Episode 8

Ben looked at Miah and smiled. “It’s good to see you again.”

She nodded, smiling back. “It’s been—”

“Shh!” Connor suddenly hissed, rising from his chair, listening intently. They both froze. Connor looked to Ben with urgency, who nodded to one of the rooms. Ben crept over to the kerosene lamp and, before putting it out tossed the flashlight to Connor. “Hide her,” he whispered.

Miah gaped wide-eyed as Connor pulled her into the room, and whispered, “Ben!”

He reached for her hand and grabbed it tight, as if trying to convey what he could not put into words. “Miah…They’re coming. I’ll hold them off. Just do what he tells you to do!”

“Ben!”

He extinguished the lamp, and they were in darkness. Her heart beat fast as she tried not to panic. She heard the sound of something grating against stone, a faint sound like footsteps. Miah moaned in anxiety, clenching her fists.

“Keep her safe, Connor!” Ben shouted.

“I will!” he called back, breathing heavily.

She felt Connor pulling her into a small compartment and squeezing in after her. Then a door closed and she heard footsteps outside even louder. There was a loud bang, and the trapdoor was thrust open. Multiple footsteps entered the room, scuffling across the uncarpeted spaces of the floor.

“Come out with your hands up!” she heard a muffled yell. The voice was commanding and harsh, and it made her shiver. Connor’s arm was up against hers in the dark, and she felt him grab her hand comfortingly. She fought to keep from hyperventilating in the closed space, but almost choked on her breath.

“Ben Lockham!” she heard the voice. Then there was the sound of an impact, and a loud groan. She gasped and tried to move, a scream itching up her throat, but Connor squeezed her hand tightly, and she swallowed the sound.

“Where are the others with you?” he asked. When there was no answer, he shouted, “Tell me!”

Miah cringed, and it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming and stopping them from hurting him; she dug her fingernails into Connor’s hand, but he only held it tighter.

“They escaped,” she barely heard his voice, “down the escape tunnel.”

There was the sound of a door opening, and another voice called, “There’s a tunnel here!”

“Good. Follow them.”

Miah stood with eyes wide in the dark, listening in trepidation.

The footsteps echoed down the tunnel, and after a few minutes of silence, Connor slowly opened the door, squeezing past Miah. He stepped out and listened for a while, and then flipped the flashlight on with a click. Instantly a figure leaped up from the shadow by the doorway, a gun raised, but Connor dropped him with a kick before he could shout to alert the others. Miah gulped.

“Quick,” he said to Miah, breathing heavily, “we’ve got to get out of here.”

She blinked and nodded. “Where’s Ben?”

Connor walked into the main room where he had been and checked in the other rooms, but returned. “They must have taken him.”

Miah’s mortified face was barely illuminated by the flashlight, her eyes wide with terror; her eyes darted toward the tunnel. She took a step toward the opening, but Connor was quicker.

“Oh no, you don’t,” Connor grabbed her wrist, fumbling to stop her. “Stop!”

She broke from his grip and dashed into the tunnel.

A few seconds later she ran back, shaking. “Give me the light,” she demanded, trying to sound firm, but her voice betrayed her.

“No.”

Miah grabbed for it, choking back a sob, but he held it above her reach. “I have to follow him!” she cried, reaching for it.

“You can’t do anything for him, Miah!” He placed the flashlight on top of the refrigerator and grabbed her arms, clenching his teeth. “We can’t do anything right now!”

She struggled, but stopped as she burst into tears. Connor slowly let go, and hesitatingly put his arms around her. She didn’t push him away, and he held her tighter. “What are we going to do?” she cried into his shirt.

“We’ll get him back,” he replied, “if I have to drag him from Linz myself.” He held her close as she cried, and wondered how on earth he could keep his promise.

