"Those zookeepers in Tampa must have been idiots."

I was back in the dolphin exhibit, trying to get Kirk to eat a fish. Tommy was reorganizing the supply closet, his music blaring over the speakers. The exhibit was supposed to open in a week, but according to Claudia, the dolphins weren't acclimated to their new environment yet.

She blamed everything on the zoo in Tampa. They were the ones who had mistreated their animals so badly that they had lost their will to live. Once, Claudia said something about wanting to release them to the wild, but all three dolphins would die instantly. Having been born in captivity, they didn't have the basic skills that they needed to live in their natural environment. There was nothing that we could do for the dolphins, no matter how badly I wanted to truly help them.

"What did they do this time?" I asked Claudia as I waved a fish over Kirk's blowhole. He didn't seem to register its presence.

"They told us that the dolphins were all male. McCoy is actually a female. We should have figured it out earlier - she's the smallest out of the three dolphins."

"How did the zoo in Tampa not figure this out?"

"I told you. They're all idiots." Claudia shook her head and then walked over to me. "Kirk's not going to notice the fish is there unless you put it in front of him." She took the fish from me and leaned further forward until the fish was in front of Kirk's mouth. He finally snapped up and took the fish and then swam downwards until he was almost out of sight.

All of a sudden, Tommy emerged from the supply closet. "Claudia, I finished cleaning the closet," he said. "Should I clean up the garage behind the exhibit next?"

"Actually, I've been talking with the other zookeepers about what to do with the garage," Claudia said. "We were wondering if you two might like to have your own space in the zoo. You can share the garage, and you can do whatever you'd like with it. If we get new animals, we might convert it into an exhibit, but for now, nobody else is using the garage, so you can have it."

"I'd like that a lot, Claudia," I said. I was already daydreaming about what I could do with a space of my own in the zoo. Finally, I could have a place to study without getting interrupted, and I could move some of my extra D&D stuff into the garage to decorate. I had a lot of rulebooks and dice that were just sitting around in my room, waiting to be used in a game. At last, I could have a place where I belonged.

"Great," Claudia said. "Next time you're here, you can decorate the garage. For now, I'd like both of you to clean the water filter."

Both Tommy and I groaned, but we went over to the water filter and did what Claudia had asked us to do. Tommy bobbed his head up and down to the beat of the music, desperately trying to get himself through the drudgery of cleaning the water filter, while I daydreamed about my classes at Egmont and Dungeons and Dragons. Animal Behavior was interesting enough, especially since Aditi was in that class with me, but Florida Everglades: Ecology and Conservation was by far my favorite. I still spent most afternoons in Jonas' office, and every Friday night, I played D&D with a huge group in Greenway Hall. It was the kind of life that I would have killed for in high school, but it still felt like there was something missing.

For a long time, Tommy and I didn't speak to each other. It was for the best. There was nothing for us to talk about but painful memories that neither of us wanted to relive. The only sounds as we cleaned the water filter were water crashing onto the deck, McCoy's high-pitched chirps, and thoughts buzzing through my head.

We moved on to mopping the deck, and as we cleaned up the underwater viewing area, Tommy finally broke the silence. "The weather's been pretty nice lately, hasn't it?" he said.

"It's Florida," I said. "The weather's always nice."

"Not in the summer."

"I wouldn't know. I'm only here during the school year."

"That must be great. You get the best of both worlds."

"Why did you move here anyways?"

Tommy shrugged and then said, "I just needed to get away from Cleveland. What about you?"

"Same reason."

We were avoiding the elephant in the room, and we both knew it. Tommy and I had never been particularly close friends, but we used to at least be able to have a normal conversation without making it awkward. Maybe it was because Blake was always around when we were together. When the Love Martyrs were still together, we always made big decisions as a group: Blake, Tommy, and I. Now, Blake was gone, and Tommy and I couldn't go beyond talking about the weather.

Even when I first met Tommy, Blake was there. The Love Martyrs had been together for less than a month, and we hadn't done much beyond playing a handful of shows at whatever venues would take a band without much talent and even less experience. We were playing at a party hosted by Blake's then-girlfriend, and just before we went onstage, Blake told me, "I think I got a manager."

"You did?" I said. This was the first time I had even heard about the possibility of the Love Martyrs having a manager. Before that point, I had always thought that the Love Martyrs was just an experiment - a way to starve off the boredom of adolescence before we inevitably moved on to something else.

