Meet Rosalind Savage: Basketball Champs! 2. Creepy Rider

I woke up by the call of Bill Clinton, our very good friend and a classmate. He ranged to say that I was called in college to help the students with the prom arrangements. When I kept the phone aside, my clock read: 6 am. Bill told to come as soon as possible as so many works were pending.

I dragged myself out of bed and went for a shower.

“Jason!” I said as I entered in the kitchen in my jeans and T-shirt.

He was on the kitchen table. A glass of milk and a plate of half-eaten toast sat in front of him. He was yawning and there were dark circles under his eyes.

“Good morning,” he called.

“What are you doing here at this time of morning?” I asked, pretty surprisingly.

“I didn’t sleep last night,” he yawned again. “The game was pretty interesting and kept me away from sleep.”

“Good,” I walked towards the fridge to get myself some milk. “Who won?”

“The NL, of course,” he answered, biting his toast.

“Santiago has got talents, then,” I took a milk carton out.

“Why are you awake now?” he asked staring at me for a minute, “All ready to go somewhere.”

“Yep,” I sipped the milk directly from the carton, “I have to go to college for decorations. Bill called.”

“I see,” he said without looking at me, “I have to go and sleep now, I guess.”

“Okay,” I smiled and finished my milk. “I will be late today.”

“Fine then,” he got up, pushing aside the vacant plate and glass. “I will have to go at Ronald’s place to see him and congratulating him.”

“Okay,” I walked towards the door. “I will see you later, then.”

The college gate was decorated with various colored balloons and ribbons. A sparkling board which read: NL PROM NIGHT was placed at the top of the balloon-gate.

All the juniors as well as seniors were moving around the college, busy with their pending works. The gym was on the last building of college. There was a swimming pool on the way to gym. The pool-side was decorated with flowers and balloons. Small tables and many chairs were placed to create a pool-party look. Boom boxes were brought and kept there, too.

As I was walking towards the gym, I got a text from Bill:

I am @ the gym. Have heaps of work to do today.

Finally, I entered through the gym door. The inside was too, decorated with balloons and ribbons. There were many students inside, working by fitting ribbons and balloons in empty places.

I scanned the room and found Bill at a side, working in this laptop.

“Hey,” I called. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Rosalind,” He looked at me and then looked behind me. “Where are the others?”

“Natalie and Alicia must be sleeping now,” I said.

“Oh,” he looked again at the laptop screen.

“What are you doing?”

“I am putting all the songs in a serial order,” he smiled, without looking at me. “I need your playlist.”

“There you go,” I handed him my iPod from my jeans pocket. I never forget to carry my iPod anywhere.

“Thanks,” he took it and connected it to his laptop.

“Hey,” someone called.

I looked back to find Linda Hayman, one of our classmate who always talked about brands.

“Hi, Linda,” I smiled.

“Did you get your dress yet?”

“Nope,” I answered. “I am gonna go today with Natalie and Alicia.”

“Oh,” she grinned. “I have already bought my dress from The Garland’s. Peter is only left now. Dad told him that he will get him a tux today from Amino. I am so excited about this prom.”

“Yep,” I said. “Everyone is pretty much excited.”

“I gotta go and fix my hair at the Meg’s Parlor,” she ran her fingers through her blonde hair. “See you tomorrow.”

She flew like a rocket outside. Peter and Linda Hayman are identical twins. They are pretty rich and are brand factories.

 “I’m done with this music thing,” Bill gave my iPod back.

“You are gonna play those songs tomorrow?” I asked.

“Yep, of course,” he answered, shutting down his laptop.

“Now,” I said, “Tell me what I have to do.”

“Well,” he put the laptop in his backpack. “You have to put all the names of guests in the main guest list. We can’t let anyone from outside enter. So, this is done.”

“Where do I get the list?”

“Just go to Mrs. Robertson,” he answered. “She will be very happy if you help her out. She has got other things to do and told me if anyone could do it. I suggested your name and she was ready to hand you the lists.”

“Okay,” I turned towards the door. “I will catch you later, then.”

I came out of the gym and headed towards the main office building. On my way, I saw other students arranging chairs and tables all over the lawn. Many tables were joined together to place the food. I entered the office building, and walked towards the reception where Mrs. Elizabeth Robertson, the receptionist, was sitting, frowning at the computer.

“Hello, Mrs. Robertson,” I smiled.

“Oh, hello, dear,” she looked up at me.

“Bill said that you need me.”

“Yes, dear,” she pulled out a notebook from under a pile of papers and handed it to me. “This is the rough list. All you have to do is to put these names in the main list which I will be handling at the gate tomorrow evening.”

“Okay,” I answered, looking at the notebook. “Where is the main list?”

“Oh, just wait a minute,” she opened a drawer and took out a velvet covered file from it. “Here, take care of this.”

“Sure, sure,” I assured her and took it from her.

As I was about to move out towards the library, she called.

“Rosalind?”

“Yes?” I turned back.

