The dawn light barely filtered through the curtains when the shrill sound of the alarm clock jolted Sera out of her sleep. With a groggy sigh, the young girl stretched and yawned as she reached for the snooze button.

Sitting on the bed, disheveled hair falling across her face, Sera tried to remember what she had to do today. She got up with determination and began to dress, choosing comfortable clothes for the day ahead. After that, she grabbed a small brown bag, her backpack, and left her room.

The house was quiet, except for her mother's voice echoing from the kitchen. Trish was engrossed in a phone conversation, discussing important work matters. Although Sera knew her mother tried her best to balance her work and family life, sometimes she felt like she was the only one who really took care of herself.

Deciding not to interrupt, Sera headed to the kitchen to fix herself breakfast. She opened the fridge and found the necessary ingredients, including her favorite cereal. While pouring milk into the bowl, she couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness. Every morning was the same, with her mother's conversation as the background soundtrack and the feeling of always being in the background.

Eventually, Trish hung up the phone with a sigh of relief and joined the table. "Good morning, sweetheart." she said, forcing a smile.

"Morning." Sera replied, not looking up from her breakfast.

The two ate together, Trish continued to chatter about her work issues while Sera simply ate, nodded, and pretended to listen to her mother. Once they finished, they cleaned up and got into the car. Trish drove them to Volcano High.

"Have a good day." Trish said. Before Sera could respond, Trish was already driving off to her workplace.

Sera sat on the steps at the school entrance. It was still early, and like every morning, she waited for her friend Amber, who took about ten minutes to arrive.

"Hey, Sera, how was the weekend? You didn't text anything." asked Amber, the short-haired pterodactyl girl with pale blue-green skin and the color of her eyes matching her name, her hands in the pockets of her green jacket.

"That's because I've been busy with..." Sera started rummaging in the brown bag she had brought and pulled out a small robot. "THIS! TA-DA!"

Sera placed the robot in her hand, pressed a small button on the back, and the robot started playing music while moving from side to side.

"I've created a dancing robot! Isn't it cool?" Sera exclaimed excitedly.

"Wow," Amber approached to see the small metallic buddy. "Good job, Sera, it's funny, much better than the last one you made; this one's adorable."

"Do you like it? I'll give it to you."

"Wait, seriously? Are you sure? I love this little guy, but you made it yourself..."

"Of course, Amber, I actually made it thinking of giving it to you from the beginning, but not now. First, I have to show it to the engineering teacher to see if I can get some extra points after class, okay?"

Amber nodded with a smile. Sera pressed the button again, and the little robot stopped, she put it back in the brown bag, and the two entered Volcano High together. Not much happened during the day – boring classes, an extra point for Sera, Amber being the fastest in gym class... soon lunchtime came, and the two friends headed to the bustling school cafeteria. Sera opted for a vegan menu, filled with green leaves and vibrant colors, while Amber chose a selection of meats accompanied by various side dishes. They sat together at their usual table when, with her typical noisy entrance, Cynthia joined them. The stegosaurus girl with green skin and twin tails dropped into a chair, placing a plate of junk food in front of her.

"What's up, normies? How's your day going?" Cynthia asked, she was a year younger than them. They weren't really friends; it was more like no one else wanted to be around Cynthia, and since Amber and Sera were the only ones who tolerated her, Cynthia decided to hang out with them. "You won't believe what happened in the last episode of Doki no Darkness, it was incredible! Who would've thought the Yellow Count was Sakura's lost brother?"

"Wait, wait, you said he was her boyfriend." Amber responded, looking confused.

"Yeah he is, too." Cynthia replied, unfazed. Surprise and disgust washed over Amber as she grasped the context.

"Cynthia, you should watch better shows." interjected Sera. "With less... you know, Japanese stuff."

"Look who's talking, you only watch cheesy soap operas." retorted Cynthia, crossing her arms and getting offended. "Besides, don't act all high and mighty; we all know what kind of men you're into."

"Th-That's completely different! You're talking about incest!"

