“Morning, Daddy.” I grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet, filling it with generic cereal. As I poured milk into the bowl, my eyes stared out the window at the white wonderland outside. The sun was just peaking over the horizon, letting the snow sparkle in its morning rays. 

My father sat at the kitchen table with the newspaper before him. His eyes seemed to be preoccupied with the article he was currently riding as he mechanically sipped from the cup of coffee held in his right hand. The black liquid filled half of the cup, the remaining half in the stomach of the old man across from me. 

“Morning, Anne.” He leaned back in his chair, pulling his eyes from the newspaper to give me a smile. 

I took my bowl of cereal over to my seat next to him. Slowly, I took a spoonful and shoved it into my mouth. “What’re you reading?”

He sipped from his cup before answering, “I’m just reading the news article on the disappearances that happened last week.”

“Daddy…” I gave him a disapproving look.

“I know you think I’m obsessing over this,” He said, “but imagine if these were people you knew and loved. You’d want answers, right?”

I shrugged, “I guess…”

“I want to give these families answers. After all, everyone in McGrath is family in some form, eh?” He teased.

It was a town joke that we were all somehow related to one another. In a population of roughly 350 people, it wasn’t completely impossible. There were few people that moved into the town. People my age were more wont to leave, but the older generation had many close relatives living in this town. Whether by blood or by marriage, a link could connect almost everyone in this town together. 

“I’m just worried for you. You’re obsessing over this case more than you ever have before, Daddy.” I said softly.

He sighed, “As soon as I figure out what’s going on, I promise I’ll relax.” He gave me a promising smile before standing up and disposing of his cup in the sink. I quickly finished my breakfast in silence. My father left the kitchen to continue readying himself for the upcoming day.

At ten of seven, he left for work.

At ten after seven, I left for school in my beat-up Ford truck. Going on nearly eleven years, this machine had handled much living in Alaska. Still it continued to push through for me when I needed it on my daily treks to school. 

I lucked out on a close spot as I rumbled into the parking lot of the school. Carefully parking, I half sprinted against the wicked winds that ripped at me. The little exposed skin around my face stung as small pellets of snow pecked painfully. I squinted my eyes beneath my sunglasses.

Pushing the doors open into the heated building, I released the air I had been holding. Students entered behind me, hurrying past to their lockers. People buzzed about, conversing with friends they hadn’t seen in two days and scrambling to finish homework they had procrastinated over the uneventful weekend. 

I opened my locker once I arrived, shoving the thick coat I wore inside. 

“Yeah, take it off!” 

My eyes darted toward the owner of the voice. Standing next to me, only a few inches taller, was Andy Richards. With shaggy blonde hair falling over into his eyes, tight jeans, and thick-rimmed circular glasses, he was a stereotypical hipster. His musical choice was eccentric, and unpopular with the rest of the school, but that didn’t stop him from blaring the radio in the car. 

Andy was famous with the ladies, but he saved a special place in his heart for me. We had been friends since childhood, and while a middle-school crush brought a moratorium into our friendship, we managed to push past the awkwardness and continue with our lives. Andy continued to make futile attempts to grab my attention every so often, but I was growing accustomed to simply ignoring these actions.

“Good morning, Andy.” I said as I grabbed books out of my locker. 

He leaned into the locker next to mine, flipping his bangs out of his eyes. “You know, you don’t have to stop with just the coat.”

“Oh, trust me; I do.”

“No really, I’ll help you with it…” Andy reached forward, grabbing the edge of my shirt and giving it a playful tug. 

“Andy!” I let out a squeal as I pulled out of his grip. Giving him an irritated look, I hissed, “Can’t you be a little bit more mature? You’re a junior, after all.”

He shrugged casually, “I think we have different definitions of ‘mature’.”

I gave him an eye roll as I closed my locker. As I walked down the hallway, Andy fell into a comfortable pace by my side. The hallways were beginning to fill up steadily as more kids entered the school. Andy and I migrated toward our normal spot by the stairwells. 

