A young girl with long, waist-level, dark hair was coming over to her dad’s place, a stack of papers in her arms. She wasn’t an eyesore, with no blemish on her face, and brown glasses that just enhanced her large, purple eyes. She had on just some basic attire: a white shirt and purple blouse. She was wearing simple blue jeans and brown shoes. She really didn’t need to get completely dressed up; she was just spending her time at her dad’s office.

“Hey dad.” she called out when she came to her dad’s office. All it really had was a desk and three chairs. Two were in between the desk in true office fashion; the last one was on the left side of the office. Because the big boss loved symmetry, he also had a window on the opposite side of the chair, making sure it was able to see the parks, other buildings, and the ocean. The boss also loved nature.

The boss for his part was looking at some papers in one hand and calling someone on the other hand. He seemed to be a pretty young and energetic man, with rich black hair on his slightly trimmed black glasses. His complete suit consisted of a plain white suit and tie, with khaki pants and large brown dress shoes.

“Marvin, this isn’t a drill. I need you to give me a good idea for a kids show!! All you’ve given me is a stupid lamb that finds love, a farm girl who wants to save the world, and a turtle that fights evil with the help of his pet rat!! That’s not quality TV material for kids and teens!! That might be good for a dog, but not for man!!” And with that, he hung up and sighed, looking sadly at his daughter. All of a sudden, he looked like 50 years older.

“Please, Heather, give me something that I can feel like is going my way. Right now, our television company is screwing up with kid’s television shows. There’s gotta be someone out there that has the vision I’m looking for. Someone who isn’t scared of looking at things through a new light. That’s all I’m asking. What’s all that paper for, Heather?” Heather placed the stack of papers on the boss’s desk. The man looked at the papers, and then back at Rachel.

“What are these for?”

“Don’t you remember,” Heather answered, “you made some dumb contest because of a friend’s request. Although I seriously doubt you’ll be able to find someone who is better than your trained professionals. I mean, what do you think will happen?” The boss just shrugged and read through some of the stories that were on his paper. The first one: The tentacle menace.

“I mean, what do most people look for? Romance, comedy, maybe some action, stupid scenario-“ Heather stopped when she noticed her dad actually smiling and chuckling to himself. She knew how her dad gets when he sees something he really likes. She sighed.
“DAD!!” Heather yelled straight in her dad’s ear, causing temporary deafness but getting his attention.

“I’m sorry, Heather. But you know how I get once I see something I like. And I really what I’m reading right now. Whoever this Rachel person is, I really want her to be part of my board.” Heather sighed, and shuffled through some of the other papers that were on the stack for, you know, reasons. Until of course she saw another story. Confusingly, she picked it up, and looked at her father.

“Umm dad, apparently whoever this Rachel girl is, she apparently wrote two stories.” And Heather gave her dad the other paper. The old man looked at the paper with curiosity and began reading it. As soon as he began reading it, he looked at Heather with a look just as confused as his daughter’s.

“This seems really weird,” Heather’s father mused, “these stories seem like they were written by completely different people…hmm…something seems weird at this school.”

“Well what are you going to do about it?” Heather didn’t like how her dad had that mischievous grin on his smug face. Whenever he had that face, it always spelled trouble for her.

“What am I going to do? You mean what are you going to do?” Heather looked at him like he was crazy…only problem was that he looked completely sane.

I was already in Spanish, getting ignored by Rachel again, learning about something about subjunctive when I decided to try my hand at another joke…it really didn’t work since I decided to use our teacher as the center of the joke…which only gave me another detention slip even though Mason promised me that it was impossible to get a detention slip for a joke. I just sighed and looked at Rachel, hoping that it would’ve done something to get a reaction…I got another blank expression.

And then the craziness happened. She came into our classroom almost immediately after I got the detention slip (kinda wished she came a little sooner so our teacher would’ve forgotten to hand out the detention slip. But that really didn’t stop me (and like every other boy) to gawk at the girl that came in the classroom. She was about our age, with an awesome shirt and blouse. She kinda made even jeans look great as she walked towards the center of the classroom.

“Which one of you is Nikhil Patel?” I crouched in my desk, while everyone else started pointing towards me. It also didn’t really help that the girl came right in front of me and banged on my desk.

“So you’re the one who won my dad’s contest.” Everyone let up a large gasp. In one second, they remembered everything about the contest that was let up almost one month ago. Mason smiled at me, and he was already standing up and clapping before that gasp silenced.

“Nice job, Nikhil!!” I heard from my back, and heard more clapping, which made no sense. I kinda felt happy, for once something actually went my way. I just had to check and see if she was clapping too, and to see if I did something right…

…And Rachel was the only one not clapping, and just looking at her desk. Apparently also Heather noticed too. She looked back at me.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Everyone stopped clapping after I started talking, “I wasn’t even part of this stupid contest!!” Heather shook her head.

“No, you just put your story in some girl named Rachel’s name.” That got Rachel’s attention, and she looked back at me with a shocked look. I just looked at her with a stupid look.

“I had to do a lot of digging before I figured out that you were the one who wrote it. In fact, I had to go to your English class and ask to see your writing. Let’s just say that those English things I found seemed a lot more similar than what she wrote.” Heather took one step back and seemed to be a lot more regal in that light than before.

“Nikhil Patel,” she began, “you have the ability to become an amazing television writer. My dad first created the contest in order to find a good story for his television. However, once he saw your writing, he brought me, Heather Daniels, to tutor you. My dad wants me to make you into the next great television writer. And because of that, I’ll be with you for as long as necessary. Now, what do you say to that?” I looked at everyone. Mason was still giving me a nice smile, while everyone else seemed a bit encouraging. The only person who didn’t show any emotion was Rachel. I just stared at her for a second, and then looked back at Heather…only problem was when I turned to face Heather, she wasn’t there anymore. Instead, she was looking straight at Rachel’s desk.

“Hey,” Rachel looked back at Heather, “you know, he won’t say yes until you give him at least a thumbs up.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rachel responded. Heather face-palmed herself.

“I know those eyes that he’s giving you,” Heather shot back, “it’s a pleading look. He wants his best friend to at least look at him and give him the thumbs up to go ahead and go with this awesome opportunity. If you really were his friend, you would give him this chance.” And with that, Heather went back to look at me. I really couldn’t believe someone would do something like that; and apparently, Heather could tell that. She just scoffed.

“Please, I didn’t do that for you. My dad wouldn’t give me the video game I’m looking for unless I give him a new writer. I can’t have you leaving for a stupid reason.” My smile kinda turned into a frown, but I was still happy someone stood up for me.

I looked back at Rachel. She was apparently thinking about what was said to her, but then she looked back at me. I looked at her with a sad look, but then noticed her smile.

And her thumbs up sign. My heart was close to bursting. I looked back at Heather with a smile and a shine in my eyes. It was pretty obvious my answer at this point. Heather just sighed and started walking back towards the door.

Halfway through opening the door, she looked back at me, “be careful. We start tomorrow morning. And be wary. Tomorrow will be the hardest day you’ve ad for a long time. Don’t expect it to be easy. We’ll be ready soon.”