5. My secret

I woke up to the sight of Ty sleeping peacefully on the other side of the bed, cuddling with his bunny plushie. Yesterday we ended up sleeping together on his bed after watching a movie. 

 

I tried to yank the fluffy bunny from his hands in order to wake him up but he had an iron grip around its neck. So I ended up kicking his butt and he instantly jumped up, groaning. 

 

"The hell is wrong with you? Why did you kick me? Ouch my bum," he whined and groaned rubbing his bum and falling back again, closing his eyes. 

 

"C'mon..wake up," I scoffed. "Don't you need to go for practice?" I asked and looked at the alarm clock, only to find the time is already 7:20 Am. 

 

"I don't have morning practice today. I know when to wake up and I've set alarm. I'm not you." he said in an annoyed yet sleepy hoarse voice, hugging his bunny tightly. 

 

"Oh..okay. I forgot you are the Mr goody two shoes," I blurted crawling out of his bed. I then walked out of his room and went to the nearby room or currently my room in this house. 

 

It's actually Tessa's-Tyler's older sister- room. She moved out a year ago after her marriage. So I've been temporarily given this room. 

 

There was still time to get ready for school. So I plopped down on my bed and rolled about, hugging a pillow. I didn't go back to sleep. But I lay there, staring at the ceiling, thinking about something. 

 

I want to go to school and find Aaron. I want to know everything today itself. There's really something big happening around Aaron, Ty, and Asher. I wanna know it. I can't control my curiosity anymore. And I'm so disappointed to know Asher is Ty's friend. Ty shouldn't be friends with such a jerk. 

 

No, I didn't ask Ty about Aaron yesterday. I decided to wait and hear from Aaron first. But to be honest it was a hard task to control myself and not ask Ty a thing. Ty doesn't know I got close to Aaron yet. Also, he doesn't know the guy who collided with me is Asher. I didn't tell him. 

 

If I tell him that, I'm sure I'll end up telling the whole thing Aaron told me. So I just didn't take that topic out yesterday. Moreover, I was a little busy. I was trying to hack Asher Carter's FeatureFolio account. So if you guys are wondering I'm a hacker, then you are right. 

 

I was so interested in technology from early childhood. I started learning programming languages when I was in 4th grade. First, when I told my parents, I wanted to learn coding, they let me without thinking much and gave me money for fees. 

 

After learning HTML, CSS, Python, Java, and C++ for 4 years, I eventually started learning hacking along with web designing. But in 9th grade when I hacked one of my classmate's phones and did something funny as part of a revenge mission, my parents stopped supporting my ambition to become a web designer. 

 

They stopped giving me money altogether and told me I better concentrate on my studies. The fact that by then my grades were steadily deteriorating didn't help. No matter how much I pleaded Dad and Mom didn't bother to listen to me anymore. 

 

But that couldn’t stop me from learning. I started taking web designing and hacking classes secretly. My pocket money wasn’t enough to pay the fees so I opened a secret bank account and started earning myself with my existing knowledge. 

 

At first, I taught security and Ethical hacking to a few interested people. Then I worked as an anonymous bug bounty for some time. Soon I got offered to work with a group of professional web designers as a penetration tester and later as a back-end developer. 

 

I ended up earning three times the money than what I needed in the first month of my career itself which was while I was 15. And I currently have more than a dollar two lack in my account. But nobody knows. And I'm not letting anyone know anytime soon. 

 

I completed CEH course last year and so I'm now a Certified Ethical Hacker. Now I'm eagerly waiting to turn 18 so that I can apply for the job of a hacker or penetration tester at some company.  

 

In the last few months, I've been very much engrossed in designing a few simple ‘with coding’ apps and I also attempted at making a video game. However currently, I'm not working on anything. Cause I don’t want Ty or anyone else to find out my secret. 

 

At my home, it was safer to do such work, but here Ty often comes barging into my room at really unexpected times and I can’t always lock the door cause that will give him suspicion. 

 

But I still need to spend one or two hours revising my coding lessons, once in a while. I now wake up at 4 Am for that. Thankfully Nobody has found out my secret yet. I hope Ty won't find out. He isn't going to wake up that early anyway. 

 

But yesterday while I was hacking Asher's account, Ty suddenly came in pushing open the doors and I had to quickly shut down my laptop. 

 

He got a bit suspicious and asked me what I was doing. I said I was playing video game. Thankfully he believed and then we started playing video games together and ended up watching a movie. 

 

So, I couldn't hack Asher yesterday. But I'm almost there hacking his password. I have tricked him into clicking a malicious link I send him from my fake account. 

 

Today evening I'll definitely hack him and destroy his account which has almost 20 K followers. I need to take my revenge on him for what he did to me. And also, today I'll make Aaron tell me everything clean and clear. 

 

I flinched and jumped up to Ty's alarm going off loudly in his room. I crawled out of the bed and walked into the bathroom, quickly brushing my teeth. After that, I got dressed in light blue jeans and a grey t-shirt along with my usual sneakers. 