“How’s your dad doing?” Andy asked as we leaned against the walls, waiting for the rest of our friends to join us. Andy understood how serious my father had been taking these disappearances and how concerned I was for his general health.

I shrugged, “I think he’s doing better. Friday he came home around eight with pizza, and he stayed home all day Saturday.”

“Good.” Andy gave me an encouraging smile. “Did he go in Sunday?”

I shook my head gently, “He went over to the nursing home to visit my grandmother. I stayed home to work on the Physics project.”

Andy gave me a sympathetic look, “Poor baby.”

“It is what it is.” I shrugged. In the distance, I could make out the faces of Emily Rose and Cory Knight walking toward us. They were the other half to our party of friends. Their hands were interlocked as they made their way toward us. Having been together for nearly two years, Emily and Cory were almost never seen apart from each other. 

“Hey guys,” Emily greeted as they approached. Cory stepped behind her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. Andy and I had become accustomed to the level of affection displayed by the two lovebirds. 

“Hey,” I greeted in return, “How was your weekend?”

Emily and Cory exchanged a secretive look before giggling. “Oh, you know,” Emily shrugged as casually as she could muster with the playful smirk across her lips, “Same old, same old.”

“Sex all weekend?” Andy smirked.

Cory pulled away from his girlfriend only to punch Andy in the arm. Andy grimaced, but expressed no other pain. I couldn’t help the giggle that slipped through my lips, earning me a dangerous look from my friend.

“No, Andy, it wasn’t ‘sex all weekend’.” Emily said defensively. She crossed her arms, leaning into her boyfriend, “We just hung out and had fun.”

Andy and I shared a look of amusement. 

“Oh, I’m sure you had fun alright.” Andy smirked playfully. 

“Andy.” Cory gave him a stern, threatening look. The hipster puffed out his chest, rolling his eyes, but otherwise ceased his teasing. 

“So, Anne, did your dad learn anything new about the disappearances?” Emily was always asking me for information on the cases my father worked with. Growing up in McGrath, little crime occurred leading a fairly unexciting life. Whenever there was any news on an arrest or mysterious incidence, as a police officer’s daughter, I was bombarded with questions. 

A majority of the questions came from Emily, and a majority of them received the same answer each time:

“No, he’s still working on gathering evidence together.”

She nodded understandingly, but a dejected look crossed her eyes. I paid little attention to it, preferring to focus my energy on the immature junior poking my side. 

“Can I help you, Andy?” I asked with evident annoyance in my voice.

“Oh, you most certainly can help me.” He grinned broadly, giving me a sly wink from behind his glasses. 

“Very funny.”

“I know I am.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. The bell rang, saving me from this situation. I bid the three goodbyes, hurrying off to my first period class.

History started off my school day each morning. With a class of barely twenty, it was difficult to doze off during the period for fear of being called on and humiliated by the teacher. Despite having learned American History all throughout elementary and middle school, there somehow seemed to be more knowledge not yet absorbed into our minds. 

I took my seat toward the back of the room, pulling out the notebook for this period. The weekend’s homework was set next to the notebook and ready to be turned in when requested. All around me my fellow classmates mimicked my morning ritual as they prepared themselves for over forty minutes of the past.

The teacher sat at her desk, surveying the classroom in silence. Once most of the class had settled down, she stood up and slowly made her way to the front of the room. I watched as few people noticed, continuing with their conversations.

The door opened, spilling in one last boy before closing for the period. My eyes followed the unfamiliar man as he approached the plump teacher standing behind the podium. Talking in voices too low for me to hear, a conversation amongst the teacher and the boy quickly began. I followed their lips as I tried to understand what they were saying, but to no avail. 

With a short not, our teacher glanced my way, meeting my eyes. She smiled with a slight wave, which I weakly returned with confusion clear across my eyes.

