Entry 5: Plan C – Ninja Style Part Two & Plan D – Threat

Date: March 13, 2013

I went over yesterday’s attempts of getting back the black notebook and decided to try again. If it weren’t for my mistake of looking into Colin’s sketchpad, I could be holding it in my hands as we speak. I was going to have to make sure not to make any more mistakes like that again.

That morning, I’d chosen my wardrobe conscientiously.

I usually wore plain T-shirts under a coat or thick comfy sweaters to school, but that day I brought a black sweatshirt along with me. First thing that morning, when I saw Colin, he taunted me by curling his hand, beckoning me. I simply stuck my tongue out at him and walked away.

After my first class, I immediately headed into the girls’ bathroom and replaced my cardigan with the black sweatshirt. I pulled my hair back in a tight ponytail so I wouldn’t be easily recognized. I zipped the sweatshirt up to my neck and covered my head with the hood.

When I came in as Seven Warrilow, I was wearing a hot pink graphic tee under a gray cardigan. When I came out with a black sweatshirt, dark jeans and black Converse, I had a new identity.

And it worked. In the halls, nobody approached me or called after me with more secrets. For the first time in a long while, I was invisible to the people around me. They bumped into me, scowled at me for not saying “excuse me” or even “sorry” and turned away without another thought about me.

I searched the halls for Colin and found him alone at his locker. He was exchanging some of the books in his arms and I quickly walked closer to him. He didn’t notice me. I stopped in front of him and stooped down to my knee, my fingers untying and retying the laces of my black Converse.

I could feel his eyes on me for a few seconds, probably trying to see who I was, but since he didn’t know it was me, he returned to his locker and typed on his phone for a while.

I glanced up furtively and saw the black notebook sticking out of the front pocket of his backpack.

After finishing the knot of my laces, I stood up and passed by him, my hands surreptitiously reaching out for the black notebook like the ninja that I was—and I almost had it—but Colin turned around and bumped into me.

“Oh, sorry,” he murmured, peering at my face, but I looked away and nodded mutely. I tried to walk away calmly and naturally and not make it obvious that I wasn’t just another student that he’d bumped into, but Seven Warrilow, who desperately wanted her notebook back.

I walked to the next girls’ bathroom, making sure I kept my distance from him, and changed back to my original outfit. I walked out and headed to my next class, which was calculus.

Unfortunately, I had only that one period of calculus with him that day and he had hung his bag on the seat in front of him again, completely out of my reach.

“So, are you going to do something different today, Seven?” he asked me as he passed the test papers to me.

I took them from his hands, our fingertips brushing, and got one for myself. I gave the rest to the person behind me and replied, “Mr. Stillman, please turn around or I will be forced to tell the teacher that you are going to steal answers from me, just as you have stolen a certain black notebook.”

He snorted with a smile and wordlessly turned around. I was so frustrated with my epic fail of a plan that day that I almost couldn’t solve some of the problems in the test, but it all worked out in the end.

Once the bell rang, I didn’t go to change into the black sweatshirt again. I knew I couldn’t go to Colin again, pretend to be lacing my shoes, and try to take back the black notebook—that would be too obvious, and I wasn’t that stupid.

So I tried again during lunch.

Usually, I would sit with whoever invited me during the period before lunch. That day it was Karen, Jeremiah, and Lola, who had told me several times before that their friendship went all the way back to when they were still in their diapers.

They were a fun trio who formed a band way back in middle school and were currently doing gigs at clubs and parties. I’d listened to a couple of their songs and they were admittedly really good.

“I’ll meet you guys there,” I told them after class, “I have something to do first.”

“Alright,” Karen said, looping an arm through Lola’s and Jeremiah’s, “see you there, Seven!”

I made sure they were out of sight before I ducked into the girls’ bathroom and shrugged on the black sweatshirt. I stepped out of the stall and, seeing as there was nobody else around, I briefly checked my reflection in the mirror.

My eyes looked tired, with dark half-circles under my eyes. My cheeks were lacking color and my hair was slightly wavy at the ends from how tight my ponytail was earlier. I tied it up the same way right then and tucked it under the hood. Just as I exited the bathroom a girl was walking past and I bumped right into her.

“Sorry,” I muttered quietly and she looked up at me, tears in her eyes. I recognized her as Samantha, a senior from my AP Philosophy class.

She’d talked to me several times before about her boyfriend cheating on her and how she was never going to be able to move on and I would remind her that she could if she really wanted to. It seemed she still didn’t want to.