Episode 7

Miah stared at the carpet between her feet, taking it all in. She wanted to ask Ben more about who Amy was. Both he and Connor had reacted to her death in anger, and she wondered if either of them had been attached to her. Or possibly both. But ever since she’d met Ben at a camp, he’d never showed favoritism to any other girls over her. He’d never talked about anyone like that. She knew it wasn’t breaking any rules or promises for him to be such good friends with another girl, but she’d had the feeling that she was his best friend.

She looked at him and felt as though, if her fears were true, so many things she believed in were a lie. She wanted to be mad at him, but she couldn’t help feeling that there must be some misunderstanding. And she felt awkward talking to him in front of Connor, who she hardly knew. She sighed, starting to feel the sheer weight of the whole situation settle upon her. Lifting a hand to brush the hair from her forehead, she realized she was shaking.

Connor, seeming to sense her discomfort, stood to get a drink from the refrigerator. While he occupied himself, Ben moved his chair closer to Miah’s, reaching to put an arm around her. She gratefully leaned her head on his shoulder, feeling the strength ebb from her body as her previous adrenaline left her system.

“This is crazy,” she whispered, taking shallow breaths and closing her eyes.

“Hey, I know…” He swallowed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you any of this before.”

“It wouldn’t have done anything but make me worry unnecessarily,” she told him gently, and tried to figure out how to say what she was thinking. Her mind slowed like her mother’s electric mixer trying to mix too much sticky batter. Far too many thoughts were clogging her brain, and it was slowing her down. And what had she eaten for breakfast, a pancake? She had nothing to keep her upright in the first place.

“Amy was Connor’s girl,” Ben added then, smoothing her shoulder with a thumb, “but we’d become great friends in such a short time. I just couldn’t figure out how to tell you though email without you freaking out about it.”

Whether Connor heard or not, he didn’t let on, and Miah sighed. “I’m sorry you had a reason to worry you’d upset me.”

“Hah. Upset you? You kidding?”

She elbowed him and he laughed, poking her back. Connor walked up and handed them both a glass of water. “Here,” he muttered, sitting back in his seat.

After taking a drink, Miah realized how thirsty she had been. “Thank you,” she said, gulping down the rest as quietly as she could manage.

Episode 6

Ben nodded and set up for her a chair, sitting in another across from her.

“Well, it started back in Austria.”

“Linz,” Connor added, closing his eyes as he leaned back, listening.

“Yes, in Linz. The seniors’ class was on a field trip to the software facilities there when Connor and I—”

“And Amy.”

Ben looked irritably at Connor, and Miah frowned. Who was Amy?

“Yes,” Ben continued. “We found a door that said ‘Do Not Enter’ that was cracked open, and Amy wanted to see what was inside.” He shook his head. “The three of us were at the back of the group, so no one noticed us slip away…. The room had lots of computers and microscopes and machinery, and we didn’t see anyone inside. We looked around, mostly at the machinery and things.” Ben scratched a stain on his jeans and continued, “We assumed they were for making computers, but now I think they might have had another motive…. I wiggled the mouse of one of the laptops, just curious, and the window that was opened caught my eye. I called the other two over to see it. It was detailed plans of a powerful computer virus, along with other plans to infect every computer linked through the internet.”

Connor rolled his eyes. “That’s what a virus is.”

Ben blinked and looked up, mouthing the words I don’t care, and went on. “We were horrified. On another window, I caught a glimpse of the mechanics of a robot, but before I could read more Connor said that someone was coming. We all freaked out, but I unplugged the laptop and grabbed it as we hurried out the door. I put it in Connor’s backpack, and we ran to catch up with the group.”

Miah looked at him, confused. “But that’s not all, is it? What happened then?”

Ben shook his head no, and Connor leaned forward, continuing with his story. “A week later, just after graduation, I received an email demanding that I give the laptop back. The conspirators had valuable information on that computer, and they had worked overtime to figure out what happened to it. I don’t know how they figured out who I was, but if they knew my email address, then they knew where I lived.” Miah shuddered.

“That’s when we started to get really scared.”

Ben nodded. “We weren’t really thinking….”

