Chris and Molly, the two invisible pranksters

Much like any other day, Chris sulked as he walked his way to school that Tuesday morning. He had never been particularly popular and often on the receiving end of bullying, likely due to his enthusiastic interest in various nerdy hobbies and not being particularly athletic. Though he thought this felt to be a bit backwards in this day and age, it was the unfortunate reality of his situation.

Chris had particularly been dreading today more than any other. His first lesson of the day was chemistry in which the class was going to be taking part in an experiment. This was followed by sports class where, for today, they were scheduled to play basketball, which he was absolutely terrible at! After that came an algebra test which he did not feel prepared for in the slightest. At least art class after that would hopefully bring some much needed relief to the otherwise torturous day. But unfortunately, the final lesson of the day was perhaps the worst of them all - theater class with that damned Mrs Robinson, who, for some inexplicable reason, did not take kindly to him. Chris sighed as he reminded himself of today's schedule and made his way to homeroom. It was always noisy back at home in the morning, so he'd arrived early today to get some peace and quiet in order to try and get some studying done for the algebra test, because god knows he needed it. 'Oh well, all I've gotta do is get through today, 'cuz tomorrow's finally the day we have that class trip to Comic-Con. Just look ahead to tomorrow, Chris, look ahead to tomorrow!' he reassured himself.

As he entered the classroom, Chris noticed that one student was already present, much to his surprise. There at the desk positioned next to his own at the back of the classroom sat a chubby girl with messy brown hair that reached her shoulders sporting a pair of rectangular glasses, a face full of spots and a noticeable pair of buck teeth. If you were to look up 'nerd' in the dictionary, she was the exact type of person whose picture you'd expect to see. Either way, this was the only real friend he'd made at school in the past couple of months, Molly. Molly shared many of the same interests as him, and they regularly talked about what anime they had been watching recently, or their favorite games. An alignment of interests and her general vibe was considered to be annoying to many, and this meant she was also often subject to being picked on by her peers. As usual, she was wearing jeans and a graphic tee, with the phrase "I paused my anime to be here" written across it in large impact font. She had a bunch of these types of corny shirts, and this certainly didn't help to counter the bullying; in fact, it only really furthered it. If he was being honest, Chris himself found these designs to be kinda cringe-inducing, but he simply never had the heart to tell her he thought that way about them. Besides, he considered the fact that she'd don such gaudy attire with zero shame to be admittedly cute in its own weird way. Molly was so deep in concentration playing something on her Switch with her headphones placed firmly on her head that she didn't even notice him enter. Chris playfully snuck up behind her and grabbed her shoulders and yelled, causing her to jump out of her seat.

"Jeeeeesus Christ, Chris! You scared the shit outta me!" giggled Molly, putting her hand on her chest in relief. "What the hell are you doin' here so early?"

"Just thought I'd try and squeeze in some extra studying for that algebra test we've got later today. What about you?" replied Chris.

"I always get here early - I don't get on too great with my parents, so I'd rather be on my own. Like, get this, I had a package addressed to me that arrived yesterday from god knows who or where, and they went on an hour-long tirade accusing me of buying stuff without their permission and accusing me of all sorts of shit. I tried telling them I had no idea what it was, but they just wouldn't listen. I swear, it feels like you're the only one around here who gets me sometimes."

Chris was taken aback by this statement to say the least, hearing this from someone who, in the bigger picture, he'd known for not that very long. He wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Gee... I'm so sorry you had to go through that, and... that's awfully kind of you to say. Just know that I'm always here to lend an ear to your problems!"

Molly shot Chris a smile in response to this, to which he felt something shift within him, though before he could say anything else, one question kept nagging at him. "Wait, so... what was even inside that package?"

"I don't know!" responded Molly. "It's funny you arrived here when you did. See, I, uhh... I was thinking it'd be fun to wait so I could bring it with me today and wait for you to get here so that maybe we could... open it together?" Molly looked at him longingly for a second before bashfully averting her gaze and blushing. "No pressure or anything! I know you were planning on doing some studying, so if you don't wan-"

"No, no, Of course I do!! I'm just surprised you had me in mind when it came to this, i-in a good way, that is! Fuck preparing for the test, let's see what's inside!" Chris responded enthusiastically.

Feeling reassured and reinvigorated, Molly reached into her bag and took out the carboard box. Using a nearby pair of scissors, she opened it up and hesitantly looked inside.