"The tragedy of life is not death ... but what we let die inside of us while we still live."
Adalynn Stanton is accepted into one of the highest competitive schools in her state, the Greenhouse Academy. At first, all she thinks she will have to do...
"You were the shadow to my light Did you feel us Another Start You fade away."
~ Faded by Alan Walker
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The cold, crisp autumn noon air entered Adalynn's lungs as visible puffs of breath exhaled from her mouth and nostrils. She glanced around furtively, her phone clasped tightly in her hand, as she walked hurriedly across the school's oval towards the edge of the woods lining it.
Ducking down into the thick underbrush, she followed an old bush track that wound its way through the greenery surrounding it. It led straight to an abandoned squatter's hut. Adalynn paused before the hut's door and knocked softly on it. When she heard no response, she pushed it open and peered inside.
"J-Jackie?" Adalynn whispered out into the darkness. "Jackie! It's Adalynn!"
"Holy crap!" she heard someone mutter from above her. Above her?
Adalynn tipped her head back and stared at the roof of the hut. "J-Jackie? Where the hell are you?"
"In the attic!" came the muffled response.
"Okay, I'm coming up," Adalynn withdrew a torch from her jacket pocket and switching it on, made her way to an old rickety ladder that was on the other side of the room. She clambered up it and poked her head through the attic opening. Her eyes scanned the room, eventually landing on the darkened forms of Jackie, Max and Ethan.
"Geez, you flipping scared us!" Max exhaled heavily. "We - we thought you were some random person who'd followed us here!"
"I scared you?" Adalynn gaped at him. "YOU scared ME! Besides, I sent you a Louie text saying I'd be here in five. Didn't you get it?"
Jackie shook her head. "No-o."
Adalynn frowned as she pulled herself up into the attic. Opening up her Louie, she scanned her recent text messages and gasped. "Oh no! I sent it to LEO!!"
Jackie stared at her. "You've got to be kidding me."
Adalynn shook her head in disbelief as she hurriedly typed out a message: Sorry Leo. Wrong person. Was just telling Jackie I'd meet up with her for drinks during lunch break. :/ see you soon.
"You think he's gonna believe that?" Jackie asked incredulously as she shuffled over to Adalynn and read the text over her shoulder.
"You got a better idea?" Adalynn snapped back as she shut off her Louie.
As she glanced up, she saw Ethan gazing at her with a somewhat upset expression. His eyes quickly darted away and he began fiddling with the hood strings of his thick jumper.
