The students screamed and shouted as the basketball shot through the air. RiverRidge jumped and shouted as loud as they could as their players made another basket. Yasmin clapped her hands and screamed as the  flash of the basketball blew past her. Her bright eyes shimmered as her eyes darted from each player, trying to catch a glimpse of the action. As the buzzer screamed through the gym of Mountain Valley, she settled in her seat. The score was 13 to 7. RiverRidge’s team wasn’t the best at basketball, but they had enough skill to beat their rival, yet this time, it wasn’t such a happy game.

Grabbing her stuff, she followed the dispersing crowd towards the doors. Even though they didn’t win, she knew that it would make a great story for the blog. She could see the students grabbing for their phone, hungrily taking in the information.  Shoving her phone into her bag, she put her hand on the door handle to head home when another hand stopped her. Glancing up, she silently cursed.

“Look who came to lose,” a familiar voice taunted. She glared and wished that Hazel was with her, but since Hazel had another tournament to cover for the blog, she had to cover this one on her own.  She pried her hand away from his grasp before shaking her head.

“I’m not in the mood, Bowler,” said Yasmin. “I’d like to go home in peace.” Bowler shrugged and blocked her way. He was taller than her, making him have the advantage of taunting her. She pushed her bag on her shoulder before putting her hands on her hips and giving a look that told Ben that she wasn’t here to play games. He wasn’t intimidated however. He stood her ground, as did she.

“Ben,” a different voice said breaking the silence between them. Yasmin turned and saw a teenage boy, about senior age, rush up to them. He had dark hair that was curley and matching eyes. Bushy eyebrows laid over them. “I see you caught our little guest.” Yasmin raised an eyebrow before glancing at Ben who looked unphased.

“What do you want?” Yasmin snapped. “I’d like to get home.” The guy nodded and grabbed her arm before dragging her outside into their commons. She tried to pull away, but Ben pushed her from behind. “Let go! I want to go home!”

She kept protesting as they pulled her up the stairs, down the hall and into the library. She groaned and glared as they turned on the lights and began to fumble through a pile of books. She blew a piece of blond hair from her face and inched forward.

“Aren’t you breaking in?” She questioned standing in front of them. Ben held up a key before smirking and continuing to scavenge through the messy pile of unorganized books. Yasmin shook her head and grimaced at the mess. RiverRidge would never be this disorganized.

“We come here a lot at night,” Ben stated. “We’re like the night patrols of the school.” Yasmin rolled her eyes.

“Okay,” said Yasmin before walking over to a shelf of books. A mix of colors clashed together along with height as she scavenged through books. If Hazel had found something about the earthquake in her school, then she was sure that Mountain Valley would have something as well. Grabbing a large, thick textbook, she flipped through it’s pages. Her eyes scanned the words and pictures, but nothing caught her eye.  

“What are you doing?” Ben’s voice said, startling her. She spun around and glared. She still had the book in her hand as she looked Ben in eyes.

“I’m researching,” she responded coldly before flipping through the book once more.

“For what?” Ben questioned, watching her blank expression change from excitement to disappointment. “Hearts,” he tried again pulling the book from her grasp.

“I was reading that!”

“What are you looking for?” Ben said again. Yasmin sighed and looked at both of the boys that watched her with intent eyes. She ran her fingers through her hair before leaning against the bookshelf.

“Strange things have been happening to RiverRidge,” she began. Ben scoffed.

“That’s nothing new.” Dustin flashed him an angry look before turning his attention to Yasmin.

“What sort of things, Yasmin?” Dustin asked again. Yasmin looked at Dustin and then Ben. She didn’t want to seem crazy, but ever since the earthquake, a strange feeling had started to surround the school. It wasn’t anything familiar was the only way Yasmin could describe it.

It made her stomach jump in all sort of directions before making the pounding in her chest quicken. She’d go pale and then out of nowhere, pass out. It wasn’t something normal for Yasmin and what she could tell, Mountain Valley was close to having that same feeling.

“Yasmin?” Ben said breaking her thoughts and bringing her back to reality. She cleared her throat nervously before speaking.

“It’s hard to explain,” she continued. “After the earthquake, the school got this really...uneasy feeling.” She hugged herself before settling on one of the tables. “It’s like...something is there, in the shadows.” Ben exchanged looks with Dustin before listening to Yasmin.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“What do you mean?” Dustin slowly asked. Yasmin sighed and rubbed her head.

“It’s like...the school is shifting.” Both Dustin and Ben perked up at the statement, which made Yasmin jump slightly.

“Did you say...Shifting?” Ben asked. Yasmin nodded and looked at her hands.

“I know it’s crazy, but this feeling...it dominates the school. No matter where I go, I can tell that the students notice it’s there and they aren’t comfortable with it.” Dustin nodded slowly. “Plus...we found something.”

