Mindy Ruiz

Inside Ms. Maddox's classroom, it was so quiet you could hear the breathing bounce off the walls.

My brain was about two eggs past fried.

I dropped my bag to the floor and the sound echoed throughout the house. No one shouted, "who's home?" or "Cassie? Is that you?". Instead the house gobbled up the sound as if it didn't know when the next taste of noise would come. Then again, the house hadn't experienced Olivia yet.