5.Follow the Cobblestone Road
MY BREATH CATCHES IN MYthroat, and I feel a ping deep in my stomach as I step off the bridge and onto a tree-lined walkway made of centuries-old cobblestones. I’m nervous—really, really nervous, especially now that I’m officially late—but I’m also more excited than I can ever remember being in my whole life.
My heart is beating superfast, and every cell in my body feels like it’s ping-ponging off the inside of my skin.
I’m here. I’m really here. Even if I don’t know exactly where on campus this forest is…which is a predicament I plan to fix as soon as I possibly can.
As my feet hit the branch-covered path, I glance around for the amphitheater. While I don’t know a lot about Anaximander’s campus—my parents were big on not ruining thesurprise—I do know from their stories of their time here that the first-day assembly always takes place in the huge amphitheater that sits right in the center of campus.
But if it’s as big as they—and the brochure—say, it seems strange that I can’t even see it from where I’m standing.
I take a few more steps forward, turning around to make sure I’m not missing anything.
But nope. There’s no giant round structure anywhere around me. There’s not even a sign to point me in the right direction, which seems odd considering thisisthe first day of school. What’s even odder, though, is that there’s no Paris waiting to make sure I survived that awful bridge.
He must have already run ahead to the assembly, something a quick glance at my phone tells me I should be doing right now, as I’m already ten minutes late. But if he was going to leave, the least he could have done was text me where I should go.
Except there’s nothing in my messages besides a quick “We love you” from Mom and a “Knock ’em dead” and “Don’t blow out any more fires!” from Dad.
I try to text Paris to ask where he is—and where I’m supposed to go. But my text doesn’t go through, and I realize there’s no service out here in the middle of all these trees.
Fantastic.
I’m late and lost and wearing muddy shoes. This day is going nothing like how I thought it would.
Still, I have to figure something out. The longer I stand here, the later I get.
I take a deep breath, then turn in another slow circle to once again make sure I haven’t missed any clue as to where I’m supposed to go. But all I can see are huge, towering trees in whichever direction I look—which, oddly enough, is pretty much all I sawbeforeI crossed that awful bridge too.
I know the campus was deliberately built so you can’t see more than a few major buildings at a time, but this is ridiculous. Besides, shouldn’t the amphitheater always be one of those buildings youcansee?
Apparently not…
The cobblestone path has to lead somewhere, though. Maybe it’s Anaximander’s very own yellow brick road.
Gods and Furies and Fates, oh my.
My version isn’t quite as catchy as the original, but considering I’m currently in the middle of a giant forest, I’m just as happy not to see any bears, thank you very much. Late and lost and muddy is more than enough. I definitely have no desire to add panicked and screaming and possibly mauled and bleeding into the mix.
Eyes wide and ears straining, I make my way down the path and through the trees to what I can only hope is civilization. As I do, the air around me starts to spark and sparkle with little multicolored flashes that remind me of what I saw glistening over that barn on the drive here.
So much for just being a reflection.
These sparkles are moving, lighting up the path in front of me and jumping a few more feet ahead with every step I take, almost like they’re trying to guide me to where I need to go.
My heart starts pounding harder as I pick up the pace, my nerves fading as excitement once again takes over. I have to be on the right path. I just have to be. There’s no other explanation for all these sparkles.
It’s that thought that has me speeding up as I follow the lights around a couple more bends. They speed up too, and soon I’m racing down this path as fast as I can considering I’m still pulling Paris’s suitcase along with me.
I run, run, run, certain that I’m going to find the amphitheater around the next curve. Certain that I’m almost there. Certain that—
Ugh.
I careen to a halt in front of a wide, three-pronged fork in the path that seems to spring up out of nowhere. Cobblestones head off to the right, a gravelly trail heads to the left, and straight out in front of me is a grassy, rocky road that leads deeper into the forest.
Instinct has me wanting to go down the right path—surely the cobblestones will lead to the center of the school—but the little sparkles are dancing their way down the path on the left.
If they’re here to guide me, they must know where they’re going, right?
