Peering at the girl standing in the corner, I sigh. No one can see her, but they never do. Never even glance her way when she speaks or moves. She looks so familiar, almost like looking in a mirror but not. Her facial features are so similar to mine but just...off in some ways, always flowing like looking at her from underwater. She seems like a stranger even after seeing her for all these years, but at the same time, a permanent part of me that I can never let go of.

She nods her head towards the front of the class, dragging my attention back to the lesson. "Answer the questions on page 476, numbers 1-8, A and C only." Writing down the homework, the bell rings, signalling the switch to the next class.

Packing my bag quickly with my notebooks, I swipe my jacket from the back of my chair, wrapping it around my hand. Bag over my shoulder, I leave the classroom. The girl disappeared once my eyes left her, but I can feel her eyes on me. Five steps, ten steps, fifteen steps, and I am in the common area. Grinning, I slow my steps to the point they are nearly silent to my ears. The air feels thick with an unspoken tension, the mysterious presence of the girl lingering in my mind.

Clouds grins as he spots me behind Kathy. Raising my hands above the oblivious girl, I grab her shoulders. She shrieks, jumping ten feet in the air. Letting her go, my grin widens as I chuckle.

"Jara, really? Stop doing that," Kathy grumbles, hitting my shoulder.

Clouds and I chuckle. "Come on, Kathy, you know it's funny," I say, taking my seat.

She shoots me a deadly glare. "My name is not Kathy, it's Kathalyn."

My grin widens. "But your name is such a mouthful. Even your family calls you Kathy." Her glare doesn't falter; I swear if she could, my body would be gone. Sighing, I slouch in my seat, dropping a leg over the back. "Claudius doesn't care that we call him Clouds," I point out.

Kathy also slumps in her chair, far more normal-looking than me. "That's because it's him; his personality is just like a cloud, fluffy and light."

Clouds snickers but doesn't deny it. Sighing, I peer at the watch around my left wrist—two minutes, it's been two minutes since our spare started. Dropping my leg, I dig into my backpack, pulling out my sketchbook. Flipping through the pages, I ignore the faces that look up at me from their pencil-drawn eyes. Faces of all ages, both male and female, watch me, permanently embedded onto the pages.

Most I don't know, but all I recognize—all I have seen. Faces of people walking on the streets, standing in class, but each of them is only visible to me. Everyone else seems to not notice them. Finding an empty page, a pencil slides into my fingers, sharp to a point it's almost painful.

"Jara, I thought we were going to talk?" Kathy whines.

Looking at her through my lashes, I smirk. "I can draw and talk at the same time, ya know."

She grumbles, crossing her arms. "Yes, but it's still annoying."

Sighing, I return my eyes to the page. I haven't seen any new people, but that guy and girl keep popping up lately. Deciding to draw both, I begin their outline. "So, who is up for Anime night at my house?" Clouds asks cheerily.

"You know I am," Kathy says, clapping her hands excitedly.

Blowing on the page, I nod. "Sounds good. What day and time should we be there?"

"Saturday, latest four pm, no excuses," his stern tone does not escape me. Even with my eyes on the page, I know he is looking at me.

"Sounds good. I have nothing on Saturday," I say. Kathy hums in agreement.

Talk falls onto other subjects after that. I continue to draw, pitching in my opinion and even stopping to fully join the conversation. The bell rings thirty minutes later, but we stay seated. "Forty-five minutes down, now two hours and fifteen minutes till our next class," Kathy sighs, pulling out her water bottle for a sip.

Returning to my half-finished under sketch, I block out their conversation for a bit. Our spare is technically two hours, but with lunch right after, we either stay in the common area or walk to a place for lunch. We have two spares in a row—one all year round in period B and one every other day because of gym class in period C. The three of us all have gym together and a spare, so it's nice since we aren't alone.

Slowly, the image in front of me begins to form. Two people, a girl and a boy, both around my age, stand side by side, their eyes watching the person viewing the page. Their faces are blank, but their eyes look vacant, empty, hopeless. They don't touch nor move—not like they can in a picture. They just stand there, staring forward. It's not a scary image, but something about it is eerily unsettling, giving me goosebumps just looking at it.

Not being able to look at it any longer, I snap my sketchbook closed, hiding it away in my bag. Time for talking.

~

Waving to Kathy and Clouds, I walk towards my bus. Period E finished five minutes ago, so it's time to go home. Once my back is to my friends, the smile on my face drops. All the emotions I felt, or at least think I felt, vanish on the wind. My face flat, I enter the bus, finding my seat in the second row.

