Adventures of Olive and Comet: Valentine’s Day

By Dominique Dawes

Olive starts Valentine’s day expecting a fulfilling day with her best friend, Comet. However, her day quickly changes trajectory when unforeseen circumstances arise.

“What are you doing for Valentine’s day?” 

Olive was sitting on her bed talking to a girl named Sally who she’d met moments before on WeMeetz, a well-known video-chatting social website amongst teens. 

“I’m going to a roller rink with my friend Comet.” Sally’s blue eyes widened in awe. 

Olive exclaimed,“That was my exact reaction when I found out!”

“OMG I’ve always wanted to go to one, but my dad never lets me go anywhere alone,” Sally groaned.

Olive’s jaw fell as Sally furrowed her thin brows in confusion. 

“But you’re 17! He’s being controlling.” 

Sally shrugged and said, “He wouldn’t care even if I was 18.”

Olive gasped in disbelief before an idea popped into her head. 

“I mean, you could always sneak out,” Olive said as she played with her brown locs. 

Sally’s eyes widened as her jaw visibly slacked but before she could reply there was a knock at Olive’s door. Olive looked towards the door, failing to notice Sally’s panic-stricken face.

“Olive!” 

Olive glanced towards the screen ready to tell Sally she needed a second but her mother must’ve scared her away because instead of seeing the blonde girl, all she could see was a grey loading screen. 

Of course.

Olive sighed before refocusing on her mother.

“Yeah, Ma?” 

“Hope you’re ready. I’m sending an Uber to pick you guys up at 10.”

Olive grabbed the backpack beside her that held her skates and got up from her bed before adjusting her green sweater. She had a habit of getting ready early when she was excited. 

“Yeah, I’m ready, and mom please text me their license plate number.” 

Olive slipped on the black boots resting beside her bed. Her mother rolled her eyes at her sassiness but bit her tongue, after all, it was her who her daughter inherited the trait from.

Instead, she settled for a simple, “I will!” 

After putting on her coat Olive turned around ready to turn off her laptop and leave, but instead, she locked gazes with someone on screen wearing a Scream mask and a red heart head bopper. 

Not wanting to assume the worst she waved, but they just continued to stare, so as any sane person would do, she exited the website. She’d seen enough horror movies to know that Black people always died first.

She closed her laptop and walked downstairs bidding her mother farewell before heading to the train station to meet Comet.

Her anxiety clawed at her brain urging her to send Comet an excuse, then head home to binge-watch romantic movies. Yet she continued walking towards the train station that was now yards away, in hopes that it was just paranoia.  

However, she’d soon find out that her anxiety was warning her of the dangers lurking in the shadows.

Olive glanced down at her watch as she entered the train station to see that she had made it on time. 

“Livie!” 

Olive tried but failed to conceal her smile. Only one person was brave enough to call her that atrocious excuse of a nickname. 

“Comet, could you be any louder?” Olive grumbled as Comet bombarded her with a hug.

Comet pulled back sporting a wide grin. “Could you be any more boring?” 

Olive didn’t get the chance to respond before she was being pulled towards the train that just arrived.

As soon as they arrived they changed shoes and Comet dragged Olive through the rink, making sure to help her each time she fell only after they finished cackling. 

They continued like that until 9:50PM when Olive’s mother texted that the Uber was on its way, so they exited the rink and changed into their shoes. 

Seconds after they exited the roller rink a car that looked like the one her mother had ordered, pulled up across the street under a flickering street light. There was a  person in the passenger seat playing with something in their hands. 

“Are you Olive and Comet?” the driver, wearing a heart head bopper, asked. Olive nodded in response as she took a step towards the car, but Comet grabbed her wrist forcing her to stop and turn with a raised eyebrow.

Comet ignored her and instead focused on the driver. “You know, my friend’s mom sent a screenshot of the payment confirmation for our Uber, and it was obvious that she made the order under her name, so how do you know ours?” As if on cue the street light stopped flickering to reveal who was in the car. The driver was a guy no older than 45, but it was the passenger that caused Olive’s eyes to widen.

It was Sally, playing with a Scream mask.

As the pieces began to fall into place a car pulled up in front of her disrupting her thoughts. This car was the same make and model as the one Sally was in, only this car’s license plate matched the one her mother had sent her. 

Comet grabbed Olive’s hand and pulled her towards the car as she yelled, “Gotta’ be slicker than that!” at the frustrated kidnapping duo. 

Process

My inspirations for Adventures of Olive and Comet were Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Criminal Minds. These are two shows that I often enjoy watching, so I found joy in weaving them into my story. I wanted to incorporate the clever and youthful aspects of the Lemony Snicket movie while also incorporating the suspense and deductive reasoning skills found in Criminal minds. I incorporated those into a Valentine’s day–themed story because in the past I have gone on video-chatting websites for teens on Valentine’s day and while I have met a lot fun and interesting people, I have also met a few creeps that have scared me out of using the websites.