Party like it's 1999.

Fitz laughed and deleted the message. Hey or hi...

What do you say to a pen pal? It was a dumb assignment. If the news reports were right, the world was ending tomorrow, and he still had to go to school next week. They called it the Y2K bug, and everything was supposed to be completely dark tomorrow. He hated school. Why was he doing homework on New Year's Eve. He was supposed to write this girl he didn't know for the next four years and print out their conversations. His principal insisted that it was the perfect project for millennials. Fitz hated being called that. What the heck is a millennial? When he started grade school, his teachers called him generation x, now they were calling him something completely different in high school. He guessed this girl was also a millennial. They weren't allowed to give out any identifying information for safety reasons. He only knew she attended a school in New York City. He already hated the 2000's. The 90's would forever be the best decade. His little brother Jake cried loudly and Fitz put on his headphones.

I guess we are going to be friends for the next four years.

"Fitz I need to use the phone!" His mom yelled.

Great, he had a good reason to not do his homework. He was grateful for the dialup internet. Fitz disconnected from the internet and turned on the TV. Maybe he should go to a party. He was invited, and it would give him a chance to spend time with Angela. She also had a baby sibling that cried really loud. Olivia or Liv, that's what Angela called her.

XXXX

"Are you still emailing that guy? He could be a stalker or something."

Olivia was already annoyed with her best friend Jake. He thought everyone was a stalker. Olivia wanted to know who was sending the emails.

"Liv, you're going to be late for school!"

Jake grabbed his backpack and climbed out the window. Angela would be very upset if she knew Jake was spending the night. Or would she... She was friends with Jake's brother Fitz. She always talked about how they attended the same high school and some party from 1999. Olivia didn't know why they weren't a couple. Fitz was a cutie.

"If you skip anymore days, you won't be graduating with the class of 2017." Angela said.

"Did you even have a computer when you were in high school?"

"No, there were still dinosaurs walking around New York City when I was a freshman in 1999. Your generation cannot live without social media. When I was your age, we didn't live on the internet. We used it for school, and we only used chat rooms when there wasn't anything good on tv."

Olivia checked her phone and waited to get another email from the anonymous sender. If she didn't know the sender, the email was usually deleted. There was something really mysterious about the messages. The timestamps were all from 1999 and 2000. When the emails started, he was saying something about the Y2k bug. Olivia heard about that in history class last year. It was something about a technology glitch. Could she be getting emails from 1999? The person sending the emails wouldn't be in high school if that was true. Was it possible?

"Hey, get out my car and go to school."

Olivia looked up from her phone and Angela waved at Fitz dropping off Jake for school. Fitz lived next door, and he didn't know that Jake was spending the night at the neighbors house. He was always home before Fitz started the car.

"You two should get married. You've been friends since like forever."

"It's complicated Liv."

"If he's still single in four years, I'm going to marry him."

"He is 14 years older than you. I don't want you to ever mention his name and marriage in the same sentence."

XXXX

Olivia listened to Professor Grant explain the history of email to the class. Jake wasn't paying attention to anything. He thought he would pass the class since his brother was teaching the introduction to technology class. Olivia was having a difficult time concentrating. For some reason, he made her think about the emails she received in high school. That was a long time ago. Olivia was graduating college in a few months. Angela didn't take her advice. They were still friends and nothing more than that. There was something about Fitz that she couldn't explain. Olivia still had the emails from that anonymous sender. She wondered if those conversations were from Fitz. Was it possible? Olivia made herself pay attention. She wouldn't be graduating with the class of 2021 if she didn't pass this class.