“Are you okay?” I blurted before I could remind myself that I wasn’t supposed to be Seven Warrilow, the secret keeper and adviser extraordinaire right then.

Samantha was pretty short, so she had to tilt her head a bit to look at me. I bowed my head, the hood shadowing my face so she wouldn’t realize that it was actually me. With her lips parted, she nodded.

Seeing no point of staying any longer, I quickly turned away and started making my way to the cafeteria.

The place was nothing special—an arrangement of picnic tables with gum stuck underneath and benches for seats, stained trays with either sauce or something unmentionable on it, and moderately clean floors. But the one thing that would always come to mind when I thought of the cafeteria was the noise: the sounds of tons of people talking, laughing, whispering, whining, chewing, coughing, sneezing, clapping, and shouting all at once, accompanied by the clinking of forks and spoons against plates.

I quickly scanned over the tables to see if Colin was seated already and found him in the line. I dashed right behind him, seizing the opportunity, and tried to locate the black notebook in his bag. He was busily talking to somebody I didn’t know and didn’t notice me unzipping the front pocket of his bag. Empty.

He stepped back as he gestured at something I couldn’t see or didn’t care to see and I immediately shoved my hands into my pockets, looking away.

He took a tray from the pile and I did the same, quietly stepping forward whenever he did.

This is a new way of stalking, a part of me commented and I quickly told it to shut up.

I was watching him surreptitiously, trying to find an opportunity to grab the other zippers of his bag, when he offered the tray for the lunch lady to put a bowl of soup on and I glanced at his hand.

How come I’d never noticed his hand? It was large, bigger than mine obviously, and had long, slender fingers with cleanly cut fingernails. His knuckles stood out as he gripped the tray and I noticed some of the veins at the back of his hand. His wrist was beautifully crafted—if a wrist could ever be called beautiful—and was adorned with a black watch. I had no idea how, but somehow…it looked good on him.

I shook my head and focused instead on the other front pocket. I shortened our distance until I was close enough to reach up and touch his hair. I wondered if it was as soft as it looked—

Ugh. I really needed to take lessons on focus and concentration.

I offered the lunch lady my tray, and she gave me a plate of dry-looking spaghetti and the same soup as Colin. I asked for a bottle of cold water, which she handed to me. While Colin handed the lunch lady his money, I opened the other front pocket and successfully found the black notebook.

However, as I was reaching in and taking the notebook into my hand, the feel of its rough leather brushing my skin, Colin took his tray and started moving away. My hand was caught in the pocket and I was unwillingly pulled along.

I stumbled forward and my sneaker slid against the floor but abruptly stopped when it got caught on something sticky—probably a spilled drink that had dried up—and I went down to the ground. Oh, and let’s not forget my other hand, which was still holding my lunch tray, which in turn got dragged along as well.

Needless to say, it was messy.

I fell down face-first into—I almost wished it was the floor—my plate of spaghetti, my hand no longer in Colin’s bag and no longer holding the black notebook. Unfortunately, he was alerted to the fact that I’d fallen in the most embarrassing fashion ever known to human beings. And not only him, but also the entire cafeteria witnessed my little accident due to the sudden clattering of my tray and string of curses that left my mouth as I fell.

Colin looked back, not noticing that almost all of his bag pockets were open—courtesy of yours truly—and raised his eyebrows at me. “Hey, man, you okay?”

I pushed myself up and gasped after inhaling a mouthful of spaghetti. I started to get up but my hand accidentally landed on my bowl of soup and I crashed back down.

Laughter resonated through the whole cafeteria and even the lunch ladies were sniggering. I was glad for the hood, though, because nobody could see how red my face was—almost as red as the tomato sauce that covered my nose, flecked my lashes, and made me look like a clown with a grotesque red smile painted around my lips.

I hurriedly got up to my feet, ignoring the helpful hand Colin was offering me, and ran out of the cafeteria.

I sprinted to the nearest girls’ bathroom and removed the black sweatshirt. I turned the faucet on and splashed icy water on my face, scrubbing the spaghetti off. Some had even reached my neck.

Once I was clean, I checked the damage on the black sweatshirt. I picked out the spaghetti bits here and there and sprinkled water on the soup stains. I still needed to use it later on, but I definitely wasn’t using it in school; people would recognize me as the clumsy freak that’d fallen into her plate of pasta.

I took deep breaths, my heart thundering inside my ribcage like an army of horses. Even if nobody knew that it’d been me, what happened was really humiliating and I could still remember the sound of their cruel harsh laughter.

Tears filled my eyes and I angrily wiped them away. Why was I crying? It was just a little slip-up, that’s all.

