The plan that I had was to kick this guy in the shin so that he would let go of the ice pack. He reacted, lowering his back down and was literally hopping on one foot like a kangaroo without a tail. But he still didn’t it let go.

“What was that for?” he glared at me.

“Just let go,” I said again, trying to keep my voice down.

His eyes widened, “Hey look!” He pointed behind me. “Is that a bird?”

I glanced back. A bird? What bird? And then I felt a grip pull me forward. My fingers slipped and I let go of the last ice pack there was. I looked up as I saw the guy running—it seemed as though he was running for his life.

I sighed, “Stupid me.” I sighed again, “How can I be so stupid to believe that there was a bird in a supermarket?” I slapped myself in the forehead.

I ended up going home with a bag of frozen peas.

“Mum!” I called out, “I’m home!”

She smiled as the morning sun. “Juliet, did you get the ice pack?”

I scratched my head, “Well, the supermarket ran out of ice packs, so I got a bag of frozen peas instead.” I handed the bag to her.

She smiled again, reaching for the peas. But unfortunately, all that time I’d been walking in the sun made the once frozen peas now all wet and soggy.

My mum sighed, “I guess it won’t work then.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to say sorry,” she glanced up. “It’s not your fault that you didn’t get the last ice pack. Besides, I can probably make dinner with this tomorrow.”

As she mentioned it wasn’t my fault, I started blaming my stupidity for looking back to see the bird in the supermarket.

I took off my shoes and sat down on the couch. How stupid and idiotic can I be?

Mum looked at me again, “Can you go and ask one of the neighbours if we can borrow an ice pack then?”

I stood up again, “Okay…”

I stared at the house and pressed the doorbell. Standing there I started tapping my foot; I was impatient. I never really liked going to someone’s house to ask for something and it goes especially to situations when I don’t know them too.

The door opened and a lady, about the same age as my mum, smiled to my presence. She wore a plain white polo shirt with a pair of light blue shorts that were to her knees. Her hair wasn’t long, but it was at the length of her shoulders. “Hi! Are you looking for someone?”

“Hi, I live next door,” I pointed. “I just moved in and my dad fell down. May I borrow an ice pack from you?”

She blinked at me and then beamed. “We just moved in too!” she said. “But I’m sure that we could lend you an ice pack.”

“Thank you so much!”

Looking away from me, she leant backwards and called out, “Romeo! Could you get an ice pack from the fridge?”

When I heard her words, questions began to form in my head.

Romeo? I wondered. Well, he has an unusual name. I thought for a while more. Now that I think of it, it’s kinda like mine too. I’m Juliet and my parents got it from Shakespeare. I wonder if his parents got his name from Shakespeare as well. If they did, then he’s pretty much in the same situation as I am.

She smiled at me again. “I’m Mrs Jones,” she said, offering her hand. “But you can call me Stephanie.”

I shook her hand, “I’m Juliet.”

“Sorry for the wait, Juliet,” she paused. “My son takes a while to get things.”

“That’s okay.”

“You look like you still go to school.” She raised her eyebrows, “How old are you dear?”

“Um… yeah.” I glanced up, “I’m seventeen.”

“Oh,” Mrs Jones replied, sounding surprised, “you’re the same age as my son then.”

I gave her an awkward smile.

“Here you go, Mum!” I heard a voice.

I guess that was Romeo. But he didn’t hand the ice pack to his mum. Instead, he threw it and she caught it in her hands. I didn’t get to see her son’s appearance though. Oh well.

Smiling, she passed me the ice pack. “Here you go, Juliet.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll return it to you as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied. “I hope that your father gets better!”

“Thank you, Mrs Jones.”

She frowned a bit because I didn’t call her by her first name, Stephanie. But she let that thought go and said, “Well, it was nice meeting you, Juliet. Have a nice day!”

“You too!”

And she closed the door.

I began to take a few steps away from the front door. Well, that was awkward talking to an adult.

I glanced back down at the ice pack and began to wonder. It seemed like I saw this ice pack before. Wondering where I saw it, I shrugged, I guess all ice packs look the same.

I came back home and gave the borrowed ice pack to my mum. Dad felt better the moment Mum put the ice pack on his ankle. That’s a relief.

I placed the last book on the shelf and stood up. I scanned around my dark bedroom. It was actually pretty neat. It wasn’t too girly filled with pink and white fluffy stuff. Instead, my room was painted with a light blue colour that seemed to match with the bright morning sky.

The only problem left was that the sky was getting darker and our house had no electricity. How wonderful.

So I would need to find some candles or something to light up the room. But remembering how birthday candles almost made my hair go on fire; I stop my thoughts. Wait! I can use my flashlight.

Searching in the cardboard boxes and bags of many unorganised things, I finally found it. I fiddled around with the torch to find the switch. Turning it on, I shone it around my room.

The one particular thing that I didn’t like about this room was that it had this gigantic window on one side of the bedroom. So instead of a wall on that side of the room, there was this big window. And at the moment, there were no curtains, which meant that if I change in my bedroom people from the outside world could see me.

I turned my direction to the crystal clear windows and saw Mrs Jones’ house. But the funny thing was that the opposite room in Mrs Jones’ house also had a large window like mine. This meant that whoever’s room it was, he or she can see my room as clearly as I can see theirs.

I stood for a while wondering whose room it was. But then I just shrugged the thought away and began to make my way to the door.

That was when I saw the lights switched on. I glimpsed over to the other room and studied it for a bit. I saw a male figure coming into his room. He, too, was searching for something. But for some reason, it looked like I knew this person. Maybe I saw him somewhere before? I took a step forward and stared at the guy.

Then my eyes widened. “What?” I asked myself. “Isn’t he the person I saw in the supermarket this afternoon?”

I just shook my head, “Nah, it can’t be.”

I glanced again, just to make sure, but I couldn’t see him anymore. He must have turned the lights off.