Angelina's POV
Sometimes you just want to fade in the background and watch the world around you. I am in that kind of mood today.
Leaning against my locker I just observe all my schoolmates. Some are huddled in groups taking to each other; some are at their lockers just like me. And then there are some who seem to be having a bad morning today.
A boy is frantically looking though his bag for something. He is very tense so maybe he forgot something important or it is just lost in his bag. A girl is chasing after a boy who seems to have taken something from her or maybe she is just mad at him.
Some kids are holding books and asking each other questions. Maybe they have a test today or maybe they just like studying in general.
I observe and make assumptions when I am bored but I never remember any assumption I made because I may be wrong. I don't even know most of them and even if I do I don't know them that well. Sometimes I even try to read what they are thinking by their expressions but of course I am not successful most of the times.
They can be happy about a million of things and sad, frustrated or angry about a million others. On top of that you don't even know if the expressions on their faces are actually what they are feeling. It maybe a mask for their true emotions!
Story short you can't assume what someone is going through so there is no use of trying to. Even if we know that we are still inclined to make assumptions but we can choose if we want to voice those thoughts. I choose not to.
"Hey!" I turn to see who it is and guess what I am blessed with the great Jacob Wilson's presence.
"Hello! What can do for you?" I say in a sickly sweet voice. I get even more sarcastic and get annoyed easily when I am in my introvert mood and he decides to annoy me today. Even my friends don't disturb me unless it's really important.
"Good to know you are enthusiastic to see me. I just wanted to tell you that it hurt a lot when you told me not to call back and even made Asher threaten me." He says mockingly putting a hand on his heart.
"That was you!"
"Yup, the one and only" He says grinning cheekily then adds "I successfully annoyed you which was the goal so another point to me." What if he just heard I was getting these calls yesterday and is lying about it?
"What proof do you have that it was you?"
"You keep hurting my feelings, it isn't nice." He says wiping his non - existent tears. Dramatic much?
"Stop being so dramatic and just prove it, I have better things to do."
"I had a feeling you may ask for proof so I came prepared." He takes out a phone and dials a number; my phone starts ringing. I check my phone and sure enough it was the same number. Then I look over to the phone in his hand and the number he was dialing is mine.
"Okay fine, but how did you even get my phone number?"
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out."
"Listen you dip..."
"Please stop! My poor ears can't bear such insults."
"You are acting like a kid on sugar high."
"Aren't we all kids at heart?" He says dramatically. I just raise an eyebrow.
"I heard a kid saying he knows you because you two worked on some project so I asked him to give me your number." He relents.
"Why was he even talking about me?" I ask confused.
"I think he and his friend were discussing about the cheerleading tryouts." My eyes widen, I forgot the results are today!
"Hey what happened?" He has a concerned look on his face.
"The results are today! Oh my god! Will I get in? I..."
"Whoa calm down! You did really well and I am damn sure you will get in." He puts his hands on my shoulders to hold me in my place.
"Are you saying it just like that?"
"No, I know what I saw during those tryouts and you did extremely well. Hell, I was thinking why you didn't tryout before this year." He says looking at me right in the eye. Just like that day those stormy eyes are full of warmth and understanding and I feel a lot better. I give him a smile which he returns with one of his own.
"You have no need to worry. You will be alright now?" He gives me a piercing stare like if I lie he will somehow find out. I just nod not being able to say anything. He then walks off most probably towards his friends.
He was being so sweet, I actually feel so much better.
Did you forget what happened the last time you thought that?
"Why would I date her? She is just another girl I danced a bit with. In fact she is more hot headed than them. Not my type."
I have to stop opening my heart to him. But he just makes it so hard.
Try harder, and now anyways it's your turn so let's think of a good prank.
I internally groan; not again!
Better just find the others and think of a prank later.
*****
I am currently in study hall. Oh hell no, I am not actually studying! I am reading this book Textrovert Rosie suggested. Keeley is looking for a way to win Talon's trust back. She asks his cousin to exchange Talon's phone with hers. I sometimes read books in my leisure time. They are a good escape from the world.
"Hey Anne!" I turn to see Dylan making his way towards me.
"Hey Dyl!" I greet as he sits down beside me.
"What are you doing?"
"I am reading this book Textrovert on an app."
"Oh sorry, I didn't want to interrupt. Do you want me to go?"
"Nah, its fine"
"Anyway I will just do my work." After that I read my book and he does his homework.
Wow the changing of phone's settings is really smart. But he must have been really annoyed.
Oh my god! I can change Jacob's phone settings!
How will I even get his phone?
"Whose phone?"
"What?" I ask confused
"Whose phone do you want?" Dylan asks.
"Did I say it aloud?"
"Yeah, you did." He says chuckling.
"It's nothing." He gives me a dry look.
"Look I can't tell you, sorry." I say giving him an apologetic look.
"It's about the prank war, isn't it?" My silence gave him the answer.
"Look, I am fed up of this prank war and I want it to end. So if you want my help I am ready to help you."
"Why would you betray your friend?" I ask incredulously.
"He is my friend but he is an idiot. We tell him to just apologize and he keeps avoiding it. And I think it is affecting mine and Chris's relationship." He says clearly frustrated.
"Hey, if you want me to back out I can." I don't want to cause trouble in their relationship.
"No, I think you should win. He is not totally in the wrong but he was being an asshole to you. So will you let me help you?" He asks.
"Fine, you can." I relent. "I need his phone and if he has one then his password as well."
"Why? Look I can help you but don't do something too bad."
"I will just change some settings like ringtones and all. I will not do anything like invading his privacy or something. I just want to annoy him." I assure.
"In that case, this period will be perfect. He left his phone in his locker since he has a grumpy teacher who doesn't tolerate usage of phones at all. I even know his locker combo."
