CHAPTER 1

STALKER

It was a Monday on 19th December 2016

was the day that Amanda’s life went upside
down. The day started as usual. Amanda woke
up at 6:50 in the morning to get ready for school.
She brushed her teeth, showered and got
dressed. She went downstairs and said good
morning to her mom, who was frying some
bacons and eggs for her and her dad, who
entered the kitchen while buttoning his shirt with
his briefcase on the kitchen counter, ready for
him to take for work. Amanda ate her breakfast
and drank a glass of orange juice whilst scrolling
through social media on her iPhone.

7:15am was the time Amanda and her dad

pulled out of the driveway and began their
journey. Amanda waved at her mom goodbye
while her dad was driving the car. “So, how are
you today Amanda? Getting ready for school?”
Asked Amanda’s dad, Mr Wilson. “Like usual,
nothing much. There isn’t anything exciting
though this week,” answered Amanda. Suddenly,

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a notification popped up on Amanda’s phone. It
was her best friend, Jessica. The text message
said, “I’ve reached school. I’ve got Starbucks,
you included. I’ll be waiting at the school
entrance.” Amanda text back, it said, “I’m on
the way. I’ll reach in about several minutes.”

Around 7:25am, Amanda reached her

school, Washington High School. Amanda saw
Jessica waving at her while exiting the car.
Amanda said goodbye to her dad and closed the
car door. “Finally, you’ve arrived. Here’s your
Starbucks. What do you have on the first
period?” Asked Jessica as they entered the
school’s main building and going to their locker.
“For first period, I’ve Chemistry, Mrs Norris.
And, Algebra for second and third period,”
answered Amanda as she was grabbing her
binder and pencil case. “Okay, well I’ll see you
around then, see you at lunch. Bye,” said Jessica
as she left for her Geography class for first and
second period. Amanda waved back and too left
for her Chemistry class which is at Block B’s
second floor.

Amanda entered the Chemistry laboratory

around 8am, just barely making it. When she
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entered the laboratory, it was filled with chatters
and zipping noises. She saw an empty seat at the
corner of the first table. She placed her
stationeries and binder on the table. She looked
up to the whiteboard and the board wrote,
“Saponification”. Immediately, Amanda knew it
was about soap. Amanda was a smart student
among her batch of students. She scored above
average grades across the board but she always
scores the highest in Chemistry and
Mathematics. Around 8:12am, Mrs Norris
entered the laboratory and the class began.
“Good morning class. Today, we’ll be learning
about Saponification and how soaps are made.
Now, I want all of you to note down the notes on
the board as I explain about what we’ll be
learning today. Let’s begin,” said Mrs Norris.
The students began to note down notes from the
board and Mrs Norris began explaining about
Saponification. “Saponification is a process that
involves the conversion of fat, oil, or lipid, into
soap and alcohol by the action of heat in the
presence of aqueous alkali. Now, this topic is
not that difficult to understand. This topic is
basically about soaps and how to make them.
Everyone understand? Everyone can follow?”
Asked Mrs Norris. Everyone nodded. “Perfect.
Let’s carry on. Soaps are salts of fatty acids and
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fatty acids are monomers of lipids that have
long carbon chains. For example, Sodium
Palmitate. Saponification reactions are
generally exothermic and almost totally
irreversible. Now, grab your highlighter and
highlight the words conversion, presence of
aqueous alkali, long carbon chains, Sodium
Palmitate, exothermic and almost totally
irreversible. These are key points. When you’re
doing an experiment based on this topic, recall
these key points. Let’s continue,” said Mrs
Norris.

The class ended at 8:30 am, Amanda left

and went to Block C’s ground floor for Algebra
class. The class went from 8:45 to 9:45 am.
Around 10:45, Amanda went for recess and
waited for Jessica. They met up and ate at the
same table and discussed about the classes they
had. Amanda’s classes went fine. But Jessica
had some gossips to share with Amanda.
“During English class, Michael was asked to get
out of class for not finishing Mr Terrance’s
essay given last Friday. And David got sent to
the principal’s office for skipping Mrs Yoshie’s
class for almost three weeks now. Today was
mental I tell you,” said Jessica to Amanda whist

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having their food. At 11am, classes resumed;
Amanda and Jessica waved each other goodbye
and went to their classes for the rest of the day.

