Haylie sighs, setting her laptop on her bedside table and turning off her light. She probably shouldn’t have stayed up this long but she couldn’t help it. She has too much work to do, too much stuff to plan and hardly any time.

  She needs to tie characters’ backstories into the campaign, finish drafting some description ideas for next session, possibly text something on the group chat. Who is she kidding? That will probably take 10 minutes just to decide what to say. Have they texted while she’s been writing? Did she miss something?

  Deep breaths. It doesn’t help that the plant shop she works at wants her to do some marketing on social media for them. It’s her fault though, she did volunteer for it. Oh gods! And she forgot she had to decide some things to do for this weekend’s skateboarding lesson with those adorable seven year olds. How’s it been ten years since she was that young and innocent? And to top it all off there was Dani.

  Dani, the brooding, angsty and total loose cannon waiting to be set off at all of them. She couldn’t help panicking whenever Dani said something, she worked too hard for her efforts to be undone by a wannabe dropout. Dani is the type of person to think they’re too cool for school, she’s the one who sits at the back of the classroom not paying any attention whatsoever.

  But she shouldn’t be worrying about her, if anything happens she’ll just kick Dani out, wait- can she do that? What if she can’t? What if the club falls apart and everyone ends up getting upset and hurt and she can do nothing to stop it, maybe this was a terrible mistake. She could’ve just stayed playing dnd with her fathers and sister and occasionally Aspen.

  No, it will all be fine. Even if she can’t get Dani to leave if she causes any trouble, she can just consult a teacher or find a way to negotiate.

  Haylie sighs, letting the faint sound of Lyric’s calming music from her room next door lull her to sleep.

  *      *      *

  Dani flings her papers across the room, chair scraping as she stands up, leaning on the table, glaring at Haylie, “Are you trying to annoy me? I said I wanted to use poison spray on Aspen’s character so why can’t I?”

  Oh gods what to say, what to say. “W-well he’s a party member so it’s best not to-”

  “Do I fucking care?” Dani leans forward even more, glaring daggers as Haylie unconsciously shivers.

  “Well even then Aspen rolled a natural twent-”

  “Again, do I seem like I give a shit?” Dani advances around the table towards Haylie till the only thing blocking them is the DM’s screen and Haylie’s books. At this moment she’s never been more thankful for them.

  “It’s the rules, to succeed at anything either you need to roll higher than the dc or the target has to roll lower than the dc. In this case, Leaf had to make a dexterity saving throw. Aspen rolled a natural twenty which evidently means it doesn’t hit him.” Haylie doesn’t want to make the situation worse, knows it will only cause pain, but if Dani wants to play dnd she has to play it by the rules like everyone else or not at all. All the same she feels like she’s making a big mistake, maybe she should just let it hit? Maybe then Dani will calm down, maybe then it will be okay.

  “I don’t care about your fucking nerdy rules, princess, I want to use my acid splash cantrip and if I can’t use it on Aspen’s weirdo I’ll have to use it on you.” Dani’s face is nearly touching Haylie’s now, a smirk creeping up her face revealing rows of sharp black teeth Haylie swore weren’t there before. Ivory horns grew from Dani’s dark hair and the room feels like it’s distorting as Dani’s suddenly towering over her. Blue erases her honey skin and her eyes burn black with stark white pupils. Haylie involuntarily steps back, catching her foot on something behind her as she falls down, down, down.

  The room’s dark, the only visible thing is Dani's form, towering over her. Haylie tries to scramble off the floor but her hands get stuck in sheafs of heavy, thick fabric, her breaths become raggard and panicked before she lets out a gasp of shock and fear as she notices what the fabric is. Heavy, suffocating, way to overly frilly skirts piled over each other and connected to a corset, forming a gown of all things.

  Haylie doesn’t swear often, tries not to, but right now she couldn’t care less about speaking politely, “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” She frantically tries to untangle herself before pushing up from the ground, nearly falling back down from the unexpected weight of the skirts. She turns.. and runs. Runs as fast as she can, kicking off the heels that somehow replaced her much more comfortable boots while trying desperately to tear off the layers of frill and fluff seeping down from her waist in a waterfall of inconvenience.

