Shea LaRue was staring at Nora.
Or – not staring, but directing frequent and purposeful glances. It was very, intentionally, noticeable. And it made it hard for Nora to concentrate on her lunch.
Nora had gotten used to seeing other students from her high school graduating class around her new college campus. Of course, there were Quarry Mountain High graduates, and then there was Shea. She and Nora didn't know each other – Nora didn't think they'd spoken more than once or twice – but... well, it was Shea. She was a bit of a celebrity.
In fifth grade, Shea had been in her classroom one day, and then the next day she disappeared. Her family had called in an investigation of the surrounding woods where Shea often went out to play. They found no trace of her. The investigation went cold. A vigil was held at the school. Shea's close friends had been invited to her funeral. Third-grader Nora had, of course, not been one of them. She hadn't followed the investigation on TV; she was too young, too busy following her mother in and out of impossible places. And then her own personal tragedy occurred only months later, and Nora knew what it felt like to have lost.
And then, the miracle. Two years later, Shea simply turned up. No memory of where she'd been, no clues, she'd just wandered home to her surprised parents. She was inserted straight into fifth grade where she'd left off. Fifth-grade Nora remembered the day she walked into class. She still felt guilty by the first overwhelming emotion she remembered feeling upon seeing her – jealousy. Not for her. For her parents. Nora wanted her miracle, too. Or were there only so many to go around?
From there they'd both grown up unremarkably. Shea the missing girl and Nora the fairy-tale daughter, both college freshmen, sitting in the same unmysterious cafeteria under the same fluorescent lighting. How about that. They'd both grown out of their respective mysteries and into respectable, unremarkable young ladies.
Shea was still staring.
Nora's roommate Lena smashed her palms into the table with an attention-grabbing whum.
"I need one commitment," Lena said, turning the subject back to her upcoming trip. "Someone has to come with me to Las Vegas at the end of the month. I will take three nos but I need at least one yes."
Nora and her suitemates sat at a plastic folding table in the only cafeteria that was open on campus during spring break. The cafeteria's only food option today was a we're-on-break soggy vegetable-noodle stir fry, which was probably fine since ninety percent of the campus had already hopped in rideshare vehicles to the nearest airport. A work-study student stood by the entrance to the cafeteria to make sure nobody snuck in without paying. He looked supremely bored.
Jen, Christina, and Nora avoided eye contact with Lena. Josh, Chrissy's on-again-off-again, was off the hook for this particular request, so he looked casually and comfortably over the table, relishing his own safety.
"Two weeks in Vegas!" Lena said, trying to share her enthusiasm with her three suitemates. "Come on, we'll be–"
"We won't even be twenty-one," Chrissy pointed out.
"You're going for a debate tournament," Jen added.
Zero members of Nora's suite had gone home for spring break. For Lena, home was too far; her family still lived in Vietnam and a nine day trip was hardly worth the jet lag.
For Chrissy, Nora, and Jen, they were already home. The three of them had gone to high school together and though they had little in common they'd enlisted on day one for a shared room. Better to have something in common than to risk having nothing in common – that had been the rationale, anyway.
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Closer to the Sun || A Fairy Tale on Hiking Trails
Fantasy🌲 🦊 🐭 Campbell was ten the first time he turned into a mouse. The only person he could tell was his best friend Shea, but on that same day, she vanished into thin air. And when she returned, she was... different. They both were. They'd seen place...
