August 26

Today I checked my email.  Among the many junk mails was a long email from Sierra.   Very long ... and very detailed.  I decided I needed to sit down and read it.

"Sage,
It's going to take a book for me to tell you all that's happening on campus rite now.  But lemme start here....

"As you know, I won the school chess tourney, beating Kyle's old roomie in the final.  Rick was pretty sore about it, too.  Fact is, I probably could have beaten him with both hands tied behind my back.  He's challenged me to a rematch.  I'll let u know when it is.

I went to work out with Miles and Hank from my phys ed classes, and after the workout we all went to get a pizza over at Barnstormer's.  They're still pretty skeptical -- they don't think I can keep up with them because I'm a girl.  U know better, Sage, and AJ does, too.  Dad was a pro soccer player.  Of course I can do this.

Remember that guy, Wheeler, from Willow Creek, from the dorm?  He wants to work out with me.  Should I let him?

A girl sat next to me, she was very colorfully dressed to say the very least.  "Can I join you?" she asked.
"Sure," I replied, "it's a free country."

"My name's Sarah Parker," she began while eating her salad.
"I'm Sierra -"
"Yeh, I know who you are."
"You do?"
"Yeh, I do read the residents' list every once in awhile.  Your mom's the history prof here.  Cheesman?"
I wondered how she knew all that. But there was more... it seemed she knew all about me.  

 While I ate my dinner she recited most of my history to me, even down to my stint at Fort Starch.  "How do you know all that?" I asked her.  
"Hey, everything's online these days," she shrugged. 

The dorm food still sucks.  My stomach is not used to that.  Hey, my stomach is used to Max's lightly seasoned meals.  Maybe I should get him to send me a care package.  Anyway, something there I ate didn't agree with me and I spent most of the night barfing it right back up. 

"The next morning, it was pouring rain... and one of my dorm mates, Ann Conners, discovered another one of my dorm mates, Jake Sammon, lying dead in front of the entrance. 

 

By the time Ann called the rest of us, the Reaper himself had appeared.  I had never seen the Reaper before, in the flesh, so obviously I was interested. 

Poor Jake's departed soul stared right at me.  And from his ghost color I was able to determine his cause of death.  He had been struck by lightning.  

He pleaded with the Reaper for his life... but those pleas fell on deaf ears. 

The Reaper had done his job and collected his soul.  The other dormies were crying and upset... standing outside in the rain....

But I didn't have time to mourn.  I had a class to go to.

Besides, I'm trying to figure out a way to resurrect him.

I closed my laptop.  I decided I'd had enough.  Now Sierra's really gone off the deep end, she's talking about resurrecting somebody. 

I decided to forward Sierra's email to Mom to see what she thinks.