 

Then I quickly brushed my shoulder-length black hair backward and tucked it into a ponytail before slinging my bag over my shoulders and racing downstairs for breakfast. 

 

Ty arrived at the breakfast table just after me. We wished good morning to Ty's Dad and Mom and took our seats around the table. Breakfast was yummy pancakes along with chocolate milkshake. 

 

"Carrie, just come back home after class. There's no need to wait for Ty. Asher will drop him here," Ty's Mom said as we finished our breakfast. 

 

Yesterday when we came back from school, she was home. She had come back early from the cafe with chocolate cakes for both of us. Ty told her, I was waiting for him, watching his basketball practice. We aren't letting her know about my detention. 

 

"I really like watching them practice. I'll come back with Ty. And there's nothing for me to do after coming back early," I replied. 

 

"Oh, if so, you may stay back with him," Aunt nodded smiling. "Have a nice day you too." 

 

I was relieved. She didn't get any suspicions yet. But I don't know whether I'll be able to survive the whole week without them finding out. 

 

We said our goodbyes to Ty's parents and rushed out, hopping into the car. In fifteen minutes, we reached school and parted ways for our respective classes. 

 

I had English for the first hour. Yay! Mr. Davis' hour. My favorite class so far. There was still time for the bell, so I decided to go to my lockers. 

 

I reached the locker room and soon found my locker. I happily twisted the key and opened the locker door. Then I shrugged my bag off and placed it inside the locker after taking the first two hours' book. 

 

"Hey!" Someone called me and I knew without turning, who it was. I heard enough from Aaron yesterday to recognize his voice. 

 

"Hey," I responded closing my locker door and tilting my head. I found him standing two lockers away from me. His eyes were gloomy and he looked rather dejected. 

 

Maybe Asher went and tutored him yesterday. I thought about whether I should already ask about it or not. Anyway, I ended up asking, "So, our common enemy tutored you yesterday?" 

 

"No.." he replied. "I reached back home only after 9 and he had left after waiting for me an hour." 

 

I giggled. "That's great! I like it." He just sighed. "But then why are looking all sad?" I asked confused. 

 

"I got enough from Dad and Mom for doing that. They thought I was with my gang of friends whom they think are bad. Today I need to let Asher tutor me." 

 

"Where were you actually until 9?" I asked. 

 

"I went to the Internet cafe and played video games. Didn't realize four hours passed," he replied. 

 

"I see.." I nodded. This guy is so like me. I can play video games for hours. So I can relate to him. I mean, I even tried to develop a racing game, but it hasn't reached any considerable stage yet. 

 

Asher then opened his locker and let out a sigh, taking a juice box..no....a box of rose milk from inside. He took the straw and reached it to his mouth. Wait! he is gonna drink the milk he placed inside his locker yesterday? 

 

"Wait! Is it fresh?" I asked him 

 

"Yeah..and still chilly," he responded, smiling a bit. 

 

"So you bought it and placed it inside there morning? Crazy!" I responded. 

 

"Not actually. But you won't believe me if I say it." 

 

"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows. 

 

"That, someone has the duplicate keys to my locker, and everyday morning she places rose milk inside here. Sometimes there will be a note along with it, you know cheesy stuff," he chuckled. "But today there's not," He said looking thoroughly inside the locker. 

 

"What! Really? C'mon..you are lying," I said. 

 

"Hmm..", he sighed. "Didn't I tell you, you won't believe it." 

 

"So..you are telling the truth? Woah!" I said surprised. "Who is that girl? You know her?" 

 

"No, I don't," he shrugged. "Still a mystery." 

 

"And you didn't complain to anyone ?" 

 

"Why would I? I get free rose milk every day. And I love this," He said smiling, raising the box a little. "And she hasn’t stolen anything from my locker yet." 

 

"How long is it since you started getting rose milk?" I asked curiously. 

 

"More than half a year," he replied grinning. 

 

" Half a year! Woah..! That's a long period! I can't believe anyone did this for half a year. She might be a great admirer of you. Don't you wanna know who it is?" 

 

"Not really.", he responded closing his locker with a cling. 

 

"Excuse me?" I said surprised. 

 

"I just love Rose milk. I don't really wanna see the person placing Rose milk. It might be just some crazy girl. I'm not interested." 

 

"Oh Woah!", I gasped. "You know, if it was me, I'd have somehow found out the person within days. At least show some respect she takes the effort to come here early every day and place the Rose milk in your locker without anyone seeing." 

 

He chuckled at me. "C'mon..let's go. It's time for the bell." I rolled my eyes at him. He smiled a little and then started walking, sipping on the milk. I quickly followed him and caught up with him. 

 

"So thanks," he suddenly said turning his face to me. 

 

"Why?" I asked frowning. 

 

"For not asking Ty about me." 

 

"How do you know I asked or not?" 

 

"I know," he chuckled. 

 

"So you'll tell me everything today?" 

 

"Yeah..at lunch break," he replied. 

 

Soon we reached the English class and Rhett had already reserved a seat for me, almost in the middle. I went and sat with him while Aaron went and sat in the extreme back.