ILLUSION, ELI HALE

eleven | his cheerleader

Walking to Beacon Hills High School on foot from the woods was a more difficult trek than Nadia had assumed it would be. It wasn't far from where the teenagers had left the adults, but her legs were beginning to feel the burn. Long-distance walks were not quite her jam. She was content with sitting with her camera and taking photos.

"Remind me to get my driver's license over the summer," Nadia said with a sigh as she made it through the front door of the school. The parking lot was packed with parents and school staff ready to see the outcomes of the lacrosse game. "Or at least a bike."

"Come on, Nads, it wasn't that bad."

"Says the boy who loves running around the woods in the middle of the night." Nadia scoffed. "Normal people love their beds." 

Coach Bobby Finstock's loud voice could be heard down the hall at the front of the school to where Eli and Nadia had been walking. He was cheering on the team, a rowdy bunch of hooting teenage boys, hyping them up for tonight's game. Nadia could have sworn she heard the man tell the boys to rip the other team's player's throats out. Now she was going to have that image in her head the next time she saw the man in Economics class.

"I should join them." Eli turned his head in the direction of the sound. "But, meet me at my locker in five minutes. I have a surprise for you."

Nadia's eyebrows raised at the boy. He was the type of person to gift her gifts at any moment, no matter if there was a reason for it or not. Malia claimed that it was his love language. "I wasn't expecting anything."

"That's the purpose of a surprise, dummy." Eli chuckled. His head snapped back in the direction when Coach had shouted for the Hale kid to join them. "Five minutes."

Nadia nudged her head in the direction of their economics teacher with a half grin. "Go on." Eli sent her a flying kiss back before making his way down the hall and Nadia exaggeratedly caught it with her hands and stuffed it in the pocket of her cardigan.

During her minutes of waiting, Nadia strolled down the halls of the school to get to the yearbook editor's room. She'd left the spare staff camera in the room that evening before Eli dragged her out of the school. Although she didn't have her phone, it would be nice to still take pictures of the game for this week's spread. If the Cyclones won they would go to the legendary championship game. To her disappointment, the yearbook room was closed. The janitor must've locked it before families began coming for tonight's game.

After finally giving up—Nadia attempted to open the door by jiggling, yanking, and using her fingernail to turn the lock, all of which had no positive results. It was obvious that she was desperate. Granted, she was a teenage girl living in the 21st century without a phone or something to keep her occupied. The girl made her way down the halls of the school, walking aimlessly until she got to the front door.

She would have been scared if only it wasn't for the burst of light coming from the locker room down the hall. The hallways of the high school were virtually empty. Nadia peeked her head through the front door and could see cars beginning to park and families going to the field. She could see the yellow bus filled with the lacrosse players of the competition school beginning to turn into the lot. Excited voices for tonight's match could be heard even through the closed school doors.

If only she had a camera to document this.

Through the darkness of the parking lot, right at the front door, Nadia could have sworn that she'd seen a tiny flash of fluorescent light, almost like one from a firefly. But with a blink of an eye, it was gone again. Nadia rubbed her eyes, assuming it had been light from a parking car. Beacon Hills wasn't known to have fireflies and she wasn't going to be the crazy girl claiming they did.