've got homework, Brenda Anne Sparrow." Shade stated as he shoved a pizza roll into his mouth. His mother laughed and moved to look over her shoulder. Shade grinned as he shoved another pizza roll into his mouth. He spoke, with food still in his mouth, "Ya know, you musta really hated me to name 'Shade Shea Sparrow.' Honestly, momma, how out of it were you?" The boys joke caused his mother grab a pillow from under her head and chuck it at the boy.

          "It's cute!" She defended herself. "And do your homework in the morning. It's late and you need sleep."

          "Nah, momma, it's lame," he laughed loudly as Brenda flipped the boy off and turned back over. Shade held the pillow she had thrown at him, "You sleeping down here?"

          "Don't feel like walking upstairs."

          "Want me to carry you?" Shade joked as he sat the pillow next to him and grabbed another pizza roll and ate it. His mother laughed from behind him, knowing good and well that if she really wanted him to, he would.

          "No, I'm fine here, momma's boy."

          Shade scoffed playfully at the statement before going back to eating his food. It was only a couple minutes before he could hear his mother snores. He turned the television slightly to make sure he didn't wake her back up. He ate quickly, ready to just go to sleep.

After finishing his food, he threw his empty drink away and washed his plate off before putting it in the dish washer. He ran a hand through his hair and grabbed his backpack from the chair he put it in. Then, Shade made his way upstairs to his bedroom. Opening the door, he made his way into the room. He closed the door lightly before making his way over to his bed. He laid his backpack down on the edge of the bed before moving to sit against the headboard.

He rubbed a hand over his face and then reached over to the opposite side of the bed to pull his blanket over his body. His head rested against the headboard of the bed and allowed his eyes to close, momentarily. When he opened his eyes, he leaned forward and reached into the side pocket of his backpack and pulled his phone out. He pressed the home button, seeing he had a text message from an unknown number.

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (5:06PM)
Hey, I'm a student at Midtown High.
This number was given to me for an
english project. This is the person I'm
supposed to do the project with, right?

          Shade stared at his phone confused, unsure of what this person was talking about. Completely forgetting about the English project he was given earlier that day. He clicked the lock button on his phone, plugged the phone up to the charger, and laid the phone face down on the nightstand by his bed. Then, Shade turned his back to the table and got comfortable in bed, ready to go to sleep.

Just as Shade was about to fall asleep, he remembered the project. He remembered and understood what the text message was for. Realizing his reply was already almost nine hours later, he decided to go ahead and reply—mostly because he knew he would probably forget what the text was for again in the morning.

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:29AM)
Nah, wrong number

          Shade chuckled to himself. Even at one in the morning, Shade thought he was the funniest person in the world. He assumed he would be waiting until the next morning for a reply but his phone buzzed moments later. He unlocked the phone and looked at the message.

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:30AM)
Oh, my bad. My teacher must have
gotten the number wrong. Sorry for
bothering you!

          Shade thought to himself: Do I tell him the numbers not wrong or do I keep going with this? Shrugging to himself, he decided to just go ahead and tell him the number wasn't wrong—knowing he would probably fall asleep, forget about it, and then explain to his teacher what would happened.

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:30AM)
Just screwin with you. You have
the right number. So why're you
up at 1:30AM?

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:31AM)
Homework. You!

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:31AM)
?*

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:33AM)
Got off work not too long ago.

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:33AM)
I thought high schoolers were
only allowed to work until 10
on weekdays?

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:33AM)
I need all the money I can get
so if my boss asks me to stay
late, I stay late.

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:34AM)
Cant they get in trouble for that?

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:38AM)
probably

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:38AM)
So where do you work?

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:39AM)
Well, that would make finding
out who I am too easy,
wouldn't it?

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:39AM)
exactly lol 😉

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:39AM)
not happening, sorry! we're
gonna do this the hard way
and suffer. gender?

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:42AM)
male, you?

to:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:43AM)
guy. hey, can we pick this up in
the morning? im tired and wanna
get some sleep.

from:    xxx-xxx-xxxx    (1:43AM)
Sure! Goodnight!

          Not bothering to reply, Shade locked his phone and plugged it back up. He placed the phone back on his nightstand before turning over once more. He pulled his blanket up to his chin and let out a yawn. He moved around for a couple minutes in attempt to get comfortable. Once that was done, he closed his eyes and hoped he fell asleep quickly.

if this chapter sucks its because i wrote it weeks ago and never read over to see how bad it truly was

also, i googled the age thing for working in new york so if it's wrong ,,,, i fully blame google xx

WORD COUNT. 1279