Connie Maheswaran has always been like a sister to you.
Your mothers worked the same job, and you ended up being born only a few weeks before her. She would help you with homework, and you would help her with time management, since she could never seem to get the hang of it.
She would get much more attached to her fandoms than you would - although yes, you liked them, and made sure to keep up to date on the episodes or books, she went the full nine yards. She drew fanart, designed OCs, and even wrote fanfiction. Her two favorites were Harry Potter and something called "Steven Universe".
You never really understood her taking to the latter, and if she were honest, she didn't, either.
She'd tend to do stuff like this in your 9th period class, which you shared. Your teacher was generally understanding of it, though, since she'd get the work done beforehand and check it a few times against your own.
You'd humor her sometimes and make a game mod out of something, since she'd be interested in things like that and was always proud to see you put in the effort.
Today you're particularly excited because you'd planned together to marathon all the Harry Potter movies and analyze their differences from the books.
She isn't at the bus stop, however. That was strange, you think to yourself. She's always here before me. You write it off as her having a bad day. It tended to happen once in a while when she ended up missing an assignment due to taking too long on the others. Her mom would let her sleep in and drive her to school later.
She wasn't at any of your shared classes, though. You'd generally have to keep your mind strictly on the assignment during fourth period, so you didn't get the chance to think about it much. Ninth period was a different story, though.
Maybe she's sick? you consider. But then, she'd have told me about it.As you leave the classroom, you decide to call her. You open the contacts app and find her name in the list, selecting Call.
There are seven rings. Usually she picks up before the third.
"Hello?"
You freeze. This is her cell number, but that's not someone you recognize.
Tentatively, you continue speaking. "Hi, can I speak to Connie, please?"
"...who's Connie?"
Something is wrong. You can feel it.
"Look, I think you have the wrong number."
"Yeah, I must have misdialed. Sorry."
You end the call. In a nervous panic, you find Priyanka's name in the list and call her.
"Maheswaran residence. Priyanka speaking."
You identify yourself.
"I'm a little worried about Connie. Someone else answered her phone, and she hasn't been to school. Is she ill?"
"I don't know what you are talking about. Who are you? How did you get this number?"
You hang up frantically.
By the time you are home, you don't really remember why you called Priyanka or even why you have her number.
Why would you?
You don't know any Connie.
