No One’s Curse

Originally sent to newsletter subscribers in July, 2023. Sign up for the free newsletter now to receive exclusive stories months in advance.

Leiany was walking through the mall of her small Pennsylvania town, searching for a new dress to wear out on a date. It was her first time going out since ending things with Alan, and she was going to look hotter than ever before. Her hair was done, her nails were painted. All she needed was the perfect, eye-popping dress.

She had been to three stores already, but nothing was perfect. She wandered into another, munching on a pretzel as she searched through the racks. Her eyes fell upon a slim, red latex halter. That was it, the dress to make this new guy fall in love with her.

After wiping her hands on a napkin, she snatched her size from the rack and power walked to the dressing rooms, where an older man with thick, brown hair and a muscular build awaited new customers. With a smile and a polite nod, he gestured her into the third room. Leiany pulled her clothes off in a rush, eager to try on this new dress. She had to contort her body to fit into the tight material, but she managed to pull it up over her shoulders and situate everything.

A knock rang on the wooden door of the dressing room. “Miss?” It was the man.

“Yes?” she said slowly.

“How do you like the dress?”

“I love it.”

“Come on out,” he said. “Let’s see it.”

“Why?”

“Never mind,” he whispered. “Are you decent?”

“Am I decent?” She was angry and, frankly, a little scared. “Why do you want to know that?”

“Just answer me, please?”

She sighed loudly. “Yes, I’m decent,” she said with a shudder.

“Good.”

Leiany heard the man snap his fingers. In a flash, he appeared before her, mere inches separating them. She opened her mouth to scream, but she was stunned into silence.

“Hey, hey, hey,” the man said. “It’s okay. No reason to yell and make a scene. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk.”

“Then talk. What do you want?”

“I want to talk about you, Miss Calleri,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Tell me about yourself.”

“You’re creepy.” She stared into his eyes, begging her voice to stay steady. “Move. So I can go.”

“No, no. That won’t do at all.”

“Why not?”

“Because you haven’t even told me about how you spread that rumor about your friend.” The man shook his head. “And here I thought we were friends. Although, maybe I don’t want to be friends with you if that’s how you treat them. That wasn’t very ni—”

Leiany shoved the man into the wall of the dressing room, rattling the weak metal frame. Her voice dropped to a sinister whisper. “How the hell do you know that? Who are you? What did Meena say to you?”

“I’m No One,” the man said, as calm as ever. “And she didn’t say a word to me.”

“Then how do you know all that?”

“I know things,” he said. “It’s what I do.”

“Let me guess. You drink, too?” she asked. “You drink and you know things? Very original.”

“I drink, but not that swill you people guzzle every weekend.” He shuddered at the thought. “No, I prefer my drinks to have more… advantageous effects.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s of no concern to you.” The man shrugged and leaned forward, pushing Leiany back as if she wasn’t pushing against him with all of her strength. “Anyway, how about we get out of here? I have something I’d like you to see.”

“I’m not going anywhere with y—”

The man snapped again. Leiany blinked as a bright flash of light encompassed the room. When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the living room of a very nice log cabin. She spun around, gazing in awe at the rustic woodwork, exquisite furnishing, and stacked bookshelves.

“What do you think?”

Leiany jumped and spun around to find the man standing a few feet away, leaning against a door frame. The situation finally caught up to her. “Where the fuck am I?” she screamed over and over.

“Please, stop that.” He winced and covered his ears. “It’s really quite unnecessary.”

Her voice grew hoarse and her throat throbbed in pain. She finally stopped screaming, her chest heaving and tears falling from her eyes. “What do you want from me?”

“Just to show you something, like I said.” The man put his hand on her shoulder. He was surprisingly gentle. “Look at you. Have a seat on the couch over there. I’ll get you some tea and I’ll bring back the thing I wanted to show you. I just have to step into my study real quick.”

Without realizing what she was doing, Leiany obeyed, sitting on the couch and pulling her knees to her chest as she awaited her drink. She could have made a break for it or searched for something to fight with, but where was she going to go? She had no idea where she was and she was trapped with a guy who could do… incredible things.

The man emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later, carrying a glass of water and a small box wound with thread. He handed Leiany the glass and sat across from her in a plump chair. “Would you like to know why I’ve brought you here?”

Leiany lurched forward, nearly spilling her water. “Yes, of course I want to know.”