And then the image of Colin’s outstretched hand appeared in my hand and my heart swelled. He was so nice.

“Nice, yeah, right,” I muttered to my reflection in the mirror. “If he was really nice, he’d give back the black notebook.”

I sniffed and shoved the black sweatshirt into my backpack. I pulled on my gray cardigan and deposited my backpack in my locker before going into the cafeteria once again, but as another person.

As I passed by a table, I could hear them whispering and laughing over what had just happened. “Did you see that? It was so hilarious!”

I tried my best to hold back a blush and to keep my expression blank as I took a tray and got the same exact food I asked for earlier on. The lunch lady who handed me my second bottle of cold water gave me a suspicious look but didn’t say anything. I paid for my lunch, theatrically looked at the scattered food on the floor with a tilted head, as if I was wondering what had happened, and simply stepped over it.

I walked towards Karen, Jeremiah, and Lola and took a seat at their table. “Hey, guys,” I said breathlessly. “Sorry I took so long.”

“It’s fine,” Jeremiah said, taking a swig of his drink, “but it sucks you didn’t get to see it.”

“See what?” I asked curiously. “Does it have anything to do with the spilled food over there?” I pointed at the place where I’d graciously made a fool of myself just a few minutes ago.

“Yeah, some kid slipped and fell straight into his food,” Lola explained, giggling. She coughed and said, “Everybody laughed but I guess I do pity him a little. I wonder where he ran off to.”

“Wait, he?” I echoed incredulously.

“It was a guy who fell,” Karen stated.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I couldn’t believe they thought I was a guy!

“Um, pretty sure,” she said, looking at me weirdly. And then her eyes trailed up to my hair and widened at whatever she saw there. “Seven?”

“What?” I asked, looking over at her. “What’s wrong?”

She reluctantly reached up and retrieved a small piece of spaghetti noodle, which she showed me. “Why do you have spaghetti in your hair?”

I gaped at it. I probably didn’t notice it when I was washing up! Who knew how long it had been there!

I laughed nervously and joked, “Oh no, I think I’m growing spaghetti noodles up there. Ha, ha ha…”

I hated my life.

***

At four o’clock, after the bell had signaled the end of another day of school, I called up my mom.

“Hello?” she answered at the second ring.

“Hey, Mom, it’s Seven. I’m coming home a little later than expected. It’s just, you know, some important project that I have to do at a friend’s house,” I lied.

“I wish you could’ve told me a little earlier. I already made dinner for you,” Mom replied, her voice tinted with dismay. “Oh well. Will you be coming home for dinner, though?”

I thought about it carefully, assessing the time needed to accomplish the plan I had in mind for that afternoon. “I’m not sure—probably.”

“Alright, well, one of your father’s clients invited us to dinner; so, in case you do want something, I’ll just leave it in the refrigerator. It’s chicken. You know how to heat it up, right?” she asked me.

“Of course,” I said immediately and as expected of my mother, she added, “Don’t make a mess, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I drawled, rolling my eyes.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, Mom,” I quickly denied. “Love you.”

“I know you do, honey. Love you too. Bye.” And with that, she promptly hung up. I detached the phone from my ear and looked around the hallway for Colin’s red head. The place was filled with students talking to their friends, gathering their books from their lockers and making last-minute confirmations with teachers about certain assignments, but I was eventually able to spot him a couple of lockers down, surrounded by several people, as always.

I was tempted to dash to the nearest girls’ bathroom and change into the black sweatshirt again, but I didn’t want to risk attracting attention to my second identity, which was already known to the whole school: Spaghetti Clown. Or so my classmates in last period told me.

So I waited.

I lingered in front of my locker, pretending to be texting when in fact I was simply playing Bejeweled to kill time. People I both knew and didn’t know approached me with new secrets and problems, begging to be solved, and I smiled, gave them advice, and hoped that I would be able to remember it all when I finally had the black notebook back.

By the time the students had all dispersed and most had left school grounds, it was already nearing five o’clock, but according to my watch, only at exactly five-thirteen did Colin decide to go home.

He walked out of the main building, still waving at his friends, and headed to the senior parking lot. I followed him at a distance of ten feet, making sure that I could hide easily in a corner or behind a wall in case he suddenly sensed my presence and looked back.

From what I could observe though, he hadn’t noticed me yet. He was even whistling jauntily as he juggled his car keys.

In the parking lot, he accidentally dropped his car keys and cursed under his breath. He skidded to a halt and crouched down to pick them up. This sudden movement caused me to jog backwards as quietly as I could and hide behind a bush.

