Run, Girl (If You Can)

Keeley's eyes fluttered shut during her last class of the day.

She pulled an all-nighter to finish a six page paper she procrastinated on because she and Valentina stayed up way too late binge watching a telenovela with the subtitles on so Keeley could understand what was going on.

It wasn't her usual cup of tea but she couldn't deny the story was gripping.

Ironically, it was very similar to the situation in her first life. An innocent Cinderella type falls in love with a wealthy politician and gets schemed against by all sorts of people.

The main difference was that you later find out the Lacy-like character was actually the politician's secret half-sister and got pregnant with an abomination after drugging him into sleeping with her. Lacy definitely wasn't a Hale.

Maybe Keeley should submit her life story to a telenovela producer. It could be interesting who they chose to cast as her and Aaron. She doubted any actor could accurately replicate his coldness on screen.

A finger poked her cheek. "Keeley. The professor is staring at you."

Her eyes instantly flew open. Sure enough, she was getting a dirty look from the front of the room.

She sighed. "How much did I miss?"

"About fifteen minutes," Ryan said and clucked at her in mock disappointment.

Keeley groaned. "Can I get the notes off you later?"

They had become pretty good friends throughout the course of the semester after sitting together every day. They even formed a study group with a couple of other rotating members before each test.

"Sure but you'll owe me one."

"I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies for my dad over the weekend. I'll save you some," she offered.

"You drive a hard bargain…but I accept."

Homemade cookies would tempt anyone after living off of cafeteria food for three months.

Keeley smiled and leaned her head back against the seat. This class was a lost cause today. She wondered if she could get away with calling in sick to work so she could sleep.

Her shift was from 4-8 PM just like it had been during her brief tenure at Burger Barn. Working at the library was a vast improvement. Apparently they lost her application for a while and that's why they didn't offer her the job sooner.

No, she needed to be a good worker if she wanted to stay at the library the whole time she was at NYU. She could take a nap now and then go to bed as soon as work was over…

"Get up; you're going to be late for work." Ryan shook her shoulder when class ended.

"Five more minutes, Aaron," she mumbled deliriously.

"Keeley, don't blame me if you get fired for not showing up."

The word 'fired' had the magical effect of making her shoot out of her seat. "Thanks Ryan! I'll give you double the cookies!"

"You better!" he called after her as she hurried to the library, clocking in a mere 30 seconds before her shift started.

Work was fairly straightforward. Keeley was mostly in charge of scanning returned books back into the system and putting them on a cart that the shelving department would come and fetch so they could get the books back on the shelves.

If there weren't any books to scan, she would take damaged books up to the repair department or replace barcodes that didn't work. Sometimes she even sat at the very front and checked out books for patrons.

It was a simple, monotonous job but she liked it because it was peaceful and had a nice starting pay. Each semester she stayed on, she would get a 25 cent raise so why would she leave?

Students were only allowed to work a max of 24 hours per week if they were considered full-time students by taking 12 credits or more so she had four hour shifts Monday to Saturday.

The library was open 24/7 but she was lucky not to get any of the overnight shifts because she had morning classes.

She knew a few people who did have overnight shifts. They typically worked six hours four days a week and had evening classes so they would go to class, go to work, sleep until early afternoon, and repeat. Homework assignments were saved for their days off.

That seemed like a terrible existence to her but they did get paid a dollar more per hour than people who had daytime shifts.

On her break, she went to the staff room and downed two cups of coffee with a shot of espresso. That ought to keep her awake for the next two hours.

Unfortunately, it also made her feel like her eyeballs were about to rattle right out of her skull. She made a horrible mistake but it was too late. She had to live with it.

Keeley stumbled home with a wicked headache and her phone rang, sounding far more shrilly than usual. It was a New York area code but she didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?" she asked dully.

An adolescent voice spoke. "You really need to get more sleep."

Was this some kind of a prank call? "Who is this?"

"You can call me Anomaly. Nobody should drink that much coffee after pulling an all-nighter, you know. It's not healthy. Take better care of yourself!"

She was seriously starting to get creeped out. Was this one of her coworkers messing with her? But why would it sound like a kid with a cracking voice?

"Look, I don't know what you're trying to do but—"

The dial tone buzzed in her ear. Whoever it was had hung up. She sighed and tried to shake the bad vibes away.

It was just a prank call. Someone was messing with her. She did NOT have a stalker. But maybe she should start carrying pepper spray, just in case.

Though the call made her nervous, the coffee had worn off so she slept like a rock the second her head hit the pillow. No more all-nighters for her.