  “You can’t outrun me princess.” Haylie tries to shut her mind off, refusing to listen to Dani’s growl as she runs through the ocean of black nothingness. Tries to block out the sound of a hiss and spit, the pain of burning flesh and bone and worse the sizzling sound that accompanies it. She keeps running despite the pain and skin boiling across the left side of her face. She keeps running- till she’s blocked by a creature of muscles and strength. Dani’s eyes glow bright in the dark, illuminating the space and the scattered, bloodied bodies of her friend, sister and other members of the dnd club. Haylie chokes out a sob before Dani leans down till their faces are inline, “Welcome to the feast, princess. Seems like you’re just in time for dessert.” Dani licks her blood red lips, chin dripping red as it trails in riverlets from her upper mouth, sliding down her teeth and lower lip till it leaves crimson stains on her shirt. Haylie’s all too aware of the minimal distance between them, how their faces are so close their lips are almost touching, close enough for Dani to bite into her flesh easily and consume her.

  “Time to eat up.” Dani grins before everything gives way, the entire world now black with Haylie all on her own, alone…

  Haylie jolts upright, heart beating so fast in her chest she feels for a moment like it will burst. She doesn’t want to think about the dream so she grabs her laptop, stuffing it in her backpack before grabbing the first school shirt and pants she sees and a moment later she’s clad in her buttoned up shirt, tucked into her school pants and under a random turtleneck sweater that she sewed the school logo onto, after asking permission from the school of course.

  Checking the time she’s got fifteen minutes to get ready if she wants to be at school a bit early. Which she always does. She grabs her sunglasses, slipping them on, before rushing out of her room, grabbing her backpack as she goes, knocking quickly on Lyric’s door as she runs past to wake her up, before flying down the stairs. The smell of freshly baked blueberry muffins fills the air as she finds Tayn in the kitchen taking his baking gloves off as Erilux faffs around him. Haylie inhales the scent fondly as she grabs her lunchbox that she packed last night, pushing it into her bag before leaving it on a chair as she goes to brush her teeth, hair and make sure she's not a complete mess.

  Ten minutes later she’s grabbing her bag, a muffin and saying goodbye to her foster fathers and a half asleep Lyric as she heads out the door. She sighs, dispelling her frantic thoughts following her equally frantic and slightly terrifying dream last night as she walks to school. She slips her earbuds in to listen to music as some slightly rock, slightly pop music fills her hearing. She has one playlist, one, and that’s for dnd club ambience, otherwise she just listens to whatever comes up, usually she tunes out anyway, choosing to think about random things or focus on the environment around her.

  Mentally, she goes over her list of things needed for school, checking she hasn’t missed anything. She shouldn’t have but there’s always the nagging feeling that she is, but no, she has everything, right? Laptop: check, lunch: check, teeth brushed: check, breakfast: in her mouth so check. She didn’t take any books out last night did she? No, she definitely viewed them on her laptop instead and she’d already scanned all the character sheets at school yesterday after the club so she hadn’t needed to take them out either.

  Suddenly she’s stopped in her tracks as she bumps into someone, unconsciously thinking back to the dream as she panics, what if it’s Dani? What if she gets mad at her? Oh gods, she’s doomed.

  “Sorry!” She looks up, noticing who it is and instantly relaxing, exhaling a mental sigh. “Oh hey Aspen. How are you?” Aspen turns around, smiling cheerfully. Normally Aspen walks faster than her when she’s lost in thought so it’s a bit of a surprise that she bumped into him at her, but maybe she accidentally sped up?

  “Heya Haylie! No problem! It was my fault for stopping in the middle of the footpath, I just got a notification that my Owl house Hunter t-shirt arrived.” Aspen grins excitedly, “Anyway I’m great, thanks for asking! What aboutcha? And is that a blueberry muffin I can smell?”

  “Yeah, Tayn made a fresh batch this morning, I can bring some in tomorrow if you’d like.” Aspen doesn’t even need to answer, their expression says it all, “I’ll take that as a yes. I’m okay, a bit tired but a coffee will fix that, gods that’s what I forgot! Oh well I’ll just have to get one from the local cafe..” She trails off, did she talk too much?

  “Oof, want me to come with ya? I kinda fancy a chai latte now.”

  “Sure, if you want! I don’t mind.” Haylie smiles as they start walking toward the cafe together chatting about the last time they had Tayn’s muffins together, which must’ve been nearly a year ago due to Aspen not being able to visit often from where they’d briefly moved to for a few year before finally coming back at the start of the year and finally joining her school after all those years of going to different schools.