Colin straightened and looked around him. Save for a few students standing near their cars and chatting, the parking lot was empty. After a few seconds, he continued his walk and was soon juggling his keys again.

I left my hiding place and continued tailing him all the way to a 1979 Ford truck, which was painted a pale blue color. For some reason, the choice of car matched his personality. I tried to imagine him in a sports car or a motorcycle and, although it would certainly make him look like a hot billionaire playboy, it wasn’t him.

I watched as he unlocked the door and stepped inside. As he looked out through the windshield of his car, I turned away and quickly fished out my phone, pretending to take a call. I surreptitiously glanced at him at the corner of my eye and was relieved to see that his gaze merely passed by my silhouette.

I ended the call I was pretending to have and calmly walked out of the parking lot and into the bustling streets full of people walking and cars rushing by. I quickly looked around for any taxis. Luckily, someone stepped out of one at a near corner and I sprinted towards it before the previous person was even finished paying.

As I slipped into the backseat, the driver looked at me through the rearview mirror and asked, “Where to, young lady?”

“Um,” I started, hesitating as I craned my neck and watched Colin’s car weave between the other cars in the parking lot and leave the premises of the school. I pointed at his car and said, “Follow that truck.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Look, lady, I’m not a fan of stalking. If you’re just going to make me follow a boy around, I suggest you get another taxi driver to do it—”

“I’m not stalking!” I almost shouted at the man and it was true. It was all just part of the plan of getting my black notebook back. I had my reasons for doing it and stalking just for the sake of stalking was most definitely not one of them. “It’s just I…look, I’ll pay you an additional five bucks if you do it.”

I could see by the expression of his face that he was taking it into great consideration.

“Alright,” he acquiesced, “fine.” He turned back to the wheel and pressed on the pedal as if his life depended on it.

Colin had already made a right turn while I was bribing the driver, and even though there were several cars that had rushed past us in the heat of traffic, he was somehow able to squeeze in between the tiniest spaces so that we ended up right behind Colin’s truck.

I leaned back in my seat, heaving a sigh. All I had to do now was to wait.

I brought out the black sweatshirt from my backpack and exchanged it for my cardigan. I zipped it all the way up but didn’t pull the hood on. I scooted to one side of the car and looked out the window. The sky had quickly changed to a darker shade of blue with hints of orange just above the buildings. The cars had all stopped, every once in a while moving an inch forward, but after a couple of minutes they all started moving again at a normal pace.

As the cab followed Colin’s truck the streets were becoming unfamiliar. Los Angeles was almost double the size of New York, and the chances of getting lost in it was more than likely, especially when the farthest I’d gone to from my home was the Hollywood sign, and that was when I was eight and we were on a family trip.

It had always been school, the bookstore, and then home for me. Sometimes during the weekends I’d go to the mall or to the library and sometimes the movie theatre, but I was always walking on familiar ground.

Right then the tall buildings with graffiti painted on them were starting to fade away to small restaurants and stores and simple houses. Soon we were surrounded with houses on either side and I didn’t even know the street name.

I craned my neck and watched Colin’s car stop in front of a cream-colored house, matched prettily with a dark blue roof.

“Stop right here,” I told the driver, three blocks away from Colin’s house. I retrieved the money from my wallet and handed it to the man. He snatched it from between my fingers and examined it in the fading sunlight streaming through his windshield, checking if it was a fake.

Once he was satisfied, he folded it up and nodded, stuffing it into the front pocket of his shirt.

I slipped out of the shirt and checked my watch. It was ten past six in the evening. I had to get this finished quickly.

I quickly tied my hair and hid it under the hood. I bowed my head and started making my way as casually as possible towards Colin’s house. His car’s engine was already cut off and he was nowhere to be seen. He must’ve already been inside with his family.

As my foot landed on the grass of their lawn a part of me still couldn’t believe that I was actually doing this. Begging and stealing the black notebook back in school was one thing, but entering Colin’s house unseen—hopefully—and grabbing what I needed before escaping swiftly seemed more like what a thief would do rather than a person who wanted her stuff back... This made me hesitate.

But all those secrets…and all the people who trusted me with them…I reminded myself. If I don’t get the notebook back, so many reputations and relationships will be ruined because of me. They would all surely hate me! I have to do this!

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the task ahead. I walked under the shade of Colin’s house and crawled on my elbows and knees under one of the windows on the ground floor. I wasn’t that good in sports or anything related to it, so it took me a while, which lead me to overhear someone I could only assume was his mother: “Oh, Colin. You’re home a little later than usual. School project?”

