Most of Luna’s classmates are interested and enthusiastic about the artifacts in the museum coming to life and how the attendant takes care of the dinosaur skeletons, neanderthals, and so on. However, Luna didn’t find these fantasy stories exciting, but rather childish and absurd.

The rest of the school day, Luna couldn’t help but to doze off for several times during each class. When she returned home, she noticed Brooklyn acting slightly out of usual. She was happier than usual, even the pitch of her voice sounded higher, unlike her usual self. She has even found more interest in great variety of things such as Luna’s homework assignments and their mother’s cooking recipes.

Luna’s mother has noticed the change in Brooklyn’s behavior, and she asked, “Brooklyn, you seem to be really, happy, these days.”

“Yep, everything’s going on super well at school,” Brooklyn replied with a big smile.

“I’m glad to hear that your getting along well with your classmates and having fun.”

For the next couple of weeks, Brooklyn’s behavior haven’t changed, and Luna was getting used to it. School was fine for Luna, even though she was the transfer student, almost half of the semester have gone by, and she was popular among her classmates.

Luna’s grades have always been at the top, with straight As and occasional Bs, and nothing changed much about that. However, her curiosity regarding Brooklyn’s enthusiastic behavior still haven’t faded.

After so long, the opportunity had finally came. Luna’s parents were out at night for a reunion with their high school classmates, and Luna was alone at home with Brooklyn. When night arrived, Brooklyn went into the bathroom for a shower, the moment that Luna could discover Brooklyn’s secrets finally came.

After the shower was turned on for a few minutes, Luna was sure that Brooklyn wouldn’t come out in the next 20 minutes. She grabbed Brooklyn’s phone from the counter and opened it effortlessly. The password to her phone was 881122, the birth date of Brooklyn’s favorite movie star (who was also her phone wallpaper.)

When Luna clicked into Messages, her heart seemed to stop.

At the top of the messages was Chance, and Luna clicked into the message, they were texting each other every single day they said “good morning” and “good night” to each other the first and last thing of the day.

Luna’s brows began to crunch tightly together as she scrolled through their other messages. Several times, she had seen Chance call Brooklyn “baby” but there were way too much messages to scroll through.

Luna clicked into Instagram and Twitter, and they were all full of Brooklyn and Chance’s messages. They shared everything they saw on the internet and liked every one of each other’s posts and tweets. But, but, how could Brooklyn do that to Luna? Has she forgotten about her?

Before Luna had taken time to read through all the DMs on Instagram and the posts that Brooklyn and Chance have @ed each other in, the sound of running water came to a halt. Brooklyn usually took about 5 minutes to dry herself and get dressed, and Luna didn’t dare risk being found out. If Brooklyn found out that Luna has been looking at her phone, she would kill her, and there would be no explaining needed.

Luna deleted all the history and locked Brooklyn’s phone, she double checked that the surface wasn’t hot, then stumbled into her room and started reading.

Soon after that, Brooklyn came out of the shower, Luna heard her grabbing her phone and she held her breath. She practiced some excuses that she could make if Brooklyn finds out, including trying to search something, wanting to play a video game, and other ridiculous ideas, but none of them really made any sense.

Until it was Luna’s bed time, Brooklyn didn’t find out that Luna have browsed her phone, but what Luna have found out changed her perspective of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn was her own sister, she couldn’t have possibly betrayed her like so, while lying on bed, Luna thought about the possible explanations of the closeness, but there was none. With Brooklyn as her enemy, Luna seemed to have no odds of winning the fight.

Even with their parents, Brooklyn was always the better one. Luna’s parents were always proud of Brooklyn, of her grades, her achievements, and so on. Luna have always praised Brooklyn, and looked up to her, she hoped that one day, she could be the same and get the same things as Brooklyn.

Chance was only one person, so he either belonged to Brooklyn or Luna, but not both. Luna had to be better than Brooklyn in some way.

Over the next couple of weeks, Luna started trying out the tips she have learned from YouTube videos and articles on “how to make a boy fall for you.” She spent as much time as possible talking to him, which wasn’t a lot because she could only see him during recess, but they talked pretty much over text. Luna tried to open up herself to him and maintain a positive attitude, and other things that the YouTube videos and articles have guaranteed to make the boy fall for her.

“Hi, Chance,” Luna said once, when Chance was at the basketball court with his friends.

“Oh, hi, Luna,” Chance smiled to her.

Luna asked, “How’s your school going on? I heard that you guys are taking a lot of exams.” Brooklyn had told her that they were having mid-terms that week.

“Yep, we’re in exam week, but we have a lot of self-study time because each grade’s exam schedules are different.”

Luna entered the basketball court (students from Eastwood Middle weren’t supposed to join the high school students, but Chance was more important.) She sat down on a narrow bench beside the basketball court and Chance sat beside her.

“Does anyone really study during self-study time?”