“As I said, Meena did not speak to me.” The man stood and paced before Leiany. “Her friend, however, did. Josiah was such a nice young man. He spoke at length about your betrayal of Meena. You really hurt her, you know?” Leiany could only drop her head in shame. “I’ll take your silence as an admittance. Anyway, once I head Josiah’s story, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. I showed him what I can do. He begged me to do something to show you how wrong you were. He begged me to be gentle. Even after the pain you caused, he was still kind enough to ask that of me. I assured him, as I am assuring you now, I will not physically harm you in any way. However, you do need to learn the error of your ways. You need to be taught a lesson.”

Leiany couldn’t speak. She was numb. She stared down at her shoes and nodded slowly.

“Very well.”

Without warning, the man opened the box and blew hard. A yellow powder rained down on her. In an instant, she was nearly unconscious, barely aware of the man cradling her fall before she hit the ground.

“Sweet dreams,” he whispered.

#

Leiany’s body felt strange when she awoke covered in blankets and lying in an uncomfortable bed. She squeezed her eyes closed and threw the comforter over her head, begging her mind to return to sleep. Her back ached. Her muscles were tight. Ever her eyes were sore. And she needed to pee.

Her entire body grew tight. Something wasn’t right. She jumped from bed and yelled, a deep voice bellowing from her throat.

“Good, you’re awake,” the man said, appearing before her with a flash of light. “Quiet down, will you? You don’t want to wake your son.”

“I don’t have a son,” she whispered frantically. “What the fuck is going on here? Who are you? And what the fuck is this?” She grasped between her legs.

“How about we get you to a mirror?” The man ushered her to the corner of the room, where a mirror sat atop a small dresser.

Leiany peered into it. Staring back at her was a somewhat attractive man, probably in his mid-forties. Gray was starting to peak through his trimmed beard and cropped black hair. Wrinkles were showing around his eyes. Leiany lifted her hand, and the reflection responded in kind. She clapped, and the reflection did the same. “What the fuck?” The man in the mirror’s mouth reflected her own as the same deep voice rumbled through the air.

“To answer one of your questions, I’m No One. But I told you that already.” The man placed his hands on her shoulders and spun her around. “Now, this is your new self. For the time being, at least.”

“What do you mean, ‘my new self?’” Leiany said.

“It means exactly that, Leiany,” No One said. “Or should I call you CJ?”

“No, you should absolutely not call me CJ? Who the fuck is CJ?”

“You are, for now.” No One placed his finger to his lips. “Quiet, your son is stirring. We wouldn’t want to wake him.”

“Leave Coop out of this.” Leiany paused, frozen in place. “Wait, how do I know his name? You didn’t tell me his name.”

“Ah, good, it’s beginning,” No One said. “This is for the better, believe me. This ensures that no one messes up your life too badly while you’re fixing yourself.”

“What does that mean?” Leiany took a step closer, pleading with her eyes. “Please, tell me what I’m supposed to do.”

No One looked down at his wrist, though there was no watch there. “Well, look at the time. I really must be going.” He placed his hands on Leiany’s shoulders. “It’s clear that you’ve forgotten who you are. I hope that, with time and growth, you are able to reconnect with your true self. This will be better if you lean into it. I’ll see you in a few days.”

In a flash, No One vanished. “Wait!” Leiany called. “Wait, come back. Tell me what to do. Tell me why this is happening!”

“Daddy? Who are you talking to?”

A young boy, no older than eight, had appeared in the doorway to the bedroom. He was the spitting image of the man she had seen in the mirror. She walked over and held him tight. “It’s okay, Coop. I just had a bad dream. Let’s get you back to bed.”

Without even flipping on the lights, Leiany led the child through the house and back to his bedroom.

#

A young man woke before dawn, dressed quickly, and walked through the door of his newly rented apartment. He had a class to teach in a few hours, which would give him enough time to pop over to the university library and get some research in beforehand. His laptop bag thrown over his shoulder, the man started the short walk to campus.

“I got lucky today,” he said to himself as a crisp fall breeze whipped up leaves all around his feet.

He hadn’t been on campus in a long time, but he remembered it like it was yesterday. He reached the library in fifteen minutes and settled into a comfortable chair away from the computers, where groups of students were already working. Some of them had probably been there all night. He opened his laptop and tried to remember where he had left off the day before. He knew a few starting sites and forums, but he had gone down quite the rabbit hole and it would waste valuable time finding his way back to those obscure corners of the internet. With a sense of fervor, he dove into his studies, quickly becoming absorbed in his work.

