It’s Always The Ones You Least Expect.

It’s Always The Ones You Least Expect.

Today will be a good day - Jacob muttered to himself - It’s sunny, everyone’s in a good mood, I like this day.

Jacob was a good looking guy, deep chocolate hair, green emerald eyes and freckles sprinkled as pepper on his face. He was tall and skinny. As we can appreciate, he is a person that gets really easily influenced, depending on the mood of the people around him, nothing out of the ordinary for a ninth grader. Nevertheless, that day was a good one, nothing seemed to be wrong, not yet.

Jacob arrived at school, entering his classroom with the books he needed for that class. However, quite unusually his teacher was arriving late, “That’s weird”, thought Jacob.

He took this time to talk with his best friend since childhood, Michael. Michael was behaving a bit different lately, but nothing worrying. He was a bit taller than Jacob, sand-like hair, stunning amber eyes and tanned skin. They were talking about a girl on Michael’s neighborhood who to Michael was really beautiful.

All of a sudden the teacher comes into the classroom, “Good

morning class! Sorry for my late arrival” Said the teacher in an apologetic tone, organizing her supplies on the desk.

“Today we have something exciting, class! We have a new student” 

This announcement immediately made the sound of whispering to grow in the class, everyone was wondering who could he be, what he looked like, how they were going to act. As soon as the students in that chemistry class heard the sound of the door, they all looked straight at it, looking for the new student.

“Jason, come here and introduce yourself, please.” Ordered Ms. Williams, making a hand gesture for him to come near her. Everyone paying close attention to all of his movements.

“Hi, my name is Jason Evans, I’m from Los Angeles, California. I moved here thanks to my parents’ job, I’m 15 years old and I hope to make good friends here.” 

He seemed to be nice, at least that was what everyone thought. “You can take a sit next to Jacob, Jacob please, raise your hand” commanded the teacher, making Jacob raise his hand in obedience. Jason walked at a slow pace to the sit beside the tall boy, keeping quiet to let the teacher start her class.

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“So, Jason right?” asked Jacob, wanting to know him better. “Yes, you’re Jacob” the new student said with an unsure face.

“Yes, my name is Jacob, nice to meet you.” said Jacob with a friendly smile,  “Have you liked the school so far?” He questioned. “Yes, I am indeed enjoying your education system. You seem to be nice, I hope we can get to be close friends. Michael has told me a lot about you” Commented Jason with a grin on his face, this gesture resulted to look more devilish that what he probably intended, weirding Jacob out. “Oh, I guess I am, I hope we can be close friends soon too! I’ll go to my math class, see you in break” He stated as he walked far from the unusual new student.

As Jacob entered his math class, which he also shared with

Michael, he decided to bring up what Jason had told him.

“Do you know Jason? Like, before he entered the school” The freckled boy asked curiously, to which his friend replied “Yes, a bit. We used to hang out frequently though” he said, remembering all the funny moments they shared, “Why?” Michael continued, asking this time a question to Jacob.

“Oh, he just told me you talked to him about me and I assumed it was because you already knew each other. I was right” said him, proving his point. “Cool, he is a good kid, you two should become friends” suggested Michael, something that he didn’t do often. This seemed strange to Jacob but he just let it slip by, what a mistake!

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A few months went by, Jason and Jacob had become really close to each other. The taller boy had gotten used to the not, so new student’s unusual behavior, Jason liked to ask a lot of questions. By now he could write an entire biography about Jacob’s life. These past days Jason has been trying to dress similarly to Jacob, he didn’t mind though, completely ignoring the red flags.

Jason had a lot of friends now, adapting quite easily to the class environment. He was already tall and pale, making it easier to imitate that one freckled person he admired so much, he dressed like him, talked like him, even painted freckles on his face! Jacob still couldn’t believe he was that dumb, it made him get filled with anger.

However, we haven’t reached that part yet, let’s go a bit earlier:

“Hi Jason! Does freckles suit you” Complimented Jacob, a little bit weirded out but he didn’t care enough to keep questioning himself. That day was a Friday, the weather was chilly, cloudy and dark. This was unusual since they had just hit spring, but this gave a strange feeling to Jacob.

Since he had woken up that morning he knew something was odd, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. The day went by and he arrived to school, Jason asked him if he wanted to hang out later that day, to which he responded that he would arrive to his house at around five in the afternoon.

Hours flew by and it was already five, Jacob was on his way to his friend's home, so they could play something or just chat and watch some movies. Needless to say that things weren’t going Jacob’s way.

Jason’s house was quite normal, similar to the other ones in the neighborhood. The tall brunette rang the doorbell, making Jason rush downstairs and opening the door to him. “Isn’t it better if we go outside? Take a bit of fresh air and maybe find something unusual around here” Suggested Jason, to which Jacob agreed.

They were surrounding the house, looking for something odd, but once they arrived to the back of the house, Jacob wished he didn’t agree to going to his “friend’s” house that evening.

“So, why haven’t you called me out for trying to look like you? Haven’t you noticed? Are you that naïve?” Questioned Jason, with an ice cold expression, one that gave Jacob chills, one that made Jacob want to vanish in that exact moment. He didn’t answer. “Come on, answer, or are you too scared?” questioned Jason, the one which seemed to be so kind, so willing to make friends, now acting in such a creepy and disturbing way.

Jason got tired of it, so he just took advantage of Jacob’s freezed state and threw him into a hole Jacob didn’t notice before. Once he landed he noticed he didn’t have his cellphone and felt an extreme pain on his back, where he landed.

“No one’s going to notice you’re gone. Since today, you can

call me Jacob Keating.” Said Jason, with the most devilish and cold smile Jacob would ever witness in a human being.

“So, they caught you too?” Said a fragile voice that Jacob recognized instantly, sending chills through his every bone.

It was his best friend, Michael.

The real one...

By Juliana Restrepo, Step 8.