“Obviously not, we play video games, and the girls just chat, but we’re all really skilled at jumping between the windows.”

Luna laughed slightly.

“For us middle school students, we don’t have mid-term exams, we’re just having normal classes, just the usual.”

Chance never started a conversation with Luna and Luna was always the one who texts him first. Chance doesn’t ask a lot of questions to Luna and seems uninterested in Luna’s life. In their conversations, they were usually Luna asking Chance about his life and Chance replying to the specific questions.

Time flies by so quickly, Luna haven’t accomplished anything in becoming closer to Chance. There were not many opportunities left for Luna to seize Chance from Chance was caring to Luna, but she believed that it was not a romantic way, but simply Chance’s caring personality.

Chance did match some of the “hints that your crush likes you back” but only a minority of them. Luna spent time learning hot hairstyles, making her skin look better, and so on. She has done everything she could to improve her looks, but still, they were no match for Brooklyn’s.

Hi Chance, Luna texted him one day.

Hi :D, he texted back.

What r u doing? She felt like she have dropped obvious hints to Chance that she liked him, but Chance didn’t seem to take them. Luna thought that it was really obvious that she liked Chance, and it was too awkward to confess to him directly.

I’m on my way home, I was just playing basketball

Cool, so where do you play?

Oh, usually at a basketball court two blocks from my neighborhood, most of my friends r really close to there 2, but when it’s raining we go into Red sky mall, there’s a pretty nice basketball court on the first floor, but it’s a bit far for some of us

You really love basketball, right? 

Yep, the game never gets old 

What about your friends? Do they also love it as much as you do? Because most of the boys in my grade aren’t so crazy about basketball 

TBH, it’s mostly because of me and my best friend Hunter, we play all the time and our friends wanted to play with us, so yeah

Their conversations never last really long as Luna always get stuck on what she should say next and Chance rarely starts a new conversation topic. However, Luna texted Chance every now and then, so they still drew closer online.

As for Luna, it seemed much easier to talk online, as she had more time to think of the right thing to say and change the words before sending the messages.

While talking to Chance in real life, Luna sometimes had no idea what she was saying, she opens her mouth and the words just blurt out without being processed by her brain.

Every time after she went back to her classroom from recess, Luna would recall the entire conversation between her and Chance, and analyze Chance’s reactions to see if he actually liked her romantically.

Brooklyn didn’t seem to be going out with Chance, so their relationship wasn’t getting into a sizzling one, but Brooklyn wasn’t trying to help Luna either, she never asked about Luna’s day at school when she comes home like Brooklyn used to do.

Luna haven’t gotten another opportunity to take a peak at Brooklyn’s phone, so she wasn’t updated about the relationship between her crush and her sister, that is, until one day, Brooklyn brought up the topic.

“Mom, can I go to the movies with a friend tomorrow night?” Brooklyn asked her mother one day, after she had arrived home from school.

Her mother agreed, “Sure, so who is this friend? Is it a boy?”

“Well, yeah, his name is Chance,” Brooklyn replied.

After hearing the word “Chance”, Luna’s heart sank. She had been in her room, but she could hear every word of their conversation clearly.

“It’s not like we’re in a relationship or something, he’s just my classmate,” Brooklyn added.

“You can go, I don’t really mind, as long as you have fun,” Brooklyn’s mother paused for a moment and asked, “Wait, when would you be coming home tomorrow?”

Brooklyn thought for a moment, “The film starts at 8, and it’s 2 hours, so I bet about a quarter past 10?”

“OK, I’m fine with that.”

Luna thought about asking Brooklyn if she could join them at the movies, but at second thought, she decided that the situation would be awkward and Luna would probably be the third wheel.

Looking back to the day after, Luna couldn’t possibly have allowed Brooklyn to be going to the movies with Chance, just the two of them, but there was no way that she could stop it from happening, unless she applied some nasty means, like pushing Brooklyn down the stairs, hiding her phone, and some others which she didn’t dare carry out, both due to her inner voice and the fear of the consequences.

The next day, after having dinner at home, Brooklyn put on a short t-shirt with her waist revealed, a pair of jeans, and a voguish black fleecy jacket. After some modest make-up, Brooklyn waved good-bye to her parents and Luna, then set off to go to the movies.

Throughout the night, in the absence of Brooklyn, Luna couldn’t help but to imagine Brooklyn and Chance at the movie theater, laughing and crying at the moments in the film, holding hands, and eating popcorn together.

The imagery soured her, but Luna couldn’t resist her imaginative mind.

Luna tried putting herself into Chance’s shoes, she didn’t blame him, it was Brooklyn whom he had fell for at the first place, it was Brooklyn’s pictures that Luna had sent to Chance and kept him intrigued.

If only Luna had known, if only she had known it all, but there was no way of changing the past. Luna knew that remorse and regret had no effect on the present, but what she had done in the past deserved to be regretted.