“Professor Dowell, I didn’t know you were into witches and stuff,” a young woman’s voice said from behind him, snapping him out of his trance.

Kevin jerked his head around, shifting his laptop slightly. One of his students stood behind him. His memory was still coming to him, but he thought her name was Melanie. “Just a little bit of outside research for a paper I’m working on.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be embarrassed,” Melanie said. “I think that kind of thing is super interesting, even if I don’t necessarily believe in it. You do you, Professor.”

“That’s very well said. Also, you know you can call me Kevin, right?”

“Thank you.” She nodded in appreciation and turned to leave. “I should be going. Looks like I’m going to beat the teacher to class.”

Professor Dowell looked at the clock on his laptop. He had only a few minutes to get across campus and set up for today’s lesson, which was to be on the efficacy of voluntary surveys when looking for data across a population. He would need to hustle.

He threw his laptop and notes into his bag and jumped up from his chair. He was glad he was young enough to still be active. Some days had been pretty rough. He exited the library with a nod to the clerk and turned left, a little shortcut he knew to reach his class quickly. He may even beat Melanie.

Kevin weaved through buildings before emerging into the central crossing on the busiest Green of campus, his final obstacle before reaching his classroom. He waited for an opening and dove into the throng of students moving in all directions. Moving with the flow, he let his mind wander as he walked. Today’s research had proven less than helpful. He was no closer to his goal than he had been a month ago or a year ago.

With a jolt of recognition, he froze. He turned slowly, until he was facing the back of a young woman who had also stopped mid-step. She turned and their eyes met. Professor Dowell’s breath caught in his throat.

It had been eight hundred and twenty-four days since he had laid eyes on the person who stood before him. He had nearly forgotten what she looked like. Standing before him was… him. It was Leiany Calleri.

“Why do I recognize you?” Leiany asked, her voice trembling. “I feel like I know you.”

“I-I’m you,” he stuttered.

“What?” she said. “What do you mean?”

“Come with me, to my office,” Professor Dowell said. “Please, just for a few moments. I think we need to talk.”

“Okay,” Leiany said, clearly racking her brain for her connection to this professor. “I think that’s a good idea.”

Professor Dowell pushed through the crowd of students on the way to his office. On the way, he sent an e-mail explaining that he had food poisoning and would have to cancel classes for the day, surely to the delight of his three scheduled sections.

Inside his office, he shut the door quickly and slid into his chair while Leiany sat across from him. “Okay, what the fuck is going on?” she said. “You’re me! And I’m you! How is this happening?”

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” Professor Dowell said. “For over eight hundred days, I’ve woken up in a new body every single day. You are in my original body. This is the first time I’ve ever met, well, me, so I don’t know how it works for your side. For me, I wake up a little confused and groggy, but enough information about the person I’m living as comes to me that I’m able to go about their day without messing up their lives too bad. Like today, I knew I had classes to teach, I knew the material, and I knew that I have plans to go out for drinks with some of the other social science professors. I don’t remember too many details from my life, just enough to get by. Is it the same for you?”

“Basically,” Leiany said. “But if you’ve never been in your body, then how are you here? A senior on track to graduate with excellent grades?”

“I was a good student before the incident, so I’m assuming there are enough of my memories to continue that, along with the new ones made every day.”

“Wait, what incident?” Leiany leaned forward and rested her arms on the desk. “What happened to you?”

“There was this guy, No One, and he did something with a powder.” Kevin took a pause and sighed before continuing. “I think he was a witch of some kind. I think he cast a spell on me. It’s the only explanation I can think of.”

“A witch?” Leiany said with a snort. “You’re going crazy. Aren’t witches old women who live in the woods and poison apples?”

“Do you have another explanation?”

Silence.

“Exactly,” Kevin said. “I’ve been doing research for over two years. It’s a little disjointed due to the nature of the spell, but I’ve managed to learn some things. For one, there are people on the internet talking about witches in everyday life, and the term isn’t actually as gendered as the fairy tales led us to believe. Anyone can be a witch, if they have the right powers.”

Leiany scoffed. “And you believe this stuff just because you read it on the internet?”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Kevin shouted. His eyes darted to the door. When no one entered, he lowered his voice. “What else should I do? I am sick of being a new person every day. I have looked at this from every angle. It’s the only explanation.”