Connor looked down. “After I told Amy, she tried to take the laptop to the place they’d told us to leave it, at a remote gas station in Switzerland. When I found out what she’d done, Ben and I followed her and just barely managed to stop her from giving it to the man there. When he tried to get it back and I resisted, there was a fight, and Amy was shot.”

Miah blinked, hesitating in her deep breath. Looking toward the trapdoor again, remembering the way they had fled as if their pursuers knew their every move, she frowned.

Things are beginning to make sense.

She noticed that Ben was clenching his fist; she looked at Connor solemnly. “What happened then?”

Connor turned to look her in the eye. “Ben and I chased the man responsible for her death; we used the information in the laptop to find their hiding places. Using their own explosives, we blew up their main facility in Slovakia, severely crippling their effort to create the right computer virus.”

Ben grinned, probably at his dramatic wording, and Connor bit his lip to keep from smiling and continued. 

 
“With the laptop, we've been tracking them for some time, but they discovered more about us than we intended them to. They even found out about you.”

Ben nodded and looked up at Miah. “I had suspicions that they would try to harm you because of me, but I wasn't even sure how much they knew about you. I should have known better than to visit you at school openly…. They obviously followed me to your school, or knew where your school was. I visited you to make sure you were alright, but now I can't help but wonder if they found you because of that one mistake….”

Dismal, miserable sense.

Episode 5

Connor nudged her, and Miah bristled at the contact. Don’t touch me, she wanted to mutter. She clenched her teeth and stepped into the locker, bumping right into Ben who had turned around in the small inner space to see if she was coming. “Whoa,” he said as Miah took a step back, giving a sigh in recovery and then blinking in the light in her eyes. He turned his flashlight toward Connor and stated, “This is the way, through the storm sewers. I think they were constructed so that if the huge aquariums upstairs broke, the water that flooded the building could drain through here.”

Miah muttered a “cool” and glanced back toward the door of the room. Connor nodded to Ben and stepped into the tunnel. Miah turned back silently, and the two of them followed Ben.

The walls felt like cement, and the floor seemed dry enough, but it showed green spots as if it had once been slippery with lichen and growth. Miah watched her feet to make sure she didn’t trip over any uneven edges; she could see nothing but what the flashlight illuminated. Suddenly she wondered what would happen if the flashlight died… Would we be left in the dark? How would we get back? What if—? Pushing the thought aside with a shudder, she kept walking.

The dark passageway had a few openings leading off the main, but Ben did not turn. The openings were black, their emptiness stretching out to grab her as she walked past. Miah wondered how far it would go on; she couldn’t see an end, and its contorted course made it impossible to tell how far they had come. What would I do if I got lost down here?

“How far are we going?” she asked, looking to Ben worriedly.

Connor answered her in a low voice. “Soon.”

Miah shrugged it off and continued on, hoping they would reach it soon, wherever “it” was.

Finally, Ben slowed his pace and began checking each branching passageway with his flashlight; the gaps in the light startled Miah. He seemed to be counting something. He finally ducked down one to the left, and she and Connor followed wordlessly. He opened a trapdoor in the ceiling and climbed up easily; there were almost unnoticeable hand- and foot-holds in the wall he used to push himself up. Ben reached a hand down to Miah once he was through, and she climbed up after him. Connor followed.

Miah climbed into a surprisingly well-furnished room. Obviously it had been constructed out of what the builders could carry down the tunnels in the storm sewers, but it had a few folding chairs, a carpet on the floor, some wooden cabinets and shelves, an old kerosene-powered refrigerator, and several lamps, which also ran on kerosene. Oh yeah, I guess there’s no power down here, she thought. Looking up at the ceiling, she wondered how many feet of rock and dirt were pushing down on that room from the surface and shivered.

Ben walked into one of the two doorways covered by curtains, and then checked in the other as well.

“No one’s here,” he said decidedly.

Connor sighed in relief and sat down in a chair. “Finally.” He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back.

Miah stood awkwardly beside the trapdoor, and then closed it gently. She didn’t like the feeling of a black hole that anything could pull her down into.

