When I Hacked the Snow Prince

7. He isn't alright

During the lunch break, I made a quick trip to the library. I needed some books for the new history assignment. Every student in our class had to write on a different topic from the current chapter and my topic was Industrial expansion. I first thought I'd copy something down from the internet but then Mrs. Cooper said she needed us to use the library and provide the names of the books we used for reference.

On reaching the library, I went to the history section and scanned through the names of the books on the shelves. Finally, when I thought I found a relevant book and was about to pull it out, a hand caught it from the other side and pulled it forcefully to that side. I made my grip tight on the book because I saw the face of the owner of that hand. It was none else than Mr. Grey eyes.

"I was the first one who touched it. So take your hands off," I said.

"Who told you, you were the one who touched it first? It was me. So find some other book cause I'm taking this one," he said blankly. It was clearly evident from his calm expression that he was here to piss me off. He purposefully made his grip on this book after seeing I was about to take it.

"f*****g take your hands off!" I whisper yelled, pulling the book to myself. He pulled it back with more force, maintaining his calm demeanor. "Asshole!" I hissed at him.

He chuckled quietly. "I already told you, you aren't having it. Are you deaf or something?" He muttered.

"No, but my ears just don't listen to crap!" I gritted my teeth. "Now Jerk, give me the book and get lost!" I sneered and swiftly pulled the book, successfully yanking it from his hands. He stared at me hard with those narrow grey eyes while I grinned at him.

But the next second he started pulling all the books on that shelf down with a straight face. Books hit one after another on the floor near his feet. Excuse me, I just can't understand what the hell is happening. What's wrong with him?

As I stood there astonished, he suddenly stopped throwing the books and grinned at me, crossing his hands across his chest.

"Haven't put the pieces together yet? Literature quiz," he then mumbled.

"What?" I asked confused.

The next second, the librarian came rushing. "What is happening here!?" she yelled in panic looking at the innumerable number of books lying around Asher's feet. There was not a single book lying on my side.

"He isn't alright!" I said pointing at Asher, still baffled.

"I wanted that book in her hands. I first took it. But she yanked it from my hands and started throwing books at me," Asher said to the bewildered-looking librarian.

"What! No!" I responded in shock. "He pulled them down himself."

"What? Me? Really?" Asher made his eyes wide, pretending shocked.

"Yes! You! Stop your acting, you brat!"

"Enough! Stop! I'm reporting this to the principal right now!" Miss Bennett sneered.

"Oh my God! No!" I yelped. I remembered what Mr. Morris said last day. Once again inside his office means TC. "Ma'am, please don't report to the principal. I'll place everything back in place. Maybe I can even help you arrange the other shelves. Please..", I pleaded to the librarian who was looking furiously at me.

"No!" She scoffed.

"Please..just this once. If you report this to Mr. Morris, then you won't be able to see me again."

"What? You are gonna die?" Asher mocked. I glared at him and looked back at the librarian.

After pleading a few more times, I successfully convinced her to not report the incident to the principal. But I ended up skipping the next hour, cleaning and arranging the shelves. And I decided I'll make Asher pay for this.

While dusting the shelves, I thought a lot about what to do with Asher. What the f**k he meant literature quiz? Why is he simply messing with me?

His Featurefolio is in my hands. I first only thought to delete it, but now he is forcing me to do more. Shall I do a naked edit on one of his pics and post it? No, that's not gonna work. Then shall I send a flirty message to a female staff here, maybe miss Bennett itself? No no..that too doesn't work. He'd say someone hacked his account and did it. And everyone would believe it too.

Then what shall I do? I found myself struggling and failing to come up with an impressive idea.

Once I finished my task at the library, I quickly got out of there and walked in direction of my last hour, computer science which is my elective subject and it's happening at the computer lab. So it's supposed to be a relaxing hour for me but I'm not sure whether I'll be able to feel relaxed after this worst encounter with Asher Carter and an hour's work at the library.

If Ty wasn't supportive of Asher, I could have told him about this and gotten rid of my frustration. But what to say, Ty is that Jerk's best friend and ultimate supporter. And now he is mad at me for talking to Aaron.

Anyway, Ty isn't there in the computer science class. He has taken visual arts as his elective subject since he is interested in photography and film studies. But Aaron is there. I'll better tell him. I quickly walked in direction of the computer lab.

I suddenly stopped as I reached near the notice board in front of the computer lab. There was a colorful poster pasted on it and it somehow attracted me so much that I stopped and started reading.

