Spirited Away III: A Tale of Two Worlds

Chapter 1

"I thought we would never be separated again."

"I'll come back for you."

Chihiro nibbled at the end of her pencil. Everything in the room was white: the walls, the desks, the polished floor, the whiteboard, even the chairs. Her own crisp uniform made her feel part of the polished white display. Naturally, her eyes were drawn to the only color in the room. Her professor, a wrinkly lady of small stature, was explaining all the various forms of cell division with the energy her students clearly didn't possess. Some gazed out into space; some picked at their uniforms; a few slept or, to pass the time more appealingly, passed notes. One such couple giggled.

The professor paused mid-lecture and glowered at them. "Am I being too disruptive of your activities?"

"Oh, not at all, ma'am," stammered the girl. "I'm terribly sorry." But Chihiro could see that she fought to keep her lips straight, which twisted mischievously at the corners.

"Well," the professor simpered, "I suggest you pay attention. This lecture can end up being important to you sooner than you think."

Snickers swelled across the room. Chihiro twisted in her seat to catch the girl's eye, whose vehement scowl would have won Lin's seal of approval.

"Once you meet someone, you never really forget them."

Oh, Granny, how right you were.

Stop. Focus. Chihiro exhaled and ran her fingers through her hair. She had to get a degree, she told herself. If she didn't, she would never get a well-paying job. Four mouths were too much to feed for her aging father, and given her recent "adventures," she just had to help him ...

"...there will be a test tomorrow. Fifty questions. I suggest you review the PowerPoint notes as homework to remember the finer details," her professor was saying. "Now, the major rundown: binary fission, mitosis, meiosis, cell cycle, crossing over..."

Chihiro slid the notebook into her backpack. The high school basics flitted through her brain with relative ease, but the new facts which made up the bulk of the curriculum were conspicuously absent. She paused.

"...have a good day."

As students spilled out the door, Chihiro slowly and deliberately packed her things, redid her ponytail, and then looked long and hard at the whiteboard, as if trying to memorize the facts written there. She was the last student to leave the room.

Outside, the sun shone in all its glory. Students crowded the curb, fished out bills from wallets, and called for taxis. Others squinted in a vain attempt to read bus schedules or rested in the shade. Chihiro was about to join the taxi-hailing crowd when a hand clamped down on her shoulder.

"Chihiro! I've been looking everywhere for you."