A MESSAGE RECEIVED

The next day in the morning as soon as the sun rays fell on Marie’s face, it seemed like a very bright morning to her as she opened her eyes to welcome a new day of her life at home with the hope that it was going to be a better day. Suddenly, she remembered that she had to call Jean today, and that thought made her get up from the bed immediately.

Shadow became alert and barked a little to see sudden movement, but he calmed down just when Marie saw him and gave him her hand to smell it. She pet him before walking into the washroom to freshen up. It was pretty early in the morning that she woke up compared to the time that she would normally wake up during her holidays. That was obviously because of the thought she had in mind about calling the person who she wanted to talk to, and that lucky person was none other than Jean.

Marie freshened up and walked out of the room while Rebecca was still sleeping. Her parents were sitting in the living room, watching TV, and they were absolutely shocked to see her all dressed up early in the morning because it was not the way that she would be during her holidays. Her step-mom, Delilah, immediately got an idea that something was most certainly up with this little girl, and she was curious to know what it was.

Delilah would get yet another point to bring out in front of Mr. Jones against his daughter, and that would make the holiday time fun for both her and Rebecca. Delilah enjoyed seeing Marie distressed, and she never let any moment go waste in trying to put her down in front of her dad. It was maybe because she wanted Rebecca to have a better impression and be more loved than Marie at home and by Mr. Jones. Little did she know that Mr. Jones was not that kind of a man. He was rather completely unbiased and never differentiated between his real and step-daughter.

After breakfast, Marie was getting impatient again, just as she was last night. She wanted to call Jean, but it was still early in the morning. With her parents sitting in the same room as her, she was not sure if she would be able to talk to Jean if she messaged her and Jean called in return. But it was still worth a try to her.

So, Marie opened the messaging app and started to type a message for Jean. It was too bad that Delilah was keeping a watch on her. As soon as Marie typed the first word, she started smiling. Delilah took that moment to her benefit and asked, “Who are you talking to, Marie?”

Straight away, Marie’s smile faded, and she stated the fact. She said, “I am messaging a friend from school.” Right away she continued and also mentioned, “She is my new best friend,” to avoid any kind of assumptions invading her step-mom’s mind because she was very good at that, and that was something which Marie absolutely disliked about her.

Marie focused on not smiling too much so that it did not become very obvious to her parents the kind of feelings which were bursting inside her. She felt butterflies in her tummy and mild chills down her spine, which were the reasons that were responsible for the beautiful smile of hers. The thought of messaging Jean was making her blush, and that was understandable to anyone her age as to why she was feeling like that.

She typed: “Good morning, Jean! I thought about you all day yesterday. Did you think about me too? Please reply when you see this. I miss you. Okay, bye.”

Marie felt a lot relieved after messaging Jean and letting her feelings out. After she was done sending that message, she got up from the chair that she was sitting in. She kept the phone on the table so that her parents, especially her step-mom, would not have any doubt, and she left the living room to go back to her room and start with her holiday homework.

The school had given a very generous holiday homework so that the kids stayed focused on choosing their stream and getting a detailed idea of the stream that they wanted to choose. The homework included nothing but the general questions of each and every stream and a few strategic puzzles for kids to find out if they were really interested in studying that subject and building a career in it.

A couple of hours passed by, and Marie got too engrossed in studying as she was a star student anyway who loved to study and learn new things. More than that, she loved testing her knowledge by attempting the quizzes that were at the end of each coursework of a particular subject. It took her nature's call to realize the time that she had been involved in studying and what she had been waiting for since the time she woke up in the morning, actually last night before she went off to sleep.

Her phone was on the table in the living room, and it was on silent. She rushed to check her phone for Jean's message. Excitement was ruling her, and she was unable to control herself from running to grab her phone. But even then she was trying her best to make it seem normal.

On reaching the living room, she was expecting her parents to be seated there, but the room was empty. She immediately grabbed the phone and got surprised to see the notification that a message had been received. Without checking whose message it was, she assumed it to be Jean's and sat on the couch too to read it in peace and with full attention.

Before unlocking her phone, Marie looked at each side to make sure that her parents were not in sight. Otherwise, it would have been very risky for her to read that message because of the natural reactions that she would let out as that would make it very obvious to her parents that she was definitely up with something. Only when she was sure that she wouldn't be caught chatting with the girl who she started liking and not just in a friendly way but also in a romantic way, she unlocked the phone and pulled down the notification bar.

Surprisingly, it actually was a message from Jean. It read: “Good morning, my girl! I missed you a lot yesterday. Where were you? Why did you not message me or call me?”