Author: Hi. I'm back and hope to bring new meaning to "masks" in 2020 and beyond. Please enjoy!

A Monday morning in suburban Santa Cruz.

Katelyn, just an ordinary teenager, walked along the side of the road to her high school. She yawned; still groggy from having just woken up a half hour ago.

"Just get to school... get to homeroom..." She pauses and stared into the distance while approaching the steps of her new school. It was considerably larger than her old school; her recent move made her socially distant from alot of cliques. Nerds, who usually congregate in the band room, and the popular kids who dominate the hallways.

Katelyn, in an effort to avoid any confrontation in her second week, hugged the walls that lined the halls on her way to homeroom, but...

"Hey you!" Katelyn heard a firm feminine voice behind her; it was Maria the school's troublemaker. She avoided eye contact and just walked a little faster.

"Hey speedy blondie, you deaf?" Katelyn scanned the halls and darted towards the stairs.

"Girls, block her way~" Maria said in a sassy tone. Katelyn hopped up the stairs and came across a row of girls stand in the doorway to the exit.

"Crap." Katelyn whispered.

She tried to look for a way through but instead the blockade advanced towards her back to the stairs. She quickly turned around and there was Maria; a brunette wearing tight V-neck top, loose torn jeans, and sandals.

Katelyn kept silent. "You got some nerve to ignore me down there. New kids need to know there place," the brunette retorted.

"Sorry... I didn't..." Katelyn was starting to tear up but then she heard the reassuring...

"riiiiiinnnnng!" The homeroom bell.

"Damn. Girls~ let's make sure the new kids knows her place after school." With that, the brunette's group disbanded and left Katelyn in fear.

"Good morning my ass," Katelyn sighed.

Katelyn stared at the clock in her English class. "Just a few more minutes until the end..." she said to herself. Throughout the day, she kept to herself and mapped out a plan to avoid Maria and her posse. "Take a left out of the room, bolt to the east wing stairs, and..."

"riiiiiinnnnng"

Katelyn rushes out of her last class of the day and dashed back home with her backpack. After running a few blocks from school, she slowed down and thought of a way to avoid Maria that wouldn't involve running for her life. "I'm asking mom to drop me off at school tomorrow."

She reached home and finds her mom outside getting the mail, "Hi Mom."

"Hi Kat, how was school?"

"Brutal, feels like the first day all over again."

"Oh you'll fit right in, in no time! Don't you fret." Katelyn sighed lacking confidence in her mom's pep talk.

"Cheer up honey. Actually, I'm taking your brother to get some new clothes before he starts middle school next week. Wanna come along?"

"Sure," Katelyn agreed.

Katelyn headed to her bedroom and looked for something more comfy to wear for her outing at the mall. "Purple blouse, short jeans and flip-flops. That'll work." She hears the car start-up in the driveway. "Shit." She quickly changed and grabbed her purse.

"Okay. I'm going to the Gap with your brother, here's forty dollars, make it worth."

"Thanks mom."

Katelyn walked into the mall and headed straight to the Abercrombie store. Upon entering the store, she paused and stared at the ads in the storefront.

"Cute guys... but they're not like Mack..."

Before Katelyn moved to Santa Cruz, she had a loving boyfriend, Mack. The two grew up together since kindergarten, started dating in middle school, and tried to stay close after her move. But late into the summer, Katelyn started feeling that this "long-distance" thing wouldn't work out. She just felt too distant from him.

She sighed and walked in. A few minutes later, she picked out some clothes and headed to the changing rooms. She entered a room and closed the door... but accidentally slammed it causing the entire room around her to shake.

Katelyn, now flushed with embarrassment, stayed quiet for a few minutes to try to divert attention away from her stall.

"Ok. I'll just change slowly..." She began to change into a cute pair of new jeans when she accidentally kicked something under the dressing room's chair.

She bent down and reached under the chair only to find a wooden plank. Or at least she thought it was plank.

She turned the wooden object around; it had two holes, a mouth piece, and metal bar on the nose.

"Weird prop. I wonder if it fell off a wall..." she thought while looking around the room.

As she held the artifact, a wave of energy followed though Katelyn and goosebumps began to form on her arms. Fascinated by this feeling, she slowly slid the mask into her purse; deciding to hold onto the artifact instead of turning it into the staff. Once in her purse, she abandoned her newly found clothes and quickly left the store.

"Done already? I don't see any bags," her mom snickered.

"I didn't find anything..." Katelyn still on edge after feeling the energy in the changing room.

"That's fine honey. Hold onto the $40, you'll need it for tonight. I forgot to tell you, Dad and I are going out for the night, can you please look after your brother?"

"Okay mom..." And with that, Katelyn and her family finished paying and left for home.

Unbeknownst to Katelyn, as she walked out of the Gap a neon glow could be seen pulsing in Katelyn's purse. Ready to discharge its magic that night.

If you'd like to see more stories in the future, please consider buying me a coffee for some late night writing at: bit ly/manifestbound