"Yeah," Blake said. "His name is Tommy Davidson. I met him online, and he's coming to the show."

"Aren't you guys going to play?" Blake's girlfriend asked us.

"Come on, let's go," Blake said to me. "Don't forget to turn on the fog machine."

I rolled my eyes, but I did as Blake asked. As fog rolled across the stage, Blake played the opening riff to one of our new songs, and a few curious party guests walked up to the stage. Blake screamed and rapped while I struggled to remember the right fingerings. I had picked up the bass less than a month earlier, and I was still getting used to the instrument. However, everyone was distracted by Blake's performance, as he screamed, rapped, and danced to distract the crowd from our mediocre at best playing.

When the fog cleared, I saw that most of the people in the crowd were teenage girls, with one exception. There was a man in his twenties near the back of the crowd, looking slightly bored. If Blake hadn't said anything about a manager, I would have thought that he was somebody's older brother. That must be Tommy Davidson, I thought.

Blake quickly tuned his guitar again before launching into the next song. We played through most of the set, and although our playing was definitely imperfect, Blake and I played with energy and passion. Even the girls in the audience could feel it.

The show only stopped when Blake's girlfriend ran onstage to talk to Blake. "The police just arrived," she explained. "The neighbors are complaining about the noise."

Blake groaned and then said into the microphone, "I'm not going to let the cops get in the way of good music! Dani, could you turn off the fog machine?"

I did as he asked while Blake sprinted back to his car and came back carrying an acoustic guitar. "You can just watch for now," he whispered. I walked offstage and joined the crowd while Blake began to play. Without all of the bells and whistles of an electric guitar, it was obvious that Blake only knew a handful of chords, but he made it work, covering any song that we asked for with just his voice and his guitar.

When Blake finally walked offstage, we ran into the man with the shaggy hair. "Hi Tommy," Blake said. "What did you think of our show?"

"It was incredible," Tommy said. "Blake, I think this seals the deal. Those girls went crazy over you, and I think that the Love Martyrs can really go somewhere. I'd love to come along for the ride."

"Thanks, Tommy," Blake said. "I think you'll make a great manager."

All of a sudden, a cluster of girls approached Blake, telling him how much they had loved his performance. I headed straight for the snack table, and when I spotted Blake kissing a girl in my history class later that night, I didn't tell his girlfriend. Now that we had a manager, the Love Martyrs were bigger than just some high school rock band, and if we wanted the band to stay together, I had to stand by my best friend, no matter what.

Tommy went back to quietly mopping the floor, and neither of us spoke again until we finished mopping. "Should we tell Claudia that we're finished?" he asked.

I glanced across the floor - it looked clean enough. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," I said. Both of us went upstairs, where McCoy was chirping away as if she was laughing at a clever joke. Spock was still floating listlessly at the top of the water, and Claudia was inspecting Kirk's tail, which was bent at an odd angle.

"We're done cleaning," I told Claudia.

"Wonderful," Claudia said. "You two can leave if you'd like, but I'm going to need you back here tomorrow. We still have a lot to get done before the exhibit opens."

I left the exhibit and headed straight for the parking lot. As I walked, I had the strange sensation that someone was following me, but I never looked back. I just wanted to get back to Egmont as quickly as possible.

When I got to the parking lot, my gray sedan was exactly where I had left it, but the tan SUV that I had parked next to wasn't there. Instead, there was a red Mazda in the spot next to mine.

I finally looked behind me, and sure enough, he was there. Blake looked exactly the same as he had when I saw him the first time. I didn't know what to say, so I froze, unsure how to speak to someone that I had spent the last four years avoiding. Apparently, he didn't know what to say either. He just stared at me, as still as a department store mannequin.

After a few seconds of silence, I ran into the gray sedan, my heart racing as I buckled my seatbelt and gripped the steering wheel. I wondered if I should go to the health center once I got back to Egmont, given that I had hallucinated that my former best friend was in the Egmont Zoo parking lot twice. However, as I backed out of my parking spot, I realized that this was no hallucination. I didn't know why Blake had been in the Egmont Zoo parking lot twice, or how he had gotten there, or why he couldn't find anything to say to me, but he had been there, and he wasn't just a figment of my imagination.