She walked over to Ben and looked him in the eye. “So, you said you’d explain things once we were safe; now tell me, what’s going on?”

Episode 4

It was almost lunchtime by the time Ben, following Connor in his car, drove up to an old, abandoned building complex. With the rain still pouring down, he drove around to the back lot and parked in a space next to an inconspicuous exit door.

“It used to be an aquarium,” Ben said as he helped her out of the car. Miah let out her pent-up breath as she kept close behind him.

Connor produced a key to unlock the unlabeled door and quickly entered, while Ben held it open for her. Miah smiled and nodded her thanks. Once they were inside, Connor opened a panel on the wall and flipped a few switches, which flicked on a light in the hall. Low whines echoed down the hall as the rest of the lights clinked on. Ben closed the door after a quick look outside, and he and Miah followed Connor down the hallway. Soon, after following through another locked door, a larger room opened up before them. Bluish lights in empty aquariums lined the walls, casting eerie shadows by the plants and rocks within. The floor was dusty, Miah noticed, and worried that they would be easily tracked by their footprints. With a sinking feeling, she followed as they walked down a dark, narrow stairway into a pitch-black space. Miah froze, fighting panic. “I—I can’t see.”

She blinked as Connor clicked on a flashlight and shone it at the floor. He wore an annoyed smirk, his face lit from below like a ghost-story teller. Miah let go of Ben’s arm, which she hadn’t even realized she’d grabbed onto, and looked away. With a nod down the hall, Connor turned to lead them further, and Miah crossed her arms as she followed. She hoped she wouldn’t have to put up with this guy for too much longer. He was getting on her nerves.

They made their way down the hallway to a section with numerous doors, all closed, leading to rooms on both sides. Connor looked down both sides of the hallway before walking up to one and opening it without too much difficulty, though the door stuck a bit.

With a sigh, Connor handed the flashlight to Ben, who walked into the room. Brushing his brown hair from his face, he shone the flashlight at a line of lockers, full height ones that looked like they probably held night guard uniforms or work suits. Opening one with a combination he had memorized, he reached inside and pressed on the back panel of the locker, where the wall should have been, and stepped inside the locker. Miah’s eyes opened wide as she hurried forward, toward the light that still shone through from Ben’s flashlight. There was a tunnel inside the locker!

Episode 3

Miah couldn’t get the note out of her head. As she went to the girls’ locker room to change back into her clothes, she took the note out again. Looking it over, front and back, she couldn’t find a name or signature anywhere, but she found a scribbling in the corner. Someone had written “Maya” and scratched it out, replacing it with the correct spelling of her name. This is weird. I mean, that’s how my name sounds, but Ben wouldn’t accidentally misspell my name. He sees it written out in every text message I send. She put it in her back pocket—and the back of her mind—and left, sinking into unease.

She quickly grabbed her backpack from her locker upstairs and headed outside to the picnic table area. The walk was long; the picnic table area was a long ways from the high school. She shivered as a breeze came through the parking lot, and thought to herself that this wasn’t starting out to be the perfect day she’d thought it would be. Anxious to see Ben again, she walked faster along the median between parking spots.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure step around a parked car near her. She gasped and jumped, turning toward the person and almost falling off the median. But it was only Ben.

He reached out to stop her fall, grasping her arm. “Miah! What’s the matter?”

Shocked for the second time that day, she regained her footing and stood looking at the ground, taking deep breaths. I keep freaking out. I wish I’d stop.

“Are you alright?” he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Miah nodded, clenching her teeth in frustration at herself. “Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry…you just startled me. I didn’t mean to get freaked out. I’m just…a little jumpy.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I started walking over here after you didn’t show up in an hour, and then saw you. What happened? Class go late or something?” Giving an encouraging smile, Ben continued walking along the median with her toward the picnic tables.

Miah nodded, “I fell in P.E. and scraped up my hands and knees,” she explained, showing him her palms specked with red and torn skin.