“Say what you believe is actually true, how are you going to fix it?” Leiany asked, her face softer after Kevin’s outburst.

“I don’t know,” he confessed. “No One told me that I had to rediscover my true self to break the curse. He said that I was being punished for betraying my friends.”

“What did you do?”

“You’re me. You probably remember if you think hard enough.”

Leiany closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds, she looked up. “Yeah, that was pretty harsh of you. But still, that happens all the time. Why are you the one that gets punished?”

“I guess my friend Josiah found No One somewhere and convinced him to do something.”

“Ouch,” Leiany said. “Have you talked to Josiah or Meena since this started?”

“Of course not.” Now if was Professor Dowell’s turn to scoff. “What am I supposed to do, walk up to them as some random human and explain that I’m actually their former friend? Besides, I’ve been around the world as different people. It’s a miracle I ended up back here and that we ran into each other.”

“Maybe it means you’re close to ending the spell?”

“I thought you said that spells are ridiculous and imaginary?”

“I didn’t say those words specifically.” Leiany rolled her eyes. “But I will admit that it’s the only explanation that makes even a lick of sense. And maybe us meeting like this is a sign. Maybe it means you can end this and we can finally go back to our real bodies.”

“Maybe, but I don’t know how,” Kevin said.

“What about this No One guy?” Leiany asked. “Has he come around any more?”

“Only twice.” Kevin shrugged. “He came a couple of days after it started and then he showed up at the one year mark. He never gave me anything useful, though. He just said vague things about saving my true self from what I was becoming. I don’t know how to do that.”

“What if we could find him?” Leiany asked.

“It’s impossible. I’ve searched every corner of the internet looking for him, and nothing,” Kevin said. “There is no mention of a witch called No One.”

Leiany sat in silence for a minute, thinking. Without warning, she snapped her fingers. “What if it was mentioned, and you just didn’t realize it. What if No One meant that he could be anyone, just like you’ve been anyone? What if he could switch bodies?”

Kevin shook his head. “It’s possible, but the only mentions of body switching are usually discredited and mocked, so hardly anyone actually has any believable stories out there.”

“Why don’t we post one?” Leiany said. “If we come forward, more people might chime in with their own experiences.”

“That’s a great idea,” Kevin said after no more than a moment of thought. “Now that I’ve found you, we can do it from both perspectives. Plus, if it takes longer than a day, you’ll be back in your body tomorrow and you can continue the search.”

“I suppose, but even if I find something after today, how would I ever track you down?” she said.

“That’s true,” Kevin said in disappointment. “Well, we’d better get started. You have your computer with you, yeah?”

“I do.”

Leiany pulled a laptop from her backpack. The sight of the old stickers nearly brought a tear to Kevin’s eye. If he could help it, he’d be back to using that laptop again soon. He directed her to a few of the sites he had used to research over the past eight hundred days, and each of them made profiles. Within twenty minutes, they had posted from Leiany’s account. They agreed to wait a while and then respond from Kevin’s to gain traction.

While they waited, Leiany peppered Kevin with questions about his experiences switching bodies. He told her everything. The times he woke up as a baby. The times he was old and confined to a hospital bed. The marital rows, the fights with siblings, and the drugs filling homes. Of course, there were good moments, too. He got to see the world, speak languages he never would have otherwise, and meet thousands of people. Still, he was ready to go back to being Leiany.

The unlikely pair was eating lunch an hour after responding under Leiany’s post as Kevin, when Leiany’s phone chimed. They had another comment.

“Something similar happened to me,” User187653 wrote. “I woke up as someone else. I could remember my old life, but I had memories of someone else, as well. It was like I had lived two lives. I remember walking around that strange, old home in the woods. It was eerie. There were plants and pills everywhere. I went to work, because apparently I had a job, and came home. When I woke up the next day, everything was back to normal.”

“This could be it,” Leiany squealed. “This could be our guy.”

“Do you have any more information?” Kevin said aloud as he typed. “Do you know where you were?”

Leiany’s phone chimed again a few moments later. “It was somewhere in Maryland. I remember that. Keysville, or something like that.”

“Keysville. I’ve heard of that,” Leiany said. “I passed through there once.”

Kevin closed his eyes. “I remember. On the way to Washington, D.C.”

