Marabel tries to stay attentive during class. Although fatigue and general hunger nags at her attention, she continues to jot down the notes she can. Inevitably, her focus wanders, to ideas, narrations in her head that start from nothing, add to nothing, and lead to nothing. Even during history, which is one of the only classes she took out of interest, she can't remember what is heard. She is lost when the teacher suddenly tells her to switch seats.

"Huh?" She snaps out of her trance and looks around.

"Sit at the back table," the teacher says. "Oliver, you sit on the table to the left," he continues without a beat.

Marabel quickly catches on. It's a group-inquiring session. She grabs her things and does as she is told. She hopes that she might be in a group with better students.

Marabel sits down, and beside her is Gabriel, who hunches over his computer as if he's protecting something. He is a little startled when Marabel sits down beside him as if he wasn't aware a group activity was going on.

Marabel vaguely remembers him. He was the squeamish kid who somehow got into a fight with Jonan. But Gabriel does not strike Marabel as mean or the type who would pick a fight. If anything, she thinks they might be the same kind of person..

Pulling out her laptop from her bag, she whispers to Gabriel, "I have no idea what going on. I spaced out on the first half of class."

"I-I'm not really sure either," Gabriel responds, to which Marabel laughs to herself.

"Well then, we'll have to figure this out together," she grins and sees Gabriel visibly relax. "It's Gabriel, right? I'm Marabel," she says.

To the name, Gabriel falters, and he moves his hand onto his backpack. "Right..."

Before Marabel has time to process his reaction, another group member guides her attention away.

--

On top of the fifth-floor stairs in the school is a door that leads to the rooftop. It is locked for obvious safety reasons, but by the careful use of a lunch card that can slide right between the door and the door frame, a student can get by such barriers. Even so, the rooftop is enclosed by an iron fence that extends several meters into the sky, thus greatly reducing the chance a student might accidentally fall and sue the school.

Marabel finds this place charming. It's quiet and calm, with a good view of the campus grounds and the horizon. The tiled floors are dusty and graffiti of sloppy expletives and sexual references. Still, it only adds to the eccentricity of the environment. The roof is tall enough that if you stand a reasonable distance from the perimeters, it is hard for anyone below to see them. Occasionally, she and her friends hang out here to vape or smoke.

Today, it is only her.

She takes another drag on her cigarette and exhales, watching the smoke curl and dissipate. This is her third one today. She had been able to get out of lunch today with the excuse of an urgent paper. Her friends understand: college is not far from the future. In reality, she had finished it already, of course.

The bell chimes as the clock strikes noon. Marabel imagines all her friends are already eating now, while in their heads, they imagine Marabel fumbling over the paper due next period, working on getting the A+ like the student she is...

Good student? She thinks. What would her teachers feel if they saw her now? A complete inversion of expectations, probably in addition to a pep talk after class. They wouldn't call her parents, though, or report her to the office, but she knows, indubitably, that the trust she has built would crumble.

Marabel presses the nib of the cigarette onto the floor, and it goes out. She wrinkles her nose—she never liked the smell. She reaches for another one but finds her pack empty.

Maybe it is time to change to a vape pen, she thinks and stashes the empty box back into her pocket.

Then, the door creaks open, and Marabel, for a second, is afraid it might be a teacher who saw her lurking up here. It is Gabriel who peeks out of the door, clutching a black notebook with his free hand.

"What brings you here?" Marabel asks.

"I-I, um, I just saw you, and I wanted to see what you're doing and things like that..." Gabriel stutters over his words and wants to run.

No, I need to do this, he thinks and gathers his courage. He raises his head and looks at Marabel in the face. He finds her smiling. Maybe it is because the sun is too intense or that his heart was beating too loud, but he barely mutters a "nevermind" before turning on his heels and running back into the building.

Gabriel doesn't stop, and he feels the anxiety catching up to him, like a wave about to crash on its tipping point.

Why do I do this every time? Why haven't I learned? I thought that maybe I'd changed. Those kinds of thoughts would not leave his mind.

Marabel looked so calm. To Gabriel, it was hard to imagine she could be in turmoil, but he knows.

He flips open his notebook, and it's clear--

Two weeks from now, Marabel was going to jump the fence to her death.