I started driving back to Egmont, but when I looked into my rearview mirror, the red Mazda was behind me. Every time I turned, Blake cut through traffic to pursue me, and every time I changed lanes, I found him right behind me again a few seconds later. No matter what I did, Blake kept on following me.

My heart was beating fast, and my mind was racing. None of this made sense. Why was Blake stalking me? What did he want? Maybe we're just going in the same direction, I thought, but I soon realized that it wasn't true. He had no reason to go to Egmont, other than to follow me there.

I tried my best to throw him off, driving in circles and turning into every tiny residential neighborhood that I could find, but every time, he followed me. There was nothing left to do but to drive to Egmont. I headed toward the college, sweat dripping down my forehead as I looked into the rearview mirror again.

I drove past the palm trees and the Publix and the "Egmont College: Not Your Ordinary College Experience!" sign until I arrived in the parking lot. I parked the car in between a minivan and a handicapped parking spot, forcing Blake to find a spot across from me. I waited in the car, too afraid to get out. My phone sat in my hand as I considered calling Campus Safety, but I decided against it. Blake and I used to be friends. We had trusted each other once. I could at least try to trust him now.

We sat there for a few minutes, and then Blake backed out of his parking spot and drove away. Once he was gone, I got out of my car and walked to Wallace Hall, more than a little bit shaken by the incident. I had so many questions that I was afraid to ask, but when I got to my dorm room, I pulled out my headphones, listened to every loud guitar song that I could find, and tried to forget that I had ever seen Blake Pinkerton.

It didn't work, and the next day, it happened again. Blake followed me home from work, but when we arrived at Egmont, he just drove away. Again, I considered calling Campus Safety, but although Blake was freaking me out, he wasn't hurting anyone. I didn't tell anyone about what had happened. As far as I was concerned, it was between him and I.

When I went to Jonas' class the next day, Blake was still on my mind. I was working with Leo again, and we were analyzing the pond water sample that we had collected the previous week. "Dani, why aren't you helping me?" Leo complained.

"Sorry," I said. "I'm a little distracted today."

I adjusted my lab goggles and helped Leo with the experiment. However, my heart wasn't in it. I went through the motions of the lab, still thinking about how Blake had stalked me. Nothing about the incident seemed to make sense.

For once, I was glad when class was over. Leo and I went our separate ways, and as I headed to Jonas' office, hoping to relax and look at cute pictures of his pet turtles, I ran into Joyce. "Hey," I said. Just seeing her had made my day a little bit better.

"Hey Dani," Joyce said, smiling. "What did you think of the lab for today?"

I shrugged and said, "It was okay," wishing that I had something better to say.

"Yeah, I liked going out into the Wetland Research Area better than just being in the lab and analyzing pond water," Joyce said. "I took this class just because we get to go to the research area."

"What else are you taking?" I asked.

"Feminism and Pop Culture, Female Writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and Advanced Studies in Musicology," Joyce said. "How about you?"

"I'm taking Animal Behavior, Environmental Policy, and Intro to Psych," I said. "Do you know Kara Wiley? I think she's in your English class."

"Yeah, I do," Joyce said. "She's always complaining about Pride and Prejudice."

"Kara wanted to get into American Literature, but she ended up in Female Writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries instead. She wouldn't shut up about it when we were picking classes last year."

Joyce groaned. "I took American Literature last year. It was the worst."

"Why was it so bad?"

"All of the books that we read were ones that I've read before and hated. It was the same white male authors that we read all the time in classes like that. I wanted something different, but it was just the same dead white men all over again. I ended up having to talk to the professor about it, and he added Invisible Man to the syllabus, but it felt like a token gesture."

"That sounds awful, but it's great that you were able to stick up for yourself."

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, that's why I took Female Writers this semester, but it still bothers me that they throw all of the great women authors into their own class. I wish that they would incorporate female perspectives into all of our English classes."

"You should be in charge of the English curriculum, Joyce."

"I wish. Maybe I'll go into academia and spend the rest of my life designing better curricula. That sounds like a great way to prove my mother wrong. She thinks that all three of my majors are completely useless."

"I'm still impressed that you're triple majoring. I can barely handle one major."

"It's not so bad if you're majoring in something that you love. Also, biology isn't an easy major. I would go crazy if I had to do labs every single day."

"Labs are fun!"

"Maybe for you. I always manage to mess something up."