“Ah, no,” replied my target. “I stayed behind with my friends. Sorry about that.”

Hm. So he was the kind of teenager who was honest with his parents. For some reason, that made me proud of him. I shook my head, the tall grass brushing the tip of my nose. This was silly. I was supposed to be mad at him. I’m mad at him. He stole my notebook. I’m mad at him.

“It’s alright,” his mother replied and I could hear the clinking of plates against wood. They were probably just about to have dinner. Perfect. “Just give me a heads-up next time if you’re going to be late.”

“Okay, Mom,” Colin said as heavy footsteps stomped on what must’ve been stairs. “I’ll just go up to my room now.”

“Don’t take too long. Dinner’s already set.”

I crawled some more until I was done with the windows at one side of the house. The next one, the back, had a large oak tree right beside it with some of its gnarled branches twisting with the railings of one of the balconies up in the second floor. I looked up just in time and saw the lights in that room turn on. I glanced at the other rooms but they’d already been lit since a while ago. That must be Colin’s room.

Suddenly the glass doors to the balcony swung open and Colin stepped out. I dove right into the grass and immediately pressed my back to the wall, my heart hammering. Did he see me?

From my spot I couldn’t see Colin’s expression, but he didn’t call out so I figured I wasn’t caught yet. I patted away some grass that had stuck to my sweatshirt and tentatively stepped forward, my eyes watching for any movements. I spotted a pair of hands hanging limply over the railing. I recognized those hands.

It felt like an eternity as I waited for his hands to disappear or for the silence he kept to end. Finally, I heard Colin sigh, mutter something I couldn’t hear, and then those hands went away. I waited one full minute before I came out of my hiding place. He was already inside his room.

After three minutes—according to my watch—I heard footfalls again downstairs and then Colin’s voice jovially ask, “Ooh, what’s for dinner, Mom? It smells awesome.”

This was my chance. Still crouching, I quickly headed to the base of the tree and tilted my head up. It wasn’t that tall, with only a foot on the house, but I wasn’t exactly the type of girl who climbed trees.

I looked around, trying to see if there were any ladders I could borrow, but the only thing that I spotted was a doghouse with a golden retriever curled up inside, sleeping.

I held my breath. If I made any sound that might wake it up, just one bark from it could make his entire family aware of my presence and location. I had to climb. It was now or never.

I remembered some of the heroes and heroines I’d read about in my novels and tried to summon the courage they’d had when they had to do what I was about to do. My mind went back to the words that the authors had written, describing what to do when climbing a tree.

I hesitantly planted my foot at one of the roots and a hand on the rough bark. My fingers searched for some handholds and found a few holes. I dug my other foot into a small indention on the tree and tiptoed slowly, using my hand to reach for the nearest branch. I strained my muscles and wrapped my fingers around it.

Using my knees to hug the trunk of the tree, I pulled myself up until I could place my foot on the branch. My arms strained with my body weight, my legs dangling slightly, but I refused to look down for any footholds.

I was breathing heavily by then. I wanted so badly to go back down to the safe place where I could feel the ground underneath my sneakers, but it was too late to back down. Besides, I had no idea how to even get down from my position so the only way was up.

Carefully I stretched my arm out and took hold of a branch beside me. Turning my head to the other side, I could see that I was one branch away from the balcony. I shimmied towards another branch and soon I was sitting on it, edging my way towards the railing and trying not to look down.

My hands were trembling as they patted their way to the railing. Once I felt its hard, rectangular shape, I reached out with my other hand and pulled my feet over it. The moment my feet landed on the solid flat floor of the balcony I nearly collapsed. Sweat dripped down the side of my face as I took deep, heavy breaths and tried to slow my heart rate.

When I’d finally calmed down, I got up to my feet and wobbled into Colin’s room.

I didn’t know what I’d expected.

But I definitely wasn’t expecting dozens of drawings and sketches taped to the walls, posters of bands I didn’t know, and pictures of friends and family at special occasions and breathtaking views. At one side of the room there was large desk that looked like it was drowning underneath all the sketchpads and pencils and rulers and eraser bits strewn on it. On the wall surrounding the desk were more drawings and sketches and more pictures all tacked straight to the wall with colored pins.

His closet had been left open and clothes were dumped carelessly at its foot. A large poster of what looked like Chicago was stuck on the door. His sneakers were kicked to the side and his backpack sat on his bed, which had gray sheets and mismatched pillows. There was large TV balanced on a low shelf with a collection of DVDs and video games behind glass doors and a couch with a checkered wool blanket thrown over the seat was placed in front of it.