  To Haylie’s immense relief Aspen orders the drinks and soon they’re walking back to school, hands warm from the drinks and mouths and minds filled with caffeine, or at least Haylie’s. Do chai latte’s have caffeine, Haylie’s pretty sure tea has caffeine in it, but probably not much. She’s never tried chai but doesn’t really plan on trying it anytime soon, if she doesn’t want coffee she’d much prefer to get a mocha or even a hot chocolate instead.

  When they reach the school building, surrounded by trees and littered with colourful leaves, she waves goodbye to Aspen as they head to their lockers before their separate classes, her first class is history and Aspen’s is geography? She thinks so, but she could be wrong, better to not assume anything to avoid making any mistakes in the future.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  The school hallways are busy and several times people bump into her as she’s jostled about but it’s okay, they can’t help it, a sorry or excuse me would be nice but everyone’s got a class to go to and lockers to visit so it’s fine, all fine. No problem. She quickly grabs her ring binder book for geography and history as well as her one for art, though she only has history and art before recess break, but it’s useful to use a slightly thicker, more convenient book for two subjects instead of a thin and slightly flimsy book for one, though she has an individual book for art as it requires thicker pages. She slips them into her bag with her pencil case and her spare notebook that she just uses to jot down ideas that she comes up with during the day and the occasional drawing. Shutting her locker, she waits a bit for an opportunity before weaving through the crowd towards her history room.

  Entering the room she notices Luca sitting slightly toward the front and they both nod at one another, him smiling and her.. smiling back? She did smile right? Yes she did, at least she thinks so but there is no use worrying about it right now, not at all..

  “Hi Cinth.” Lyric smiles softly at her as Haylie sits down next to her. It’s funny that Lyric’s nickname for her is Cinth as it sounds like a synth or, well, synthesiser in music, she feels like it connects them more and she’s immensely grateful for that.

  “Hey Lyric.” Haylie smiles affectionately back at her before getting out her notebook and a pen to jot down notes as the lesson drones on, shifting and churning in occasionally different directions before winding back to the same area again like a river as she’s caught up in the flow of it and before long they’re moving to the next class.

  *      *      *

  Haylie makes it early to recess, due to her habit of going to her lockers near the end of recess instead of at the start like most people, and easily snags a table, sitting down. This part is always awkward, sitting by yourself looking like you have no friends when actually they’re just on their way, or at least she thinks it seems like that, maybe other people realise that she’s just early? Or at least she’d think that if it weren’t for the approaching gaggle of students heading toward her table as the rest of the tables crowd up. She really does look like she’s just sitting alone doesn’t she, oh what to do? She can’t tell them the other seats are taken because technically they aren’t and she can’t ask them to sit somewhere else because what if they think she’s rude? Neither Lyric nor Aspen seem to be getting here soon so maybe she should just move somewhere else? Or stay seated, but that would mean sitting in between all those other people and what if she makes a fool of herself–

  “Hey can we sit here?” For a moment Haylie panics, what should she say, maybe she can just say sorry no? But.. Then she recognises the voice as she turns around seeing Luca and Theo standing behind her.

  “Uh sure, go ahead.” She moves some of her stuff to create more space so they can sit wherever they want.

  “Thanks.” Luca sits slightly off from opposite to her and Theo sits beside him, looking a bit awkward. Fair enough, they only met properly the other day. She’s far off from being a hundred percent comfortable around them, which is normal, it takes time to open up to others. Though she tries to act as comfortable as possible she’s really just panicking internally sometimes and that’s okay.. Sometimes..

  Lyric shows up shortly after, sitting beside her as they eat their snacks. Aspen shows up a bit later and soon they're all chatting relatively comfortably. Then she starts to wonder if this could be considered a club bonding time with the majority of them there, that would mean it would be wrong not to text Dani asking if she wanted to join, but would the others want that? It seemed pretty stiff when she showed up last time, would they get upset if she invited her? Maybe she should ask? But how? Hey guys, what do you think about inviting Dani to join us since the rest of us are all here? That seems pretty good.. They wouldn’t misinterpret and get upset at that would they?

  “Uh guys, should I uh.. are you guys okay with me inviting Dani to join us since we’re all here?” Everyone turns to her and she worries for a moment that she said something wrong but then Aspen smiles.

  “Sure, I don’t mind.”

