Izzy

"Pinnacle Crest Academy, guiding students to reach new heights in academic success since 1898."

At least, that's what they claimed in the brochure.

Pinnacle Crest spread out over several perfectly manicured acres, resembling a mini college campus. The Blue Ridge Mountains served as a dramatic background for the elite private school. Brick buildings rose up between large oak trees, gently shading the green lawn on sunny days. The clock tower dominated the center of campus, anchoring the two-story brick library with its white bay windows. It looked traditional, but the interior had been completely renovated over the years to add plenty of comfortable study rooms and state-of-the-art technology.

The school also boasted a large gym, pool, and multiple athletic fields. However, the students spent most of their free time in and around the honeycombed-shaped cafeteria. The food wasn't even half bad, especially on sushi Thursdays.

And no school promotional material would be complete without glossy color photos of happy students – studying, laughing, performing on stage, catching footballs, and involved in a zillion other activities with their friends. Smiling students everywhere, as far as the eye could see.

At least, that's how Izzy felt. Like a drone flying over the hallway, silently observing life without being part of any of it.

She'd been so looking forward to her junior year, even without Burns. Her first two years of high school had been a blast. Izzy was the happy student in all those photos. Burns asked her out just a couple of weeks into her freshman year, and they'd dated until he broke up with her last month. Before that, she'd never realized how much her school and social life revolved around him.

When school began this year, she figured at least she still had cheerleading. It wasn't like Izzy even loved cheerleading, but with Burns gone, it was the ticket to her social life. The realization came too late. Most of her old friends graduated, and her cheerleading friends pulled away once she wasn't on the team anymore. Now her math grade was finally improving, but she wasn't allowed to join anything until she could carry that grade to the end of the quarter, still over a month away.

They didn't care one bit that she'd become a social outcast.

When the bell rang for the mid-morning break, Izzy swung on her purple Fjallraven Kanken backpack. The rain pounded against the glass windows, thunder rumbling in the distance. 20 minutes until the next class. Time to disappear.

She made her way through the academic building, keeping to the edges of the hall. Soon enough, she spotted Caleb surrounded by friends. His crew had claimed the circular table between the science and history wings last year. Hesitating, she bit her lip and ducked behind a large group of freshman girls, trying to blend. Caleb laughed and turned away, so she walked by unnoticed. Or maybe he was angry because she ignored his messages all weekend. Served him right if so.

With a scowl, she headed down the long hallway to the coffee bar in the lobby.

"Izzy! I've been looking for you for ages," Maya said, her lab partner. Super smart, but also an overachieving try-hard. "I need to know if you did the prep work yet."

Izzy blinked. "What prep work?"

Maya narrowed her eyes. "You forgot again, didn't you?"

She looked down at the floor and racked her brain. "Remind me and I'll do it at lunch?"

"Never mind!" Maya said. "God, you're useless. I'll do it myself."

"I can–" Izzy started. But Maya spun on her heel and stalked off. Izzy stood there awkwardly as the hall began to clear out. That latte was calling her name, but the line was too long to get it before the next class. Great. The one thing she looked forward to all morning, ruined.

She spotted Brie in line with Leo. No surprise there. Brie and Leo had been best friends before they'd ever come to this school. Leo seemed cool, but Izzy didn't know him well even though he played football and stuck out since he was one of the few black students at the school. Predictably, Pinnacle Crest Academy lacked diversity.

She watched them joke around for a moment. Had she ever had a friend like that? Even in elementary school, it felt like the other kids just wanted to come over for the pool, the private theater. Izzy turned her back and kept walking. Forget the coffee, she needed to get to her locker to swap out her books.

She popped into the girl's bathroom first. Mercifully empty. This one usually was during the school day, since it was out of the way. She ducked into the last stall and hung her backpack on the hook. As she finished up, the exterior door opened.

"Did you see the look on her face? Big yikes," the first girl said. Izzy knew that voice in an instant: Ashley, senior cheering squad captain.

