“Are you stalking me?”

I looked down and rubbed Hero’s ears as I tried to ignore his owner. I stood up, crossing my arms.

“No, as if,” I finally answered. “I’m not stalking you or doing whatever you think I’m doing.”

“Then what are you doing here?” he questioned me.

I looked around to find something, “I just lost something in your yard.” I made an excuse and pretended to look around for something to pick up. But there was nothing to pick up from his yard; it was spotless.

“What did you lose?”

I walked behind him and looked around again. “I lost my ring,” I said. I knew that I had a ring on my finger and so I hid it behind me.

“How did you lose your ring in my yard?”

I looked at him, “I accidentally threw it into your backyard.”

He stared at me with his intense blue eyes. “Right,” he replied. “So where is it?”

I glared at him as I detected sarcasm in his voice. I kind of wanted to laugh too because his left cheek was still red. “That’s the problem. I don’t know where it is.”

Observing behind the small trees and plants, I lowered myself to find something. I removed the ring from my pinky finger and placed it on the soil. Pretending to pick it up, “I found it!” I yelled out.

Ice Pack Stealer looked at me and grinned, “Well, good for you. Can I see it?”

I paused and stiffened, “Why do you want to see a girl’s ring?”

Then it was his turn to stiffen.

“Don’t worry, Ice Pack Stealer. I shall leave your place in peace.” I said, casually.

I wanted to crawl back into the hole in the fence, but that would be too obvious for him to know that I lied about my ring in the first place. So instead I headed for the gate that led to his front yard.

His eyes were staring at me and were literally following me. Hero was following me too, but since his owner wasn’t nice, I tried not to look at Hero.

I headed back to my house and saw that Ice Pack Stealer and Hero had already gone back inside their house.

I opened the door to my backyard and entered the living room. Sighing, I sat down on the couch and rested my head. “Why does he have to be my neighbour?”

I glimpsed down at the silver ring in my hand and raised it into the sunlight. The amethyst shined with a sparkle while the silver swirling patterns, surrounding the purple crystal, twinkled back at me. Next to the amethyst were two small white diamonds, one on each side. I remembered that I had this ring when I was young somewhere around the age of eight. It doesn’t fit on any of my fingers except for my small pinky on my right hand.

I rubbed the ring cleaned and dusted it. Placing it back onto my pinky, I looked at it for a while. An old friend gave me this ring. But it was so long ago, I couldn’t even remember if that person was a boy or girl anymore. And it happened especially when I had that accident too. It seemed that I had lost most of my memories after that incident. I couldn’t remember much of the things that occurred before I was eight. So I guess, this small old ring makes me feel as though I do remember my childhood memories; when in reality, I really didn’t.

Feeling way too tired from the first day of school. I rested my eyes and fell asleep.

“Juliet! We’re home!”

I slightly opened my eyes as I heard my parents calling for me.  “Honey?” I heard my dad, “You in there?”

My eyes opened wide and I stood up.

Opening the door, my parents smiled. “Sorry about that, sweetie,” my mum said. “We just happened to forgot our keys today.”

“Both of you?” I scratched my head and rubbed my eyes. “How can both of you forget it at the same time?”

“Let’s just say that we were in a rush in the morning,” Mum replied. “Since we both forgot about the writing conference today.”

“Were you sleeping?” Dad changed the subject.

“Kind of.” I blinked at him, “I think I took a nap.”

“There, there, sleepy head.” He patted my head as he chuckled to himself.

My parents closed the door and I went upstairs to change out of my uniform. Coming downstairs, I checked for the time and saw that it was seven o’clock.  Woah, I slept for three hours!

Together in our small family, we had dinner in which my parents said something about meeting old friends. I didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. But I guess they were happy to see their old friends again.

I came out of the bathroom as I rubbed my hair dry. Remembering about the mud that splashed onto me this morning, made me realised why I didn’t take a shower earlier. I should’ve taken a shower the moment I got home!

Sitting on the side of my bed, I started brushing my hair. Sometimes having this long hair was a bit annoying. But because my mum said that long hair was precious and reminds her of her childhood days, I managed to leave it long. She said that if there was a formal in my senior year, which I guess there would be, she’ll like to test out some hairstyling or something. But the real reason why I left my hair long was because I made a deal with her.

There was this one time when I pranked on a kid in Year 7 and my parents knew about. They weren’t happy about it. They banned me from going out after school for one whole month. Back then, whenever school finished, I usually went for a bike ride in the park to relieve some stress.