He paused to gently take her hands, his hands trembling against hers. “Is that all?” He looked in her eyes for an answer.

Catching her still-sporadic breath, she shook her head. “Did…did you slip a note into my pocket earlier?” She turned her hands to hold his.

Ben squeezed them absent-mindedly, his mind processing her question. His eyebrows scrunched up, and Miah’s stomach drew into a knot. He hesitantly replied, lowering her hands and letting go. “No, I didn’t…What did it say?”

Miah gulped and took the crumpled note out of her pocket, holding it by two fingers as if it were burning. “Here,” she said as she handed it to him.

He opened the crinkled paper and read it silently, casting his eyes over the front and back. He then looked quickly around, folding it up as he turned to survey the whole parking lot. Besides a couple students sitting by a tree next to the school, the area was deserted. Ben looked toward his navy blue Jetta, parked on the far side of the lot. Taking one of her hands, he put the note in his pocket. “It’s not safe here,” he muttered, and then nodded to himself. “We should go.” He headed toward it, and she followed close behind.

“But, Ben!” Miah hurried to keep up with him, pulling slightly on his hand. “My mom said we had to stay here at school all day.”

He turned to her for a moment. “You could be in danger. You probably are.”

“Ben—” she started, and then she froze.

As a gust of wind started up, a covered red convertible coming around the corner gunned its engine right toward them in the parking lot. Miah screamed, and Ben pulled her backward out of its path. The car spun away and headed in a circle to come at them again. Miah’s heart was beating so fast she could hardly breathe. Ben pulled her hand toward his car parked on the other side of the road and unlocked it hastily. “Get in!”

Trembling, she opened the door and hopped in the front seat. With the ignition coughing into the engine’s roar, Ben pulled out of the spot with the red car right at their heels. “Seatbelt!” Ben shouted, shifting into second as they careened around a corner. Flooring the gas, they shot out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

Miah turned to look behind, only to see the red sports car gaining on them. “Wh-what do we do?” she cried frantically, looking ahead at the empty road. “Where are we going?”

Ben bit his lip, shifting up into fifth gear. “We can’t go to your house; we don’t know if they know where you live. If we head to an area with heavier traffic, we could lose them.” They passed speed-limit sign for 35 and Ben glanced at his 60-reading speedometer in anxious hesitation.

Miah clutched her seatbelt. “Are they actually trying to kill us?”

“I don’t know. They tried to run into us, so that’s definitely a possibility.”

The sports car nudged their bumper, and Miah gasped. Ben shifted down into third, accelerated suddenly, and then, with a quick glance in the mirror, pulled over sharply and slowed down. The red car raced ahead, unable to slow down fast enough. Pulling it into first gear, Ben headed down an intersecting road that headed downtown, shifting accordingly as he went, following speed limits, and nodding to himself. Miah covered her forehead with a hand as she sighed anxiously.

The red car was soon following again, but not as closely as before. Miah closed her eyes and leaned back.

Ben glanced at her, and swallowed. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you, Miah.”

She shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well…” Ben started to say, but a screeching sound stopped him. Staring into his rear-view mirror, he watched with startled amazement as a black SUV flew out from a side road and T-boned the red car chasing them. The cars flew onto the shoulder and were abruptly stopped by a tree. Immediately slowing down, Ben brought the car into a U-turn to investigate.

From the red convertible, which had had the passenger side crushed, a man escaped and fled into the trees. The door of the black car opened with some difficulty, and the man inside started to chase the other who had run for the woods.

The man turned as their car pulled up and quit the engine. Ben stepped out and stood. Miah opened her door and slowly walked behind the car to Ben’s side to look at the man.

He was younger than he had appeared from farther away. He wore a black t-shirt and torn jeans, and his blonde hair hung in his blue eyes. Combat boots fit his soldierly look, and he folded his arms across his chest. He was muscular and tall, and from the looks of it, he’d probably get the better of Ben in a fight. The young man gazed at her silently, and she stepped closer to Ben. His gaze shifted to her companion, who stared back coldly.