  “Sure.”

  “That’s fine.”

  Everyone seems to be okay with it so she gets out her phone, writing a message to Dani

  iMessage

  Fri, 6 Feb at 10:12 am

  Hi Dani I was wondering if you wanted to join us,

  we’re all at a table in the canteen if you’re interested

  A few moments later a chime signals Dani’s reply

  Sorry, no can do, princess. I’m busy right now even if I was interested.

  Haylie sighs, wait was that a sigh of relief or a sigh of disappointment? Or maybe in the middle? She hoped it was in the middle, it would be rude if she was relieved but..

  “She can’t come.” She puts her phone back into her pocket as she goes back to finish her snacks. Everyone is talking again, what are they saying? She still isn’t quite sure how the next session will go. She has time to think about what might happen right? What if they don’t talk to people in the tavern or decide they don’t like the rewards for the different missions? Well if all else fails she can improvise, but that shouldn’t be needed right? At least one of them will want to talk to people in the tavern? It’s fine, right now she’s got to finish eating and head to her locker to get books for the rest of the day.

  She quickly finishes her food, stuffing her lunch box back in her bag before standing up, “Sorry guys I need to head off now to get my books for the next classes. It was nice chatting though, see you around.” She smiles as the others wave, heading off to her locker and then her next classes.

  *      *      *

  It’s philosophy and Haylie’s bored out of her mind as she draws random objects in her sketchbook. She would be paying attention if it was any other class, even if it was just any other teacher, but this teacher is known for rambling on, occasionally mumbling to the point you can’t hear a thing they’re saying and worse talking about random other things all together. Like now, she’s ninety nine percent sure they’re supposed to be discussing the theories around time distortion and whether it can be deemed as truthful, not at all or somewhere in the middle which would be very interesting.. if the teacher wasn’t more interested in talking about a “rare” bug species they found when they went camping. She might’ve even listened to that if the teacher even knew what they were talking about at all, from the description they’d given of the bug earlier before Haylie gave up listening it seemed like a more colourful type of dung beetle.

  Suddenly she’s shocked by a chime coming from her pocket. Oh gods! Did someone hear that, did the teacher notice, it would be so embarrassing if everyone heard that. Haylie looks up slowly, face hot, but the teacher seems to still be droning on about bugs and mostly everyone else has sneaked headphones in over the lesson and are watching tv shows or movies on their laptops or phones.

  Haylie pulls out her phone, keeping it out of view under the table despite the fact that the teacher seems oblivious to everything but their rant.

  iMessage

  Fri, 6 Feb at 2:34 pm

  Aspen: guyys im so bored right now

  Looking up, Haylie sees Aspen hunched over in their chair typing in the row in front of her. She smiles, maybe it won’t go wrong after all.

  Dani: Skipping is a thing you know

  Luca: Yeah, for people who want to get in trouble

  Dani: Who cares?

  Dani: Not me

  Aspen: what is mr bentley even talking about right now?

  Haylie smiles, thinking for a moment before typing in a message:

  Bugs at his camping trip

  Aspen: oh wow thats pretty boring ngl

  Dani: No shit.

  Luca: Where even are you Dani?

  Dani: Its last period no point sticking around. I’m at a cafe.

  Aspen: lucky! dangit i wish id skipped

  Haylie starts to write..

  I agree with what Luca said before, skipping can only get you in trouble

  But deletes it. That would be rude, she knows she can get in serious trouble but she doesn’t care, it’s her own choice.

  Aspen: anyhow whatcha guys up to on the weekend?

  Dani: None of your business.

  Luca: Finishing my character off and coaching soccer

  Aspen: nice!

  Teaching a skateboarding lesson, other work and

  maybe painting some maps if I have time

  She pauses, thinks for a moment before sending and then texts another message.

  What about you, Aspen?

  Aspen: watching jurassic park chaos theory cause i still havent finished it

  Aspen: and possibly finishing writing myself into Carmen Sandiego

  Cool!

  The lesson whizzes by with her phone in hand as they all text throughout philosophy. Soon the class is over and they are finished for the day.

  As Haylie walks from her locker out of the school she passes Theo. To her surprise he says hi to her as she waves back at him smiling. She finds herself wishing the weekend was over already and they were having the next session. She really was overthinking things last night afterall.

  Monday can’t come soon enough.

  What do you think is the MVP of this chapter?