She digs through her bag and pulls out the book and the little box. Ben and Dustin examine it before glancing at Yasmin who watched them with a hopefull expression. She didn’t want to seem crazy, but now that she said it out loud, it did sound stupid.

“Where did you find this?” Asked Dustin grabbing the box and trying to open it.

“The library,” Yasmin answered grabbing it back. “And it doesn’t open. I’ve tried everything.” Ben sighed finally and stood up. “Ben?”

He spun around and looked at Yasmin shocked. Her blond hair framed her face, and her pale skin made her eyes pop with color. He shook his head.

“This is crazy,” he stated. Yasmin flinched, hurried to grab the box and book and shoved them in her bag.

“It’s true!” Yasmin said. “I’m not surprised that you don’t believe me, but I know what I feel. I’m not crazy!”

“Are you sure about that?” Ben spit at her making her freeze. “You seem pretty crazy to me.” She shook her head and turned away.

“Ben,” Dustin said interfering.

Why wasn’t Yasmin surprised that Ben didn’t believe her. Even though Ben’s rudeness didn’t surprise her, it still stung knowing that they didn’t believe her.

“Yasmin,” Dustin said touching her shoulder. “Do you mind if I ask Hazel some questions? If we hear a different perspective, we might be able to figure out what’s going on.” Yasmin grabbed her bag and shook her head.

“Why would we want you to solve what’s going on?” She shot at him. “It’s our school.” Dustin stood there, shocked and trying to process what just happened.

“Well…” he began but got cut off by Yasmin.

“I can’t sound anymore crazy then I already do.” She turns to the door and starts to head out. She could hear the boys mumbling to themselves which gave her enough time to push through the piles of books. An old looking book caught her attention. It had it a a cresent moon with a red rose in the middle. She ran her fingers down the cover before hurrying to shove it in her bag.

“Yasmin-”

“If you want to talk to Hazel, be my guest. But I need to go home.” Yasmin said before they could get another word out. She rushes out of the door, holding her bag close to her body. She could feel their stare on her back as she rushed down the stairs and out the door.

------

“Hazel!” Yasmin shouted through the hall the next day. “I have huge news!” Hazel gave a skeptical smile before shutting her locker door and facing her anxious friend.

“What’s up? You sure are jumpy for a Wednesday.” Yasmin rolled her eyes and slowly pull out the book from Mountain Valley. Hazel gasped and pulled her friend away from the crowds before grabbing it and running her fingers down the cover.

“Where did you get this?” she questioned quitely. Yasmin chuckled.

“Where do you think?” Yasmin answered. Hazel flipped through it and gawked at the old stained pages.

“They let you take this?” Yasmin shrugged and bit her lower lip before smiling at Hazel innocently. She sighed. “They don’t know you have it, do they?” Yasmin shrugged.

“It’s not like they were going to let me check a book out if I’m not a student,” she defended. Hazel shut the book and pushed a strand of hair out of her face.

“Yas-”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Yasmin cut in. “Ben and his little follower wouldn’t believe me when I told them what was happening here. Do you seriously think they’d let me take something of theirs?” Hazel gave her a disbelieved expression before raising an eyebrow.

“You told Ben?”

“Well...he kinda dragged me up to the library and-”

“You were alone with BEN!” Yasmin covered Hazel’s mouth before she could yell anymore.

“Sh! Not so loud!” Hazel shrugged and looked at the book. “And it wasn’t my choice. He wouldn’t let me go home and honestly, when I told him, he thought I was-”

“Yeah, yeah. Cool. Check this out.” Hazel interfered. Yasmin looked over her friends shoulder at a paragraph about Bear County and Lodge Canyon.

Bear County and Lodge Canyon both harnessing strange abilities. Earth is manipulated by the Bears and the wind by the Lodgers. Uncontrollable and threatening to the city.

Yasmin slowly looked up and felt her blood run cold. “So, this stuff is really happening to other schools.” Hazel replied quietly. Yasmin nodded and stared outside. Her questions were piling up by the second and for some reason, they weren’t getting answered.

“Yasmin!”

She turned and felt her anger boil over. Adam ran through the rubble that remained on the ground and stopped just inches from running into her.

“Hi,” he said awkwardly. Yasmin crossed her arms and gave him a cold look. “I see you’re okay.” Hazel slowly backed up, knowing if she got involved that she’d lose a limp.

“And I see that you’re still arrogant.” she spit at him, making him flinch. “What do you want?” Adam sighed and cleared his throat before grinning.

“Well, I have great news.” He began. Yasmin shook her head.

“Anything you have to say isn’t news nor is it great. So let’s rephrase that and say, ‘I have something totally useless to say.’” Adam chuckled.

“Still have that spunk I see,” he replied. Yasmin raised an eyebrow.

“Spill, Adam.” she ordered. Adam nodded and clapped his hands.

“Yasmin Hearts, you got the lead to the play!”