“Why did you bring her into this?” the man asked bitterly.

“Hey,” Ben retorted, “it wasn’t my idea. I’ve been trying to protect her, but clearly, that guy knows too much,” he said, pointing toward where the man had disappeared.

“Obviously.” The blond looked at Miah again, and she felt as if she were some kind of possession, being talked about in her presence as if she weren’t there.

She looked up at Ben’s face, who met her gaze. Distraught, he clenched his fist and turned back to the man in black. “We should have left him alone.”

The young man rolled his eyes. “Please, Ben, you should have thought of that before now. Come on.” He beckoned for him to follow.

When he started to turn around to get back into his car, Ben took Miah’s shoulders quickly. “We’ve gotta go.”

“Ben, what’s going on?” she demanded as he turned, trying to grab his arm.

Heading for her door, he promised, “I’ll explain everything to you once we’re safe. Just trust me.” He put a hand on her shoulder and sighed, giving a sad smile.

Miah bit her lip and nodded. He stepped to her door and opened it for her, grim faced as he then walked to his side and slid into the driver’s seat. Droplets of rain splattered on the windshield, and Miah looked up at the sky as she put on her seatbelt.

As they drove away after the black SUV, Miah thought to ask, “What is his name?”

Ben’s face softened, and he answered, “Connor.”

“A friend of yours?” she asked, slightly more at-ease.

“Yeah. We met at boarding school,” he answered after shifting into third.

As it started to rain heavily, the SUV before them accelerated. Ben increased his speed and looked over at Miah, who sat looking out the window. He looked forward again, focusing on the road, but with a troubled air.

Everything had gone wrong.

Episode 2

Putting her backpack in her locker, Miah smiled at the collage of photos on the inside of her locker door. A picture of her and Ben and their whole group of friends at summer camp, a strip of photo booth pictures with her and Ben’s silly faces, and a photo of their bare feet standing on the sand of the Gulf coast.

These precious moments were few and far between, and she clung to all her long-distance friendships with all that she had in her. Sometimes, the most amazing people weren’t ones she found nearby, but ones she had to devote hard work and time to discover and retain.

After depositing the backpack, she headed down the hall and down the stairs to the gym, where she walked down the squeaky floor to the girls’ locker room. Changing into her P.E. t-shirt and shorts, she felt something in the pocket of her jeans. She pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper. Thinking it was some forgotten homework, she opened it up to see. It was a handwritten note.

Be careful.
Not everything is as it seems.
Someone’s after you.
I’ll be watching.

She peered at the small letters, and then looked around. Who could have put it into my pocket without me noticing? How long has it been in there? It could be an old message. But my jeans were just washed yesterday. A chill came over her and she stepped back against the wall. Who is after me?
Then, the bell rang, shaking her out of her frightened stupor. The girls were pulling folding chairs into a circle. Miah stuffed the note into her locker and dashed over to a seat, hastily tying her shoelaces. Caught up in the present, the mystery of the note faded from her thoughts, for the moment.

Later, while running a mile on the track, the boys’ P.E. class came out to the football field and began practicing throwing a football. Miah thought of Ben and wondered how he was doing. She then wondered if he had written the note. Maybe he’d written it too fast to remember to write his name. He could have easily slipped it into her pocket without her feeling it. But why not warn me in person? Miah continued in her mile run, pushing her speed and taking some more intentional breaths.

He did express his concern for her when she arrived later than he expected. But it wasn’t like this. Not with some creepy message that could freak me out. This isn’t like him. He wouldn’t write something without thinking; he’s always so methodical. Why would he forget something as simple as writing his name, if he even did write it in the first place?

If it was someone else, then I really am in trouble.

What if he’s in trouble right now?

Miah suddenly tripped on a rock and flew forward onto her knees, putting her hands out in reflex and skidding across the gravel. She cried out as she hit the ground, gasping from the shock. Breathing hard and wincing, she gingerly pushed herself up to sit at the edge of the track, looking at her badly skinned hands and the torn skin of her knees. Her stomach felt sick.

