Read From a Dream: Darkly Dreaming Part I for Free Online

the syllabus sitting on his desk.
    By the time I got to my locker, I remembered that Sean was spending the lunch period in the band room where he was putting the finishing touches on one of his many music projects. Lunches without Sean were awkward. There were a few girls from my English class that I ate with occasionally, but I always ended up feeling like a fifth wheel tagging along. They spent most of their time updating their social media accounts, which I didn’t have because social media implied being social—and I wasn’t. Besides, their conversations tended to revolve around stuff I had to struggle to pretend I was interested in. Like shopping and Jason Everett, the resident drool-worthy asshole. Plus, I loathed the cafeteria, because it gave me the horrible feeling of being simultaneously watched and disregarded. If Sean wasn’t around, I usually opted for eating alone.
    Looking out the windows as I walked to my locker, I saw that the rain had stopped. As soon as I got rid of my books and grabbed my lunch, I decided to take my chances that it would stay dry. While other people headed toward the cafeteria, I walked in the opposite direction to the stairs at the edge of the student parking lot. When I got there, I noticed a couple of guys leaning against a car and smoking. They didn’t look in my direction, and I was relieved that the lot was otherwise deserted. I set my jacket on a step and quickly surveyed my lunch. My stomach was still swirling with nerves, but I took out an apple anyway as I opened my copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls . I made it about half a page before my eyes began to wander. Looking up, I hastily scanned the parking lot, trying to locate the motorcycle from the morning. It was gone, leaving me to contemplate the unsettling possibility that it had been my imagination.
    Just when I had managed to start concentrating on the book, goose bumps rose on my arms. Shivering, I looked up, again with the eerie feeling that someone was watching me. The parking lot was empty—even the two smokers had taken off. I turned and looked up the long staircase behind me that led to the chain-link fence surrounding the school’s perimeter—the one with the gate that was always locked.
    My eyes widened when I registered someone standing on the opposite side of the fence. The figure was holding a helmet at his side, and there was a motorcycle idling at the curb. I stared until he turned and got on the bike, which disappeared in seconds. Some crows in the trees behind me began to call out, and I shivered again at the sound. Then, from across the parking lot, I heard Sean’s voice. I turned slowly, still in a daze.
    “ Yo ! Casey.”
    Sean walked quickly toward me, and when he reached me, he sat down and cuffed me on the shoulder, his eyes shining with excitement.
    “I thought I’d find you here. Hey, you’re not going to believe this.”
    “Okay …” I prompted warily.
    “Jason Everett came up and asked if I knew you.”
    I smirked and rolled my eyes.
    “Yeah, sure he did.”
    At the very most, Jason knew me as the quiet new girl who had messed up the curve in his history class.
    “Wait,” Sean said excitedly. “So, it gets weirder. He asked me if I was going to his party this weekend. Then he told me to bring you.”
    I made a face.
    “And you told him I’ve seen Carrie , right? Invite the new girl to the dance and pour pigs’ blood on her? Some days I regret not having telekinetic powers,” I muttered.
    I was about to remind Sean that Allison and Jason were together, at least on and off, when Sean’s expression turned sheepish.
    “I kinda thought it would be a chance to see Allison outside of school. And hey, maybe Jason thinks you’re hot.”
    I shook my head.
    “I think I’ll pass. Why don’t you go with Matt and Jeff?”
    “They’re already going. I just thought it’d be fun if we went together. Never mind. … But hey, what’d you think of the new guy? Must be a fellow Southern