𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲 ☏ TBP APPLY FIC

☏ྀིྀིྀིྀི・∘ ONE

dark mode recommended.

PRESENT DAY
ARABELLA..

. ₊˚ ☎︎₊˚✧ ﾟ.

Sunday morning here we go. The cycle repeats and we're still alive. It's okay, I got eighty more years.
"Arabella, we're gonna be late if you don't move your butt. Out in five or you're walking," my mom yells as she walks by my bedroom door.
My childhood door that I see every waking morning since God knows how long it's been.
I quickly move my body off my bed, putting my phone in my pocket as I do so. I grabbed my backpack off the desk and zoomed out of my room. I'm definitely not testing her patience. I learned my lesson on that already.
My mom was at the front door, waiting on me. Aurora must be in the car already. She's sixteen and won't get her driver's license yet. Says she's saving up for a car, but she doesn't even have a job yet.
"Did you turn off the light in your room," she asks impatiently. It can be heard from a mile away.
"Yeah, I always do," I say with an obvious tone. I mean I think I did anyways.
She sighs before letting me pass to the front.
I see Aurora sitting in the passenger seat with her feet propped up on the front dash. She's going to get in trouble.
I hop into the back seat while flinging my backpack in the seat next to me.
Our mom starts situating herself as she buckled her seatbelt, she adjusted her rearview mirror.
"Aurora."
My sister instantly knew what she was going to say.
"Yeah, yeah. My bad."
She took her feet off the dash and sat up straight.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

"Bye mom, love you!"
I say before rushing out the car and enter the school building. I have ten minutes before the first block. Maybe I can spot someone I would actually talk to. My school wasn't the biggest. It's fairly new, and not much kids attend unless they actually live in the area.
As I was getting closer to my locker, I see Sophia Miller. She's my best friend and the most sane one in this school. She's quiet at first, but my God that girl can talk when you get to know her. People can say she's like my partner in crime. Except the fact she doesn't like pickles— that's a flaw.
There's also Cole Booker with her. He's also one of my best friends. Been since childhood. He's the typical average teenage boy. Sports and doesn't care about the world. There's never a thought behind that mind at all. But he cares about me, so everything else cancels out.
"There's my Arabella," Sophia smiles brightly as she engulfs me in the biggest hug.
"Normally, we'd be waiting ten more minutes for you, so congrats," Cole chimes in with his snarky comment.
"Hi to you two too. My morning has been good, thanks for asking," I smile at them before opening up my locker.
"Are you excited for summer?! I can't wait to get out of here, watch movies and eat so many food," Sophie rants enthusiastically about the upcoming break.
"I'm pretty excited. I mean... two months of trying out new recipes."
I have a thing about baking treats. They're my specialty and no one is taking it.
"I still can't stop thinking about those yummy cinnamon rolls you made last week," Sophie awes.
Cole is silently following us to class. Like a bodyguard in a way, but if there was any actual danger... I don't think he'd save us. He probably won't even notice. He normally doesn't talk unless spoken to. He says it's a waste of time.

The bell rings as we enter the class. Right on time. We took our assigned seats and waited patiently for Mrs. Brinks to start the class. She's a slow one.
"Take out your project. If you guys cared enough, it was due today. Presenting it as well, so for the ones that sleep around, it's your lucky day."
Sometimes I don't know if I should be scared of her or not.
"Darla, go start."
"Yes m'am!"
The brunette girl stands up, sophisticatedly neatening her papers before going up to the front of the class. She coughs, indicating she's about to start and wants everyone's attention. I'd pay for her to fail.
"Jack the Ripper. By Darla Summers," she starts reading off her paper.
Did I mention this is a criminal justice class. Our project was to find an old crime case and talk about it.
While she was talking, I felt a kick against my leg chair. I turned around and it's Sophia.
"What did you write about? I wrote mine on Bonnie and Clyde," she whispers.
"Soph, we're going to present them. You'll find that out when I start talking," I whisper to her as I crack a smile.
"But like— I'm really bored."
"I know."
I turn back around to pay attention to Darla speaking. I didn't want to listen to her, but I'm terrified to be on this teacher's bad side.
"The end."
Claps slowly erupted throughout the class.
"Thank you, Darla, for setting the stage. Let's have Sophia come up now."
"Ah sh*t," I hear her mumble under her breath.
She's not a presenting person. She wouldn't do it and this class has a lot of it. She signed up without knowing the consequences. I personally hate presenting unless it's something I'm passionate or confident about it. I'm scared of messing up and fumbling with information. Talking about something that I barely know is me just walking on a thread of string above hungry sharks.
"Arabella. Your turn," I hear Mrs. Brinks call out, making my head turn to her. Wasn't it just Sophia's turn? Was I daydreaming that hard? Do I need to seek help?
I take my papers and bring myself towards the front of the class. I unfold my wrinkled papers and look at the title.
"Okay, just read what i wrote and I'll be fine," I tell myself in my head.
"Arabella, we don't have all day."
"Oh, sorry. Got distracted," I mutter a lie. But it really wasn't. So a white lie?
"The Grabber. By Arabella Reyes. The crime case I chose to research about was The Grabber in Denver, Colorado of 1978," I began reading the top of my paper.
     Here we go.

. ₊˚ ☎︎₊˚✧ ﾟ.

𝐵𝐸𝐿𝐿𝒜 𝒮𝒫𝐸𝒜𝒦𝒮

↳ Do you guys like it so far? It's pretty short but it's a start. I decided to change up my writing format to see how i write. If it affects me or not.

It probably limits with like commenting now that i realize that but hopefully not too much!

For the book's plot, The Black Phone was never a movie!

I also didn't really know what to call the crime case without mixing information with what it's inspired by and the movie lol.