"I know, right? I'd die." And that would be Lacey, the junior co-captain. Both girls had been her teammates over the last two years. They'd barely acknowledged her over the past month, and the couple of texts she'd sent had been left on read.

"Krista was wasted! Did you see her stumbling around? Like, girl, get it together," Ashley said with a snort. Izzy heard a low popping sound. "And who knows what happened after Tyler dragged her away."

Izzy's stomach turned. Tyler was a senior football player. He'd been friendly with Burns, but he gave Izzy the ick. Poor Krista.

"Oh, I think we know what happened. She was all kinds of sloppy when they reappeared. I don't even think her pants were buttoned. God, she's such a pick me," Lacey said, inhaling. She smelled a sweet strawberry chemical scent.

"Well it looks like she got picked," Ashley added, and they devolved into peals of laughter.

"Stop, I'm dead," Lacey said.

"Then pass me the vape already, will you?"

Izzy couldn't leave the stall now. They'd think she was creeping on them. She shrank back and hoped they didn't notice her.

"I think she's trying to take Princess Izzy's place," Ashley said with a sharp inhale.

"Ugh, good riddance. I thought we'd have to put up with her till we graduated," Lacey said.

"Right? And you know what I heard?" Izzy held her breath as Ashley dropped her voice. "Burns got with some girl at Duke right off. Like, the second he got there. And when the bougie princess kept messaging him, he broke up with her over text."

"He didn't!" Lacey gasped gleefully.

"He totally did. Amber's older sister goes to Duke and she ran into him at a party there. He was all over this girl. I can't believe I forgot to tell you earlier," Ashley said. "How pathetic. Like, she thought she was going to hang on to him after he left for college? Wake up, sis."

"No idea what he saw in her. She's not even that pretty," Lacey said. She heard the popping sound again.

"You're just salty he turned you down after winter formal last year," Ashley said.

Izzy had missed the winter formal because she was at a ski resort that weekend. She clenched her hands tight.

"Besides, don't forget how rich her daddy is," Ashley added.

Lacey laughed and turned on the faucet. "You think? Burns is pretty well off."

"Yeah but her family is on another level."

Izzy felt the sharp bite of her nails digging into her palms. She clenched them tighter.

"Maybe," Lacey said, turning the faucet off. "Pass it back already. We need to get to class."

"I'm done with it anyway," Ashley said. "I'm so glad she's off the squad. Still hanging around the edge of our table at lunch like a sad little puppy, though. So cringe."

Lacey and Ashley laughed again, triggering a coughing fit from Lacey. "You really need to stop or I'll be actually dead," she said between coughs. Izzy heard the pop of a cap. "Let's head. Ms. Henderson will kill me if I'm late again."

"Whatever," Ashley said, but Izzy heard them packing up.

"Econ is the worst," Lacey said on their way out. The door to the girl's bathroom slammed shut, leaving Izzy alone again.

With shaking hands, she turned around and threw up.

𓄿𓄿𓄿

By the time the bell rang for the end of the day, Izzy was furious. How dare those girls? And how dare Burns? Who knows if what they said was true, but it didn't matter. That sick feeling swirled in her gut regardless. Every single person around her was a fraud.

Even worse? It was Tuesday, and Tuesday meant tutoring. The absolutely last thing she wanted to do right now was suffer through a tutoring session with Caleb the Betrayer. Ignoring the buzz of her phone, she hurried to the exit.

"Izzy! Hold up!"

Izzy ducked behind a group of basketball players and tried to slip away like earlier.

"Izzy! Where are you going?"

Brie. Of course. Caleb probably sent her. She quickened her pace as the double glass doors beckoned. Almost free.

"Izzy! Hold up!" Brie yelled, dragging her off to the side as students streamed past. Busted. "Why are you ignoring our messages? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just don't feel like tutoring today."

