The computer's screen's impersonal glow lit the far corner of Morgaine's room. She tapped her nails in frustration and glared at the unfinished history paper there. It seemed to be mocking her, its sparse paragraphs nowhere near Gayle's minimum of eight pages. A sudden familiar blip brought up an instant message, from Adrian.

SomewhereOutThere17: hey there
Ladyofthelake: hey Adrian
Ladyofthelake: how's your history paper coming? mine's awful.
SomewhereOutThere17: ech. awful.
SomewhereOutThere17: and he wants this Monday?
Ladyofthelake: of course. Why would he want to make our lives easy?

There was another blip. This one was from Tristyn.

Tarianassa: hey
Ladyofthelake: hi

Morgaine barely had time to answer her before two more screens popped up, one from her other friend Vivianne Tyler and the other from her cousin Chelsea Gates.

Vivianne's read:

ViviDarkEyes: whats up
Ladyofthelake: eh on gayle's stupid history paper.
ViviDarkEyes: we should beat him up.
Ladyofthelake: mind beat him up
Ladyofthelake: lol
ViviDarkEyes: hehe

She clicked on Chelsea's box.

Afireinside77: hi
Afireinside77: have you done history?
Ladyofthelake: 're the fourth person i'm talking to about history.
Afireinside77: christ we have no time to finish this.i mean he wants us to go to the wake a thon and do our paper? and go to play practice?
Ladyofthelake: yeah he's a what can we do?

Both Tristyn's and Adrian's names blinked at her.

Tarianassa: what are you bringing to the thing tomorrow night?
Ladyofthelake: .a change of clothes.'m not even gonna bother going home.
Tarianassa: neither am i

SomewhereOutThere17: i hate gayle. i hate gayle.
SomewhereOutThere17: i haate gayle! i haaate gayle! gayle! gayle! haaate him!
SomewhereOutThere17: now set that to the hallelujah chorus
Ladyofthelake: LMAO!!!!

Morgaine giggled and turned away from the screen when she heard her mother yell up the stairs, "Sweetie, it's almost midnight. Go to bed."
"Alright mom!"

Ladyofthelake: gotta go to bed. mom's throwing a fit at me.
SomewhereOutThere17: k nite
Ladyofthelake: nite

She clicked out of Adrian's message.

Ladyofthelake: hel, I'll talk to you tomorrow, mom's yelling
Afireinside77: hehe sucks to be you
Ladyofthelake: sucks to be you with aunt laura and all
Ladyofthelake: lol jp cya
Afireinside: k bye

Ladyofthelake: gotta go to bed
Tarianassa: ok nite
Ladyofthelake: nite

Ladyofthelake: VIVIANNE!
ViviDarkEyes: yeah
Ladyofthelake: gotta go
ViviDarkEyes: yeah me too
ViviDarkEyes: stupid wake a thon
Ladyofthelake: yeah lol
Ladyofthelake: nite
ViviDarkEyes: nite

Morgaine clicked out of all her conversations and signed out of gAIM. She shut down Mozilla and turned off the computer.
Her bed was soft and warm and the midnight moon cast its brightest light through her window, in small strips across her face. She closed her eyes and drifted off, dreams overtaking reality.

* * *

Her feet padded softly against the cold tile floors. She looked down at them, squinting, but it was too dark for her eyes to make out any colors and she looked up. In front of her was a black void and she didn't want to walk into it, but she had to. Suddenly her feet were no longer on ground; she was floating in midair. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She began to fall, and it seemed like she was falling forever, until she landed hard on a stone surface. It was dusty and scratched her arms and legs. She stood and in front of her was a pair of red eyes. They lunged with a snarl and she blacked out.