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scavenged his favorite pages for answers I searched the sea of students for Olivia. Halfway across the auditorium she sat already looking my way. Her face looked annoyed that it took me so long to find her. I waved her way and she smiled. One of the girls in her band shot me a dirty look and spoiled our moment.
    Suddenly, Principal Garner took the stage and the restless mass of teenagers quieted slowly. Apparently, I wasn’t the only Desert Vista student worried about this morning meeting. With a tap of his finger to the top of the microphone and a clearing of his throat, Principal Garner started the assembly.
    “Good morning, students and faculty. I’d like to take a moment to thank you all for the timely manner in which you found your seats. I know this is a little out of the ordinary but today is a special day. A great day for our school, actually. The National Board of Education has sent us one of their most decorated, and distinguished representatives. We hope to advance our grades this semester and take the reins in the upper echelon of American education. Please, give a warm and heartfelt welcome to Ms. Scarlet Strickland.”
    With the stride and confidence of royalty she glided across the auditorium’s stage. Tall, lean and ridiculously attractive, Ms. Strickland commanded the full attention of the young audience. Wrapped in the most expensive attire, her curves were accentuated by a perfectly fitted skirt and blouse. A section of boys gasped as she surveyed the crowd with her intense silver eyes behind thin rimmed glasses. Intelligence swirled inside of them filling her physical features with unbelievable radiance. Her hair was long and platinum blonde. It was tightly pulled back in a bun on the top of her head without a single hair out of place. No one applauded her arrival, they all just stared up at her. Slowly her head turned toward me at the back of the large room and a small smile curved up from the left side of her lips. Roland swallowed hard and whispered in my ear.
    “Dude, she’s looking directly at you.”
    “No she’s not,” I said, without moving my lips.
    “Yes, she is.”
    Just then, from the row in front of us, Taylor and Morgan twisted around with wide stares.
    “Do you know her, Lucas?” Morgan asked, in a confused but soft tone. Taylor raised a curious eyebrow but said nothing. I shook my head no and slid down in my seat a little. From across the auditorium Olivia looked my way. Her face filled with worry. Her mouth in a hurtful frown. I pulled my eyes from hers and hoped that wasn’t jealousy she was wrestling with.
    Finally, Ms. Strickland nodded to Principal Garner and walked off the stage without one word. Everyone in the audience was either still staring at me or watching her strut away and out the doors of the auditorium.
    “This school just keeps getting weirder and weirder, my friend,” Roland laughed, nervously. I ran a sweaty hand through my hair and sighed…
     
    “Agreed.”

LEVEL 06
    MZ. HYDE
     
     
    Biology II (Ms. Strickland’s Class)
     
    “No, Olivia, I’ve never seen her before,” I sighed.
    “Well, she sure looked as if she knew you,” Olivia grumbled. With a squeak of my desk as I settled into it, I ran my hand across my tattoo.
    “You’re just being paranoid.” Whoops, I shouldn’t have said that. Her face scrunched together and her violet eyes pushed into me. For a second, I missed the real color of her eyes, brown. She was still hiding behind her favorite shade of contacts.
    “I’m being what?”
    “I didn’t mean…”
    “You said paranoid!” she snapped.
    “Never mind.” I shrunk down in my seat and looked away. Olivia folded her arms and turned away from me.
    Silently, Ms. Strickland entered the room as if she was floating along the ground. She walked confidently but with no sound. It was weird, her expensive high heeled shoes should have made all kinds of noise on the dingy tiled floor of the classroom, but they didn’t. Very weird. As