Chapter 10

I wake up to the sound of a jingling, old-fashioned alarm clock sitting on my nightstand. Rising out of my bed, I look over at the jangling alarm clock.

"When did I ever have an old alarm clock?" I ask aloud.

From her bed, Mary raises up her own alarm clock, "Universally issued to every Wattpad High student. Have fun waking up to this every morning."

I roll my eyes, "No thanks."

I grab my still ringing alarm clock and throw it down onto the ground, the gears jumping out as a spring pops free from inside the clock.

"C'mon, we have to get ready for school," Mary grumbles, rolling out of bed.

She stands in front of her full-length mirror next to her closet, "Hmm...what should I wear today? I've been thinking about getting red highlights. You know what, what the hell?"

All of a sudden, the ends of Mary's perfectly tousled hair become a bright scarlet red.

Flipping her hair back while checking herself in the mirror, she smiles, "Nice. Alright, makeup time. I'm gonna go with a smokey look today. The usual foundation, contouring of course. Now, a thick black eyeliner, a light layer of black eyeshadow, oh! How about a little glitter."

"Do you really have to narrate your entire morning routine?" I complain from my bed.

Mary turns around, revealing to have on everything she described in the mirror, "Well, no duh, I have to. That's how everyone gets dressed. Come here, I'll show you."

Getting out of bed, I walk over to Mary's mirror, and stare into it intently as Mary continues, "Alright, now I need a generous helping of mascara-"

Her eyelashes are automatically extended as the mascara is applied to her eyes. My eyes are wide with shock, yes, a character describing themselves in a mirror is cliché as hell, but actually putting stuff on by describing it in the mirror? I don't know if that's utterly scary, or utterly genius.

"Go on, try it," Mary offers, stepping aside.

I walk in front of the mirror, unsure if this will actually work. Mary is omnipotent after all, maybe it only works for her.

"Uhm...my mom never let me wear liquid eyeliner. How about that?"

Suddenly, both my eyes have a gentle layer of eyeliner around them, just as I'd imagined. It's not smudged or crooked like it would be had I done it myself, it's perfect, like a professional job.

"Wow...no wonder you look so good," I realize.

Mary snickers, "No silly, I naturally look this perfect. Makeup just...helps."

She snaps her fingers, "Hey, I got you your own mirror, now go get changed."

I turn around to see a white, full-length mirror by my bedside. How did that...you know what, I'm not even going to question it.

Getting in front of the mirror, I start imagining what I could ask the mirror for. My automatic thoughts go to things I wear normally, t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, but this is a magical mirror that allows me to wear whatever I want, why not go a little nuts?

"Uhm...okay...how about...clown makeup!"

I become fully covered in brightly colored face paint, and I can't help but laugh, "Wow...okay, nevermind."

The clown makeup disappears, and I'm left with my normal, slightly pimply face, "Alright, time to get serious. How about...a basic, trendy, contemporary look?"

My sleepwear is replaced by a loose, thin white blouse with pockets in the front, blue skinny jeans, and brown flats.

"Hmm...pretty much what I imagined. This is going out of vogue in a couple of years, such a shame," I comment, admiring myself in the mirror.

"Hurry up!" Mary shouts as she heads out the door.

I sit down in my desk for my Romance class. The classroom is lined with pink cut-out hearts, with the Twilight Saga displayed on a table in the corner of the room. A short, perky woman in her twenties steps into the room, with a bright smile and a youthful complexion.

"Hello class, welcome to Romance, I'm your teacher, Ms. Eleanor," she steps to the front of the class.

"We're going to have an awesome year together. For our first day, we're going to go over a valuable Wattpad skill, one that will take your writing in the right direction and boost you into new places...a good profile pic!"

She takes out her iPhone, "While profile pictures can vary from pictures of popular characters and actors, to awesome artwork you stole off of Google search, nothing beats a good selfie. C'mon, everyone try it."

I watch as the rest of the class takes out their own, identical iPhones and raise them up to pose for a selfie. I slowly take my phone out of my pocket, and raise it up in a similar fashion. Okay...hopefully my camera will load in time to take a selfie.

"Uhm...excuse me? You, sitting in the middle of the class," Ms. Eleanor calls out.

The people in front of me turn around, and I put my phone down, "...yes?"

"What kind of phone is that, exactly?"

I look down at my phone, "An Android…"

"And why don't you have an iPhone?" she asks, her hands on her hips.

I shrug, "Why do I need one?"

"Hey look, he still has an iPhone 4!" a girl points to a boy in the corner.

The boy, who, as the rest of the class turns their heads to, turns out to be Skye, puts down his phone and waves to the rest of the class. They continue to stare at him, with a unanimous look of disgust.

He chuckles, "What? ...it was cheap."

I laugh as Skye and I exit the Romance classroom.

"While I don't expect to get the highest grade in Romance, I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of fun," I speculate.

"Maybe. If Ms. Eleanor doesn't kick you out for...I don't know, suggesting a female protagonist might not have a love interest," Skye replies with a joking smirk.

I laugh again, leaning my head against his arm and laughing into his sweatshirt. He stops, and looks down at me. I respond, looking up at him. Uh oh, did I give him the wrong idea?