"That's why you're supposed to repeat your experiment multiple times."

"That seems like a waste of time to me. I could spend more time practicing."

"What instrument do you play?"

"Piano," Joyce said, smiling. It was obvious that she cared way more about that piano than she cared about me, but perhaps that was natural at this point in our relationship. We barely knew each other. "Do you play any instruments?"

"I used to play the bass," I said.

"Why did you quit?" Joyce asked.

"I'd rather not say."

"I'd like to know."

"It's a long story," I said. "I'll tell you another time." I hoped that Joyce would forget about it, and I would never have to tell her about the Love Martyrs. I wasn't sure what she would think of me if she knew who I was when I was in high school.

"I listened to the piece that you recommended in class, by the way," I added, hoping to impress her with my nonexistent knowledge of classical music.

"The Madeline Fujita recording of the Dvorak Cello Concerto?" Joyce asked. It was still a little strange to hear her say Madeline's name.

"Yeah, that one," I said.

"It's such a beautiful piece, isn't it?"

"It was pretty cool."

Joyce smiled and then said, "While we're on the topic of classical music, I have a piano recital this weekend. You can come if you'd like."

"I'd love to hear you play," I said. "You're probably really good."

Joyce laughed and said, "I'm not that good. I just need a lot of moral support if I'm going to play in front of all of those people."

"You'll do great, Joyce."

"Thanks. I needed to hear that. What are you doing this weekend?"

"Working, probably. I might play some D&D with my friends."

"That sounds fun. Where do you work?"

"I work at the Egmont Zoo in the dolphin exhibit."

"That's so cool!" Joyce explained. "How did you get that job?"

Before I could explain, one of Joyce's friends walked by and shouted her name. "What is it, Monique?"

"Can you please help me edit my Women's Studies paper?" Monique asked.

"Sure," Joyce said. "I'll see you on Wednesday, Dani."

"Bye, Joyce," I said.

As they walked away, I heard Monique ask, "Who were you talking to?"

"Just a friend," Joyce explained.

Those words, and the way she said them so nonchalantly, stung me. Joyce didn't think of me in the way that I thought of her. Perhaps I should have expected it, but it still hurt. I looked back toward the empty space where she was a few moments ago, wishing that she was still there.

I considered going to Jonas' office hours, but he would only be in his office until five, and I could always go another day. I went downstairs instead and walked back to Wallace Hall, hoping that working on the reading that Jonas had assigned would take my mind off of Joyce.

I spent most of the evening with my biology textbook, but after I was finished with my homework and had gone out to dinner with Aditi and Kara, I decided to Skype my sister and see how she was doing. It took a few minutes for her to pick up, but when she did, Sydney's face filled the screen. She was smiling widely, and she was wearing an American Idiot T-shirt, as usual. "Dani!" she exclaimed. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," I said. I could have mentioned my conversation with Joyce or even worse, Blake stalking me, but I didn't want Sydney to worry. "How are you?"

"Could be better," Sydney said. "I'm so busy with college applications."

"Did you decide which colleges you're applying to?"

"I think I ruled out Princeton, but I'm still applying to Stanford, Brown, Williams, Columbia, Yale, Kenyon, and Carleton."

"I hate to be a downer, but those are all impossible to get into."

Sydney rolled her eyes. "That's what Mom keeps telling me. She's making me apply to Ohio State and Purdue as safety schools. I don't know what I'm going to do if I don't get into one of the better schools on my list," she said, panicked. "Then again, I don't know what I'll do if I get into all of them either. How could I ever decide between Stanford and Brown?"

"Sydney, if your biggest problem is deciding between two Ivy League colleges..."

"Stanford's not an Ivy League."

"My point still stands. You're better off than a lot of high schoolers right now."

"I guess so. What have you been up to, Dani?"

"Not much." There was so much that I could have told Sydney about but didn't. In retrospect, I probably should have told her more, but at that point, I was sure that Blake's sudden reappearance was something that I could deal with on my own, and Sydney surely didn't need to hear about my love life (or lack thereof). I didn't need to involve my little sister in my personal problems, especially when she was so busy getting into Stanford or Brown or whatever school she wanted to go to.

"How's your job going?"

"It's fine. The dolphins are pretty cute." I had briefly mentioned my job at the zoo during our last Skype session, but by this point, I didn't want to talk about it.