"Won't we look suspicious if we just hang around the lockers, that too when we are supposed to be in class?" I point out.
"We still have 30 minutes so I will go and get it. Till then you plan out what you will do with it. We can leave early and I will put it in his locker." He says and then goes to the teacher to ask for a bathroom pass.
I download different funny ringtones and decide to tamper with his auto correct as written in the book.
I can change his contact names to Harry Potter characters as well!
"I got it! We still have about 20 minutes." He says looking at his watch.
I transfer the ringtones to his phone and put a password on it. Since the autocorrect may take time I first change the contact names he uses mostly.
We still have 10 minutes so I decide to change some words.
Love to hate and vice versa.
Great to f*ck.
Crazy to amazing.
"Time is running out!" Dyl exclaims.
"Ok take this. I will go first then you can follow.
I make my way to my locker and put my books inside it while keeping an eye out for Dyl. He makes his way to Jacob's locker and puts his phone in it and gives me discreet thumbs up before just standing there. I make my way to the cafeteria deciding to wait for my friends there.
Sitting on my chair I complete reading rest of the novel. By the time I complete it the cafeteria starts filling up.
"Anne! The results are on the notice board!" Rosie yells from the cafeteria door. Just like that everyone including me runs towards the notice board.
Katie is already half inside the crowd so we don't bother. Anyways she is an expert in squeezing through the crowds. When she finally manages to reach the notice board her face lights up and yells "Anne! Rosie! We all got selected for the main team!" I go into shock as Rosie jumps on me and eventually Katie. We got in!
I throw my hands in the air and then hug the girls back. My eyes fall on Jacob who is giving me a wide grin.
'I told you' He mouths. I roll my eyes at him but return the grin anyway.
Then we feel a strong pair of arms around us.
"You all got in! Congrats!" Ash says excitedly then adds "Rest of the guys are in the cafeteria." He has to raise his voice so that we can hear him amongst the boos and yells of excitement.
When we get inside the cafeteria they jump up and yell in excitement congratulating us. Ash must have messaged them. After they are done congratulating us individually, we get our food and start talking about random things. Then I remember I have yet to update them about what happened with Jacob.
"Hey guys! I may ruin the mood but I have to tell you all something."
"What is it?" Chris asks.
"Ash, you remember those prank calls?"
"Yeah, What about them?" He asks tentatively.
"It was Jacob."
"That f*cker! He almost ruined our good mood. I going to beat the sh*t out of him." He yells.
I grab his arm and hold him back. "No need to do that! I already took care of it. Well technically Dylan and I took care of it."
"Dylan?" Chris asks while Justin asks "What prank calls?"
"Someone was calling me every hour and telling me a random color and playing an operator's voice when I called back. I thought it was some idiot with nothing better to do with his life. But it turned out to be Jacob. Well he is an idiot too so my guess wasn't wrong I think." I add after an afterthought. They all start laughing.
"How does Dylan helping you come in this?" Chris asks.
"I was reading a book in study hall when he came and sat beside me. We were doing our own thing till I got an idea from the book. I by mistake voiced my thoughts and he asked to help me. He said the prank war is taking a toll on your relationship. I offered to back out but he said Jacob is being an idiot by not apologizing and he wants to help me."
"What was the prank?" Drake asks.
"Rosie, you remember the story of Textrovert? The book you recommend me."
"Yeah"
"In the ending Keeley changes her phone's settings and swaps it with Talon's phone taking help from his cousin."
"Did you swap your phones? Anne your phone models are different! By the way you two fit perfectly in the novel. Enemies, overprotective brother..." She stops when she sees everyone glaring at her.
"I didn't swap our phones. Dylan got me his phone and I changed some settings. After that he put it back in his locker." I say after clearing my throat.
"What settings?"
Jacob : I love you
Anne : Aww, I knew you loved me.
Jacob : What the hell! You are amazing.
Anne : I already knew that but I am glad you figured it out as well.
Jacob : WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY PHONE!?
I don't reply since I am too busy laughing. By laughing I mean holding my stomach and banging the table laughing. Asher takes my phone and reads it. But he appears confused. Rosie snatches the phone from him and starts laughing with me after reading the messages.
"Why is Jacob telling you 'I love you'?"
"He meant to say 'I hate you' but I changed 'hate' to 'love' in his phone settings and 'crazy' to 'amazing'." I manage between my laughter.
I see Jacob glaring at his phone as Dasher and Dylan laugh at his expense. He then looks up and I think he was going to make his way towards me. The bell rings so I rush out to my next class. Let him suffer more.
*****
Author's Note
Hello everyone 😄! How are you?
Firstly, I didn't post an announcement since the weather is not that good here but Smitten Anyway has over 500 likes now and is about to reach 1.5 K reads! So thank you everyone!
And yesterday as many of you may already know, we lost a gem of Bollywood ( Hindi cinema ) to suicide. We don't know what he was going through since police reportedly found no suicide note but actually the reason doesn't even matter that much. What matters is that he didn't have to make this decision. No one should have to think that ending their life is the only solution. What happened is heartbreaking and devastating but it proved that what we see may not be always true. His death shocked everyone. If you are sad or depressed please talk to a professional or someone you trust as hiding your emotions may eat you from inside.
I really liked this quote of 13 reasons why season 4.
"It may get worse before it gets better."
But remember after every night there is a dawn and even in the night there are stars. Life is always worth living.
RIP Shushant Singh Rajput 💔💖
Coming back to the chapter, I decided to include the book Textrovert as actually when I was thinking of a prank the book came to my mind. I read it a long time ago and actually its Wattpad version 'The Cell phone swap' was the first book I read on Wattpad. I didn't want to take the exact prank so I changed it a bit.
I hope you all enjoyed the story so far and have a nice day 🙃!