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.