Page 228 - The Life of A Teenage Girl (Stories About Finding Your Way)

CHAPTER 1

L
iving in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, always felt a little

intimidating—quiet streets, misty mornings, and way too
many trees that made everything feel like it was hiding

something. This morning started like any other: same heavy backpack,
same cracked sidewalk under my shoes, same slow walk to school with

music playing low in one ear.

But halfway down my usual street, I heard it—quick, heavy
footsteps right behind me. Not just a shuffle or some echo. Actual steps.

I paused, turned my head fast, ready to face someone, something...
but the sidewalk behind me was completely empty. No one there. Just

silence, like the sound had never existed. But I know what I heard.

The second I stepped into school—still half freaked out from this
morning—I went straight to my friends to tell them.
“Hold on—footsteps? Like, behind you?” Jessie blinked, then
cracked up.
I raised a brow. “What’s so funny?”
Jessie could barely speak through her laughter. “Girl, how does
something like that even happen?”
“Imagining things again?” Celia said with a grin, leaning over like

she already knew I was crazy.

I froze. Rude. They still acted like I had some brain issue or
whatever—and I’ve told them a million times, I don’t. But sure, laugh
it up.