"And you like old men."

"SCREW YOU!"

"SCREW YOU EVEN MORE!"

It was then that Amber intervened, giving both of them a gentle tap on the head. "Enough, both of you." she said firmly. Once again, Amber made sure Sera and Cynthia didn't end up in a fight.

"S-Sorry..." the voice of a young Parasaur, short blond hair and pale yellow eyes, sounded behind Amber. The girl, named Melissa, was the student council president, so she rarely hung out with them unless she needed something specific or help with something. Fidgeting, she wagged her tail while holding an envelope in her hands, which she extended to the pterodactyl girl. "Amber, I have something for you."

"Oh. What's this?" Amber asked, looking at the envelope now in her hands.

"I don't know, and frankly, I'd recommend getting rid of it." said Melissa, scratching her head. "Look, someone asked me to deliver this envelope to you and not say who it was. But, I don't know, I don't trust it. It would be better if you ignored it. If it's something important, that person would tell you face to face, you know?"

"Do you have any idea what's inside that envelope?" Sera asked Melissa.

"No." Melissa replied curtly, not even bothering to look at Sera. "Well, that's it. I have a lot of things to do, so I'll go now. Do whatever you want with this." Melissa offered a forced smile to Cynthia and Amber before leaving.

"... Did I do something to her? Why is she always like this with me?" Sera asked, confused, seeing how Melissa treated her.

"I have a theory that the orange princess might be racist." Cynthia shrugged. "Anyway, Amber, open it; if you don't, we'll never know what's inside."

Amber opened the envelope and found a paper inside with a phone number, nothing more. "Uh, this feels creepy." Amber lamented, looking at the paper suspiciously.

"Send a message or something!" Cynthia quickly chimed in. "This promises to be interesting."

"What? No, Amber, don't. Get rid of that paper and don't pay attention to it. It can't bring anything good." warned Sera, visibly concerned.

"Shut up, Purpleface, you have no idea. If you ignore it, you'll be left wondering for the rest of your life. It's the only way to know what all this is about." Cynthia replied with her typical carefree attitude.

"But it could be someone dangerous!"

"That's true..." Amber interrupted, trying to mediate between Sera and Cynthia. "You both have a point. But, I mean, as long as it's just messages, nothing should happen... I think. I don't know, maybe I'll text this number later." Amber tucked the paper into her pocket, though her expression reflected a certain unease.

"Amber, be very careful." insisted Sera, clearly worried. "I don't know if Melissa is racist or what, but I think she was right."

"Come on, Sera, what does that Paratard know? She barely knows us." replied Cynthia, trying to downplay Sera's concern with her nonchalant attitude. "Well, come on, let's get back to what really matters, because I haven't finished telling you everything that happened in Doki no Darkness, you're going to be amazed."

The rest of the meal continued calmly. Cynthia recounted all the extremely Japanese things that had happened in the anime she was watching. A while later, Amber insisted that Sera show Cynthia the robot she had made, which made Cynthia want one for herself too. Sera replied that maybe if she behaved well, she could make one for her. With that, lunchtime passed, and after some more classes, it was time to leave. Amber and Sera walked together to Amber's house, where, like every day, Sera would stay until her mother came back from work to pick her up by car.

"Hey, Sera." Amber said as they descended the last school steps. "I was wondering... do you really want to pursue engineering?"

"Of course, why? Don't you think I'm capable?" Sera turned her head, confused.

"It's not that, it's just that... this is our last year at Volcano High, which means we'll be taking different paths. I don't know, maybe I should pursue that career too."

"Amby, no! You have to follow your own path."

"I'm not bad at engineering either. Besides, what else could I do besid-"

Amber couldn't finish her sentence. Everything happened in less than a second, at an incredible speed. She took one of her hands out of her jacket pocket, turned 180 degrees, and with the same hand, caught a soccer ball that was heading towards her head, all completely instinctively. Sera was shocked, just like the boy who had thrown the ball. Amber simply smiled at the boy.

