Chapter 1
The halls buzzed as students flocked to their various destinations, and of course, I was late again.
For the past week, I had been sleeping a lot, and honestly, I didn’t know where the exhaustion was coming from—I blamed it on my time of the month.
Nothing thrilling was happening at that point in the semester; it was simply that period when you were swamped with coursework and projects, albeit without the stress of exams.
Thank God for that.
“Ariana, wait up!” I heard Stas call out from the crowd. We had first period together—Astrodynamics.
“Don’t you think you should speed it up?” Stas nudged me once she matched my pace.
I shrugged and groaned, causing her to smirk at me with that knowing look of hers.
“Overslept again?” she stated the obvious.
I wished I could be cool about it, but I couldn’t.
I adored routine and hated straying from it.
Yet because I overslept, I had started missing my morning workouts, and that really pissed me off. I had just lost a few pounds; I wasn’t ready to gain them back.
“Stas!!! I don’t know what to do about it. Today was my sixth time!” I dramatically groaned as I tried to lay my head on her shoulder—though it was pretty hard to do so while we walked.
“Is there something you’re doing at night that you don’t want us to know about that keeps you up all night?”
“I wish! At least then I could justify why I’m not only sleeping in but also waking up feeling exhausted…”
“Now that you mention it, you look drained…”
Ugh.
I felt sick—a sensation so foreign to me that it sent a wave of unease through my gut.
We stepped into the auditorium and took our seats, the scent of chalk dust and old books filling the air.
