My mother grabbed her briefcase off the desk and paused as she went to walk past. “Here’s the deal. You can either start taking classes seriously or drop out, but I will not pay for school anymore, and you’ll have to find a real job and start adulting, as you call it. That means you’ll pay all your bills, including food and extras like getting your hair done, and you need to move out of the dorm. I’ll give you three months to find a place to live other than with me. If you want to be treated like an adult, act like one. If you want to paint, do what other people do and make it a hobby.”

There was no point in saying anything back. Most of it was accurate, and shamefully I couldn’t deny that my parents still paid for all my expenses since I was forced to quit my waitressing job. I watched my mother leave, but I stayed in the quiet class space enjoying the silence.

For reasons beyond me, all I could picture was the man at the side of the road. How could a single glimpse leave such a lasting impression? My eyes looked over the notes my mother had scribbled on the whiteboard and wondered if the two-hundred-plus victims of Dr. Harold Shipman had known what he was when they met him but ignored the signs.

Sighing, I wandered toward the door and flicked the light off as I went. The halls only had a smattering of people in them, and my low black pumps echoed as I walked. This was the other thing I hated about the idea of becoming an FBI agent. We all looked like a bunch of navy-colored robots swarming the halls. It was drab, it was monotonous, and it was so not me.

It was dark and raining as I got to the doors that led to the parking lot, and as luck would have it, I hadn’t brought a jacket with me. I stood under the overhang of the building and stared at my car sitting across the street in the parking lot. I needed to get groceries or, at the very least, hit up a drive-thru since my fridge and cupboards were empty, but as the rain continued to hammer the ground, I was tempted to skip food and head straight to the dorms.

Great, just great.