Unknown Number

            “Caryn wake up!” my mom yelled. She shook me until my eyes were at least partially open. “Come on Caryn, don’ be so folly.” She finally left my room and I started to climb out of bed. I pulled my legs over and already I felt feeble. I walked into my closet and started to pull out clothes. September had just started and it was already freezing cold outside. I walked out with almost three layers on. I looked onto my sitting chair in front of my TV. I usually put my outfit for school on it, but school starts tomorrow and I’m getting my outfit today. I was so ecstatic to peruse through the mall with Sara.

            I went downstairs and searched through the cabinets for something to eat. My mom walked through the hallway hurriedly putting on her earrings. My mom worked in realty and had a huge open house today.

“Hi sweetie.”

“Hi mom.” I said through a mouth full of Fruity Pebbles. She smiled at me. Finally she got her earring in, grabbed her briefcase, kissed me on the head and walked out the door. She didn’t even have time to say good- bye to my dad, who was watching the Patriots game from last night. My mom always talked about this house and how lucky she was to get it, but I always thought she emphasized it to much.

            I waited in the kitchen until the door bell rang. “Finally.” I thought. I was almost to the door when I forgot my phone upstairs. I opened the door and Sara stepped inside.

“Hold on! I forgot my phone upstairs.” I was already halfway to my room when she yelled, “Well hurry my mom is waiting!”

            I came back downstairs with my phone secured in my pocket. “Okay, let’s go.”

            We walked down my little sidewalk when I noticed what Sara was wearing. I always admired her style, it was completely her own. She was wearing a long sleeve navy green shirt with a cute cropped light blue eyelet on top with a yellow scarf around her shoulders. She had super skinny jeans that had a cheetah print on them, along with bright blue high heel boots. It was sort-of an elegant look with an exotic twist.

            We got into the car and I was surprised to see Sara’s little brother, Jamie, sitting in his car sear. We got settled in the back when Sara saw me staring at him.

“You know what he would do if he saw you staring.” She whispered.

“What’s he doing here? I thought he had therapy on Fridays?” I whispered back.

“They had to cancel Friday so they scheduled him today. My mom said she’ll drop us off then take him there.” I nodded in response.

            Jamie had started kindergarten last year, but the teacher went insane and tried to shoot all the kids. The teacher started shooting and Jamie’s best friend as shot and died. 

           Jamie saw it all, so his mom has made him be in therapy ever since. I looked over at him and noticed his pockets were stuffed with tissues and in his bag a journal was poking out. I wonder what he wrote in it.

            Sara’s mom pulled up to the front of the mall. We got out of the car and Jamie took Sara’s hand and said, “Bye Saa.” He could only pronounce it with one syllable, so it sounded like he said two A’s. She kissed him on the head and said good-bye. We waved as they drove off. When they pulled out of the parking lot we turned and ran into the mall. There weren’t many people in the mall, which was a surprise because it was the day before school started. We went straight for Bath and Body Works, it always smelled so good in there and we both wanted new perfume for school.

“We need a new smell, a new fragrance. One that will serenade all the boys in school form ten feet away, especially the seniors.” She nudged me and we both laughed. We were finally starting high school and we wanted to impress everyone. We weren’t the most popular girls in school last year. I had acne, braces and glasses and Sara had scoliosis. Her posture was terrible and now it’s perfect, and I got contacts, my braces off and Proactive. Sara had surgery on her spine and now she has perfect posture.

            We bought some new perfume and walked out of the store. We walked down a few stores. We saw a toy store with little stuffed animals. It said they were Wombats, but they looked more like weasels, then we passed a jewelry store with “Matrimony” rings. They were beautiful! Then we went into Hollister.

Sara didn’t like Hollister, but I loved it. Though I always had to delve in there because it was so dark and the music is so loud. We walked around the store looking through the clothes and yelling at each other over the music. After a while our throats hurt and we decided to text each other instead. I found some things I liked and texted Sara.

“Goin 2 try on clothes” I texted.

“K” She replied.

            I walked into a dressing room and hung the clothes up. I was starting to take my jacket off when my phone went off again. I looked at the screen, it said restricted number. It wasn’t a call so I looked at the text.

“Hello” It said. I thought for a moment. There isn’t anyone new I had just given my number to. I decided to text back anyway.

“Who is this?” I sent the message and as soon as it did they texted back.

“Your savior or your killer.” I dropped my phone on the floor and I felt it vibrate by my foot. I thought to myself. “Great the day before school and I have a stalker. Terriffic.”

I picked up my phone. Of course it was that person. I opened it.

“I have a bet for you. You must accept it.”

I replied, “Thanks for the choice who ever this is.” Send.

New message. “Tomorrow you cannot talk to anyone.”

“Wat?” Send.

New message. “You may speak to no one for the first week of school.”

“Wat?!” Send.

New message. “You may speak to no one for the first week of school.”

“And if I speak to someone?” Send.

New message. “You die.”

            My stomach came up to mouth. It felt like talons were groping my neck.

“Who are you? I can have you arrested!”  Send.

New message. “You cannot find me. I can only find you.” I felt worse and worse by the second. Obviously this was just a joke, but it was a pretty serious one. I decided to simply stop texting this person and try on my clothes.

New message. I was afraid to look at my screen, but smiled when I saw it was only Sara.

“R u done yet?”

“Almost.” I was about to text Sara about the unknown number, but then a new message came up.

“You tell anyone you die. They die.” I dropped my phone again. First they threaten me now Sara. This was going too far. This can’t be a practical joke. It wasn’t funny.

            I looked at the tags on the clothes. They were pretty expensive. I used the calculator on my phone to add them up. Out of the four shirts and two pair of jeans I could get one of each and still have some money left over. I left the clothes I didn’t choose in the dressing room and went out. Sara was sitting on a bench.

“Finally.” She said. We went to the register and I paid.

            We walked out and noticed the mall had a lot more people in it. I kept thinking, “What if one of these people was the unknown number? Are they watching me right now?” A thousand questions popped up in my mind.

“Hey, you okay?” Sara noticed me just standing there with a blank expression.

“Uh ya, I’m okay.” She smiled and wrapped her arm in mine.

 

 

We walked arm in arm through the rest of the mall. Hours later we walked out with our arms full of bags.

“We are going to rock this year!” Sara said bubbly.

“Yes we are!” I said putting on a pair of sunglasses I had just bought. We waited in the food court until Sara’s mom pulled up. We stuffed our bags into the car and got into the back. We were laughing and giggling about all the things at the mall, but the one thing I wanted to forget was the mysterious texts I kept getting. Ever since I stopped texting the person in the dressing room they hadn’t texted back. Maybe it was just a joke. I prevailed the stalker! I truly felt happy when I thought of that.

 

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Author's Note

the bolded words are the words we missed in our spelling bee....tell me whether I should continue writing please!