The rich sound of a violin could be heard echoing out of the peer tutoring room. It was a joke in the Cedar Vale school system that one could always tell how busy the peer tutoring room was based on how often they heard the violin. Today it had been playing for two hours nonstop.

The door to the tutoring room creaked open, entirely unheard by the tall girl who was the sole occupant of the room. For a moment the teacher watched the girl prancing around, observing how the desks had been pushed back to the edges of the room to give space for the girl to practice.

"Anna." The teacher spoke quietly. The girl didn't seem to hear. "ANNA!"

Anna spun around in alarm, almost dropping her bow. "Oh! Oh I'm sorry, Mrs. Anderson, I didn't see you there!"

"Obviously." the woman muttered. "Your shift has been over for 30 minutes, Anna! Go ahead and go home. You're one of the last ones here!"

"Oh, okay! Thank you, Mrs. Anderson!" Anna said, skipping over to the table and putting her violin away. She would maybe go to the farmer's market and get some apples. Yes, apples would be nice.
Wait.
She mentally cursed to herself. She was supposed to meet Vespy and Grace at 3:30. It was now 4:00. They'd be angry, that's for sure.

She all but sprinted out of the school, barely noticing the strangely large, furry-looking shadow in the window of the principal's office. As the realization of what she'd seen caught up with her she wanted to go back and check, but then she'd be even later.

Panting slightly, she ran up to the benches where Vespy and Grace were already waiting. "Sorry guys! I had tutoring stuff!" she said. "I forgot I had it today!" She sat down heavily on the bench, setting her violin case down next to her and letting her long legs sprawl out. At the mention of weird things she sat upright. "I saw something, weird. You said you had to talk about something weird and just now I saw something weird and I thought you'd want to know--" she forced herself to stop and laughed nervously. "Sorry."