"Hey, Jack, I think you lost your ball!" said Amber as she threw the ball into the air and prepared herself. "I'LL RETURN IT TO YOU!!"

The pterosaur girl kicked the ball with a force that nearly broke the sound barrier. It shot off and hit Jack in the face, causing the dinosaur boy to fly for a moment and then fall defeated to the ground. But don't worry, Jack was a boy who liked to bully Amber and was quite racist about her having a human father. So yes, he tried to hit Amber on purpose and ended up getting what he deserved. The two girls laughed as Jack got up from the ground, crying and bleeding from his snout, grabbed the ball, and ran away.

"You're amazing, you know that?" praised Sera to her friend.

"If you had spent more time with my grandpa when we were little, you could do this too." Amber reminded Sera of their childhood days.

"It's not fair! Your grandpa scared me, well, he still scares me a bit, he's a huge guy." Sera thought for a moment before continuing. "Plus, thanks to him, I spent time learning about gadgets with your dad. He taught me a lot. Those were the days when I simply admired your father as a person and nothing more."

"I miss that. What changed?"

"I grew up and realized how hot your dad is."

"Disgusting." commented Amber with a smile. After so many years together, she didn't take Sera's comments too seriously anymore.

They finally arrived at Amber's house, and she opened the door with her keys. No one was home yet; both Amber's mother and father were still at work. So the girls headed to Amber's room, which was on the first floor. Sera placed the small robot she had built on a shelf. Amber pressed the button, and the robot started dancing for a few seconds, but then it suddenly stopped.

"What happened, Sera?" Amber asked her friend. "Did its battery run out already?"

"Impossible... What the heck?" Sera examined the robot while Amber sat on the bed and checked the clock on the bedside table. She noticed that the clock had turned off by itself. Amber didn't say anything to Sera; she simply got up and inspected the house on her own. She went downstairs, and the TV in the living room wouldn't turn on no matter how much she pressed the remote control button. She went to the kitchen, and the fridge was off. Something strange was happening, and just as abruptly as it had started, it stopped; the fridge turned back on, everything started working again, and from Amber's room, Sera's voice came.

"It's done, Amber, I fixed the robot... I don't know how since I haven't done anything, but it seems to be dancing again. Anyway, I'll turn it off and leave it here for you."

Strange, very strange. Sera went downstairs and found a pensive Amber. She simply came to the most obvious conclusion... that it didn't matter what had happened because it was already fixed. Besides, she didn't want to use her brain anymore, so she sat on the living room couch. Sera joined her, and both started playing video games with the console Amber had, just like every afternoon. Amber was winning, which often happened since Sera was usually distracted at those hours. A while later, Sera quickly got up, grabbed the brown bag she had brought the robot in, and pulled out something else: a perfume. She applied it quickly while casually leaning against the wall and posing in front of the door.

"Sera, don't." warned Amber to her friend. "You're going to make a fool of yourself."

But Sera ignored her. Maybe she had a very privileged ear that allowed her to hear what others couldn't, maybe it was her sense of smell, maybe she had a sixth sense for this, but she could anticipate when Amber's father was coming home, and just as she predicted, the door opened, and Anon entered the house, a bald man who looked visibly annoyed, cursing about work issues.

"Good afternoon, Dad." greeted Amber to Anon.

"Hellooooo, Mr. Mous, how was your... nnghh... day?" said Sera, biting the lower lip, posing more and more dramatically and trying to make Anon smell the perfume she had applied.

Anon slightly waved his hand to greet Amber and Sera, ignored both of them, and went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat while still saying an unusually large number of curses. Sera sighed.

"Well, this perfume doesn't do anything either; advertising lied again."

"You're ridiculous. Just stop acting stupid and sit back on the couch."

"Not yet, I have to go to the bathroom. You keep playing without me." Sera apologized, and Amber went back to the game while Sera, without Amber noticing, took her backpack to the bathroom.