It was actually a poster about High school IT fest happening in two months. There were many competitions like IT quizzes, digital painting, Logo designing, web page designing, etc. My eyes suddenly got stuck on the last item on the list which had the biggest prize money $2000.

It was none else than video game developing contest. I was actually surprised they included video game developing in a high school fest. Do they really expect high school kids to be that skilled? Who other than me knows any programming languages and hardware? Honestly, I don't know anyone my age who can develop a decent video game.

Wait! That means I've got a chance to win, right? Should I try this? There's two months. And I'm already working on a video game. If I try hard, I can finish it by then. But the thing is, my designing skill sucks. The cars I already designed looks weird. Moreover, my whole setting is dull. But it's okay, I still can win with complex programming.

I quickly started reading the details about the competition and my whole excitement died down. Because It is a group item, which means I cannot participate alone. Students can only participate in teams of 2-5 members.

Should I participate in team along with Ty? He has an artistic sense and maybe he can help me with designing. But he hasn't even taken Computer Science. Even if that's not a problem, if we work together, my parents would know about it and then they won't let us participate. They had even forced me to choose some other elective than computer science when I took admission here.

Okay, now even if Ty agrees to work on the game secretly with me and we successfully manage to hide it from our parents, there still arises a problem. That is, I might get overwhelmed and end up telling my secrets to him when he finds out I'm too good at this. He thinks I abandoned the technology field two years ago. So, I can't let him know the truth.

This is not meant for me. I sighed looking at the poster and then walked into the lab.

I stepped inside, pulling open the glass doors to find Aaron sitting in front of a computer, his eyes practically glued to the screen in front of him as his palm moved delicately over the mouse ever so carefully. He looked like he was doing something with utmost concentration that his eyebrows were scrunched up together and his lips were pressed tightly.

The computer next to him was free. So I decided to sit near him. Actually, he was the only person inside the lab except me, cause the bell had not rung yet. So he probably skipped the last hour. But what is he doing here bunking class? I slowly walked toward him without making any sound.

I was awe-struck on seeing the computer screen. Aaron was carefully drawing the portrait of a girl's face. Not just a portrait but a very beautiful, an outstanding one that looked really professional. I was totally mesmerized by the color mixing and the lines. Oh my gosh! I didn't know he was an artist.

I stood there watching him draw for a minute, totally surprised and amused. Aaron still didn't realize my presence even while I was standing just behind him. He was so immersed in his drawing.

"Aaron.." I finally called lightly, not wanting to frighten him and ruin his drawing. But, still, he flinched.

"Oh Carrie!" he responded turning around and smiling at me.

"How come I never knew you were an artist!" I said excitedly, occupying the chair beside him.

"I took an interst in drawing after 5th grade," he laughed adorably while his ears turned a little pink.

"So you have learned digital art?" I was so sure that he had taken classes. He confirmed it with a nod. "What else can you do on a computer, other than drawing?

"Uhmm..I know a little bit of graphics and animation."

"Great.." I smiled. "So, who is this girl?" I asked looking admiringly at the picture. The girl was really beautiful.

"She's my cousin sister, Riley. Her birthday is next week. So I thought to send this to her as a birthday present." Aaron replied.

"Oh then why don't you draw this at home peacefully instead of here in the lab bunking class?" I asked.

"I was a bit late to the History class and Mr. Dexter didn't let me in. So I decided to come here and work on this drawing since I had nothing else to do," Aaron sighed.

"Why couldn't you just go on time, if he is such a strict teacher?" I asked.

"I was only late by two minutes, Ann.." he groaned.

"Hmm..." I sighed and shook my head. "Okay now, let me ask you one thing."

"What?" He asked without taking his eyes from his drawing.

"Do you wanna participate in the video game competition with me?" I didn't even think twice before asking.

"Video game competition??" he asked surprised, turning around on his chair and facing me. "You mean video game developing competition? The one that is on the IT fest?"

"Yeah.." I nodded.

He chuckled and turned back to his drawing. "I only play video games. I don't make them. And do you even know the processes of developing a video game? You think it's simple?"

"I know," I said and grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around and face me. "Yeah..I have learned coding and programming for a few years. I'm confident I can develop a decent video game. And I decided you are my partner," I smiled cheerfully.

"What? Seriously Carrie?" He stared at me in confusion and surprise. I just nodded in reply. "But I know nothing about it," he then shrieked shaking his head.

"Trust me, I know a good deal about programming and hardware. And you said you know graphics and animation. And you are clearly good at designing. So we are naturally the best partners. I'll do the programming and you'll do the graphics. Please don't say no," I said.

