SKYLAR

Skylar Hallowes walked into the halls of Jaxsonville High School, taking in the sets of eyes that followed her as she walked. Her pink sweatshirt and dark blue jeans apparently were very out of place. 

She walked over to the check-in counter, avoiding the eyes, and grabbed her schedule. She checked it: PE with Mr. Burk, Homeroom with Ms. May, Trigonometry with Ms. Samples, Science with Mrs. Gomez, AP English with Ms. Beam, AP History with Mr. Shaw, and Chamber Choir with Mr. Blaise. “Wow, nice schedule.” Someone said over her shoulder, and she jumped. “Hi, my name’s Matt. I have first period with you.” He said.

“Is that a good thing?” Skylar asked tentatively. The boy standing in front of her had fluffy, golden-brown hair and dark brown eyes. He was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and a baseball cap, which he had just taken off to scratch his head. Wow, he’s kinda cute. Like an 8.5/10?

“Do you want it to be?” He asked mischievously. Skylar, not trusting her voice, just shrugged. “Do you know where the gym is?” He directed the question at Skylar, but it seemed like he was staring just past her. Skylar looked back and caught a glimpse of her friend, Eve’s, strawberry blonde hair. 

“Yes,” She said, and shoved past him.

“Wait!” He said and started running towards her. He looked like he knew how to run, like he was in sports. Football, Maybe? Skylar thought. She kept walking forward, aware of all the eyes on her and this Matt.  He caught up to her and grabbed her arm. Her breath caught. “Nice to meet you, Skylar.” He smiled.

----------

Walking into the gym, Skylar immediately spotted Matt, surrounded by a huge group of boys. He locked eyes with her and started walking over to her. “Talk to you later, guys!” He called back to his friends. “Hello, Sky. Can I call you that? Sky?” No, she thought. That was what mom had called me, before she had taken me to the pond, and she’d… Sky couldn’t finish the thought. 

“No.” 

“Well, hello then, Skylar,” He said, emphasizing her name heavily. “Are you ready for the worst class in the history of classes?”

“It’s that bad?” She asked. 

“Well, on the first day, we just go over expectations, but from the second day on,  we do fitness days every other day. Mr. Burk himself isn’t horrible, though. ”

“What do we do when we aren’t doing fitness days?” Sky asked. Matt smirked.

“Football.”

----------

After a long, boring lecture about rules in PE and a loud, busy homeroom, Skylar was ready for Trigonometry. She walked into a class with only five other people as the bell rang. “Hello,” A kind, female voice said as she sat down. “If you were wondering, this is the class for ninth-grade trigonometry and will be your class until you graduate.” 

Skylar looked around the room. Two girls, one with black hair and the other with brown hair, were looking at each other and seemed to be communicating through winking and blinking. Morse code? Skylar thought. Two boys were sitting next to each other, one with golden-brown hair and one with black hair. She then looked to her left and saw a boy with brown hair and dark, chestnut brown eyes, paired with an athletic build. He was… wow. She thought. He’s pretty. 

“The seats you have chosen are your seats for the whole year,” Ms. Sanchez said. I get to sit by him the whole year?!  “Please introduce yourself to the person next to you, as they will be the only person you will ask questions, work with, and even take tests with this year, the next, and, if you both continue, until senior year.”

“Hello,” the boy said. He had a rich, low voice. “My name’s Grayson Andrew Pierce,” he extended his hand. Skylar shook it.

“My name is Skylar.” Grayson Andrew Pierce was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a navy blue track jacket. 

“You have a last name, Skylar?” She smiled at him.

“Hallowes. My name is Skylar Elizabeth Hallowes.” Why did I tell him that? I’ve never told anyone my middle name. He raised his eyebrows.

“Nice to meet you, Skylar Elizabeth Hallowes,” Grayson Andrew Pierce said.

“You too, Grayson Pierce.”