"Me neither, but at least check in. We've been super worried," Brie said. Some people sent curious looks their way, so she slunk off after Brie to prevent any more gossip. Izzy just nodded along as Brie rambled on about some incident earlier in math class.

Caleb looked up when they entered the study room, exasperated. Papers covered the table, and the SmartScreen glowed white against the wall. He shoved his notebook aside. "Where have you been? You don't respond to texts! Don't show up to tutoring! And what's with the radio silence all weekend?"

"Radio silence," Izzy muttered. "Interesting choice of words."

Brie flopped down in a chair, but Izzy remained standing.

Caleb took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Izzy dropped her backpack into the chair with a thud and crossed her arms. "Why don't you ask Aquaman 2001."

Brie looked back and forth between them. "That's your podcast, right Caleb?"

Caleb pushed his chair back from the table. "Oh, that."

"Yeah, that," Izzy said.

Brie fiddled with her pencil. "What am I missing?"

Izzy glared at Caleb. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "She's mad about the last episode."

"Tell her why," Izzy said in a clipped voice.

"I said all the stories about shadow people were fake, just hoaxes and hallucinations." He looked down at his notebook. "But it's not true."

"Then why say it!" Izzy yelled. "Why spread a bunch of lies? Isn't uncovering the truth the whole point of your stupid podcast?"

"Izzy listen-" he started.

Izzy took a couple steps forward until she towered over Caleb, jabbing her finger at him. "No! You listen! What do you think happened on Friday night? You think it's all a bunch of lies? A prank? I've been in that damn hospital twice in the past week, and now I'm pretty sure my only real friends are dead." Her face felt hot and tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. "Do you even care? Or are you just doing this for the clout for your stupid podcast or something? Because this is for real, Caleb!" She bit his name off.

Caleb slammed his notebook down on the table, shooting to his feet and startling both of them. Brie edged her chair away. "This is real for me, too, Izzy! That's the problem, okay? It's partly my fault you all went to that hospital in the first place!" He started pacing a bit. "I pulled their stream too late. The story is starting to spread and people are sharing screenshots of that shadow at the end. Taking down my episode about the hospital would look suspicious, so I made that podcast about the shadow people instead. I wanted to stop some of the rumors, but it won't happen without a follow-up from Austin and James. I didn't know what else to do." He paused and took a breath. "I don't want anybody else getting hurt back there. I don't want you getting hurt back there."

Izzy just stood there, open-mouthed.

"And they're not your only friends," he added more quietly. "So maybe you shouldn't ignore the ones who are still here."

Izzy's shoulders slumped, and she collapsed into a chair, deflated.

"You should've given us a heads up," Brie said after a moment.

"I could have warned you," he admitted after another moment of silence, sitting down. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were listening to the podcast."

"But he's not wrong, Izzy. They're not your only friends."

Izzy stared at the table. She didn't know what to say, so she didn't say anything. Instead, she took her phone out and connected to the AV system. They'd already watched the footage from Ren's drone but probably didn't realize that Izzy recorded a video as well. When she hit play, Brie leaned over and flipped the lights off.

The glowing portal lit up the screen, air roaring so loud it almost covered the shrieking noise. They watched the drone disappear, sucked into the portal. The camera shook as they yelled at each other off-screen and Caleb and Ren bent over, trying to pull the drone back. Suddenly, a dark figure came into view. But this time, they could see it clearly.

It was tall, very tall, probably over 7 ft. The eyes glowed, refracting light like a cat's eye in the darkness. The dark body swirled like smoke trying to push through the portal, the whole time screeching as though it couldn't slip through as easily as the drone. Then the footage started to shake again, scratchy and garbled until going dark a few seconds later. They stared at the blank screen.

"Yooo! What the hell was that?"

Izzy jumped and spun around. Leo stood at the entrance to the room.

"Sooo, probably should've closed that door," Brie said after a moment.

"You think?" Caleb said. "We need to stop meeting in the library."