Stretch-Slider

Bodies thrust and shove against one another as every student fights to put as much distance between them and the school as quickly as possible.  Six lockers line the wall, shrouded by five figures, and one shadow.  Those are the good days, when she at least casts a reflection in a mirror, a shady spot in the afternoon sun.  On the bad days they see no one.  Not the shadow, not the faded reflection, and certainly not the girl. The purple Honda in the back lot has no owner.  More than once someone has passed by it, wondering who belongs to the anonymous license plate.  994 572.  But such questions are quickly pushed from preoccupied minds by m

Softly, the cries reverberated though my paper thin walls and into my room.  I rolled over in bed and ran my hand along the night table.  I turned the clock towards my tired eyes.  3:16 it blinked in bright red.  There was another quiet shout from the room next to mine, followed by a dull *THUMP*.  Fumbling in the darkness, I threw back my covers and reached for the terry-cloth robe draped across my desk chair.  I tied it tightly 'round my waist as I padded across my floor and into the hallway beyond.  Making sure to avoid the places where the old wood paneling creaked and groaned, I sidled up to the doorway leading into the room next to my o