"You have such a cool job, Dani."

"I'm sure you'll have an even cooler one by the time you're in college."

"The only thing cooler than working with dolphins would be working with Green Day."

"What's with you and Green Day?" I asked, laughing.

"What's with you and Weezer?" Sydney replied. When I didn't answer, she added, "You know, I once wrote an essay for my English class about Green Day."

"How did you get away with that?" I asked.

"It was a couple of years ago. We were supposed to write about what the best thing that had happened to us so far that year was and why. I wrote about Revolution Radio."

"You never told me about this."

"It gets better. I named the file 'Dani would want me to write about Weezer,' and I forgot to change the file name before I submitted it to my teacher."

"Now I know that you're messing with me."

"It's true! Ask Mrs. Chambers."

"By the way, how's school going?"

"It's okay."

"Do you regret taking seven AP classes yet?"

"Kind of," Sydney said. "Some of my classes are awesome, like Studio Art and German, but Calculus is the worst."

"I don't remember calc being that bad."

"They changed the curriculum since you took it."

"It's calculus!" I exclaimed. "How do they change the curriculum? Math couldn't have changed that much in the last three years."

Sydney shrugged and asked, "How are your classes?"

"They're pretty great. I'm taking another class with Jonas."

"Is he the one with the turtles?"

"Yes."

"I think you already mentioned that you were in his class."

"He's the best. Did I tell you about the time that I accidentally referenced The Lord of the Rings in my lab report, and Jonas actually pointed it out and gave me extra points for it?"

Sydney rolled my eyes. "I've heard that story a hundred times, Dani. You don't need to tell it again."

"Sorry," I said. "I keep forgetting who I've told that story to."

All of a sudden, I heard shouting, and Sydney turned around to figure out what was going on. "Mom and Jason are fighting again," she explained. "I should probably go. It was good talking to you, Dani."

"It was nice talking to you too," I said. "I'll see you later."

The call ended, and I crashed onto my bed. Chatting with Sydney had relaxed me a bit, but as soon as I was done talking to her, the events of the last few days started playing again. I couldn't get Blake out of my head, and when I went to sleep, my daydreams devolved into nightmares. That whole week, I distracted myself every way that I could, but nothing was enough to stop me from thinking of Blake Pinkerton.

On Friday night, I walked up the hill to Greenway Hall, and we continued our D&D campaign. It was the closest I came all week to forgetting about Blake. When I was playing D&D, I wasn't Dani Bloomberg anymore. I was Darkhan Carter, a powerful druid with magic granted from nature itself. With every roll of the dice, I could lose myself in the fantasy world that we were creating, and I could forget about the real one. I could complain to Aditi all I wanted over dinner about how cliché the DM's NPCs were, from the rogue in the tavern to the Scandinavian-accented dwarves, but wandering through the world of Dungeons and Dragons would still be better than going home from work and finding a red Mazda right behind me.

As usual, we played D&D well into the night, leaving me exhausted for work the next day. When I left, I loaded extra stuff from my dorm into the trunk of my car, so I could decorate the garage. There were Dungeon Master's Guides and penguin figurines and posters of rock bands, and it would all help make that empty garage into a place that I could call my own.

The dolphin exhibit finally opened to the public that weekend, and all of a sudden, the building was filled with strangers, marveling at Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Tommy and I still went through most of our usual tasks, and despite the increased commotion throughout the exhibit, we hardly spoke to each other.

I, for one, didn't quite understand why everyone was so desperate to see the dolphins at the Egmont Zoo. We had seen dolphins in the Wetlands Research Area a few times, and they were wild, free, and happy, unlike Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The zoo guests had wild dolphins practically in their own backyard, and yet, they still paid money to see dolphins in a cage.

Floridians always seem to prefer illusions over reality, and in a way, I'm no exception.

When we were finished cleaning the water filter, Claudia told us that we had a new job. "I'm going to teach you how to give Zookeeper Talks, since you're going to have to do them yourselves soon," she explained.

Tommy and I both nodded, and fifteen minutes later, we were both standing in a crowd, listening to Claudia tell the zoo guests all kinds of random facts about dolphins. It was like I was in Quiz Bowl all over again, memorizing all sorts of useless trivia, like how many stomachs dolphins have or how far underwater they can dive. Then again, the Zookeeper Talks were way more interesting than cleaning the exhibit again, and I did look forward to telling other people about one of my favorite animals.

