Illusion: Destiny Awaits (In Editing)

2 - Christi

"Hey, Christi!" I whirl around to see one of my acquaintances from school: Garcia Chase. Her bright eyes calm my heart, and I respond to her welcome.

"Oh! Hi, Garcia. It's just that, you startled me!" I try to sound cheery. She nearly rolls her eyes and heads to her locker.

I straighten my posture and go on my way. Forget it, Christi. Just forget it, I say in my head. I want to forget that Sabrina's gone. I want my life to be normal.

Closing my eyes to halt the tears, I turn my lock. 38-16-0. I open the locker, revealing an assortment of colors. I sigh in slight happiness, remembering the decorations Sabrina hung in my locker on my birthday. Not only are they my favorite colors—blue, green and purple—but they are the colors that remind me of her. I bite my lip, holding tears back from wetting my cheeks.

I lean against the locker beside mine. Dreaming of the next time I'll see Sabrina. Where is she, anyway? Wherever she is, I must find her. Turning around to face my locker, I pick up my books. My favorite colors always brighten my day. Not today though. Today is just awful.

✦

"And that's how you find the area of a polyhedron." I look at my math teacher, feeling the disgust of learning. I'm so mad, I could scream. I just want to find my best friend and bring her home. Listening to lectures and learning about darn shapes is the last thing on my mind. Is there anything wrong with that?

I put my head on my desk, trying to forget about any incident. Then and there, a brilliant idea sprouts in my head like a bulb blooming.

Looking sick, I trudge up to Mr. Gordon's desk while the rest of the class works on a precalculus worksheet.

"Mr. Gordon, sir," I say, sounding as polite and decent as possible, "I don't feel too good. My head hurts." Suddenly, it does. I grip my temple, the excruciating pain like a serrated knife digging into my head. I yelp, and Mr. Gordon looks at me weirdly.

"It hurts, Mr. Gordon. I'm telling the truth." A wave of even more intense pain comes from my other temple. I hold them both, the second one is like a needle inserted into my brain.

"Go on, Ms. Brandon." He says nothing more. I yelp again and wince when a shock hits my foot. Limping, I hasten towards the nurse's office.

Once I reach the office, I collapse on a cot. The nurse looks at me as if I'm dead meat.

"Do you have a pass, honey?" I shake my head, nearly screeching through the affliction and throbbing of my head. Just give me some magic potion or SOMETHING!

"That's all right," she says, and I sigh in relief that I don't need to go back. "Just lay down, and I'll call your parents. You really look like you need to go home." I nod vigorously in thanks. Oh, sweet home.

I roll over on the cot, hoping the torment will stop. Then, I have a vision.

"Christi! Christi!" Sabrina wails. Her cries echo through my head like a pitch in a cave.

"Sabrina? Is that you?" I yell out. I spot her, screaming next to a boy around Easton's age.

"Sabrina, I'll help you!" I exclaim in horror, tears falling to the cement ground.

"Help Kase first!" she pleads, pointing to the boy. Words flood from my mouth.

"Sabrina, I can't! I've never done anything like this in my whole entire life! Do you expect me to do this alone?!" Sabrina's eyes widen, and she shrieks.

"Christi! Move out of the way!" I turn, but I'm too late. Pain comes into my head once more. I feel drops of blood seep down the sides of my cheeks. A metal rod slams down on my foot, and I try to hurry over to Sabrina.