"Are you really serious?" Aaron asked with a half-open mouth.

"Yeah," I said sternly and then the bell rang. "You are okay to be my partner, right ?" I asked.

"Uhmm..I don't know. Shall I really participate? Seriously I don't know anything. Can't you find someone else?" he asked.

"It's okay. I have already started designing a video game. I'm sure you are the best partner for me. Let's do it, Aaron," I said.

"Oh..uhm..okay," he nodded unsurely and then quickly saved the masterpiece he was drawing in his pen drive.

Students had already started arriving. Soon a girl came and occupied the computer on Aaron's right. Then she started talking flirtatiously to him while twirling her long dark hair with her fingers. But Aaron opened a racing game and started playing it while simply nodding to her. I shook my head and switched on my computer, waiting for it to boot.

Why every girl wants him? I can't understand. Yeah..maybe because he is handsome, good at sports, good at arts. Maybe there are still many more things he is good at. But he isn't one of those typical rich, hot and arrogant bad boys whose attention everyone wanted in my previous schools. He is rather a cute and friendly person, at least that is what I think after knowing him for three days. But I would absolutely give that former title to Asher Carter.

Computer science teacher Miss Skylar came soon after. She was a woman in her late twenties but looked intimidating. All those who were playing games instantly closed the windows as soon as she arrived.

But the hour was actually entertaining. We watched an episode of the cartoon called 'TianTian' and after that Miss Skylar asked us to make a trailer for the episode. It was fun and let me proudly say my trailer was the best. I'm not bragging but Miss Skyler itself choose my trailer as the best. Aaron's too was great.

After the hour I and Aaron walked to the library. Aaron wasn't happy although today was his last day of detention. He said Asher would soon send him to detention again. I then told him about what happened to me at the library during lunch break.

"Ann, let's key his car?" Aaron said furiously after hearing I had to spend an hour in the library arranging shelves.

"I don't think it's a good idea. Aren't there cameras in the parking?" I asked.

"No. It's been broken since sometime."

"Okay then, count me in. Let's do it after detention," I said. He stared at me for a moment as if in surprise.

"What? You're afraid?" I asked.

"No, I was about to say, I am doing it alone," he replied.

"No, I wanna accompany. You'd probably need my help."

"Yeah, maybe.." Aaron nodded.

"Deal!" I grinned stretching my palm forward. Aaron smirked and sealed it.

Today there was no one in the library except the both of us for detention. And we both anxiously waited for it to end, sitting far away from each other. As soon as the bell rang, we jumped up from our seats and walked out of the library. We met at the doors and hastily walked to the parking. We needed to execute our plan before the basketball practice ended.

Luckily there was no one near the parking. I followed Aaron as he walked towards Asher's car which was a Titan grey Toyota Camry. Aaron fished out his house key from his pocket and approached the car while I stood there to give him signal, just in case someone arrives. But then he stood reluctant, staring at the car and biting down on his bottom lip.

"Let's not do it then, Aaron," I muttered.

"No.." he mumbled and quickly scratched a thin line on the bottom of the back seat door from end to end. Once he was done, he quickly hopped into his own car which was parked nearby and drove away from there while I rushed to the basketball court so that Asher don't get any suspicion it's me who did it.

Actually it's okay, even if he finds out. We didn't do much destruction to his car. Afterall it's only a thin scratch in the bottom that's barely visible. He can fix it with a little money.

The Basketball practice ended soon after I reached the court. I waved at Ty and he walked to me, picking his bag from the side steps. Asher looked at me smirking, the same stupid smirk he had on his face when he put me in trouble in the library today. But I guess that smirk will vanish when he sees what happened to his car.

I glared back at him. I don't really feel guilty. And if I had felt a little guilt before, it flew away after seeing his smirk and that overconfident look on his face. He thinks he is something great and there's nobody better than him. He actually deserved that for what he did to me and Aaron. He deserves more and I'll keep on giving him nice doses one after another until he learns his lesson. Until that stupid smirk permanently disappears from his face.

"Hello, no plan to end the staring game? Let's go?" Ty asked me chuckling.

"Yeah.." I nodded averting my gaze from Asher to Ty who was now standing in front of me.

"Carrie, I really hope to see you both getting along," he said.

"Me and Asher?" I laughed.

He nodded. "Yeah.."

I threw a hand around his shoulder and looked at him, tilting my face. "Sorry, that'll never happen, Ty."