He takes my hand, "Would you like to...I don't know, hang out at my dorm? I've clearly...already seen yours...it's only fair you see mine."

I pull my hand away from him, stuffing my hands in my pockets, "Uhm...sure, yeah. We could hang out."

He smiles, clenching his fists together and waving them around, "Yay."

I follow him to the boy's dormitory and walk all the way down to the end of the hall, where he opens a door to reveal all black painted walls and matching black marble floor. A double bed with thin drapes around the bedpost, a gothic vanity cluttered with pictures and makeup, and a plasma screen TV with a gaming set-up combines the ideal bedrooms of a depressed goth, a hipster gamer, and a teenaged prom queen.

"Wow...if Hot Topic designed furniture, their showroom would probably look like this," I observe in awe.

He smiles, his hands behind his back, "I'm glad you like it."

Walking further into the room, I notice the pictures on his vanity. Walking over to them, my eyes widen when I realize that these are all pictures of me. There's an audible *click* coming from somewhere behind me as I approach the vanity.

"Skye...could you please explain these?" I ask, pointing to the pictures.

Leaning against the door, Skye looks over and gasps, "Oh no, I forgot to put those away!"

He starts grabbing the pictures off of the vanity and stowing them away in the nearby shelf, but there's enough of them that I'm able to snatch away a few.

Unbeknownst to him, I flip through the pictures I'd grabbed. Most of them are creeper shots taken while I was walking in the courtyard. One of two of the pictures are...of me sleeping in my dorm. Those must have been from last night, you can even see Skye's window reflection in the picture. Despite the fact that these pictures are super, super creepy, they're very well shot, and on a real camera too.

Turning around, Skye nabs the photos in my hand, "Sorry about that. I'll just...take those from you."

He stuffs the last of the pictures into the drawer, and wheezes a sigh of relief, "Whew…uhm...how about I make you some coffee? Or tea? Whatever you prefer."

"Tea would be nice," I nod.

He moves to a small corner of the dorm, where a kitchen counter, a hot plate, and a couple of black cupboards lie.

I'm tempted to open the drawer where he hid those photos, but honestly, I'd like to forget I ever saw those. So instead, I move on to a tall bookshelf standing next to the vanity. Skye has all the essentials: Wuthering Heights, Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, Goosebumps...he still reads Goosebumps?

But one shelf of his bookcase is dedicated entirely to thick, encyclopedic red leather bound books. The titles along the spine are the most intriguing thing about them. Getting Your Girl: How To Impress, How to Avoid a Love Triangle, Kidnapping Protocols…? What kinds of books are these?

I take out How to Avoid a Love Triangle and open it to a bookmarked page. The book reads like a self-help guide, but with intentions far beyond "help".

When faced with a rival, it's important that you let your girl choose...you. This is the time when you make yourself most desirable, for if your girl were to choose the other man (or woman), the consequences may be disasterous.

The page is bookmarked by a small brochure pamphlet. I pick up the brochure, and in bright red block letters, the title reads: How to Hide a Body: The Bad Boy's Guide to Getting Rid of a Rival.

Opening up the pamphlet, the title doesn't disappoint, as the brochure gives detailed instructions on the disposal of corpses and even how to cover up the evidence. Why would Skye need books like this?

"I brought your tea. I hope you like jasmine-..." Skye stops mid-sentence as he sees me looking through his books.

"I turn around, and show him the pamphlet, as well as the book, "Skye...what's this?"

"Oh...oh that? Those are just my Bad Boy manuals. They're the rules by which every Bad Boy follows," he explains, sitting down and handing me the cup of tea.

"Thanks," I mutter, taking the cup and turning to another bookmarked page. Just as I'm about to take a sip of the tea, I read the title: Knockout Drugs: How to Make Sure They Still Wake Up.

I immediately stop the movement of the cup, setting it down along with the book, "You know what? I think I'm good for tea…I'll just be...heading back to my dorm now."

I get up and head straight for the door, but when I try it, the door won't budge.

"Uhm...why did you lock the door?"

Skye gets up, "No...wait, don't go."

I turn around, "Then explain why you had those pages bookmarked. ...why do you need those books anyway? Especially since they'll filled with...messed up shit."

He draws closer, "Look, I do need those books, they've been a lot of help in navigating our relationship-"

"Yeah, a lot of help they've been, they're what's been giving you the idea to sneak into my room at night and follow me around like a stalker! What's next...were you going to kidnap me?"

Skye fidgets, looking down at his hands, "...well...yeah, but I would never do anything to hurt you! I just, wanted a chance to get to know you better, away from all of these...distractions."

I slowly start backing toward the door, "Distractions?! Skye, monopolizing someone is not how you get to know them, and besides, why isn't the two of us hanging out here good enough?"

Just then, the door blows open, flying off of its hinges. I brace myself to get hit by the debris, or rather, the door itself, but two arms grab me and tackle me to the ground. Once the dust begins to settle, I start to open my eyes. I'm wrapped in Skye's arms, lying just under his chest. Above him, the collapsed door is balancing on his back, it must have fallen right on top of him.

"Hello lovers!" Mary's overconfident exclamation comes from the doorway, before she realizes, "Hey...where are they?"