The boy nodded curtly before making his way toward me. I watched as he squeezed down the row, pushing past the backpacks that were sprawled on the ground in the aisle. He took a seat in the desk behind me, running a hand through his hair.

It was evident he was new. I had been through three schools with almost everyone in this classroom; new students were a rarity in McGrath, Alaska. Looking around, I noticed that others were conscious of this foreign presence as well.

Dark hair cropped short matched the dark eyes staring at the board ahead. He wore dark and ripped jeans, though they didn’t appear to be a fashion statement. A black, long-sleeved shirt tightly wrapped itself around his chest. A silver chain with a cross hanging from it stood out sharply against the darkness of his cloths. The small pendant had a single red jewel in the center of it. 

“Good morning,” Our teacher said once she returned to the front of the class. 

A chorus of mumbles greeted her in response. She paid little attention to the inaudible noise, focused on the task for today.

“Please pass forward the writing assignment due today. I don’t want any excuses about printer failure again; I’ve given you ample time to print it out at school or email it to me.” She moved forward to collect the stack of papers at the beginning of each row. 

She exchanged the essays in her hands for the tests on the desk, moving around slowly as she returned the grades. “I’m handing back your World War I tests. Most of you did surprisingly well—only a few failing grades.”

Conversation returned for most of the students as they took advantage of her distractedness. I shifted in my seat to the boy sitting behind me, greeting him with a warm smile.

“Hey.” 

He was slouched against the wall with eyes trained on me. Monotonously, he muttered a short “Hey.” 

“I’m Anne Carlson.” I pulled my hair over my shoulder, silently praying I didn’t look horrendous. A bad impression in a fresh set of eyes would ruin my day.

“Derek.” 

I blinked, waiting for more. After a few seconds of silence, I realized I wasn’t going to get much else out of him. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Derek.” I smiled politely at him, “We don’t get many new people here, so I’m sure you’ll be famous around town.”

His eyes never left me, but his lips remained sealed. Licking my lips nervously, I continued with my babbling, hoping to inspire some topic of conversation from him.

“I’ve lived here all my life. I only left the state once and that was to visit the Olympics in Vancouver a few years ago. Where did you live before here?”

“British Colombia.”

“Oh, you’re Canadian?” I asked. It wasn’t surprising to find Canadians in Alaska as the two bordered each other, but it was rare that a Canadian would move to Alaska as it was farther north than most of the major cities were located in Canada. It was more common for a Canadian to move to the bordering continental United States farther south.

“Nope.”

“Are you American?”

“Yup.” He said, popping the last consonant. It didn’t sound as if he was interested in the conversation.

“Oh, cool.” I struggled to hold together the conversation, but was finding it increasingly more difficult as the time passed on. 

Thankfully, a test landed on my desk to save me from any more embarrassment. I grabbed the sheet of paper and smiled as my eyes landed on the 97 written across the top. It had been a rather difficult test, and I was impressed with my ability to earn an almost perfect score. 

Behind me, I could hear the new boy and the teacher talking.

“You’ll be exempted from this test as you’re coming in this late into the school year,” She said in a soft voice, “But I’m going to give you the materials you’ve missed this semester so that you can study for the final. I can’t exempt you from the content on that.”

“Alright.”

“I’ll get you the papers by Wednesday. If you need any one-on-one tutoring, you can contact me or one of your fellow classmates, but the material isn’t too difficult. Looking at your previous history grades, I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

“I’m good at history.”

She chuckled, “I’m well aware of this. Like I said earlier, I doubt you’ll need any extra help, but just in case.”

She wiggled her way down the row in a vain attempt not to hip-check any students. I didn’t turn around as she returned to passing out the rest of the tests. Derek didn’t seem interested in befriending me, and I wasn’t going to put myself through the humiliation of attempting once more.

Our teacher returned to the front of the classroom and began her lecture on the new topic: the Roaring Twenties.

