The alarm clock rang loudly marking the start of a new day of school; as usual you crawled on your bed to reach it and turn it off, then stretched like a cat and scratched your head. After a shower you applied your light make up and combed your hair into a high bun, you looked at yourself in the mirror and smiled, not like you were the prettiest girl in the world but you were not ugly.

As usual you ate breakfast with your younger brother, a middle school boy who was your only relative left after your parents died in an accident years ago. And of course he was the one who takes care of the kitchen while you of the chores.

- You woke up earlier than usual - he pointed out taking a bite of his toast.

- yeap - you nodded, smiling involuntarily. - Kris is going to pick me up later.

He rolled back his eyes and made an annoyed face.

- what?!- you asked.

- Ash! You are wasting your time, that guy doesn’t see you like a woman.

You almost choked drinking your orange juice.

- And who says I like him?! Huh? – you alleged.

He shot you a disbeliever glare and continued eating.

- How can a university student be so naïve? – he mumbled

- what did you say?! – you glared back furious.

- Nothing, just eat – he waved his hand to gesture to let it go.

When you finished your breakfast your brother left first and you walked to the street you were supposed to meet with Kris. He wasn’t there yet and you looked at the hour on you phone thinking maybe it was too early or late but it wasn’t neither the cases. Only 20 minutes after you arrived, your phone started ringing.

- Hey! Did you wake up late? – you asked.

- I’m sorry! – he started to say in a soft tone, like a kid who expects to be scolded after doing something wrong – I’m sorry… I promise I’ll make sure to compensate you.

He heard you sigh from the other side of the line, but still you answered with just an “okay” and hung up before he could say something else.

- I guess I better start walking… - you sighed again – ash! And I wore some high heeled boots today!

You made it late to class the professor just looked at you when you opened the door and he proceeded with the lecture. Your eyes unconsciously moved to Kris, who was focused on taking notes.

The class ended and you didn’t move a single finger from your seat, not even decided to turn back to verify if your friend had already left. But you had to when you felt something hitting the back of your neck.

- you… - you glared at him.

- Here are the notes from the part you missed of the lecture. I think this is going to be in the next exam so study it.

Your jaw dropped at what just happened because Kris was never the smartest student, he never took notes or study, but still managed to pass with average grades.

 - what? – he said embarrassed – I know you are a nerd who always takes notes. And… - he looked away – it was my fault you were late.

You laughed.

- cut it out, Kris!! – you stand up – I wasn’t expecting to walk with you either and I didn’t wait for that long. Besides, you tend to forget thing easily since you are an airhead.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at you stunned.

- what? An air-head?

- yep - you nodded but as soon as you tried to stand up, you felt the pile of papers hitting the back of your head but with no intention to hurt you.

- well, this air head troubled himself to take notes for you – he started to walk out of the classroom.

- But it’s true – you mumbled.

- I heard that! – he said and stopped in the hallway – are you coming or not? Trust me, you should – he grinned.

- Ok – you almost jumped out from your chair, and smiling like a fool.

- Vanilla or strawberry? – he asked

- You should know the answer! – you with a hit on his shoulder.

- Chocolate, then – he affirmed, smiling confident.

You both walked out of the school towards a new café installed in front of it. There was just a couple of people since it was early and the prices were kind of expensive, but Kris pocket money could buy a dozens of the shortcakes selling there.

- You are spacing out too much – you waved you hand in front of his eyes.

- huh? Really? – he looked at you and then down to the cake on the table.

- it’s because you are running out of time, right? – you asked.

- yeah, and almost every excuse I’ve given to my parents seems worthless – he dissected his cake.

- I’m sorry. I can’t understand this thing about arranged marriage still happening in this century.

- It’s more usual than you think. – he took a portion of the cake - So that our family’s fortune will double its worth – and eat it.

You felt useless trying to help your friend who obviously lived in a different society than yours. All you could do was at least drift his mind away from the thought of marry someone he had never met face to face. It was the only thing he has never had: freedom.

- But I’ll figure out something else to cancel it.

- Sure you will.

You kept eating in a relatively awkward silence until a topic came to your mind.

- Oh, the school has a official FB group…

- so what? – he said uninterested.

- Only people from school can enter…

- wooow, so interesting – he sarcastically said.

You really hated when he acted that way, only interested when it came to talk about his problems, but when you mentioned something he would just answer with a bored tone and brief words. But still, you continued talking.

- it is fun because, of course no one uses their real accounts… everybody is “user” then add a word or a number… and no profile pictures are allowed.

- Most likely everybody uses to get girls and do stupid things…

-well… - you couldn’t deny it – not everyone, I use it to get information for the exam and stuff

- Just be careful…

School was over and Kris offered to take you home in his car. You accepted, mostly because you cherish every moment you have with him now that he is not married or attending his family business.

After dinner you started studying the notes he gave you, everything was wrote down with technical precision and even had some notes on the sides to point where it came from.

Once you were over with that as signature you decided to log in on the school group to ask something about scholarships you didn’t understand when the school services explain it. Your user name was 3021 since it was the digit pressed down randomly.

-But it’s 12:35 in Friday night… maybe nobody’s online…

 “be careful” you remembered Kris words

“Hello. Does anyone know about the process for X scholarship”  You posted and leave it there unattended for a while to check your personal FB’s notifications and messages. An hour passed by and there was no reply to your question.

- Whatever… I’ll ask someone from class on Monday… - you yawned and dragged yourself to you bed on the other side of the room, allowing the fluff of the quilt comfort you who had heavy and tired eyes from working on the computer the whole night making it easier for you to fall in the land of dreams, or so you thought until the echoing sound of a new message dispel every sign of sleepiness. You took your phone and watched with half opened eyes that someone had replied to your post, not only that, you had a Message.

User 9011 replied: there’s no such scholarship…

- are you kidding me? Of course there is! – You grumbled and were about to answer but something stopped you from doing so. You opened the message; it was from the same user.

User 9011: you should erase that post, not a lot of people can get that, and if they know there is going to be more demand of it.

User 3021: aren’t you being a little bit too egoistic?

The replied was almost automatic, like he or she was waiting for you.

User 9011: it’s for your own good. You may be left out if more people apply. But well since I already applied. Here is what you got to do.

Then attached a list of steps and requirement of what to do and send, also reference names. You thought about it and then deleted the post.

User 3021: Well, thank you. But isn’t going to be an inconvenient if I apply too? You might be left out of the program.

User 9011: Dunno, seemed like you really need it since you deleted the post. And you found about it on your own which is really hard… maybe that’s why. Good luck.

User 3021: Looks like we’re on the same boat…thank you :)

After that you logged out and fell asleep in a blink.