SHIFT

Chapter 5

"I'll buy you a new pair," I said grabbing some clothes from my dresser. "Did anyone see?" Asked Jade tentatively. At that moment she looked like a little girl who broke her mom's china and was about to get caught. I didn't want to tell her the truth but I couldn't lie and keep a straight face.

"No one that I saw," I said turning my back to her and fast walking to the bathroom. I remembered Miles from a class I took in eighth grade. It was critical writing, and he was advanced in his class, so he got to be a helper for my teacher.

He was nothing special other than his constant staring at every girl he saw. He wasn't creepy but if you were a little too nice to him, he would talk incessantly about fandoms to you.

So naturally I stayed away from him, now that he's in high school I hope he's too grown for that stuff. And by hope I mean I pray that he's too grown for it. We met back up with Tessa and she whipped out a paper with a list of names on it.

"What's that?" Asked Jade looking at the paper upside down and sideways. "A list of all the people who tried out for the play," she said triumphantly back as if she found the cure to cancer. "There's only twelve people on the list, including us," I said looking over the names quickly. "So we have a one in three chance to get a lead part," said Jade staring off into the distance.

"There's Romeo, Juliet, that guy who's best friends with Romeo and i think Juliet's cousin," said Tessa scratching her head. "That still leaves out a lot of characters, I think we could at least get a character with small parts," I said taking a gulp of the water bottle I brought just in case we really were doing some exercise.

"If I'm panting can you give me some of your water?" Asked Tessa looking at the water with lust. "We have water fountains Tess." said Jade, and we're probably not going to do that much, maybe it's just outside." "I can still be thirsty outside," said Tessa defensively. I handed her the water with a reluctant sigh.

"Here your gonna need it more," I said sarcastically. "At this point I don't care if that was an insult.." "It was," said Jade cutting in. "I was too nervous this morning to drink anything and now I'm parched," she finished off between splashes of water.

The lights in the hallway dimmed to a low orange glow aluminizing the red in my hair and making Jade's hair look like a bright traffic cone. The school conserves their money that way, along with turning off the hot water at random times during the day.

Slowly each door began to close already preparing for a night of studying or for the lucky ones, a night of sleep. At five thirty to six most of us take our dinner up to our dorm rooms because the cafeteria is stuffed full of beginner level kids who like to have food fights. I went their once, grabbed my food quickly and came out unscathed, but my food had mysteriously vanished. I haven't been there since.

"I hate when they turn the lights down, it creeps me out," whispered Tessa, wrapping her arms around herself. Jade stopped to tie her shoe as I told Tessa that I thought it seemed enchanting. "No, this is the part in the scary movie where the pretty girl gets killed, or worse kidnapped," she said quietly.

We were right next to the gym when a hand came out of a shadowy area and pulled on Tessa's leg. I turned in time to see Tess's doe- eyes- in- headlights face. I've never heard her scream louder. At the same moment that she screamed, the hand loosened from her leg and the figure came out of the shadows with a wide evil grin. "Jade! I'm going to kill you!" Yelled Tess diving with her hands ready to choke the still smiling girl.

"Tessa Emerson, would you like to explain to me why you would feel the need to scream loud enough to disrupt and make me stop the beginning of the assembly?" Asked Principal Dillard. I gulped in fear for Tessa. "We were late and the lights went out and I saw something in the shadows and then someone came up behind me and I got scared and screamed," she said almost too fast to understand.