My mind wandered off as she spoke to the boy behind me. He was already an oddity as it was having come into a small town that rarely grew. Confusion and rejection filled me as I tried to logically explain his short answers.

My ego was crushed by his rejection of my friendship, but logic told me he could simply be shy. My gut spoke otherwise, hinting that he might simply be an unpleasant person. With him behind me for the rest of the year, I would be able to observe which of the following it was. 

Class finished slowly. I couldn’t bring myself to focus on the topic before me as my thoughts formed trails of their own. My grade in this class was high enough that one day of missed notes wouldn’t be the death of me. Regardless, Andy had history a few periods after me, and I could easily borrow his sloppy notes if needed.

The bell rang and dismissed us from the first period of the day. As I grabbed my books, I turned around, offering one last attempt. 

“Do you need help to your next classroom?” I asked politely, giving him a warm smile. My stomach tightened nervously.

He glanced at a half-sheet of paper in his hands quickly as he stood up. Pulling his backpack over his shoulder, Derek’s eyes moved back to mine. “Thank you, but I think I can figure out where it is from here.”

“Alright.” It wasn’t surprising to me that he would reject my help. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Derek.”

“Goodbye, Anne.”

~*~

The day passed by much more quickly than the first period had. I managed to get the notes from Andy during our shared lunch period. From his barely comprehendible handwriting, it was evident that not much had been learned that period that wasn’t already common sense to most of the kids in this school. I had lucked out thus far.

Derek had been in two other classes, but thankfully didn’t sit near me. I kept my distance from the new student. I noticed how others had begun to vainly attempt to strike a conversation with him and earned the same result I had earlier.

It seemed as the day progressed, his mood got increasingly fowler the more people tried to talk to him. The logic in my mind smirked smugly in victory; perhaps he was simply too anti-social for the students here.

Despite not having Derek in any of his classes, Andy was fully aware of the additional mind that had walked into the school, as well as the negativity being spread about him.

“Have you heard about the new boy?” He asked when we met at the end of the day by my locker.

“Yeah, he’s in a few of my classes.”

Andy gave me an exasperated look, “He’s something, isn’t he? I don’t have anything with him, but from what I’ve heard and seen… this boy has so much potential to be so incredibly great in our high school hierarchy, and he’s throwing it all away because he’s so anti-social.”

“Relax, Andy.” I pulled my coat on as I spoke, “He doesn’t know anyone here. Not everyone has such a bubbling personality like you.”

He grinned cheekily, “What can I say?”

“Honestly though,” Seriousness slipped into my voice, “Don’t be mean to him. I know he’s unpleasant, but he’s new and probably doesn’t like the attention he’s getting.”

Andy rolled his eyes, but nodded understandingly. “I guess.”

“We’ll see if his personality changes as the hype about him calms down over time. If it doesn’t, then you can whine about him all you want.”

Andy laughed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, “Sounds like a deal, Anne.”

We made our way out to the parking lot slowly. Most of the other kids had filtered out by now, either boarding the buses that were dismissing or pulling out of the school in their cars. The air was warm for March, but still cold enough for my breath to be seen.

Andy bid me goodbye as he jogged over to his car on the opposite side of the parking lot. I chuckled as my friend ran off, but hurried away myself to the Ford parked only a few parking spots a head of me.

As I climbed into the car, I noticed the new boy walking toward me. Subtly, I kept an eye on his figure while adjusting myself in the car. He stalked off with a rather annoyed expression on his face toward a black truck similar to my own. 

Opening the door, I managed a glimpse of another boy sitting in the driver’s seat. Before I was able to make out any more detail, the door closed and the truck quickly pulled away.

As the truck pulled past, Derek’s eyes met mine through the rearview mirror briefly. It was so short that I almost feared it didn’t happen. But the glance was enough to send a chill down my spine from the coldness in it. 

My eyes followed the black Ford as it traveled out of the parking lot. 

After a few seconds, I shook my head, dismissing the unease felt during that short moment between us.