SUNNYVALE

(88) WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF FUCKING MELAS

"Fuck..." Christen tells herself in the bathroom's mirror right after a soccer training for a team she actually plays for. Shaking her head and putting some cold water on her face, she repeats: "Shit, shit, shit..."

Realising she hadn't tried her powers out yet, she tries to move her water bottle, that is right next to her: it immediately starts levitating, which meant she hadn't lost her powers at all. 

Taking deep breaths, she tries to remember the last scenes she remembers: Sunnyvale was on fire, people were falling into holes, other than that it's all so blurry... Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit....

Realising she was on the verge of losing her mind, Christen punches the mirror in front of her, breaking it into a hundred pieces, as her hand starts bleeding.

"Aouch, FUCK!" she yells because of the pain.

It is now that one of the toilet's door opens, and a familiar face comes out of it: Leah Williamson, her bright blue eyes set on Christen, seems confused, and then worried when she sees the state of Christen's hand.

The latter couldn't move anymore: how come dead people were now in flesh and bones right in front of her? While Leah grabs some towels to keep the blood from pouring out of Christen's hand, she exchange a quick look with the girl in question, confused.

You're supposed to be fucking dead, what the hell? Christen asks herself, her mouth slightly opened. 

"There" Leah says in a thick British accent. She then doesn't let go of Christen's hand quite immediately, before adding: "Hum... are you all right? You look like you've just seen a ghost?"

"I-I..."

Leah sighs.

"Listen, Christen, we talked about this already: yes, I admitted I liked you, but it doesn't mean you have to act all weird and shit."

"W-what?" Christen asks, highly confused.

Rolling her eyes, Leah finally lets go of Christen's hand, embarrassed this time: there was some blush on her cheeks. What the fuck? Christen thinks, highly disturbed, I never even talked to Williamson, and now she admits she's got a crush on me? How's that even possible?  Without realising, Christen was just staring at Leah in the weirdest was possible.

The blonde sighs once again.

"Okay, if you prefer we can act as if the party never happened: I'm sorry, I never meant to put you in an uncomfortable situation..." Leah quickly says, before leaving the bathroom, not turning around.

What. The. Fuck.

Christen immediately grabs her stuff - which actually weren't her stuff, she never wore Adidas trainings and never played soccer in her life - and starts walking around a campus she did absolutely not know. Looking around to try and understand where she was, she suddenly reads a sign: MELAS UNIVERSITY. She sets her jaw: MELAS = SALEM = Sunnyvale's old name : this was definitely suspicious, but for once Christen found a sense of familiarity.

It is until someone willingly bumps into her, and that she sees Lindsey appear in her field of view.

"Oh my God, Linds!" Christen exclaims, quite emotional.

With that said, she literally jumps into the younger girl's arms, hugging her as tight as she'd wanted those past two years, since Lindsey got killed by the Bathroom Killer, was brought back as a ghost, in order to finally disappear.

Quite surprised by this unusually emotional behaviour from her friend, Lindsey hugs her back for a second, before pulling away, frowning.

"What do I owe the big hug now?" she asks, raising her eyebrow.

"I missed you so fucking much..." Christen breathes out, deeply moved.

"Uh, okay, weirdo" Lindsey lets out, making fun of the girl openly, before adding: "it's not like we've just seen each other this morning in the room we share since we are roommates, but I missed you too... for three hours."

Christen frowns, while Lindsey urges her to hurry, as they planned dinner with some of their friends the same night.

As she was listening to Lindsey talking about the association she participates to inside the campus, Christen just loses her mind: she had no idea what happened, but she sure wasn't in Sunnyvale anymore, and nothing felt normal anymore...

... Until, when they actually made it to their friends' dinner, and that Crystal was sitting there, visibly as confused as Christen - they immediately jump into each other's arms, relieved to not be alone in this tricky situation.

Then, a cute blonde wraps her arm around Crystal's waist, before saying protectively:

"Calm down, Pressy: Crystal's my girlfriend, remember?"

"Uh..." Christen starts, before the girl in question bursts into laughter once again.

"Chill, girl - I know you two are best friends!"

Of course Christen knows who Crystal's 'girlfriend' is: Julie was her friend too, and she seemingly doesn't remember a thing...

What kind of messed up mind game is that???

***

"What the actual fuck?" Christen asks, out of her mind.

"Shh, we gotta stay calm..." Crystal hisses, as they finally found alone time to discuss.

"Calm? Bro, we're in college, and our lives are so fucking different, but with the same people than in Sunnyvale - how can we stay calm?" 

Crystal tries to think for a while, before she responds:

"Look... What if Shelina created an alternative universe, this time?"

"A what?"

"An alternative universe" Crystal repeats, deadly serious. "I mean, last thing I remember is Sunnyvale fucking destroying itself in the middle of the sky, and then... BOUM, we're here? This is exactly when she created another dimension by accident, but this time it is more controlled: she sent us here to protect us..."

"This is insane..." Christen lets out, running out of ideas to make sense out of everything. As Crystal stares at the sky, the dark-haired adds: "... I mean, you're dating fucking Julie Johnston? How are we supposed to know if they're not evil ghosts like last time?" 

"I have no idea..."

They are interrupted by the balcony's door opening, and Megan Rapinoe appearing with two bottles of alcohol in her hands, quickly followed by Caitlin Foord and Rose Lavelle, who seemed pretty wasted already - but no enemies like in Sunnyvale, it seems.... 

This is when Christen and Crystal stop breathing: Tobin also appears, all smiles.

"What the hell are you guys doing? We're at a partyyyyyyy" Megan exclaims, handing the two girls each a full bottle of vodka. As they feel obliged to follow them, the pink-haired continues: "It's time to fuck this place upppppp!"

Christen sighs: they are partying while somewhere, probably in another world, the lives of everybody in Sunnyvale was ending.