GRAYSON

Skylar Elizabeth Hallowes. As Grayson walked through the halls to get to his fourth-period science class, he pictured her in his mind. Long, dirty blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and a sweet, beautiful voice. As he walked in the door, he spotted her sitting at her own table. He proceeded to sit next to her, plopping down his binder under the table. “Hello, Skylar,”

“Grayson!” She said excitedly. Maybe a little too excitedly. The bell rang, a B flat, as always.

“I hope you like your seats, because this is where you’ll sit for the rest of the year.” A chorus of groans erupted from the class, and Grayson scanned the room. There were mostly pairs of desks, except for one group of three, each of which was occupied by a girl and a boy.

“Well, I guess I’m stuck next to you in another class.” Grayson leaned over to her and said, “What’s your schedule?” 

“First period PE with Mr. Burk, Homeroom with Ms. May, Third period Trigonometry with Ms. Sanchez, Fourth period Science with Mrs. Samples, Fifth period AP English with Ms. Beam, Lunch, Sixth period AP History with Mr. Shaw, and seventh period Chamber Choir with Mr. Blaise.” She read off her schedule. Lucky me! Grayson thought.

“Wow, I’m with you in six classes. No PE though. Maybe we’ll sit next to each other in our other classes too,” 

----------

He had been joking when he said that he’d sit by her- Skylar Elizabeth Hallowes- in another class, but they ended up seated next to each other in all of their classes together. “That’s ironic.” He had said. “And the seats are for all year, too. Guess we’ll be getting to know each other.” What Skylar did not know was that Grayson spent the whole walk home thinking about her and her emerald green eyes. As Grayson walked into the house, a voice jokingly exclaimed, “Grayson! How was the first day of school?”

Oh great, Matt’s home. “It was great, thanks for asking, Matt.” He meant to end the conversation there, but- “I met someone.” 

“Oh, nice! What’s her name? What does she look like? What did she wear?” Grayson could have answered all of those questions right then and there, but chose not to, because Matt and Jack would make fun of him. Matthias Pierce the third was Grayson’s brother and the most annoying sophomore he knew.

“None of your business. How was your day?”

“Good. There was a girl, in my first period, but she wasn’t right…I guess. She’d be perfect for you.” Matt replied.

“What was her name?” Grayson asked.

“Something like Skylar, I think,” Matt said. Grayson’s breath caught at the name. 

“What’s your first period?”

“PE with Burk. Why?”

“No reason,” Grayson said quickly. That’s Skylar’s first period!

“So, who is this mystery girl you refuse to tell me about?”

“Well, we have the same schedule, except for first period, and we sit next to each other for the whole year in all of them.” 

“What are her classes?” Matt said as he started opening his laptop to start his homework.

“First PE, then homeroom with May, then Trig with Samples, her fourth period’s science, and fifth is AP English with Beam. She has third lunch and then goes to AP history with Shaw, and finally, Chamber Choir with Blaise. She has a beautiful voice,” Grayson responded, already knowing his own, and therefore her schedule by heart.

“I ask again, what’s her name?”

“You’ll never know.”

“Is it Skylar?” A voice said as the door slammed shut.

“Felix! How did you know that?” 

“I’m not deaf. Maverick and I overheard you in math talking to each other, but I didn’t catch her full name. Neither did Mav,” Felix said.

“Well, that’s probably a good thing,” Grayson said and started walking up the stairs towards his room.

“Grayson! The Skylar I met that I said would be perfect for you- you’ve fallen for her? That never happens!” Matt said.

“I never said that,” Grayson said, but as he was shutting the door, he smiled at the thought of Skylar Elizabeth Hallowes.

----------

Grayson opened his laptop, his wallpaper of the state basketball championship that his team had won last year. I wonder if Skylar plays any sports, He thought, his gaze traveling to his high school record-shattering javelin throw. Well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough, because we sit next to each other in every class. I got so lucky, Grayson thought.

He opened the homework for Trigonometry and saw that Skylar was working on it too. I wonder what her room looks like. Probably nothing like mine. Grayson’s room was covered in posters of bands, and his bed was blue. Hers is probably, like, pink or something. He chuckled at the thought. I’ll ask her at school tomorrow, he thought and smiled.