I took a moment to look around, drinking in the sight that Colin would see every time he woke up and every time he went to sleep, the place where he’d grown up since he was a little boy, the place that he thought of as his private sanctuary, a place where he could be alone.

I tried to imagine what it was like for him in there. Did he sit properly on the couch or did he lie down with the side of his face pressed against the armrest with his limbs dangling off the edge? Did he do his homework on the desk or did he study on the bed, a pencil between his teeth?

And then I wondered if he’d ever invited a girl to his room. I frowned at the thought and decided to focus on the matter at hand.

I glanced at my watch and saw it flick to six forty-six. I had to move quickly. I’d wasted so much time on climbing the tree and slowing my rapid breathing afterwards.

Colin and his family were probably already in the middle of eating or were sharing stories about their day over dessert, like my mom and I usually did. Hopefully he would decide to watch some TV before coming back up to his room so I could have more time to look around.

I walked towards his bed, making my footsteps as quiet as possible (I didn’t know if his floorboards creaked), and looked under the sheets and pillows. I looked through his backpack, digging through the junk inside and found nothing. I hurried to his desk and rummaged through the things there. I tried not to mess it up too much that the next time he was seated there he’d notice the difference.

But alas the black notebook was nowhere to be found.

I paced inside his room, planting my hands on hips and clicking my tongue irritably. Where did he hide it? Could it be that he took it with him? If he had, then this plan was an utter failure. I’d have to—

The doorknob suddenly jiggled, but I was too caught in surprise to try and hide myself as the door swung open. I stood there frozen, my heart attempting to jump out of my chest, and waited for the person to come in and spot me.

It was Colin.

He looked up and, the moment his eyes landed on me, he yelled a curse and put a hand to his chest. I winced. Unlike yesterday at the lockers, he couldn’t hold back his shock.

From downstairs, I could hear the sound of chairs screeching against the floor and voices saying, “Colin, are you alright? What’s the matter?”

Colin stared at me and I couldn’t put a finger on his expression, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a good one. I was so dead. Why did he have to come back up to his room so early?

Instead of telling his family that there was a thief in his room and that they should call the police to bring me to the nuthouse like I expected him to, he replied, his eyes never leaving me, “Sorry! It’s nothing.”

He didn’t wait for his family to respond. He immediately walked into his room and kicked the door shut. I was alone with him in his room. If the circumstances were different, I would have blushed or felt extremely embarrassed. But right then I merely paled.

In three strides he was right in front of me, so near that I could feel the warmth of his body, and he seized my upper arm in his large hand. “What on earth are you doing here, Seven? Have you gone crazy?”

“I—look, Colin, it’s not what you think! You’re—you’re not supposed to come up yet!” I said lamely. “Why are you here?”

“I was coming up to take a bath when I caught you red-handed,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me, and then added, “and isn’t that supposed to be my question, you stalker?”

I blinked. Colin looked so serious, so different from how he was in school, that it frightened me. But only then did I see the laughter in his eyes.

“I’m not a stalker!” I said, shaking my arm free out of his grasp. I glared at him and declared, “I just want my black notebook back!”

For the first time in the whole exchange, he smiled at me and said, “Give it up already.”

He had no idea how much I wanted to but I had to keep my stand. “Return it to me right now, Colin, or I’ll take it to even more extreme measures.”

“Oh, what a threat,” he said mockingly and then grinned, raising his hands and joking, “All of your secrets are mine!” And then he burst into such an evil laughter.

That single line made me stop. Did that mean he’d read what was inside the notebook already? It wasn’t unlikely. Curiosity had probably overcome him and now he knew everything. The secrets were out.

“No!” I practically screamed, not caring if his family could hear us downstairs or if the entire world did. I shoved at his chest angrily, demanding, “Give it back to me! Give it back!”

I heard Colin say, “Whoa!” before I collided against him and we fell down onto his bed. Somehow, I ended up on top of him, my face buried at the crook of his neck and my legs ungracefully planted on either side of his hips. I could feel the weight of his arm around my waist as I pushed myself up and found myself nose-to-nose with Colin Stillman.

Time stopped and so did my heart.

I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, just staring at each other with equally wide eyes, but thankfully I realized what I was doing, and what I looked like, and immediately scrambled off him, blushing and stammering, “I-I’m sorry, Colin, I didn’t mean to—”

But before I could get off him, his hands shot out and took my wrists. He flipped me over—he was surprisingly strong—and pinned my hands above my head.

