(Unread) Kenzie Martin (20 minutes ago)
not that they give me detention anymore.

(Unread) Kenzie Martin (21 minutes ago)
I went to the bathroom to send that last stuff because we’re covering the angle stuff and oh m god is it so boring. is worse because I’m not allowd to raise my hand more than a certain number of times now. better to go to the bathroom n be productive than to fall asleep in class or get detention right?

(Unread) Kenzie Martin (24 minutes ago)
I’m super excited to do this

(Unread) Kenzie Martin (27 minutes ago)
I think I decided on the name Looksee. it’s cute right? It’s different enough from optics to work.

(Unread) Kenzie Martin (34 minutes ago)
[Attachment: costumedoodlewoo_2.i—Touch to open in a new window]

(Unread) Kenzie Martin (38 minutes ago)
I know I said I wouldn’t send you any more messages but I forgot I had these scans on my phone:
[Attachment: costumedoodlewoo_1.i—Touch to open in a new window]

[You have 39 more unread emails. Touch to continue reading]

If they’d been texts I would have been alerted with each one, but I hadn’t, and they’d accumulated. I was prepared to continue browsing, wrapping my head around reading through the emails in reverse order, but the train slowed, brakes squealing.

The signs above the exits changed. Car 3: Blackrock Station.

Students departed, then more entered, but the end result was that things were far less crowded. I got a look at the girl who was staring at me, and she glanced away, reflexively.

As people exited, seats here and there were freed up. There was a bit of a shuffle as people hurried to claim seats. A sixteen-ish-year-old boy claimed the vacated seat next to me.

In that same moment, though, Ashley moved between train cars, entering mine, spotted me, and approached. She wore sunglasses and the black dress she’d picked up at Cedar Point. Strapless, with sheer black fabric enveloping the shoulders and arms, decorated with a lace-like pattern of feathers. The sleeves disappeared into fingerless black gloves. Her little black shoes looked like dancer’s shoes, which fit with the dress she wore.

I raised my hand in a little wave.

“I thought you’d be around,” she said, lifting her sunglasses.

“I messaged you when I boarded,” I said, touching my phone. I saw her expression change. “And you don’t like phones.”

The seat I was sitting in was positioned such that the backs of the actual booth seats were to me. Ashley leaned against the back of one of the other seats, facing me, and the boy just beside me lifted his bag from his lap and used the room she’d given him to vacate the seat.

“Do you want my seat?” I asked him.

He glanced back, looked at me, looked at Ashley, then shook his head. He nearly lost his balance as the train resumed moving.