EVE

Eve Hallowes walked into her house, noticing immediately that something was wrong. “Dad? You there?”

“Yes, sweetheart,”

“Where’s Skylar and Mom?” 

“I think they went down to the pond,”

The memory hit Eve like a wave, threatening her to get dragged under, again, as she walked through the door of her house.

No. Not again. Be strong.

For Skylar.

Her house was very quiet, but nothing felt off, so she sprinted up the stairs into her room. 

Her phone rang, so she picked it up.

“Hey, Sky!” Skylar, Eve’s little sister(a year younger), was completely different from her- she had strawberry blonde hair, while Skylar had dirty blonde. She had brown eyes; Skylar had emerald green. Even their styles were different- Skylar loved wearing leggings and sweatshirts, while Eve always wore mainly sweaters and skirts.

“How was your first day?” said Eve.

“Great! I met this guy named Grayson. How was yours?”

“Great. There was a guy named Matt in my English class!” Matt had introduced himself as Matthias Pierce the third, but he’d said to call him Matt. Eve was a sophomore and was in AP English, just like her sister. Sometimes she felt stupid because they were in the same class, but Skylar was a freshman.

Why does my sister have to be so much smarter than I was?

----------

After hours of homework and going on a run, Skylar was finally home. “Sis! Finally! What were you doing?”

“I have volleyball after school, remember? And then I volunteer at the library!”

“Oh yeah. Sorry. So, who’s Grayson?” Skylar smiled a little at his name.

“Who’s Matt?” She deflected. Always countering a question with a question. That’s my sister, Eve thought, walking over to the counter to start

Hoping her sister would answer if she did, she said, “His name is Matt. He’s the school’s football star quarterback, and he’s really nice. He has golden-brown hair and beautiful, sparkly brown eyes.”

“Good for you. He seems nice.”

“Now answer my question, Skylar,”

“Well, he has brown hair, brown eyes, and a rich, low voice. He introduced himself as Grayson.” She hesitated a little.

“Well, when’d you meet him?” Eve dismissed the hesitation.

“In Trig,” Skylar was also a full year ahead of her in math. This is embarrassing. “We sit next to each other in five classes for the rest of the year.”

“Dang!” You're so lucky! 

“Yeah. I guess I finally got lucky.”

----------

Eve was running through the field. “Matt? Matt? Where are you?” she called.

“Eve?” a voice called.

“Matt? Where are you?” She looked around the field, following the voice of the boy. 

“Over here!” He said. She looked to her right, and there he was, holding a football, in dark blue jeans and a vest.

“Wanna play?”

“Sure!” She said, and he threw her the football.

A perfect spiral.

She caught the ball and immediately threw it back.

A very non-perfect spiral.

Matt broke into a smile as he caught it.

It went like that for a while, perfect spiral, non-perfect spiral, perfect spiral. After five minutes of back and forth, she caught the football and threw it.

A perfect spiral.

“Great job, Eve!” he said and threw it back.

She blushed and caught the ball. 

Then, suddenly, he was gone.

“Matt?”

“Ready to race, Eve?” Matt said.

She looked to her left. He was now wearing a pair of khaki shorts, and the grass under her feet turned to sand. 

They were now on the beach- it was sunny, beautiful, and empty.

Completely empty.

“I’m not very fast, Matt.”

“You’ll do great! Trust me, Eve.” 

“Okay, fine. On three…” she said, and immediately started running. “Go!”

“Hey, that’s not fair!” He said jokingly, and sprinted after her and tackled her.

And suddenly, they were at the pond. 

“Matt? Why are we here?” But he had disappeared.

Eve stood up and looked around, taking in the pond. It was peaceful. There was a glint on the water. And it was empty. The whole thing was just… empty. 

Just like that one night, three years ago.

Empty.

Eve shot up. It was just a dream, she thought. She peeked at her clock. It read 1:30 AM.

Go to bed, Eve. Just sleep. But she couldn’t.

She knew the nightmares would never stop haunting her dreams.