Colin grinned mischievously down at me. “Naughty little Seven,” he said, his breath tickling my cheek. “If you just wanted a chance with me, you could’ve just said so.”

“What? No! It was an accident!” I squeaked, struggling to get my hands free so I could push him away because he was getting too close for comfort, but he still held me captive. He snorted and I swallowed down a whimper. “Please, let me go. I—I can’t breathe.”

For some reason Colin must have found that funny because he chuckled and asked, “Is that so?” He drew even closer. “What about now?”

I opened my mouth and I had no idea anymore whether it was to take a breath or to answer him since my mind was pretty fuzzy, when from the other side of the door someone called, “Colin? Are you sure you’re okay? I heard shouting.”

Colin’s head snapped up immediately and he muttered under his breath, “Oh, no. Mom.”

He rolled off me and I could breathe again, but it wasn’t even a second after before he pulled me up to my feet and told me, “Go under the bed.”

“But—”

“Now, Seven.”

“Colin?” his mom asked, sounding worried. “Is someone else in there with you?”

“Uh, no, Mom!” he called back just as I crawled under his bed. There was a thin layer of dust coating old shoeboxes and forgotten toys, and I had to pinch my nose so as to not inhale it. From my position, I could see the door click open and a pair of legs belonging to a woman walked in.

“What’s up?” I heard Colin say casually as his weight made the bed sink a little. He must’ve sat down.

His mom didn’t answer immediately. “I’m sure I heard other voices in here…”

He laughed—a little nervously—and said, “Mom, you’re being silly. Voices? I think you’re still recovering from that horror movie we watched with Cass.”

I could almost imagine his mom frown at him as she declared, “I am not.”

I watched as his mother strode towards his bed and it sunk a little more. “Colin, is there anything you want to tell me?” she asked.

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong—”

“No, I don’t mean that,” she said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “I mean, are you going through something emotional? Because it is very normal for teenagers around your age to experience a lot of things all at once, Candice told me. You know you can always talk to me, right?”

It sounded as if Colin had choked on a frog. “Mom,” he said bashfully. “I’m fine, really.”

I clapped my hands over my mouth and giggled.

Colin slammed his fist against his bed cushion and the underside slammed against my head.

“Ouch!” I involuntarily blurted and Colin immediately covered it with a loud cough and said, “Ou—oh, oh, no I think I have a cough.”

“Colin, are you alright? Do you need a glass of water?”

Colin laughed and said, “False alarm, Mom. Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “Well, I should go take a bath now. Go back down before Dad finishes all the pudding.” The bed creaked and I could see Colin’s sneakers going around the bed and stopping in front of his mom.

He was probably dragging her out because her feet stumbled and she said, “Colin! What’s the rush for?”

“I, uh, I can’t change with you in here, Mom! Jeez. And I still have homework to do. Come on.”

“Alright, alright, I’m going.”

I inched closer to the edge of the bed and looked up to see Colin and his mom standing by the door. It wasn’t all that surprising that his mom was beautiful—I mean, just look at the son!—but she looked young and I wondered how old she was.

My eyes drifted to the red hair that Colin had inherited, but hers was like the color of wine, curled and cascading down to her chest. Even from this distance I could see that she had blue eyes, not green. Colin must’ve gotten them from his dad.

His mom reached out and pinched his cheek, which made him grimace. She looked at him lovingly and said, “I can’t believe my little pumpkin’s all grown up.”

“Mom,” he groaned, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment. He gently pulled her hand away. “Stop calling me that already.”

I clamped my mouth shut, trying to keep the laughter within. I was so close to bursting.

Colin probably heard me because he cleared his throat and smiled tightly.

His mom giggled and said, “Fine then, big man.” With that, she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Colin let out a sigh of relief as he leaned his back against the door. I waited for five full seconds before I laughed out loud, rolling out of the shadow of his bed.

He looked down at me with narrowed eyes and asked, “What’s so funny, Seven?”

“Nothing,” I said, titling my head up so I could look at him from my place on the floor, “my little pumpkin.” And then I burst out laughing again while clutching my stomach.

Colin pursed his lips, for once out of words to say, and only managed an “It’s not funny.”

I smirked up at him and threw his words back at him: “You just don’t find it funny because you’re the butt of the joke.”

As Colin frowned at me I pushed myself into a sitting position and from there stood up. I dusted off my pants and shirt without taking my eyes away from Colin. “So, I assume you don’t want anyone else to know that your mother still calls you ‘little pumpkin’, right?”