“Don’t lose it, dear,” I could see her tensed expression. “We don’t have another copy of that list.”

“Its fine, Mrs. Robertson,” I assured her again. “I won’t lose it.”

She returned a polite smile and let me go.

I went in the library which was vacant except for the college janitor who was cleaning the book shelves. She didn’t seem to notice me when I entered as she was too busy in cleaning. I took a seat at the corner and started doing my job. There were thousands of names in the list. The whole junior and senior sections as well as teachers and staffs and some of the prominent people were in it.

I was writing the three hundredth name, when I remembered about Natalie and Alicia. I almost forgot about them. I should call them. I took out my cell phone from my jeans pocket and put it in General mode. I had kept it in silent mode so that it won’t destruct me from my work. I found fifteen miss calls and ten text messages. Wow! The time in my phone read 9.30. All those miss calls and messages were from Natalie and Alicia. I ranged Natalie at once.

“Where are you? I have been calling you since three hours but you didn’t receive them nor replied to my texts.” She yelled on phone.

“Hey, Nat, calm down. Bill ranged me up at 6 in the morning and said that I am called at college for help. Then Mrs. Robertson gave me heaps of work. I will be late.”

“Hold on. I am coming to you along with Alicia. She is with me now.” She said and hung up.

After half-an hour, they both came and helped me with my work by dictating the names and when I was too tired to write more, Alicia, who had a really nice handwriting, started filling in the names in my place.

We were done by afternoon and then we handed those lists to Mrs. Robertson who was very happy with me and offered us her home-made fish fries which she had brought for lunch. We refused politely and headed out of college.

“I’m starving,” I complained, hearing my stomach growl.

“Me, too,” Alicia grinned.

“Let’s go to Pretzel’s,” Natalie declared as we sat cozily in her red convertible.

“Mr. Joy will be pleased to see us again,” Natalie laughed as we sat sipping our cappuccinos.

“Definitely,” I agreed. “Last night Jason bought food for us from here.”

“You both are addicted to this place, aren’t you?” Alicia asked, cleaning her cappuccino mustache with a tissue.

“Yep,” I answered. “Great man is this Mr. Joy.”

“Hello, girls,” Mr. Rick Joy, the short, bald man came out of the back of the counter and stood near our table.

“It’s good to see you Mr. Joy,” Alicia smiled.

“It’s good to see you, too, girls,” he grinned.

His last name matched with his character. He was a joyous person. We have never seen him upset.

“Tomorrow you have a prom, am I right?” he asked.

“Yes, Mr. Joy,” Natalie answered. “Are you placing a stall of your famous Olive Pasta tomorrow night at college?”

“No, dears,” his face fell. “I didn’t get a chance to meet your principal and talk about it. There’s always a next time, after all. So, maybe next year I can put one up.”

“Oh,” Alicia said. “We have heard that they are getting food for us from Waldorf Astoria.”

“What?” his face lit up in surprise. “Waldorf Astoria? That’s pretty expensive. But I think you all have to buy tickets for the prom so that they can pay them the rest of the money.”

“Hope so,” I sighed. “Can we get your Olive Pasta?”

“Oh,” he hurried towards the kitchen. “Of course, you can.”

We finished eating our pastas and came out of the Pretzel’s when a black sedan wheezed by us, almost knocking Natalie, who was at the side of the road.

“Hey, you jerk,” Natalie yelled in anger. “I could have been killed.”

But the sedan was far from our reach. It took a left turn and vanished in the alley.

“That was weird,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” Alicia nodded. “Whoever was driving it, is a psycho.”

“It went into that alley. I guess that’s because the driver doesn’t wanna get caught by the cops. There are cameras installed in the signals.” I said.

“Right,” Natalie said, still staring at the alley.

“Now let’s get out of here before that psycho comes and kills us,” Alicia bit her lips.

As I was about to get in the car, the sedan came out of nowhere and raced at top speed towards the way it had come from.

“Oh my gosh!” Natalie, who was in the driver’s seat, was white in fear.

“That car’s really creepy,” Alicia chimed from back seat.

“Very interesting,” I muttered.

“We should get going now,” Natalie started the engine. “We have to go for shopping at 5 today evening.”

“Yeah, I almost forgot about that,” said Alicia. “Be ready, Rosalind.”

“Yep,” I folded my hands. “I will. But first, I will have to take a nap as I’m up since 6 am.”

 “No problem,” Natalie smiled.

“I know that you are still thinking about that devil rider,” Alicia laughed.

“Yep,” I answered, frowning. “You are right. Something makes me feel weird about it.”

“Enough,” Natalie pulled in front of my home. “I don’t wanna think about that devil anymore. You look exhausted, Rosalind. You must sleep a little to make you energized. We will see you at 5 then.”

I bid goodbye to them and found the house locked. Jason was already at Ronald’s place. Thankfully, I always carry an extra house key with me and so I could unlock the door and enter.

I went in the bathroom to refresh myself and then went straight on bed and went off to sleep soon.