Needle in a Haystack

The Calm Before the Storm

Emily woke up with afternoon light streaming through her window and splashing across her bed, warming her blanket and making her too hot. She kicked off the blanket and top sheet and lay in the light with the air conditioner whirring in the background, cooling her sweat-soaked skin as it baked under the sun. As she lay basking, she thought about the last few days. It was a lot to take in. Even Ember didn't seem to have any quips or advice. The contract sat on her box of books by her art supplies where she had abandoned making heads or tails of Fay legalese that morning. Her books were still spread across her floor, with her homework mostly finished, all except that pesky calculous. Hopefully, her night class teachers would be somewhat understanding, under the circumstances. She tried to play it out as a mundane person, on the outside looking in.

An extremely popular, very conventionally attractive girl accused a slightly frumpy nerd of beating her up in the bathroom. The nerd is removed from class and the popular girl doesn't return for a few days at least. The nerd shows back up, and knowing the rumor mill, the whole school hears about her mother throwing a tantrum in front of the injured girl's parents to get the nerd back into classes. She's back for a day, before disappearing for good.

Emily wondered if the rumors would reach the night classes. She didn't know if the receptionist, Betty, worked the night shift too, but it was a sure bet that if she did, people would know what happened. Or at least, her version of it. She sighed wistfully. There was nothing to be done about it now.

She rolled out of bed and started getting ready for night school.

The city bus was hot and crowded with commuters on their way to or from work. There were a few rowdy college kids in the back, but they got off at the mall, well before the school's stop. Walking into school this late in the day without it being a special occasion felt wrong, like she stepped off the bus into the back rooms. The halls were eerily quiet, the afternoon sun filtering in through propped open classroom doors. The empty trash cans holding the doors had unopened liners draped over the side, waiting to be reset for a new day. She went to the office, and to her relief, Betty was not the receptionist. Instead, a plain looking woman in her early twenties was shuffling papers, fully engrossed in her work. She walked up and said, "Hi. I'm supposed to start night classes tonight. I guess I need a new schedule?"

The woman looked up without raising her head, but it shifted her vision above her glasses that had slid down her nose. Instead of pushing them up, she craned her head back to look through the lenses at the end of her nose, her lips rounding into an 'oh'. "And what is your name dear?" she said kindly, going back to shuffling papers.

Emily was taken aback. This woman went from looking twenty-something to looking like she was ready for retirement and back just by raising her head and pursing her lips.

"I uh... I'm Emily Pickerling," she said.

The woman finally pushed her glasses back up on her face and took a good look at Emily. She beamed at her, then started riffling through the desk drawers looking for something. The smile was brilliant and fleeting, but it transformed her face again. Instead of twenty, she looked like she was fifteen.

'Dragon,' Ember whispered in the back of Emily's mind.

"Oh, I see," the woman said, drawing out the 'e' as she searched, holding it until she pulled out a file, just long enough for Emily to wonder what exactly she saw. "Here we are."

She plopped the manila file folder onto her desk, on top of the stacks she was shuffling together, and flipped it open. Emily saw her name along the tab, printed in Betty's handwriting and her school photo paper clipped to the jacket. She pulled up the metal tines holding the documents in place, and thumbed through them, pulling a class schedule out and passing it to Emily. She put everything in the file back together and set it aside instead of putting it back in the drawer. Without a word or another glance, she went back to shuffling papers together. Having clearly been dismissed, Emily turned and walked out of the mostly empty office.

As she stepped into the hall, she scanned the class list and decided to head to her first period classroom. She walked towards the intersection that branched off into classrooms on the right, athletics on the left and the arts hall that was the center of the high school and doubled as the auditorium. First up was calculus. She dropped her head back against her backpack and her entire body sagged for a moment as she wallowed in indulgent self-pity. Then she took a fortifying breath and took a right, trudging down the empty hall to her first and worst class.

She walked into the empty classroom and decided to pick a desk at the back of the room instead of her usual front seat by the door. She could almost guarantee no one would know her here, so it was a chance for her to decide how she wanted her first impression to go. She pulled out her homework and started trying to figure out what exactly it was in her calculus homework that had her stumped.

"If you want answers, you have to know the question first," she said aloud to the empty room, quoting her mother.

As she was rereading the same sentence for the fourth time, Emily heard the most melodic baritone voice, just at the edge of Ember's hearing. Without thinking, and at Ember's urging, Emily got up, left her things where they lay, and drifted out of the classroom and down the hall. She turned her head slowly, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from. There were several, she realized, and it jarred her out of her reverie. Of course, there were people here. Night classes started soon.