“Duh,” he said, knitting his eyebrows at me. “Would you?”

“No,” I said, grinning, “and that’s why I’m only going to say this once: give me back the black notebook or I’m telling everybody in school. And don’t think I don’t have any useful connections.”

I felt my heart leap in victory as Colin started to look worried but contrary to his expression, he said, “They wouldn’t believe you, anyway.”

I crossed my arms and looked at him smugly, “Oh, really?”

He thought about it and then said, “Fine. If they do, wouldn’t they wonder why you were in my house in the first place? Wouldn’t that make them think that there’s something between us when there isn’t?”

His last sentence hurt, but his words were true. My face fell, the laughter died in my throat, and when I didn’t say anything to that, he asked, his face saying all the words that he didn’t need to say, that he had won—again—“Do you want that?”

I cursed myself silently for admitting, “No.” My shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Good,” he said, smiling, “I didn’t think so. Now I suggest you better get going before my mom sees us this time, or worse, one of my sisters. I would never hear the end of it.” He paused and then asked, “How did you get in here, anyway?”

“I climbed the tree,” I said, pointing just outside his balcony. I only noticed then how dark the sky was already. I wondered if the taxi driver was still there.

“You did?” he asked in surprise and stepped out onto the balcony. “It’s a pretty hard climb. Can you climb back down?”

I didn’t feel the need to tell Colin that I took more than half an hour climbing and proudly declared, “Of course I can!”

I walked towards the branch and took a deep breath before swinging one leg over the railing. I made the mistake of looking down. The earth seemed to swim and I could feel my body falling forward. I quickly squeezed my eyes shut and gripped the railing as hard as I could, my nails digging into the wood.

“Seven!” I heard Colin call my name and then his hand was on my shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I breathed out, but I refused to open my eyes.

Colin sighed and said, “Look, get off there. I’ll climb down first. If ever you fall, I can always catch you.”

That actually sounded really nice and encouraging but I shook my head firmly. “No, I can do it.”

“Seven, I know you can’t, so just move it,” he told me frankly, detaching me from my perch on the railing. He took my place and easily crawled towards the tree. He swung from branch to branch, his feet automatically finding the footholds and his hands the handholds. In a matter of minutes he was already at the ground, looking up at me.

“Okay,” he whispered loudly, “your turn.”

“It seems like you’ve done this before,” I commented, still not making a move.

“I’ve escaped several times to go to parties, okay?” he said exasperatedly, giving me a look. “Now get down from there.”

I swallowed nervously before trying to imitate what he’d done just then. I lacked the balance and confidence though, so I did it slowly, making Colin tap his foot impatiently.

“I think I’m already a hundred years old,” he said when I had just landed safely on the second branch.

“Shut up, will you?” I said, straightening to stand on the branch. The wood creaked and Colin immediately took a step forward, all jokes pushed aside. He reached out with his arms, ready to catch me. “Hey, be careful!”

“I don’t need you to tell me that!” I said defiantly, preparing to place my foot on a branch at the other side of the tree and slowly shimmy my way down, but I slipped and, before I knew it, I was falling.

“SEVEN!” Colin shouted. I let out a little scream and as the world turned into a big blur, time seemed to move both slowly and fast forward. I flailed my hands in an attempt to reach out for something—anything—but I only felt air, and even that slipped through my fingers.

One moment I was still falling, and in the next, I crashed into Colin and we both got the wind knocked out of us. The impact was hard and painful and I twisted my ankle in the process.

He groaned and coughed. I could hear the rumble in his chest. “Well, that was fun,” he deadpanned. I rolled off him, panting, with tears in my eyes. I hadn’t even taken another breath before I heard the sound of a dog barking. Paws padded on the grass towards us. Oh no.

I looked up just in time before something yellow jumped on me and started licking my face. I screamed in surprise and tried to push the dog away but it kept getting its slobber on me.

“Ah! Lassie! Stop it! Bad girl!” he scolded the dog. He tugged at the collar until Lassie finally detached herself from me and went over to her owner instead. He looked up at me and said, “I think you should go, Seven, before my whole family sees you.”

“Right,” I said weakly, getting up to my feet. I winced when I put pressure on my sprained ankle but I managed to limp away. I could already see the taxi driver still waiting for me. I was almost out of Colin’s lawn when he called me, “Hey.”

I turned to look back and saw him still lying on the grass, his dog beside him, wagging her tail enthusiastically.

He smiled at me and said, “I’ll be looking forward to more of your antics, Seven Warrilow.”