Chapter 5 Fifth

Three days later, I still haven't told anybody about the letter. The next day at school, I brought his lanyard and hung it from one of the hooks in my locker. By the next morning, it was gone.

Other than that, there has been no more contact from the men haunting my life.

I had a hard time sleeping and concentrating from the constant worry that overtook my life, but was determined not to let it effect me too much.

Today is like any other day of school, except it's Friday, so it's, thank goodness, the weekend starting tomorrow.

"Guess what's coming up!" Claire bounded down the hall towards me at lunchtime and linked her arm with mine.

"The weekend!" I answered, trying to match her enthusiasm.

"Okay, let's try this again. What is going on this weekend?"

I raked my brain, trying to figure out if it was a celebrity's birthday, holiday, or any party that might be happening, but I came up blank.

Claire must have taken my blank stare as her answer because she continued. "The full moon is on Sunday!"

The full moon was in two nights. That wouldn't really matter to anybody else, though-unless they were some sort of werewolf thing-but from the time I moved in here, I learned that Claire has an obsession with the sky and in particular the moon and constellations. As a result, every full moon we go and sleep on her trampoline, star-gazing all night.

"You are free, right?" Claire's voice trembled, obviously taking my silence the wrong way.

"Yes, of course! I would never spend your favorite day with anyone else," I assured her and watched her squeal in delight.

We opted out of lunch, deciding it was best for both our health that we didn't try to gulp down the grub they were feeding us today and made our way down to our usual spot in the math hallway.

"So, guess what happened yesterday." Claire suggested, breaking the comfortable silence we had between us.

"You went shopping."

"Well, that too. Guess what else."

"What?"

"I heated the stove."

"Wow. All by yourself? I'm so proud of you." I said, coating each word thick with sarcasm.

"No-I mean with my hands. You know how they're always warm? Well, I left them on the stove for a while when I was talking, and I took them off to boil some water, but the second I put the pot on the stove, the water boiled like crazy. My mom checked it out and said something else turned it on and burnt the burner to the core."

"So, it's either you're fire-proof or your hands got too sweaty from talking."

"El, I'm serious."

"So am I. I mean, what else could it be?"

"You don't see it?"

"See what?"

Claire ducked her head and grabbed my arm, bringing my body closer to hers.

She looked around us, as if looking for others before whispering, "Now your dream makes total sense. Maybe I can somehow heat things with my hands. That would fit into everything else that's been happening lately."

"No, that dream was just-"

"Seriously! Think about it! Something else has to be happening here."

The bell sounded as my mind was trying to find a good comeback. "Saved by the bell," I muttered as I pulled away from her and headed towards my next class.

A warm hand yanked on my arm and turned me around before I could make it far, though.

"El, I promise I'm not a lunatic."

"I know you're not, but even you have to admit it is pretty crazy."

"It is, but I don't have any other solutions. Just think about it, we will talk about it later."

I sighed, still not really believing a word she said. I turned and saw the plead in her eyes and knew I couldn't tell her that.

"Okay, I'll think about it," I promised.

Walking to my next class, I started thinking over the conversation I just had with Claire.

There's no way she's right. I mean, I've had crazy things happen before to me, but, really?

Not possible. Right?

Well, it would kinda make sense of some things-

I was yanked from my thoughts as a loud buzzing noise came over the building. Not realizing I'd even made it to class, I stood from my desk and followed the wave of students out the side doors.

The stupid fire drills happen all the time. We just had one last week, so I don't know why they have to do it again.

Mrs. Kirkwood's gray curly hair caught my attention behind me. I always pretended she was on the other side of the school, but I have no such luck.

She burst between the kids, shoving me unnecessarily hard into one of the neighboring lockers lining the school. Wonder what that was about.

"Move it! Now!" The other teachers shouted from behind me.

Jeez, give us a break. We're moving.

Due to my own thoughts circling my head, I was one of the last few slacking kids that hung near the back and waited for everybody else to leave. I guess this is just what it was like.

I finally made it out the door and looked around to see a worried Liam standing by the exit. He ran over to me, squeezed my hand tightly, and dragged me from the crowd forming across the street.

That's strange-we never go across the street in the other drills-maybe they changed the routine.

"Thank goodness you're alright. Do you understand how worried I was?!" Liam screamed into my face as soon as we had made it past all the stalled cars waiting for us to cross.

"Well, you're always worried, so that doesn't surprise me," I answered sarcastically.

Liam shifted his hands to my shoulders and swung me around to the school building. Flames burst from the top of the cafeteria and were quickly gritting to other parts of the old building.

Oh, no.

It's happening.

-