Logan was grinning again, the twinkle back in his green eyes. “Sure, no problem. I’ll get your phone number then, too, okay? Looks like class is getting ready to start now.”

Tessa had to force herself more than usual to concentrate on the geometry test, given her near-giddiness at having just been asked out on a date by the Logan Dunbar. She kept fighting off the urge to steal a sideways glance at him, knowing how vital it was that she did a decent job on this exam.

Fortunately, the exam was definitely easier than the dreadful one she’d received a D on two weeks ago, and she felt marginally confident that she would score at least a little higher on this one. She finished the test with a few minutes to spare, and was able to go back and re-check her answers, satisfied that all of the studying she’d crammed in had helped.

And when the test had been turned in and the class dismissed, she couldn’t help but think that the unsettled feeling she’d woken up with this morning had all been for nothing. The day, it seemed, was definitely looking up. After all, the dreaded geometry test hadn’t been anywhere near as awful as she’d feared, and the guy she’d been crushing on for two months had not only noticed her but asked her out on a date. In her P.E. class fourth period, it turned out to be swim day, her favorite sport. And the cafeteria even managed to serve a decent lunch today – chicken chow Mein with vegetables.

But what Tessa didn’t realize, as she sailed through the afternoon in higher spirits than she’d been in for weeks, was that this particular Wednesday was far from over.

Chapter Two

“Ready to head home, Tessa?”

Tessa glanced up and smiled at her co-worker Peter Lockwood. “Just need to grab my bag from the locker and I’ll be ready.”

For the past few months she and Peter had had something of an unspoken agreement to walk out to the parking lot together when their shifts were finished for the night. It made Tessa feel more secure, even though she was always careful to park in a busy, well-lit area of the mall.

They rarely spoke during the short walk from the Old Navy store where they both worked to the parking lot. After the first few times he’d rather casually walked out with her, Peter had begun to park his own car as close to hers as possible. For a time, Tessa had wondered if the quiet, introverted Peter liked her, and was trying to work up the nerve to ask her out. But now, more than five months after she’d begun working at the store, Peter had never once indicated that he had any sort of romantic interest in her, and they had yet to have what Tessa would deem a real conversation.

Peter worked the same shift as she did – four to eight, Monday through Friday – and mostly worked back in the stock room unpacking and sorting merchandise, while Tessa was a cashier. They would nod and say hello in passing, and occasionally make polite conversation, but she sensed that he was even shyer than she was, even more of a loner, and he seemed very content to keep to himself as much as possible.

But she was grateful for his nightly escort out to her car, though she doubted Peter’s slight frame would intimidate any would-be muggers. He was around the same height as she was, maybe even an inch shorter, and as lean as a greyhound. She’d never seen him wear anything but baggy jeans, simple T-shirts, and a pair of high-top Converse sneakers. He had shaggy light brown hair, almost long enough to brush his collarbone, and a small gold hoop in his left earlobe. Some of the other employees thought him weird, or kind of geeky, but to Tessa he’d always been kind and she felt something of a kinship with him, understanding his aloofness and obvious difficulty in making friends.

“Well, here we are again. Drive safely, okay?”

She nodded as she unlocked the door to her car. “You, too. Have a good one.”

They said virtually the same thing to each other every night, and Tessa noticed that Peter always waited until she was safely buckled inside before he got into his own car. As she drove off, she wondered idly where he lived or went to school, knowing that she’d never seen him in her own neighborhood or around campus. She knew that he was a year older than she was, and was due to graduate high school next year, but that was just about all she knew.

Her tummy began to rumble with hunger pains as she drove, and she reached into her backpack, rummaging around until her hand closed over a protein bar. At a traffic light she tore open the wrapper and took a bite. Usually she tried to eat a small snack after school before her shift at the store began, but she’d stayed at school longer than usual to finish up a homework assignment in the computer lab. She had lost a few pounds over the past couple of months, largely due to the stress of taking care of her mother and the apartment, all while working two jobs and trying to keep her grades up.

But when just over a mile remained until she arrived home, the rumbling in her tummy only increased, despite the bar she’d just consumed. And this time Tessa knew the unsettled feeling had nothing to do with hunger. Rather, it was that all too familiar sensation of dread, the fear that something bad was about to happen. She had just about convinced herself that she’d been imagining things this morning, especially since the day had gone so well overall.

And then, as she turned the corner onto her street, it became all too apparent why she’d been right all along to have a very, very bad feeling about this day.

Even through her closed up car windows she could smell the acrid, pungent odor of smoke, could still see ribbons of the ugly black stuff spiraling into the night sky from what had been the apartment complex. Wooden barricades that had been hastily put in place, plus a variety of emergency vehicles, prevented her from driving any further down the block, and she quickly pulled into a parking space before sprinting from her car towards the disordered scene.

It was like something out of a nightmare, she thought wildly, or some sort of disaster movie. Firefighters were still spraying water over the smoldering flames, though it appeared that the fire had more or less burnt itself out by now. What had been a twenty four unit apartment building had been burned to the very foundation, and from first glance it didn’t appear as though a single stick of furniture had survived the blaze. A variety of other emergency responders – police, paramedics, additional firefighters – were milling about the scene, trying valiantly to prevent anyone who wasn’t authorized from crossing the barricades. Amid the chaos, Tessa also noticed a couple of news crews and a large red and white vehicle with the Red Cross emblem emblazoned on its side.