The very next day, Emily woke up and noticed that she was holding her game controller close to her as she is lying down on her bed.
'How long did I play?' Emily thought to herself. She slowly got up and suddenly felt something cold stuck to her head. She took it out and realized that it was an ice pack. 'How did I end up having this on my head?'
As she placed it on the drawer beside her Emily saw that there was an open notepad there. She picked it up and saw that there are tally points on it.
'Oh right. I forgot that I lost to her again,' Emily thought as she recalled playing the game against Sarah, 'Dang. How is she so good at this game anyway?'
Suddenly, her phone vibrated beside her laptop in her workbench. She got up to grab it and saw messages from Sarah.
"How does it feel to lose to me for the nth time?" Sarah messaged her.
Emily's eyes twitched while she read that message and began to reply back, "Ha. Ha. Very funny. I won't lose to you next time!"
Then Sarah replied back, "Speaking of which, can I stay at your place for a bit? My parents are gonna go somewhere and it might take them a few weeks to return home."
Emily replied, "Really? Don't you have anyone else in your house? Like a relative or something?"
"Unfortunately, no. They too have a business trip on that day." Sarah texted back, "Could you tell your mom that I'm coming over for a sleepover? It is almost the start of summer break after all,"
"Sure," Emily replied as she put her phone on the workbench and went out of her room. She walked towards her mom's room and knocked on the door. Knock. Knock.
"Mom? Are you in there? I wanna ask you something," Emily asked, but there was no response. She knocked on the door again and still no response.
Emily reluctantly grabbed and twisted the doorknob as she opened the door to her mom's room. To her surprise, her mom isn't inside. Confused, Emily walked out of the room, went downstairs towards the kitchen but there was still no sign of her mom.
"What are you looking for, Emily?" Aunt Samantha asked,
Emily turned around and asked, "Where's mom? Shouldn't she be back by now?"
Aunt Samantha sighed, "I tried calling her but her phone's not responding,"
"Wait, what?" Emily exclaimed, "That's so unlike her,"
"I know but I called the company that she's in and they said that she was off in a private discussion and was not allowed to use her phone there." Aunt Samantha explained,
Emily's eyes narrowed slightly, "You don't say…" she said,
"For now I guess we'll have to wait until then," Aunt Samantha told her,
"Oh, I forgot to say that Sarah wants to come over cause her parents are going on a business trip," Emily said,
"Well, I'll allow it," Aunt Samantha said, "When is she gonna arrive?"
"I'll let you know when she replies," Emily assured her aunt. Then she went upstairs towards her room, closing the door behind her and texting Sarah.
But just as Emily finished texting, she somewhat felt uneasy like she felt as if something's not right. 'I'm pretty sure that whoever responded to Aunt Samantha's call wasn't telling the truth' she thought to herself,
About an hour had passed and Sarah arrived on the doorstep. Emily opened the door and welcomed her in. Sarah was carrying a large backpack.
"Thanks for letting me stay," Sarah said,
"No problem," Emily replied,
"Where's your aunt?" Sarah asked while looking around,
"She went out grocery shopping," Emily replied,
"Oh," Sarah said, "And your mom?"
"Uh, about that, let's go to my room," Emily told her, "I'll tell you about it there,"
As they both went upstairs and walked into Emily's room, Sarah placed her large bag on the floor and let out a sigh of relief. "So, what was it do you wanna talk about?" she asked,
"Alright, here's the gist," Emily said, then she relayed the words that Aunt Samantha got from the call to Sarah.
As Sarah began to think about it, she asked, "So, she's in a meeting. What's so sus about it?"
"I don't know but I just have a bad feeling about it," Emily told her as she is pacing around the room,
"Well, whattaya want to do about it?" Sarah asked,
Emily stopped in her tracks and turned to her friend, "I think I need someone to help me look into their CCTV footage," she then said,
Sarah's eyes widened as she is shocked by what Emily just said, "Are you nuts?! What would happen if we get caught?"
Emily thought about it for a moment, "Then we just don't have to get caught," she said,
"That's easier said than done," Sarah reminded her, "Plus we need someone to bypass security in order to get the footage,"
"Ah, good point," Emily said as she walked towards her laptop and opening it. She then showed Sarah an image of someone in a green polo shirt.
"Him?" Sarah exclaimed, "How do you think he's gonna help?"
"Last year, he hacked into the school's database just so he could change his bad grades and he was almost caught at the time." Emily said, "Anyway, he's going to help us,"
"And how are you gonna convince him to do so?" Sarah asked,
"I-uh, I'm gonna have to work on that part," Emily said, "But the decision is final. And I have a special job for you,"
"And what's that?" Sarah wondered,
"I need you to make sure Aunt Samantha doesn't know about what I'm planning," Emily explained, "Distract her while I try to crack this case,"
"You do know that I'm not good at lying to other people," Sarah told her,
"Well, just give it a shot," Emily said as she grabbed her jacket and backpack, "Just distract her long enough for me to get the footage." then she left the room.
"Oh-kay… This'll be tougher than I thought" Sarah muttered to herself.