“Exactly,” Leiany said before returning to her phone. “If you don’t mind, could you give me some more information about yourself? Your actual self?”

A moment later, a private message request appeared on Leiany’s phone. “I don’t mind. What do you want to know?”

“Where are you from? What’s your job? I just want to see if there is any connection between us.”

“I’m a chef now, but at the time I was working at a department store in Pennsylvania,” the man wrote. “I was usually stuck working the dressing rooms, but that was okay with me. It was slow and it gave me time to research recipes and things. After that…”

“No way,” Kevin said, interrupting their reading. “This is the guy. This is the connection.”

“What do you mean?”

“I met No One at a department store,” he said. “I was trying on a new dress, and this guy just appeared in the dressing room with me. The next thing I knew, I was in an old house. What if No One had swapped bodies with this guy to get to me?”

Without a word, Leiany responded to the message.

“Tell us everything you know about the house you were in.”

#

After three hours of messages back and forth, Leiany and Professor Dowell had finally managed to get enough information out of User187653 to come up with a pretty good idea of where they needed to go. They hopped in Kevin’s car and began the two hour drive. They were now within a few minutes of where they believed the cabin to be, and the sun was getting lower in the sky. It would soon be dark.

“What are you going to do if we find this guy?” Leiany asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Kevin said. “I suppose I’ll try to convince him that I’ve changed.”

“How, though? Didn’t he say the spell would end when you’ve done what he wanted?”

“Yes, but I don’t know. Maybe it will work.”

“I hope so, for your sake,” Leiany said.

They approached an old cabin with smoke pouring from the chimney. It looked just like it had on the Google Earth image taken a few years ago. Kevin put the car in park and took a deep breath. Leiany met his eyes and gave him a nod of reassurance. They exited the car and approached the front door together.

The door swung open as they stepped up onto the porch. It was dark inside, except for a small fire coming from the corner of the room. Kevin shrugged and stepped into the darkness. Before the fire, a chair sat. Someone was sitting there, reading a book and sipping wine.

“Hello, Kevin,” a man said. “And Leiany. It’s so very good to see you again.”

The chair swiveled, and a large, muscular man rose to face them. His head was shaved bald and he had a beard covering his chin. The sleeves of his cardigan were pulled tight over his arms. He placed the book and glass of wine on a coffee table and clapped his hands. Candles all around the room lit in unison, bathing the room in a warm glow.

“No One?” Professor Dowell asked slowly. “Is that you?”

“It is I,” he said. “You found me. And you found each other. I’m impressed. Now, what can I do for you?”

“You can end the spell, that’s what.” Kevin stepped forward to within a few feet of No One.

“Unfortunately, I cannot,” No One said nonchalantly before bending to retrieve his wine. “What has begun cannot be undone, until the spell has brought about the ending that was intended and this situation has been resolved.”

“Bullshit,” Leiany said. “You can do something.”

“I assure you, I cannot,” No One said. “The only one who can end the spell is Leiany herself. Sorry, I mean Kevin.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Kevin cried. “I’ve looked into everything over the past two years. I’ve lived every single day as someone else and I always did everything I could to ensure their lives ran as smoothly as before. I did nothing to disturb them and always left things as I had found them. What more can I do?”

“You still do not understand your true self,” No One said. “I’m sorry, but the spell will not end until that happens.”

“Maybe I can help,” Leiany said. “I’m in your body and I have a bunch of your memories. Maybe I can help you understand.”

“How? I remember everything about myself, too,” Kevin said.

“But these are new memories for me,” she said. “Maybe I can find something that will help you.”

No One leaned agains the chair to observe, silent.

“Okay, here’s something,” Leiany said after a few minutes. “Before all of this started, when you first met Meena, how did you become friends?”

“It was the first week of college and we lived in the same dorm,” Kevin said. “How is that going to help me?”

“Yes, but the other girls were making fun of her,” Leiany said. “Apparently someone from her high school had posted on the university forum and told everyone she was afraid of shower drains or something like that. You stood up for her. You told the other girls off and offered to take the shower with the drain whenever you ran into her in the restroom. You were the first one to welcome her to the dorm.”

“Okay, but then I betrayed her.” Kevin pounded the table. “Why did I do that?”

“What about all the way back in middle school?” Leiany continued. “You were the one to finally go to the principal about those kids bullying Mikey Talson, even though you knew everyone would be mad at you for snitching. You did it anyway.”

