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don’t think you can handle the truth.
    â€œWhat? What is it, please! Stop torturing me and just spit it out!”
    I look from across the room to the old-fashioned mirror with gold-painted trim and lock eyes onto Amelia dead in the face. It’s been days since I’ve looked directly at her like this.
    â€œWhy are you doing this to me?” I softly mouth to her in the mirror.
    She doesn’t tell me straight out. Instead she whispers in my mind, Read what Aunt Rachel writes and you’ll find out soon enough.

Chapter Five
    My first day back to school meant my first experience with public transport. Throughout the whole bus ride, Amelia complained. I should have been the one who was nervous. But Amelia’s thoughts overrode mine, saying things like, gonna be late , and, not gonna make it . Let’s face it, Milly, you’re gonna get lost. The entire way there, she just kept it up. And for a while there I started to believe her.
    Nothing looked familiar. We passed by this old Victorian mansion, very similar to Aunt Rachel’s house. In fact the long and winding roads were sprinkled with them, each new one set far apart from the last. But as we passed into a different neighborhood, I noticed the houses were set closer and closer to each other. That was the only way I could tell we were heading into the city.
    An older man with salt-and-pepper hair sat opposite me on the bus, practically throughout the whole ride. I still have the vision of him staring at me blaring in the corner of my eye. He looked like he wanted to talk to me, glancing my way every minute. At one point I thought he was going to get up and say something.
    Throughout the bus ride Amelia muttered, He’s staring you down Milly. He’s gonna follow you after you get off. You better watch your back. But she was wrong, wrong like usual.
    But luckily that’s all over with now. The bus stops near the school, and I get off, crossing to the other side of the street. And on time too. After I get inside, I head down the hall and go straight to my locker.
    â€œMilly!” a voice says from behind me. “You’re back.”
    â€œHey, Beth,” I say, turning around to face her as I quickly shut my locker.
    I suddenly realize how skinny Beth looks. And to think she harps on me for losing weight. I’ve always been fond of her freckles and flaming red hair that sticks out like a huge weed in the middle of a field. The uniquely red tones and voluminous bounce look like she’s in a shampoo commercial. Amelia doesn’t say much when Beth’s around. I get the feeling she’s quite jealous of her. Amelia remarks sometimes that I will lose Beth someday and have no one, no one but her to deal with. Beth doesn’t know everything like a normal best friend would. She only knows just a part of me. If I ever were to tell Beth about Amelia, then Amelia’s predictions would come true.
    â€œDid the police ever find out who started it?” she asks.
    â€œWho started what?”
    â€œThe fire, silly. You could have been killed,” she says, turning her head to the side to face me again.
    â€œIt was just a freak accident.”
    She gives me a puzzled look, like she wants to say more, but doesn’t. “So how’s living super far away?” She gives me a look like “Thank God I’m not her.” Beth has lived in the old neighborhood all her life. She doesn’t know any different. And doesn’t seem to want to know, either.
    â€œWell it took me forty-five minutes to get here, and I had to share a bus with this weirdo. You shoulda seen him. But I made it,” I say, following her down the hall. We walk through the sea of kids, heading to homeroom.
    â€œHow’s it going with your aunt?”
    â€œIt’s okay.” I hug my books tightly within my arms, wishing I could magically transport myself somewhere else. Just the thought of Aunt Rachel’s constant