Screen of Secrets

Chapter 2

Fredric

What the hell is this?!
The screen displayed a light blue background with some kind of shiny white animation shimmering across it. My heart nearly stopped; for a second, I thought my computer was about to explode.

A few minutes later an animation started, and a new image popped up.
Upon closer inspection of the image. I realized, it was a webpage. But what a bizarre page it was. It looked like someone who just learned how to code had designed it.
The background was light blue with white sparkles, which didn't seem like a good combination. The borders were lined with triangles in alternating colors: red, yellow, green, pink, and violet. The first three colors reminded me of a traffic light, while the last two were just plain odd. Even kids these days wouldn't use such colors for their projects or assignments, at least not pink and violet together alternatively.

I wanted to see what the page was about. I scrolled a bit to next page, and in the center of the page, there was a silver rectangle with rounded edges, and a message displayed above it : "SCRATCH HERE."
I did, revealing the message, "WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE!! LEARN FROM IT AND YOU'LL DEFINITELY SCORE HIGH IN YOUR UPCOMING EXAMS."

Score high? Seriously?
Of course, I wanted to do better in my next test, but this site seemed like a joke. Who would take this seriously? It looked so bizarre that not even in my sleep would I trust it.

"Fred, your Uncle and Aunt are leaving. Come and say goodbye," my mom called out.

"Okay, Mom, coming," I replied, getting up from my bed and changing my clothes before heading out.

After saying goodbye to Uncle and Aunt, I chatted briefly with my mom. "It was nice to see them after so long, right, Mom?"

"Right," she said, but her tone had shifted. Something was off.

"What's for dinner?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied curtly.

"Nothing? Is everything okay mom? You seem to be worried" I asked, feeling a knot form in my stomach.

"Your teacher, Ms. Sam, called," she said, crossing her arms.

"Oh..." I trailed off, realizing I was in trouble.
She must have told my mom about my result and maybe, she saw me with Evan, the top student, and complained about me.
This wasn't good.

"She told me you were disturbing a student who was in second place while you were nearly at the bottom," Mom said sharply.
Of course, she saw us both.
"Mom, I can explain. It's not what it looks like. I was not disturbing her, she called my name, and I just responded to her," I pleaded.

"Enough. I don't care about what actually happened between you two, the only thing I care about is your result , this morning you told me you did well on the test," she snapped.

"I know, Mom, I did my best on the test but I just don't know how the result came this wors-" I tried to explain.

"Stop."
She cut me off, in middle sentence.

"You couldn't even keep your room clean. Do you know how embarrassing it was to show your uncle and aunt your messy room, especially when I wanted to show them the painting they gave us as a gift and you took it from the living room, claiming it helped you study? This was you studying? With this result you are claiming you did your best? " she continued.

"Mom, please listen to me, I-", I began.

"I don't want to listen to any of your further explanation, go to your room now and no dinner for you tonight," she said, leaving no room for argument.

So, I won't get any dinner tonight.
I was foolish to think I was safe.
She knew about me and Evan talking to each other in school, knew my result, and even saw my messy room.
And now, even this ridiculous website is taunting me with promises of high scores.

I walked to my room, sat on my bed and turned back to my laptop, annoyed.
A new message from the website had popped up: "YOU WANT A HIGH SCORE AND THERE IS NO DENYING IN IT. THIS WEBSITE CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT. IT CAN ONLY BE USED OFFLINE. SO IF YOU ARE INTERESTED SCROLL DOWN AND CLICK ON THE DOWNLOAD BUTTON TO ACCESS ALL THE BENEFITS. THANK YOU FOR APPLYING AND BEST OF LUCK ON YOUR UPCOMING EXAMS."

Technically, it was right I want a High score but I hadn't applied for anything; the website had just appeared and wouldn't go away, that's how I ended up in this page. Still, after such a long stressful day, with me being a loser, I figured I might as well try it. What did I have to lose? So, I scrolled down and clicked on the download button, and it began downloading.