“Miah!” a passing classmate gasped. The girl ran over to her. “Are you alright?”

She helped Miah to her feet, and she stood trembling. Nausea was beginning to overwhelm her senses, but she took deeper breaths and closed her eyes. Her friend put her arm out to steady her. “I’ll be alright,” she managed to say. “I just tripped. I’m fine.”

“Can I see?” the girl asked.

Miah sat up straighter and looked up at her, revealing bloodied knees that went beyond a skinned knee.

“Oh my gosh!” she cried, covering her mouth. “No, you’re not fine,” she replied, wincing at the sight. “I can almost see the bone. You need to go to the nurse’s office, or something. That’s bad.”

Sighing, Miah nodded. Her friend pulled her to her feet and helped her hobble back to the nurse’s office.

The nurse bandaged her badly injured knees and smiled, asking, “Why did you fall? Were you running too fast?”

“No,” Miah answered. “Well…maybe. But I wasn’t really watching what I was doing. Just thinking too hard, I guess. I’m fine.”

“Well,” the nurse gave a laugh, “I hope you won’t think too hard while running again. These scrapes will take over a week to heal.”

“I’ll try not to,” Miah replied, smiling. Standing, she looked down at her white-bandaged knees and took a deep breath. Walking toward the door, she turned. “It doesn’t hurt as much now. Thanks.”

“Anytime, sweetie,” the woman waved.

Miah waved back. “Bye!”

Episode 1

A calm, balmy Clearwater spring had graced the Gulf Coast for the past week. In the center of a breezy neighborhood, palm trees swayed and Spanish moss swung in the mangroves and oaks of the city.

One house seemed lit up by the newly risen sun, and its warmth was welcomed by the windows that opened in the first and second stories.

The warm rays shone through her window, and Miah eyes shot open as she suddenly remembered what day it was. She took a deep breath, thick with excitement, and jumped out of bed. She pulled her favorite sweatshirt on over her head and yanked open her sliding window to lean out.

The grass shone with dew, the mailman drove away after delivering mail, and the neighbor who walked out to check his mailbox waved at her. She waved back with a delighted grin. The sun lit up the whole world, it was a beautiful morning, and today was the day.

Quickly, she pulled on her clothes that she’d picked out especially for today and skipped downstairs. Hastily eating a pancake, Miah hugged her mother goodbye and grabbed her backpack on her way out the door. She ran all the way to the bus stop and stood there waiting.

Looking up at the blue sky, she smiled. Today would be perfect: there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to mar its simple beauty. Standing still made her feel as if the turning of the earth on its axis would make her fall down in her excited dizziness, so she hopped up and down, strolled side to side, and leaned forward and back on her heels. It seemed to Miah that the whole world had been holding its breath all night long, wondering, as she had been, if the morning would dawn desirably to this perfect day. She grinned with the ecstasy to know that it had.

The bus soon pulled up, and she hopped in, making her way to the middle. She sat on an empty seat and stared out the window, and the bus could have been packed or empty, but she didn’t notice. The bus ride passed quickly, as she was in a daze anyway; time didn’t pass the same in dreamland.

Once the bus pulled up to school, she stepped off onto the sidewalk and looked around. The whole world looked different to her bright eyes, and she blinked in the sunlight. Deep breaths were a luxury in this moment of anxious expectation. Each one held fresh scents of the school’s roses and pine, all mixed with the delicious salty sea air.

Standing by the curb, she was suddenly seized from behind in a shivering embrace.

Miah gasped, “Hey!!” mouth agape.

“Miah! Hey!” someone laughed, letting her turn around.

“Ben! You’re here!” All anticipation broke and a floodgate of happiness surged into the empty spaces of her emotions. She scarcely knew what to do with herself to express such excitement and shook her hands. Her “It’s so good to see you!” came out with a mixture of unintelligible sounds of gladness. She laughed as he gave her a huge hug, a quick breathless embrace that started them both on the road to elated conversation.

