“Come in,” she called. I pulled open the door and closed it gently behind me. “What do you want now?” my mother snapped.

“Uh… I was going to ask if I could go out with a friend tomorrow?” I requested. “They wanted to hang out before I leave,” I explained.

“Is it going to be with Charlie?” she asked. “He’s a good boy.”

“No… I’m not going to hang out with Charlie tomorrow,” I replied.

“Oh… Then is it a girl?” my mother questioned me.

“Yes, it is a girl, but she’s just a friend.”

I quickly cleared any strange thoughts that she may be having. However, there was still a new sparkle in her eye.

“Yes, that’s perfectly fine then,” she agreed.

“At what time do you want me back?” I inquired.

“I don’t really care,” she answered with a shrug. That’s kind of irresponsible. “Where are you going? How much money do you have saved up?” she bombarded me with questions.

“I don’t know where we’re going because she didn’t tell me, and not much.”

My mother scowled and pulled out her wallet, handing me a hundred dollar bill. I stared at it in shock.

“Take it. You need to have fun, don’t you?” my mother asked.

I slowly took it in my hands.

“Thank you,” I said slowly.

“No problem… I was also going to give you this,” she remembered, handing me a phone.

I stared at her in bewilderment now. What is she doing? I took it from her hands and stared at it.

“Uh… um…”

“You’re welcome. It was about time… The place you’re going to… Your new school is in Greece,” my mother explained. “Now you can go back to your room. You can set up your phone.”

I nodded blankly and scurried off to my room. Once there I looked over my phone, and proceeded to go through the set-up process. I kept track of battery life and storage space. I connected it to google and then removed preinstalled apps. After that I turned it off. I noticed a charger plugged into the wall. Did she leave that there for me? She really is strange. I left it to charge and ate dinner. After that, I did my homework and got ready for bed. The day had left me drained, but I didn’t really want to sleep. The memories of my nightmares still echoed in my head. When I did pass out, I ended up having the same nightmare. Those cold words echoed in my head and I couldn’t get them out. With that heavy mindset I went to school. I ignored Charlie and ended up eating with Aspen again, where we decided to meet at the entrance. In Science, Mason, Aspen, and I finished up our project and ended up doing better than the whole class, which was nice.

I was kind of looking forward to it, but I didn’t notice how much until I was leaning against the wall near the entrance with my phone in hand. I slipped it into my pocket when Aspen approached. She smiled at me. I jerked my head to the side, a sign that she should follow. We walked side by side for a second.

“You never told me where we were going,” I stated.

“That’s right. I was thinking we could watch a movie,” she explained.

“What genre?” I questioned.

“Maybe… horror?” Aspen suggested.

“Sure,” I replied. It’s better than romance, but still… Aspen began walking with a spring in her step. “Why are you so happy?” I asked with a laugh.

“I think it’s going to be pretty fun. I love horror movies, although I do think I might get scared.”

“I think we should go somewhere else first,” I commented.

“Huh, why?” she asked.

“So that we can watch the movie later. It’ll be scarier,” I explained.

“Ohh… That’s really smart. You’re right… Let’s do that. Where do you want to go?” she wondered.

“I know this place. It’s not really well known, but they’re pretty good. They make ice cream,” I suggested. “Although I think I should warn you that their flavors are kind of weird.”

“I’ll be fine, it sounds like fun!” she agreed brightly.