Since they grounded me to immediately come home after school, I felt like I was living in a nightmare. So then I made a deal with my mum to allow me to go on bike rides whenever I finish school, including the period of time when I’m grounded. After a week, she agreed.

So under any circumstances of being grounded, I can still have my daily bike rides, as long as I keep my hair long. Nowadays, I do my bike rides on a weekly basis. Maybe I should cycle daily again?

I turned on my laptop and sat down to do some biology homework. The genetics chapter was very interesting and my teacher said that we’ll be doing an experiment tomorrow.

Focusing for about two minutes, I was suddenly interrupted.

I turned to my window and stared at it for a while. Listening to a melody, I heard a sad violin been played behind my curtains. I pulled my chair out and lifted the curtains up for a little peek. Looking across, I saw him again. Why does it have to be him?

Looking at Ice Pack Stealer, I felt like I was a stalker. Why does my room have to be here? I asked myself. Well, the problem was not only that Ice Pack Stealer lived next door to me as a neighbour, but his room was also directly opposite to mine. How wonderful!

Staring at him again, I noticed that he was playing a sorrow melody. I started to wonder how a person like him can play such a sad song when he was laughing so hard in the morning. He suddenly stopped and placed his violin on his bed. Looking around, he saw me and his eyes widened—the same reaction that I did when I saw that his room was directly opposite to mine.

He ignored me and took out a piece of paper. Seeing him drawing some lines, I wondered what he was doing. I was about to turn around and leave until I saw him lifting up the piece of paper towards my direction.

Ice Pack Stealer: Stalking me again?

I saw his bold letters and my eyes widened. Closing the curtains, I went to look for some paper and pulled out a black marker. I, then, lifted my curtains and showed him my piece of paper.

Me: No!

He started writing again.

Ice Pack Stealer: Then what?

I stared at him and gave him daggers through the glass windows.

Me: None of your business.

He stared for a moment and then grinned at me.

Ice Pack Stealer: LOL.

Me: ‘LOL’?

He smiled and wrote something again.

Ice Pack Stealer: Is your laptop on?

Me: Why?

Then I saw a message popped up on my laptop. Walking over to it, I saw ‘Reply to Romeo Jones’ message?’ on my school’s chatroom.

Basically, Cliffin High School had a website for all their students to access. It included receiving teacher assignments online, checking your marks and grades, as well as a place for students to do group work. One of the features that I guessed most students use was the chatroom.

My eyes widened when I saw his name. Romeo? What? His name is Romeo?

How does he know my name then? A bell rang in my head. I guess he heard my name when I was enrolling at the office.

I ended up clicking the reply button on the chatroom. The moment I clicked that button, a small window popped up.

Romeo Jones: Hi.

Juliet Hayes: What?

Romeo Jones: I can still see you through my window.

I turned to face the window and saw him smiling. I gave him the weird look.

Juliet Hayes: Why are you smiling at me like that?

Romeo Jones: For some reason, you seem familiar.

Juliet Hayes: Okay…

Romeo Jones: Have we met before?

Juliet Hayes: You mean the person who stole my ice pack and also splashed mud on me this morning? Yes. Of course, yes.

Romeo Jones: I’ll take that as a no then. But you really do look like someone I know.

I turned to face him through the window, What does he mean by that? Looking through the window, I saw Hero running into his room. I smiled as I saw his dog. Then it was his turn to look at me weirdly.

“Juliet! Can you come down and help me with this?” Mum called out.

Usually, I would ask her why I should come down. But wanting to avoid having a conversation with Ice Pack Stealer, I replied to my mum. “Okay!”

Juliet Hayes: Bye.

I closed my laptop and he watched me through the window. I quickly pulled my curtains and ran downstairs to the kitchen.

Romeo

I picked up Hero as he was wagging his tail again. But this time he was very excited. Maybe it’s because Hero saw her across my room.

I placed him down and closed my laptop. Pulling out my violin again, I was about to play that old song that I wrote a long time ago. But remembering my childhood friend made me stop. I flipped to the back of the violin and gently placed it on my bed. There I saw the same words that I see every time I remember my friend, ‘Happy Birthday, Romeo!’

I closed my eyes and rested my head. Hero climbed on my bed and sat next to me. I rubbed his ears and smiled, “I hope I can see her again.”