A for Anxiety (On Hold)

7- When Changes Become Predictable

On leaving the shopping centre, Fizz dodged through crowds of shoppers and overexcited young kids before reaching the bus stop that would take her home. It was a miracle that she hadn't been caught yet but she could easily predict that school could be outside her house, waiting to grab her if she tried to get in.

Her phone vibrated in the bag as she was getting her ticket ready to show to the driver and on instance, she immediately thought it was The Boy messaging her again. But main priority was to get on the bus and find a seat.

On doing so, Fizz looked at the time. She was going to be home around thirty minutes before school ended for the day. Surely the house would be OK when she got home? That question dawned on her again and again. Then, she nervously checked her phone to see what the notification was all about.

As expected, it was another message from The Boy. Shielding her phone from the person sitting in the seat behind, Fizz decided to read it and see what he had to say.

"To The Girl,

Two blog posts in one day and in a short amount of time too! You must be passionate about your blog if you update it quite often. Reading your latest post made me think about something that happened in my past life but never really looked back on until I read your words. Not sure if I should share it or not."

He hadn't signed the message as he did the first time but Fizz wasn't too concerned. Instead, she typed up a quick response for him.

"My blog is like my personal diary, just to the internet though and not in a paper notebook. I'm not forcing you to share your past experiences but on reading your message, I am keen to discover more."

Thirty seconds later, there was another message.

"You promise not to share it with any other parties?"

Fizz took a deep breath and replied in one word.

"Yes."

As the bus pulled up towards her stop, she pressed the button on the side of the rail and walked towards the front of the bus with her things. To her relief, she hadn't spotted anyone or anything suspicious outside her house. Thanking the driver quickly, she got off the bus and walked towards the front door of her house. There were no sign of the neighbours or any waiting cars parked outside the driveway. Things looked perfectly normal.

On opening the door, there were five envelopes on the mat with various names on. Quickly picking them and shutting the door, Fizz dumped her rucksack in the hallway and looked at the envelopes. The first two were bills for her dad, the third was a bill from her mum, the fourth was a piece of junk mail and the fifth... had her name on it.

"Oh God," thought Fizz as she took the envelope in both hands, "It's got the school logo on it."

At that same moment, her phone shook in her rucksack with a new message. Although it was tempting not to open the envelope, her curiosity mostly got the better of Fizz. She decided to open it but carefully.

On doing so, she read the first paragraph and smiled with relief. Nothing to do with the events from earlier, only a revision checklist for Science.

"Oh boy," smiled Fizz with relief, "That was a close one!"

Placing the other envelopes except for the open one on the dining room table, she reached for her phone to check up on the latest message.

"To The Girl,

Well, I trust you. I don't trust a lot of people, some people have made my life hell. Friends that turned out to be enemies, teachers that went behind my back. I've experienced a lot of bad things in the last five years or so but there have been one or two happy moments such as the one I'm about to tell you. About six years ago, I was in the last year of primary school and I had a really nice teaching assistant. Funny thing is, I can't quite remember her name (weird I know) and she had this lovely smile and wore thin glasses as she was short sighted. There were two things coming up that I was interested in, one was like a book contest where you compete against other teams from other schools and a basketball game. Problem was, both of them were on the same day at the exact same time. I couldn't let both teams down so I ran off during a lesson dazed and emotional and she found me in the corner of the playground. Sitting down next to me, she asked me what was wrong and I told her. From the first sentence, I could that she was right there with me and listening to me (unlike other people I knew) and she told me to listen to my heart and make a decision from there. I said that I just didn't want to let anyone down and she could understand that. I decided to go to the book contest rather than the game but just as we were heading back indoors, another teacher ran out and said that the basketball game had been delayed until later on and that I could do both.

And that is exactly what I did and because of that delay, I went to both things, won the book contest and won the basketball match and all thanks to some great advice that I still carry with me to this very day. Call me a geek for reading books but it was and technically still is, one of my passions.

I now listen to my heart, not my head.

The Boy."

Fizz didn't know what to make of the message. It took her a while to come up with the right words to say to him but she felt her fingers tap in her response.

"To The Boy,

What a nice teaching assistant she is! Her advice really tops all the other pieces of advice that I've heard in my life, yes, it is simple but sometimes, simple is really effective. I'm not judging you or anything but I read books as well. I visit the school library regularly to look for books and hide away from my year group. It's horrible to hear that teachers went behind your back, I've had that as well.

The Girl."

A few minutes later, he had replied,

"Phew! I was honestly worried that you might judge me as online, there are a lot of nasty people and trolls around. Thank you for taking the time to listen to what I say. I hope we can talk more often.

The Boy."

"I don't judge people and online, it isn't safe but if you follow the rules, you won't be in trouble." Fizz started to type before stopping. It was generally nice to hear from someone but in truth, she still didn't know who The Boy really was. Her head was telling her to play it sensible but surprisingly, her heart was telling her the opposite and on reading that one sentence that stuck in his message, she added,

"I hope we can talk more often."

There. She had typed that sentence which could change things. With a pounding heart, she pressed send just as she heard a car door slam and rushed voices. Peeping round the lounge door, she saw two figures getting out of a car and heading towards the house, her house.

"Oh no," whispered Fizz, "If they are who I think they are, I'm in for it now."

Dun dun dun! Cliffhanger alert! Who could possibly be those two figures? Are they people from her school or two complete strangers? You will find out all in the next chapter! Let me know your thoughts so far on the story! And who could this mysterious user,"The Boy" be? Scarlett x