Jessa

could feel it the second I walked into school.

Not hear it.

Feel it.

It was like the air shifted around me. Like the hallway — the same hallway I’d walked through every day for years — had decided to hold its breath.

Lockers still slammed. Someone laughed too loud down the hall. A teacher was already yelling about tardiness. Everything looked normal.

But it didn’t feel normal.

People stopped talking.

Or at least pretended to.

When I looked at them, they ...