Mr. Washburn was showing clips from old silent films to his Film History class when he heard a noise, as if a chair had been pushed back abruptly. He looked up, but didn't see that any student had moved from their seats. He was even more surprised when his classroom door swung open and shut, seemingly by itself. But it wasn't by itself. Amber, who for a short time had the last name of Vallen, had just been replaced by Mikey. Short though it was, Amber did undergo some mild changes. She was a bit taller, more mature. In all, it was as if a girl who was two years older than the fifteen year old she had woken up as had started wandering through the community college campus.
Back in the Vallen home, Mikey wondered what he'd been thinking when he wrote up his last Twitter feed. Community school? He was only seventeen! He needed to rush to catch his bus, but he could take thirty seconds and update his feed to "going to high school." Somehow his stop seemed farther away than usual. Like it took him more steps than it should, almost as if his legs had shrunk.