After the zoo had closed and all of the guests were gone, I asked Claudia if I could decorate the garage. "Sure," Claudia said. "Tommy, do you want to decorate the garage as well?"

"I think I'm okay," Tommy said. "I really need to head home."

I went into the parking lot and looked around for Blake, but I thankfully didn't see him. I grabbed all of my stuff from the car and dragged it into the garage. Once I got there, I unpacked it all until the floor of the garage was covered with stacks of D&D rulebooks and every wall was plastered with posters.

I left Tommy's half of the garage empty, since I thought that he would eventually use his half, but he never did. Eventually, I ended up expanding into his half of the garage until the whole place was mine alone. It felt like a home away from home, and once I was done decorating, I stayed there for a while, admiring my handiwork.

When I finally left the zoo, I found Blake's car in the parking lot again, even though the zoo had been closed for several hours. I ran into my car, panicking as I reversed out of my parking spot. I still had no idea what Blake wanted or why he was stalking me, but I didn't want to find out.

I sped back to Egmont, and Blake followed me the whole way there. However, once we got there, he simply drove away while I walked back to Wallace Hall. It was the same thing that had happened before, yet I still didn't know why he was doing this to me. The only time I had ever seen Blake stalking someone was when he stalked Madeline when I was in high school.

I pushed Blake and Madeline out of my mind as I entered my dorm room. I was still a little bit distressed, but I soon remembered that Joyce's piano recital was the next day. It would be a nice way to relax after everything that had happened. I took out my phone and put the recital on my calendar right before I went to bed, dreaming of soft piano melodies as I drifted off to sleep.

The next day, I walked across campus to the Gary Underhill Arts Center, otherwise known as the GUAC. I made my way into the auditorium, even though it took me forever to find it, and I took a seat in the back, away from the professors and the classical music snobs. I immediately felt out of place there, like I usually did in the GUAC, but that all changed when Joyce took the stage.

The audience went silent as she sat down at the piano bench and touched her fingers to the piano keys. I couldn't have told you what she was playing, and I definitely couldn't have pronounced the composer's name, but I did know that her piano playing was beautiful. The chords that she was playing echoed throughout the auditorium, leaving me in awe as I listened. Although her playing didn't have the same angst as Madeline's, it did remind me a little bit of her version of the cello concerto. Like that recording, Joyce's piano playing was powerful, mesmerizing, and absolutely nothing like I had expected.

A few other pianists played for that concert, and although they were all good, they didn't blow me away in the same way that Joyce had. I quietly sat through their performances, and when the concert was finally over, I rushed out of the auditorium to find Joyce.

She was in GUAC auditorium lobby, carrying a folder filled with sheet music. She was wearing a gorgeous black dress that perfectly accentuated her curves, and when she saw me walking in her direction, she smiled. "Dani, I'm so glad you came," Joyce said.

"You played so well," I said.

"Thanks," Joyce said. "Professor Rivera won't be thrilled that I messed up the ending, but other than that, I guess it went alright."

I hadn't even noticed that Joyce had screwed up. "I thought it was better than just alright," I said.

"Thanks," Joyce said. "Did you hear Crystal's performance? That was actually amazing. I wish that I could play like her."

"Who's Crystal?"

"She's the tall one with blonde hair."

I couldn't remember a tall piano player with blonde hair. Clearly, I hadn't been paying much attention to anyone other than Joyce, but I didn't want to tell her that. "Yeah, I think I remember her," I said.

"Anyways, I should put my music away. I'll see you later."

Just as Joyce started heading downstairs to put her music away, I followed her and asked, "Wait, do you want to go to lunch with me after you're done putting your music away?"

"I already have plans to go out to lunch with Monique, Crystal, and Nico."

"Okay," I said, trying not to show how disappointed I was. "I guess I'll see you in class on Monday then."

"See you then," Joyce said.

I left the GUAC and headed towards the dining hall, wishing that Joyce was by my side. I felt lonelier than I ever had at Egmont, and I decided that after lunch, I would see if Aditi or Kara or any of the freshmen wanted to play D&D with me. Dungeon crawling always seemed to be a good antidote for loneliness, but no magic spell could make Joyce think of me as anything more than the girl from her biology class. I would just have to get used to that bitter truth.