Bizarre

"Get off the shower already Priyanka, or else I'll miss the bus", I said, as I arranged my bag inside my room.

It was no use blaming my twelve year old sister as I was at fault here. I had spent the entire night binging on a crime-thriller drama that I had lost complete track of the time, which resulted in me waking up just nearly thirty minutes before the arrival of my school bus.

I could hear her yelling at me , "Go to the bathroom now , you sleepyhead!" and then closing the door of her room quickly with a loud thud.

"Hurry up Vicky and Priyanka, both of you, the breakfast and your tiffin box is on the table. I am leaving now.", my mom said and left for her office.

Four years ago, my dad had passed away due to a car accident. Soon after his death, my mom got herself a job in the same office as my dad. Since then ,she has been working hard and leaves exactly 15 minutes before my school bus drops by and returns back home at around 5'o clock i.e. two hours after my school is over.

I took a last glance at the mirror and combed my hair. I just had made it in time to catch the bus. I locked the front door and put the keys in my pocket. For the house lock, we have a pair of key. One key is held by me and my mom keeps the other. I saw Priyanka already waiting for the bus outside the gate. The bus approached and both of us got in. It needs 15 mins to reach school by bus.

After reaching school, I got down the bus and headed for my classroom which was on the second floor. I entered the usual noisy classroom with a big label of "Class 9" above the entry door. I put my bag on the table of the second last bench in the last row and sat there waiting for Rick. This is my usual place to sit because the window is right next to me. I could see a couple of school workers cleaning the playground before the start of the school's morning assembly. I could hear Manas and Rajiv, the two boys, who always sit on the last bench i.e. behind me , arguing on their routine discussion of whose football team was better. As a matter of fact, neither did they own any football teams nor did they possess any skills in playing football. It was extremely boring to hear both of them ranting to prove the team supported by one being superior than the other. I wish I had my earphones to block the noise pollution that I was being exposed to at the moment. Unfortunately, our school does not allow students to bring mobile phones which is extremely primitive in my opinion. Other countries except India, like USA even give Ipads to their students without the students having to pay for it. All of these thoughts came to a halt after the loud school bell played the music, no less louder than an aeroplane horn, and the students in the class started forming a line to leave the classroom.

I realised Rick had not shown up yet which meant I'd have to spend the rest of the day bored as hell.

As always, few students decided to bunk the morning assembly. Rajiv and Manas too, did not bother to move slightest from their respective seats. I went outside in that long snake-like line and attended the morning assembly getting all that extra Vitamin-D from the summer sun of April.

Everything was usual. Nothing bizarre or exceptional. The classes went smoothly and the first three periods ended with the blink of an eye. It was the break-time. I washed my hands and took out the tiffin box from my bag. I opened it expecting the sandwich my mom had cooked us for breakfast earlier this morning. This is when I realised I had fallen down the rabbit hole. The tiffin box had no tiffin in it but an unfamiliar smartphone. It did not belong to me and as far as my concern , nobody in my family had this smartphone. My sister is too young to bear a phone and my mother had an Asus Phone. I was lucky that Rajiv and Manas were not in the classroom at the moment. I clicked on the home button making sure nobody was staring at me. Only one press on the home button and I could feel my hands trembling with fear as to what I saw on the screen. I could hear my heart throb faster and louder. With disbelief in my eyes, I kept reading the lines again and again. An unfamiliar smartphone inside my tiffin box flashed a message, "I know you killed Rick".