Sera had brought something else, something that didn't fit in the brown bag, so she had hidden it in her backpack along with her books. She had secretly rummaged through her mother's old photo album and found some interesting pictures, photos of what Amber's mother looked like back in the days when she and Amber's father started dating. Over the weekend, she not only built her little robot but also made some secret purchases. So she began her transformation, replacing her clothes with the new black clothes she had bought, and also applied some makeup. It took quite a while, about 15 minutes, but she wanted to look perfect. She had to hurry since Amber's mother was about to...

 

...

 

The bathroom door suddenly burst open. Sera had forgotten to lock it.

And who entered was Amber's mother, Miss Lucy, who had just come home from work.

 

...

 

Both girls froze.

Sera felt her heart stop beating; it was like being in a nightmare she couldn't wake up from.

Lucy was staring at Sera with a shocked expression, as if she didn't understand what she was seeing. It was a few seconds that felt like an eternity, and then...

"Pfftt..." Lucy put her hand on her snoot while trying to stifle a laugh. "Sera, really? I didn't expect this from you."

Sera couldn't respond.

"Wow, I don't know how to react to this. It's probably best not to tell your mom about it." The mocking smile turned into one of happiness. "I just can't believe it. Do you really admire me that much?"

 

Wait, what had she said?

 

"Y-Yes... I... I've always... admired you... so much that... that, as you can see, I'd like to... be like... you?"

"This is super flattering, Sera! I've never had a fan, well, honestly, I suspected it by the way you always acted around me. Although you have to remember that your mother is also a great woman and works hard to help you, but still, I'm thrilled that you want to be like me. Oh, wait a moment here!" Mrs. Lucy left the bathroom for a moment and quickly found a camera. "Let's take some pictures together!"

The following moments were extremely embarrassing for Sera (and extremely joyful for Lucy) in which Anon acted as the photographer after making a comment that the triceratops girl didn't come close to the beauty of "Fang," a comment he whispered to Lucy but since Sera was close enough, she heard it and realized that this plan would never have worked. Amber was laughing hysterically as Sera was forced to pose and smile awkwardly next to Lucy. After a photo session much longer than Sera would have wanted, she managed to excuse herself, saying she needed to change clothes and remove the makeup before her mother arrived. Lucy agreed and helped her remove the makeup from her face.

When everything was finally over, Sera sat exhausted on the couch, next to Amber.

"You're an idiot." said Amber to her friend.

"I know, you know, everyone knows." Sera shrugged. "I can't help being an idiot. Thanks for at least putting up with my nonsense."

"Thank you for making me laugh."

"That's what best friends are for." Sera still felt somewhat embarrassed, but at least Amber had a good time at her expense, so somehow she felt it was worth it.

The two girls didn't have much time to resume their video games; Sera's mother soon arrived by car. Sera said goodbye to Amber and her family until tomorrow and went home with her mother, Trish.

"How was your day?" Trish asked her daughter.

"Today I made Amber almost pee herself laughing; that's how funny I am." Sera proclaimed proudly.

"Wow, you're going to become a comedian, huh?" Trish smiled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was time to sleep already; Amber was in her pajamas when she took out her phone and sent a text message to the unknown number she had received.

 

Amber: Hello?

Unknown: Hahaha, I thought you'd have gotten rid of the envelope, you took a long time.

Amber: Who are you?

Unknown: That doesn't matter.

Unknown: Not yet.

Unknown: What matters is what I want to tell you.

Amber: What?

Unknown: I love you.

Unknown: I've loved you for a long time but never dared to tell you.

Unknown: I've watched you and loved you for so long; you're beautiful.

Amber: Tell me who you are.

Unknown: Haha no, you're so pretty; why don't you tell me about yourself, tell me everything.

 

Amber turned off her phone and hid it in a drawer; she felt a chill. She shouldn't have listened to Cynthia; now she knew something quite unpleasant. There was someone very creepy who was obsessed with her. Amber quickly lowered the blinds of her window, feeling watched even though her logical mind told her that wasn't the case. Tonight, she wouldn't be able to sleep properly.