“How long have you been waiting? You look burnt by the Florida sun already.”

“That’s me, your northern boy.” They laughed. It felt good to laugh, even if she sounded like a dork. “I’ve been here maybe fifteen minutes. You?”

“Me?” Miah laughed at his twitchy riposte to a non-reciprocal question. She pulled a mock-solemn face and replied, “I’ve been waiting forever, since about last summer when you were in the area.”

Ben pulled his hands behind his back, saying, “Yeah, I know.” He reached up quickly to scratch his neck, probably feeling the Florida heat most in his heavy brown hair. “They don’t let me out much in there.”

She stuck her hands in her pockets and swayed with the jest, “Ha, you should put in a request for 6-month vacations like twice a year.”

He cracked a wider smile. “That would be just perfect. I couldn’t ask that, though. They’d only laugh.”

She crossed her arms and tried to hide her smile. “You don’t know that….You know, I don’t think you really try enough.”

“Me?” Ben pulled at his hair and cried, hands to the sky, “I try all I can to get away from university, come on! You kidding? Only last week I missed class and five people testified that I’d been sick.” He dug for nothing in his pockets, raising his eyebrows.

“Well, at least you have people to cover for you. Why didn’t I see you here, though?” One eyebrow accompanied this comment.

Sheepishly, Ben leaned back and forth, looking to the upper distance, saying, “Oh, well, you know, I was on my way here, on the airline, and I got a call from my professor, and he told me to get myself back over there, so I did. Thankfully, the plane was equipped with parachutes.”

Miah’s laughter escaped; if not at his joke, then at the dorkiness of his attempts to make her laugh. “I didn’t know you liked to jump out of planes, Ben.” Her grin kept getting her! She bit her lip to keep it under control.

“Ha, there’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

Crossing her arms, she stated, “You’d like to think that, but I know all of your deepest, dirtiest secrets.”

He poked her nose. “Deepest, dirtiest? You mean deepest, darkest?”

“Yes, of course, dearest.”

They had another giggling laugh as they walked up through the school doors.

As they made their way through the halls, Ben licked his lips and placed his hands behind his back, giving her a sidelong glance. “I was almost afraid you wouldn’t make it,” he confessed.

“What?” she said incredulously, once more trying to hide a grin.

“Well, you know, I got here fifteen minutes before you did, and your bus must have been later than I expected or something. My mind plays tricks on me sometimes; I was worried.”

She nodded with a smile, knowing his worrisome nature. “Well, you found me.”

Ben took a deeper breath and pasted a smile on his face. “Yes. And we’ve got the whole day.”

Miah nodded, looking down at her feet and at the walls as she spoke. “Yeah, it’s awesome that today I only have one class. School’s almost over for the year.” She gave a sly smile as she looked up at him. “Senior trip is tomorrow, and today is Senior Ditch Day.”

Ben opened his eyes scandalously wide with a smile. “Oooh. So, why are you here, you over-achiever?” he said as he gave her an elbow jab.

She smiled, looking down, and laughed, “My PE teacher is pretty hard on us, especially the seniors, and we don’t get the day off like most other classes are doing. I’m not that big of a rebel.” Ben laughed at this, putting an arm around her shoulder. She bit her lip in a grin. Continuing, she fiddled with the strap of her backpack. “I only have first period. So, it looks like we can have the rest of the day after that.” She smiled up at him.

He nodded, throwing a thumb toward the parking lot. “I have some stuff I can work on at the picnic tables as I wait. I’m so glad the college year is over. I’m free.” Letting her go, he stuck his hands in his pockets. “Though, free to do what, I’m not quite sure. Aside from hanging with you,” he added.

“Okay,” she laughed. “I’ll meet you at the picnic tables in an hour, does that sound good?”

He nodded, “Yep.” They reached the gym doors, and he gave her a wink as she walked in. “Don’t be late, okay Miah?”

“Of course I won’t!” she laughed as she walked inside, grinning to herself.



Neither of them knew how untrue that would be.