The Way It Was Before

eight

As if the disaster that Clover had caused wasn't enough to make me uneasy, I found a strange yellow sticky note on the door of my locker the following day. It had a message written on it.

Sweet morning to you, Autumn.

There was no sender's name anywhere on the note. I looked at my surroundings to see if anyone was giving me a signal regarding it. None. People were hurrying to get to their classes before the warning bell. I stared back at the message and tried to identify the handwriting, but no one came to mind.

The note remained between the pages of my textbook the whole morning. It bugged me to no end. Who would send me that and why would they send me that? Was it some kind of prank? I didn't realize I'd been staring at it blankly until Sunny poked me in the shoulder. That was when I noticed only the two of us were left in the classroom.

"You zoned out," she said. "Not that it's a total surprise, but seriously, what's the matter? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Then why have you been closing and opening that book every minute?" She tried to peek inside my book, and I hurriedly covered it with my arms. "What do you have there?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you hiding it?"

"Forget it, Sunny. Your friends are waiting for you in the cafeteria."

"They can go on without me. I'll keep nagging you until I see what you're hiding, Autumn."

I sighed resignedly. "Fine."

Beaming in victory, she grabbed the book and flipped through it. The note fell from the pages. She bent down and picked it up, skimming through the written words.

"Huh. A little greeting on a sticky note."

"I told you it's nothing. Now, please give it back."

She slammed her hands on my desk, making my heart jump. "Did you find this on your locker?"

"H-how did you—?"

"Do you know who the sender is?"

"No. It's already there when I got here." With her stance—crossed arms, straight back—I felt I was in an interrogation room with a cop.

"How could you say this was nothing? Hello, this is your secret admirer trying to get your attention!"

I crinkled my nose as I tried to digest such an absurd idea. Me? Having a secret admirer? Who would even like me?

"Secret admirer? No way! That's—that's probably a mistake. The sender must have gotten confused with the lockers."

"Um, have you seen the name Autumn written on it?" Sunny gave the note back, and I shoved it in my bag without glancing at it. "As far as I know, there's only one person in school who has that name. And she's in front of me right now."