Thoughts of Mandy

WITH trembling knees, she stepped outside her apartment. Mandy doesn’t want to go to school today because her whole body aches, and her temperature was above average. She put her hand on her forehead and flinched on the heat that she felt.

“I should skip classes today,” she muttered. “And, I am freaking late…”

She swayed as she walked down the stairs. One of her neighbors greeted her, but she ignored them. Mandy doesn’t have time to waste for the gossipers. She heard the two old ladies mumbled something behind her when she passed them. Mandy’s brows furrowed, and glanced back at them, but the two women have already turned by the corner.

Mandy shook her head. “Why they can’t just mind their own business?”

Just before her second subject class started, Mandy reached her classroom. She can hear the noise of her classmates from outside. Mandy thought that maybe, they’re talking about the latest post on the Sproutoon social media page. She smiled. She’s also excited about the concert. That’s why she worked overtime last night to earn the ticket money.

As soon as Mandy stepped inside the classroom, all her classmates went silent and turned to look at her. She knotted her forehead and looked back at them.

“What?” she asked. But nobody answered her.

She looked for her friends, Sherry and Jennie, but she can’t find them. She walked towards her seat with gazes following her. They were all giving her a scrutinizing look as if she had done a crime.

“It’s her, right?” Mandy heard her female classmate asked.

“I think so,” the other answered. “She really looked like her.”

Mandy looked down on her desk. She doesn’t understand what they are talking about, and why are they looking at her in a demeaning way. She paused when she remembered something. She looked at her classmates and saw that they’re all holding their smartphones.

“Is this you, Mandy?” one of her male classmates asked and showed her the screen of his cellphone, but before Mandy could see it, she looked away.

Cold flushes rush through her veins as realizations dawned on her. The photos, videos, and conversations… did it leak? She covered her face with her hands and shook her head.

“That’s not me…” she said as she shook her head. “That’s not me!”

Murmurs from all her classmates roared inside the room. They’re all asking if she was really the girl on the video. But, Mandy denied it repeatedly. This can’t be happening… she thought. This is just a dream.

“Mandy Nakahama,” the school counselor called her name. “We have to talk in my office.”

Mandy shook her head as tears streamed down her face. “That’s not me, Madam… Those videos are fake!”

“Either real or fake, you have to come with me in my office, Mandy,” the professor insisted. “I need to call your parents––”

“No!” Mandy shouted. “No! That’s not me! No––”

Mandy’s eyes flew open, and a familiar white ceiling welcomed her eyes. She sat up and caught her hammering chest, sweat trickled down her temple. She looked around and let out a sigh as she brushed her shoulders.

“It’s just a dream…” she murmured and cried silently in the dark.

***