misplaced || l. valdez

3 || dylan has an army of boy band members turned clouds

° ~ •. ♆ chapter three ♆ .• ~ °
"dylan has an army of boy band members turned clouds"

They didn't try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Mari was too distracted by the storm and her own sick feelings. For another thing, she didn't have any idea how to "name three sedimentary strata you observe" or "describe two examples of erosion."

Jason and Leo were no help. Jason stared at his worksheet in concentration, but he still looked pretty sick. Leo was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.

"Check it out." He launched the copter into the canyon. Mari figured it would plummet, but the pipe-cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before losing momentum and spiraled into the void.

"How'd you do that?" Jason asked.

"Oh, that's just lovely." Mari grumbled, her eyes still following the plummeting copter.

Leo shrugged. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."

"Seriously, are we friends?" Jason said.

"Last I checked."

"You sure?" Mari asked, looking back up at the two of them. "What was the first day we met? When are our birthdays?"

"It was— your birthdays are—" Leo frowned. "I don't know. I'm ADHD, dude. You can't expect me to remember details."

"If you really were our best friend, you would remember. And we don't remember you at all. We don't remember anyone here. What if—"

"You're right and everyone else is wrong?" Leo asked, turning to Jason. "You think you just appeared here this morning, and we've all got fake memories of you two?" Leo quickly glanced at Mari before looking back to Jason.

But it sounded crazy. Everybody here took them for granted. Everyone acted like they were a normal part of the class. Those girls had even made fun of Mari and knew something about her, so how could she have just appeared today?

Jason's eyes sparked with an idea.

"You guys work on the paper." Jason said, turning the other way. "I'll be right back."

Mari watched him walk across the skywalk and over to Coach Hedge before turning around to look over the sky walk edge again. She couldn't shake the feeling of uncertain doom whenever she looked down, but also she couldn't bring herself to look away. The river at the bottom looked safe, almost inviting, as if it was saying, Hey, if you fell off this sky walk to your death, right now, I'd be here to catch you.

Suddenly, Leo interrupted her thoughts, coughing and clearing his throat behind her. "Mari?"

She looked back up at him and saw Leo's face turning red.

"Uh— I know that today hasn't really been— the best— but, uh— I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go—"

Lightning cracked overhead, interrupting Leo. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rail. Coach Hedge bellowed into his megaphone "Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!"