With earbuds in my ears, I press shuffle on my music, not caring for a specific playlist. A picture of my friends enters my mind as I lean back in the seat, eyes locked out of the window. Friend...such a trivial word. The thought of calling someone a friend is common...a normal one to have, even. But calling someone a friend makes my brain stop. The word feels so empty and meaningless, yet it holds so much meaning to so many people.

Snapping out of it, I focus on my music, letting it take my mind away. Forty minutes later and a daydream that felt too short, I am home. Snow crunches underneath my boots as I walk up the driveway. Lightly, new snowflakes float down from above, coating my hair in white. The bus vanishes down the road, taking all the noise with it.

 whisper of wind kisses my face, turning my nose and cheeks pink. Goosebumps decorate my skin as the cold air brushes my bare neck. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. The cold air satisfyingly burns my lungs, muscles relaxing. Focusing solely on this moment, my mind quiets. The cold cools my blazing body, and the crisp air shocks my senses, making me feel alive. Opening my eyes, the world seems brighter, the colors clearer.

It's moments like these that I truly feel myself. No worry about my schedule or work, the future and thoughts about University, connections, or friends, just me and nature.

And the eyes on my back.

Sighing, I look around. I stopped walking at the small section of concrete on my driveway. Scanning my surroundings, I stop, my eyes landing on the girl from class standing beside my dad's workshop. Ignoring her, I go to the garage, punching in the passcode on the pad beside it and ducking under the rising door. I stare at the girl still standing at the workshop. Shaking my head, I hit the close button, turning my back to the girl.

"Hello, Jara," a faint voice says, brushing my ear. Whirling around, my eyes catch the girl as she turns, her back to me as she walks into the trees just before the garage door blocks my view. Shaking my head, I push open the door to the mudroom.

Kicking off my shoes, they fall neatly in my spot beside my sisters'. Jacket off and hung up, I ignore the backpacks and jackets of my younger siblings laying haphazardly on the bench. Dropping my bag on the floor by the island, I pull out my lunch kit, emptying the containers and ice pack from today's lunch.

"Mother, what time are we leaving?" I ask.

"Ten minutes," she says, walking around the counters in a rush.

Nodding even though she probably doesn't see it, I quickly put my lunch kit in the pantry for tomorrow. Grabbing my backpack, I rush upstairs to my room. Dropping my bag in its normal spot on the floor at the end of my bed, I shut my door, stripping out of the sweats I wore to school and into my skating tights, switching the ankle socks from school to my long ones. I pull my water bottle out of its pouch on my school bag, grab my zip-up skating sweater and boggy, and head out of my room.

I still have around seven minutes until we leave, so I take my time finding a snack. Grabbing a banana and a snack bar—not granola, granola bars are gross—I refill my water bottle and go to the bathroom. Five minutes now until we leave. Taking a seat on one of our barstools, I grab my phone and start eating my snack bar, the silence around me filled with the quiet hum of anticipation.

Scrolling through Pinterest, I read the quotes and sayings that pop up, admiring the photos of different art pieces and landscapes. Crushing the wrapper in my hand, I stand and swivel around on the stool. Using my foot, I nudge the garbage can out of its hiding spot. Disposing of the wrapper, I swivel back around, returning to my phone. Two minutes later, my mother comes back into the kitchen.

Knowing we are about to leave, I stand up, pushing the stool under the counter. Grabbing my banana, water bottle, sweater, and phone, I make my way back to the mudroom. With my jacket and boots back on, I head into the garage. Once I reach the passenger side of my mother's car, she steps out the door, hands full with her bags.

Sliding into the passenger seat, I snap the seat belt over my shoulder and press the button to open the garage door. My mother sighs as she slumps into the driver's seat. "Busy today?" I ask, getting comfortable as the car backs out of the garage.

"A little behind on work today. I didn't have as much time to do tonight's lesson plan," she sighs. Peering at her side profile, she does look a little more tired, but I know there have been much more stressful days.

"Filled up on coffee before leaving?" I ask.

"Yep." I nod, looking out the front window as we drive down the road.

Turning up the radio, I lapse into another session of daydreaming while my mother drives. Just before my vision blurs into the mental world, two pairs of eyes catch my attention, watching me from the shadows of the trees. A chill runs down my spine as I realize the eyes are unblinking, fixed on me with an eerie intensity. The figures are barely visible, shrouded in darkness, but their presence is unmistakable. 

~

Rule #1 never talk back-

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