School ended at 2:30pm, Amanda and

Jessica met up, organized their stuff and grabbed
any school works given by their teachers that
day whilst they were chatting about random
stuff. “During Biology class, William went to the
office for cussing out Mrs Frank and got
suspended for 3 weeks,” said Jessica. “How are
you getting all the gossips and news today? It’s
like all the gossips and crazy news revolves
around you,” said Amanda. “I don’t know
either. Well, I better get going because I’ve got
five pages of essay to write based on Abraham
Lincoln,” said Jessica. “Well, I’ve got a report
essay to write, it is due this Thursday. I’ve to
leave as well,” said Amanda as them both left
the school’s main building. Them both waved
each other goodbye and went their separate
ways.

Amanda was walking down street and

suddenly got a feeling as if someone was
following her. Amanda stopped and turned
around to check her surroundings. There was
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nobody. It was a weird and creepy feeling.
Amanda turned back around and began to
increase her pace. Suddenly, there’s a big gust of
wind came Amanda’s way. Amanda shut her
eyes to avoid any sand or debris entering her
eyes. She opened her eyes once more and began
to walk faster. 15 minutes later, Amanda began
to approach her house. Amanda began to run to
avoid any danger from her stalker. Amanda
opened the front door and slammed it and she
blocked the door with her back against it. Her
mom left the kitchen and saw Amanda.
“Amanda, what are you doing with your back
against the door?” Asked Mrs Wilson. “When I
was on the way home, I felt like someone was
following me, like a stalker. That’s why I
slammed the door and blocked it like that,”
answered Amanda. “Sweetie, there’s nothing to
worried about. We live in a neighbourhood
that’s safe and sound. There isn’t going to be
any danger. It’s all fine. Now, go to your
bedroom and take a shower. You’re tired, I can
tell. Meanwhile, I’ll cook something for your
empty stomach,” said Mrs Wilson to calm down
her frightened daughter.

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 Amanda nodded and went up to her room
and went to shower. Amanda came out of the
shower while drying her hair with a towel. She
got dressed and went down to the kitchen to eat
her lunch. Her mom made some pasta with
tomato sauce with some broccoli. “Feel better
after the shower?” Asked Mrs Wilson. “Yeah,
much better. Thanks mom,” said Amanda. Mrs.
Wilson smiled and left to go for a quick rinse.
Amanda was eating whilst checking her social
media. First, she went to Instagram. Nothing
much, just some celebrities posting pictures.
Then, she went to Twitter. Nothing much either,
just some tweets from schoolmates about them
stressing over school works and teachers
replying to their tweets. Suddenly, Amanda got a
text message from an unknown number. It said,
“Hi, are you Amanda Wilson?” Amanda began
to panic. The thought of a stalker came back into
her mind. Amanda calmed herself down and
ignored the text message.

After finishing her lunch and washed the

dishes around 2:45 pm, Amanda took her phone
and went up to her room and began doing her
school work. Firstly, she tackled the most time-
consuming one, the research on Saponification.

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It took her almost three hours to finish her
research. Secondly, she tackled her report essay
given by Ms Gwen. It didn’t take her long, about
an hour. Thirdly, she tackled Algebra. She was
pretty skilful in Mathematics. It didn’t take her
long at all, she finished it under 30 minutes.
Finally, the least time-consuming school work,
information transfer. She finished it under 25
minutes. All rounded up, it took her 4 hours and
55 minutes to complete her school works.
Around 7 pm, she finished her school works and
she went down to have her dinner. For dinner,
her mom cooked chicken chop rice and some
green beans as a side dish. Amanda was proud
for finishing her school works and treated
herself by watching some Netflix on her laptop.
She watched a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy
and went to do extra research for Saponification
to be extra careful of her work before passing it
to Mrs Norris the next day.

Amanda finished her final research at 8:54

pm, she went to scroll on social media. Nothing
much, not much updates either. Amanda was
getting tired so she went to brush her teeth and
washed her face. Around 9:03 pm, she went to
bed. When she was about to fell asleep, she felt

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like someone was watching her from her
window. She opened her eyes and turned to look
at her room window. No one was there. She
thought to herself, “Maybe it was my
imagination. Just like mom said this
neighbourhood is safe. No danger.” Just like
that, Amanda went to sleep at 9:12 pm.