When Principal Louden finally dismissed the entire student body to go to their first period classes, everyone jumped out of their seats, rushing toward the gym doors in a mass exodus.  “I guess this means we're free to go to English. Thank God!” Caroline shouted.

“Come on, let's go before Louden starts preaching again,” I added, laughing.

“Hey, Evey! Hey, Caroline!”

I turned in the direction of the voice. Kristen stood on the gymnasium floor, waving wildly. “Hey!” I called to her. “Wait for us!” We jumped down the remaining bleachers, catching up with her quickly.

“Did y’all have a good summer?” she asked.

“It was pretty good. We got a few interesting customers in the diner,” I answered. “We missed you!”

“I missed y’all too!”

“What about you?” Caroline asked.

“I know summer was only a couple months, but I felt like I spent an eternity in Maine. My grandmother insisted I spend my entire vacation with her,” Kristen groaned.

“That sucks,” I said.

“Tell me about it! Do either of you have Advanced French first period?”

“Nope, we’ve both got English,” Caroline replied.

“Boo,” Kristen pouted.  “We’ll walk with you to class though!” Caroline added.

“Okay!”

As Kristen moved to loop her arm through mine, she hit the strap of my messenger bag, jerking it from my shoulder. The bag crashed against the floor, spitting out my belongings in every direction. Lip gloss, paper clips, hairpins, and a pack of mints scattered around me. “Y’all go on without me. I’ll catch up in a minute,” I said, dropping to my knees.

“You sure? I can stay and help,” Caroline replied.

“Nah, you go on. I’ll see you in a minute. Besides, aren’t you always telling me I carry around too much crap?”

“True.” She grabbed Kristen’s arm. “See you in a bit.”

I scrambled, frantically trying to gather my stuff as quickly as possible. I scooped up a final bobby pin when I had the strange feeling I was being watched. By now, I had to be the only soul left in the gym, but when I looked up, I saw a stranger leaning against the far wall. His arms were crossed over his chest nonchalantly. My gaze slid upward, halting as his stare met mine. He had the most beautiful blue eyes I’d ever seen. Blood coursed through my veins causing my heart to pound. The prisoner from my nightmares stood before me, close enough to touch. He seemed too real to be a wild hallucination. My hands grabbed my bag, swinging it over my shoulder so forcefully that I lost my balance. I turned around, quickly regaining stable footing, but when I glanced back to where he’d been standing, he had disappeared. I ran into the hallway and searched in either direction, but the man from my dreams wasn’t there. He was gone.