RESURRECTED by Morgan Rice

beautiful as she was on the outside, she was equally ugly on the inside: she never missed a single opportunity to giggle at someone else, to make fun of them, to take advantage of any moment of weakness.
    As Scarlet took another step, right on cue, Vivian let out a loud, mean giggle. That giggle spurred several others to giggle with her, mostly her little group of mean friends. It made a bad situation for Scarlet even worse.
    “Sorry I’m late,” Scarlet said to the professor, who was still looking at her with wonder.
    “You’re more than late,” he snapped. “The class is almost over. I can’t mark you tardy—I’m going to have to mark you absent.”
    “Fine,” Scarlet snapped back at him, then turned and strutted down the aisle, taking the empty seat next to Maria. She hated this math teacher. He was as mean as he was boring. Sometimes she wondered if he and Vivian were distant cousins.

    Math was her least favorite subject anyway. She loved to work hard, but if she wasn’t interested, she found it really hard to find the motivation. Her favorite class, by far, was English. She loved to read, and lately, she was finding she loved to write, as well. And her English teacher, Mr. Sparrow, was as nice to her as could be. The complete opposite of this math jerk.
    The teacher cleared his throat loudly, conspicuously.
    “As I was saying ,” he snapped, “when you’re dealing with a triangle, the equation between…”
    “What happened?” Maria whispered, the second Scarlet took her seat.
    Scarlet looked around, waiting for everyone to stop looking at her. Finally, they all turned back to their notes. All, of course, except Vivian: she stared at Scarlet, a condescending smile on her face, as cold as ice. Vivian then leaned over and whispered in her friend’s ear, who put her hand to her mouth and giggled. Scarlet could only wonder what she’d said.
    “Nothing,” Scarlet whispered back to Maria. Scarlet hated hiding anything from her, but she really didn’t want talk about it—especially not here, with the teacher waiting to pounce.
    Scarlet suddenly felt a vibration in her pocket. She looked down, glanced around to make sure no one was looking, and slid up her cell phone, holding it under her desk. She looked down.
    U ok?
    It was from Maria.
    Scarlet saw Maria furtively holding her phone under her desk with one hand, texting with her thumb, and pretending to take notes while she stared at the blackboard.
    Scarlet smiled. She copied Maria, raising one hand and pretending to take notes, while with her thumb, she typed back:
    Am fine. Thx.
    Scarlet had just hit the send button, when suddenly, the bell rang out.

    “Okay class, don’t forget, I want chapter three read by tomorrow. And our first quiz is Friday!” the teacher yelled out over the din, as all the kids jumped up, collected their stuff, and headed to the door.
    Scarlet got up, collected her things, and walked with Maria out the room.
    “OMG, what happened?” Maria asked immediately, barely able to contain herself. “Like, your aunt Polly called me last night. Said they couldn’t find you.” Scarlet’s heart raced, as she debated how to respond. She didn’t want to lie—especially to Maria, who she never held anything back from. But at the same time, she really didn’t know what to say, and she needed to diffuse the situation.
    “Yeah, they like totally overreacted,” she said, thinking quick. “I just went out for a few hours, I forgot my phone, and they couldn’t find me.”
    Scarlet was a bad liar, and wondered if Maria bought it.
    “But I heard this morning you were like in the hospital or something,” Maria replied skeptically.
    Scarlet’s heart pounded. That was the downside of living in a small town; she couldn’t escape this.
    “Yeah…um…well….I got like really sick yesterday after school, and they made me get checked out. But I’m fine.”
    “Okay, cool,” Maria said, and Scarlet felt relieved as it seemed her