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if something had clicked in her brain, and she clearly remembered having seen the scene in front of her before. There were adults all drinking out of plastic cups that had “Happy Birthday!” written on them with colorful confetti surrounding the words. There were little kids that were older than her running around the adults’ feet playing tag until one of them fell and started crying. There was a table full of treats such as deviled eggs, pasta salad, and cold meatballs, with a cake that no one had opened up yet, waiting for the time when everyone would sing “Happy B irthday. ” And in the middle of it all were her parents, talking and laughing with the other adults. It was strange that nothing of any particular significance happened at this exact moment that invoked the deja-vu, it just happened. From her high chair Karena had a perfect view of it all, and then, just like that, the deja-vu was over and everything was new to her again.
    This was the first strong incident of deja-vu, but it bega n to happen increasingly often in the following months . Karena continued to grow, and slowly her frustration with her situation began to diminish. She became accustomed to her new life, and over time her shock went away and she accepted the fact that this was her new life. That she would have to grow up and go through everything all over again until she got past the point where she’d disappeared and could continue with her life as she had before, though she knew things wouldn’t ever really be the same again.
    Until then, she would just have to bear with it, never being surprised by anything because she’d been through it all before, and always knowing what was to be around the next corner in her life. In some ways it might give her an advantage, and she might even be able to change things that she hadn’t liked with her old life. That wasn’t to say that she was glad this had happened, far from it. But she decided that she mi ght as well make the most of it while she could.
    And so, time went on, and day changed to night a nd night into day, and in time the days turned to years and Karena grew older and older in her new life, her new life which mirrored the old in almost every way.

8
    Karena started kindergarten at the age of 5, just like she had before. Pretending to be at the same level of education as all the other kids was a source of constant annoyance for her, since although she was at the same level of physical ability, she far exceeded them intellectually. Karena fought the urge to roll her eyes constantly in class when the teacher made the kids recite the alphabet, or when they tried to learn to count to ten. Occasionally, she was tempted to go up to the board and write some complicated equation just to show that she was in a grade far too young for her, but she resisted. Tempting as it might be, she would keep her word to her parents not to reveal to anyone what had happened to her. It was the least she could do, for her parents and for herself.
    By this point she was having the deja-vu feeling practically every other day at some time or another. While much of what was happening still seemed new to her, much of it was familiar to her as well. She distinctly remembered “circle time” for instance, where everyone in her class got out small little mats and sat cross legged on the floor in an oval-ish formation as the teacher read to them some realistic fiction story that was rather dull in a very slow voice, emphasizing each word so that the kids understood her. When she’d done this before, of course, she’d found this time riveting as her neurons were still at the very early stages of making connections within her brain, however , now it was a terrible waste of time.
    When she got home from school each day, she would immediately begin doing things that were more on her mental level. Back in her old life, she wasn’t one to do research at home purely for fun very often, but here she realized it was of