Wrong Number >>Nash Grier

Chapter One: Missed Calls

Piper McKinnon woke up on the dreary November morning and immediately knew that something was off. There was a growing ball of dread in the pit of her stomach, and it hadn't been there the night before when she fell asleep on top her Trigonometry textbook. She accounted her current feeling of unease to her math test she had to take later that, even though she crammed for the entire night before, she definitely wasn't prepared for. With a groan, Piper threw her bright orange duvet cover off of her and onto the foot of her bed. She rolled over to the edge of her bed and kicked her legs over the side. Her sock-clad feet landed on the cold, wooden floor. Piper stood and stretched, making sure to pop her back as she did so. Her fit padded across the floor leading her to her dresser. She pulled out a fresh pair of underwear and a bra. She let her makeshift pajamas of a ratty t-shirt and boy shorts fall to the floor as she slid on a pair of sweatpants and a white tank top. Her bare arms erupted in goosebumps as a blast of cool air came down from the vent on her ceiling. Looking at her clock, Piper let out a deep sigh. It was too early to be awake and functioning.  Piper trudged out of her room and into the bathroom that was located across the hall. She turned on the light and quickly flinched in response. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the artificial light source. Once they did, Piper reached into the cabinet under the sink and pulled out her straightener. As she waited for it to heat up, Piper brushed her teeth and washed her face. By the time she was done the little green light was glowing on the flat iron. Piper began to meticulously straighten the waves out of her caramel colored hair. Her hair, when straight, fell down to about the middle of her back. She quickly applied her daily, and rather basic, make-up. She slathered foundation onto her face, applied eyeliner to both her lid and her waterline, added mascara to her lashes, and finished off her look with some fruity lip gloss. Satisfied with the way she looked, Piper turned out of the bathroom and walked back into her room where she picked out her outfit. She traded in her sweats for a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, layered an open flannel over her tank top, and threw on her faded black converse. She picked her plain black backpack up off of her floor and walked back out of her room. She tried to descend the stairs quietly, no doubt her younger brother was still asleep, careful not to step on the stair that was three up from the bottom and was prone to creak under even the smallest amount of pressure. Piper took a detour into the kitchen to grab her breakfast, a banana and a water bottle, before she took her keys out of the designated key bowl on the counter and walked out of her house. In the driveway sat her baby, a beat-up 2003 Toyota Corolla. She got in her car, drove off in the direction of her high school, and tried desperately to review all of the Trig identities in her head. 

It was only Tuesday, and yet Piper wished it was July. At least if it was July, Piper would be done with school. Well, high school that is. Cramming the night before has once again been proven to be a terrible study method; Piper could barely remember three of the identities which wasn't very good if you're looking at the big picture. Also if it was July, Piper wouldn't be sitting where she was currently, the pick-up line at the local elementary school. The deal, Piper recalled, was that her mother would pay for her gas if Piper agreed to pick up her brother on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Of course the unspoken fine print of the deal was that her mother would only put enough gas in her car to get her to school and back with the weekly stops to the elementary school added in. So that's how Piper ended up in the line straight out of soccer mom hell three times a week. It wasn't all bad though. She adored her younger brother, Alfie, and really did treasure the amount of time they got to spend together especially since she would hopefully be enrolled in the University of California at Los Angeles by this time next year. It wouldn't be that far distance wise, but even an hour journey was impossible for a seven year old to do alone. Her mother, if she had gotten her way, would have had Piper apply to the much closer University of California at Irvine, but for Piper an away from home was close enough already. The line continued to move at a snail's pace until the Corolla finally reached the ramp where all the bright eyed children sat watching and waiting for their parents to rescue them from the evil clutches of elementary school administration.  Alfie was no different, and he bounded over to his sister's car and smile lodged permanently onto his face. He happily boasted about how he had been able to finish all of his homework while he waited. Piper wished it was still that easy. She had to finish (and start) and paper on Cartesian Dualism by tomorrow morning and silently mouthed a curse word as she remembered it. Meanwhile, Alfie was blissfully unaware of his sister's monster of a paper and happily discussed the day in the life of being a second grader. Piper listened, although not with extreme attention mainly due to the fact that she had no idea who her brother was talking about, and responded with the appropriate sound affects when necessary.

Upon arriving home, Piper let's her younger brother turn on the television and he becomes quickly engrossed in whatever Nickelodeon show is playing. She heats him up a bowl of Easy Mac and lets it cool for a few minutes before she serves it to him. With her brother satisfied, Piper dashes up the stairs in order take a quick shower. Right before she jumped into the shower, Piper noticed something rather odd. A missed call from unknown number in Raleigh, North Carolina. Piper shrugged it off, it wouldn't be the first time that a strange number called her and it wouldn't be the last. Piper attempted to take a quick shower and reduced her "sitting on the floor and contemplating life time" to a maximum of five minutes. By the time she got out of the shower and dressed into what she planned on wearing to bed the night, the Raleigh number had called two more times. Piper had only been to North Carolina once. She was five years old and she barely remembers any of it. She remembers mountains and rivers and strange accents but that was about it. Her ringtone interrupted her train of thought. The Raleigh number was calling for a fourth time. Didn't people get messages? She realized the only way this person would stop calling is if she answered and told them to. She pressed the green button on the bottom of her screen and waited for the call to connect. Piper knew as soon as she answered that she should have just rejected the call for the fourth time, but it was too late now.

"Thanks for finally picking up, asshole", said the person, the man, on the other end of the phone, and okay that was definitely the last thing Piper expected. A bill collector? Yes. An older lady who dialed the wrong number? Sure. A teenage boy who sounded annoyed? No, not really. "Hayes! Are you there man?" Piper pulled a face. Who was Hayes and why would he be there? "Hayes?" Right the seemingly annoyed teenage boy thought that she was Hayes.

"Who's Hayes?" Piper responded, and she probably could have worded her response better than that. "And who are you?"

"Hayes is my brother and this is his phone. Who are you and why do you have his phone?" Mystery boy's annoyance was now turned on Piper.

"First of all this is my phone, second of all I'm not telling you my name until you tell me yours," Piper responded equally annoyed. She didn't have time for this, her unfinished essay was still in the back of her mind.

"What are you five? My name's Nash by the way," Mystery boy, Nash, responded tone clipped.

"Well listen up Nash," Piper started, hopeful that the sneer on her face was present through her tone. "This is my phone. You called the wrong number and that isn't my fault."

"Whatever," Nash replied, "I have to go. Sorry for cutting into your precious time princess." The boy, Nash, hung up before Piper could even get a word in edgewise. Piper suddenly had the urge to scream into her pillow. Just where did he get off on being rude to a stranger because he made a stupid mistake. One thing was for sure, Piper was just glad the Raleigh number wasn't about to call her again. She couldn't have been more wrong.