You grab your lunchbox from your locker and hurry to the lunchroom. Your friends go through the lunch line, so you always snag a table for them before they get their lunches. You select a table and plunk your lunch on it. You drop into your chair, and Wang Yao walks up to the table.
"Ni hao!" He sits in the chair to your right.
"Hey, Yao. How's it hanging?" You fist-bump him, and he smiles.
"The lunches today are gross, aru." He removes chopsticks from his pocket and pokes the food on his tray. You giggle, and he grins. Changing the subject, he says, "Did you hear about the haunted house that Feli wants us to go to?"
"Yes," you say. You shiver. Just mentioning it gives you a feeling of intense dread.
"I'm excited, aru," says Yao.
"Hello," says Ivan as he sits on your left. You hear a faint melodic sound, like that of a flute lightly blown into. Ivan's eyebrow crawls up his forehead and he stands back up. In the chair that Ivan recently vacated you see Matthew, looking slightly rumpled but extremely relieved.
"I think a haunted house sounds scary," says Matt. He brushes the wrinkles out of his immaculate pants and pushes his half-moon spectacles back up onto his nose.
"I can't wait until we go to the haunted house. I hear that no one who has gone in has ever come back out. Sounds fun, da?" Ivan sits back down to Matt's left.
"Yes, aru!" Yao leans over his tray and puts his chin on his hands conspiratorially. "I've heard that it's legitimately haunted, aru."
Your eyebrows furrow as you begin to eat your lunch, trying not to think of the connection between reality and your terrifyingly realistic dream.
"Let's meet after school in the front courtyard. I've got the address of the haunted house," says Matt quietly.
"Yes, aru," says Yao.
You sigh and roll your eyes. It's just a haunted house, what was there to be scared of?