Chapter 2

After the strange encounter with Jessica. Hannah sat in her room, staring at her laptop. She couldn’t focus on the textbook laid out on the desk next to it. She googled to see what time it was in the city in Europe where her sister Sarah was studying abroad, seeing that it was 9 PM there she figured that Sarah, the quiet, studious homebody, would be reading a book as she got ready to go to bed.

Booted up Skype and saw that Sarah was online she had to talk to her, she was dying to know how (and why) she had suddenly become friends with Jessica, the affable but distant head cheerleader from their hometown who had barely interacted with them growing up. “Hey sis,” she typed, “Do you have a minute to talk?”

“A few,” her sister typed back. “Anything urgent?”

“Oh no, just wanted to catch up for a few minutes.” Hannah’s computer began to chirp with the sound of Sarah initiating a video chat. Sarah clicked the “Accept” button and Sarah’s image popped up on the screen. Hannah beamed widely at seeing her sister and then furrowed her brow in surprise. Sarah was smiling happily and looked thrilled to see her sister. But, rather than wearing dowdy pajamas and reading glasses, Sarah wore heavy makeup, her light brown hair was teased out, and her shoulders were bare. She wore black spade earrings that matched the navel piercing and necklace just like the one she had seen on Jessica. Hannah was puzzled by Hannah’s bare shoulders, but she figured that she’d answered while changing and that her demure sister figured that she wouldn’t be exposing herself to any random person who could be in the room with Hannah.

“What’s up, sis!?” Sarah asked excitedly.

“Oh, Sarah ... I thought you’d be getting ready for bed?”

“Oh no, my night’s just getting started! I’m about to go hang out with some friends, but I have time if you need to talk!”

“Oh cool, don’t let me keep you, I just wanted to chat. I saw Jessica, from back home today,” Hannah said tentatively.

“YAY!” Sarah squealed. “I knew you guys would run into each other! Look, I know we never really talked to Jessica back home, but I got to know her in the past year, she’s a cool girl!”

“She was very friendly when I saw her...” Hannah wasn’t quite sure what to make of the enthusiastic response. “You never mentioned that you two had become close.”

Sarah sighed, “You know mom and dad ... they want what’s best for us, but I think to them that means we never live outside of our books and studies, I’m afraid they’d think Jessica is a bad influence and nothing could be further from the truth! Jessica’s brilliant! She’s at the top of our class! And she’s one of the kindest people I’ve met! But she also knows how to have fun and how to live! I told her to look out for you!”

“Oh ... okay ... I also met your friend Lucas.”

Sarah beamed even wider. “Lucas is such a cool guy, and a total gentleman ... and, to be honest, a total hottie!”

Hannah blushed. She’d never heard Sarah talk about men she’d been attracted to before, “He seemed nice.” Suddenly, Hannah heard a loud rapping sound from Sarah’s end of the connection.