Another face in the hall

Morning couldn’t come soon enough. Without guard duty, Demetrius had been left to pace the floor of his room waiting for the first rays of sunlight to enter the sky. He had to get back to school, had to see her…how she was doing…what—if anything—she remembered. Until then, his mind wouldn’t allow him to rest.

The moment he stepped into the hall, he began a subtle scan of the students, hoping to see her and the state the Monday morning had found her in.

It was her voice that he heard first. It rang out from the other side of the hallway, boisterous, uninhibited laughter with the power to disrupt the beats of his heart. Demetrius followed it, seamlessly moving through the sea of students like oil passing through water.

He found her leaned against her locker with eyes that still danced from the laughter moments earlier.

“Mom went nuts!” Megan said, using exaggerated gestures as she told her story. “I’m standing there with the letter and Ms. Pierson’s on the phone. Mom doesn’t know who t