“It doesn’t matter, I still turned out to be a bad person.”

“No, you just lost sight of who you were,” Leiany said. “I have so many memories in my head right now of you doing the right thing when others wouldn’t. Sure, you made mistakes. Who hasn’t? But you always tried your best to make up for them. You’re a good person. A truly good person. You just need to remember that.”

“How?” Kevin threw his arms in the air. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“Why don’t you just apologize to Meena?” Leiany said. “Maybe she’ll understand. I did.”

Kevin couldn’t take the pressure anymore. After eight hundred and twenty-four days, he snapped. “I didn’t start the rumor, okay?”

“Interesting,” No One said, sitting up straight.

“I didn’t start the rumor, but I know who did,” Kevin said. “When Meena asked me about it, I couldn’t blame the Mona. I had already talked to her about it and she had apologized and tried to do damage control, but it was too late. The rumor had spread. And when Meena confronted me, I let her believe it was me so everyone wouldn’t hate Mona.”

“So, you never stopped standing up for others?” Leiany asked. “Then why is this happening? It doesn’t sound like you forgot who you were at all.”

“There is one person she never stood up for,” No One said.

In that moment, everything came into focus for Leiany, living in Kevin. “Myself.” Her entire life, she had fought to make sure others were appreciated, respected, and accepted. It had earned her the love and admiration of many, but when it came to it, she didn’t defend herself. She was the one person who had never championed. The one person she had never shown love without question.

Even throughout the body switching, she had never thought to search out herself and fight for her body back. She had only been concerned with finding the solution without interrupting the lives of those she inhabited. In all that time, she never came to her own defense.

No One rose from his place on the arm of the chair and crossed the space between them, grasping Kevin and Leiany by the arms. He nodded once, pulled a box from his pocket, and threw the contents over both of them. In the blink of an eye, Leiany returned to her body. She squeezed her arms around herself, cherishing the familiar feeling of her own skin. Beside her, Kevin held up his phone, staring at his reflection. They were back.

“Leiany, you have done what was asked of you,” No One said. “You have remembered that yourself, your truest self, fights for all those who need it. You now understand that you are as deserving of that love and fight as anyone else.” He turned to Kevin. “Professor Dowell, thank you for your help. Without your understanding and trust, this wouldn’t have been possible. You are a great man.”

“You are,” Leiany said. “I can’t wait to enroll in your class. It’ll be nice to know you without being a part of you.”

“Actually, that won’t be possible,” No One interjected.

“Why not?” Leiany and Kevin said in unison.

“Due to the spell, the return to normal life would likely be quite traumatic for you, Leiany.” No One shook his head. “Living with the memories of so many others, and knowing they all inhabited your body for a day? It would be too much to handle. I won’t do that to you. You will return to your life, with only limited memories of any of this occurring. Save for the lessons learned along the way, it will be as if this experience never happened.”

“That actually makes sense,” Kevin said after a moment.

“Well, if that’s the way it has to be.” Leiany turned to him. “I meant what I said. You are a great man. Who knows, maybe I will take your class and we can meet again.”

“I would like that,” Kevin said.

No One grasped them both again and nodded his head. “I believe you will meet. Anyone would be lucky to have a friend like either of you.”

With a flourish of his hands, No One blew yellow powder over both of them. In an instant, they were nearly unconscious, barely aware of No One cradling their falls before they hit the ground.

“Sweet dreams, and good luck to you both.”

#

Leiany walked across campus, ignoring the icy wind cutting through her thick coat. It was the second semester of her sophomore year, and it was time to buckle down and really start preparing for her future. She waved hello to a few friends along the route before nearly running up the stairs to the classroom building. She burst through the doors and found the assigned room immediately.

The lecture hall was already filling up as Leiany scanned the room for anyone she might know. She spotted one of her friends and slid into the seat beside her. “Hey, Melanie.”

“Hey,” Melanie said with a smile. “Is Meena coming?”

“Yeah, she’ll be here soon.” Leiany removed her coat and pulled her laptop from her bag. The back was covered in stickers she had collected over the years. “She and Josiah were going to—”

Leiany was cut off by the door closing at the front of the class as the professor entered. He plugged his computer in as the projector flared to life and the room fell silent. He turned to face the class with a smile.

“Good morning, everyone,” he said, his voice easily filling the large space. “I see you beat me here. My name is Professor Dowell, but you can call me Kevin.”

End.