STEPHANIE

It was another regular chaotic day at school. Lockers slammed like cymbals down the corridor while voices bounced off the tile walls and someone shouted across the hall. The air smelled like a nauseating mix of cheap perfume, cafeteria fries, and dry-erase markers.

I stepped into the hallway and immediately felt the noise crash over me.

To drown it all out, I had my earbuds jammed in, Taylor Swift’s Blank Space blaring loud enough to vibrate my skull.

I was leaning into the beat, my sneakers squeaking on the floor as I rounded the corner toward the old wing—the part of the building that was mostly storage and empty...