This morning was cold, for Florida anyway. There was frost on the grass. I had the bright idea to grab a big handful of the frozen lawn. So while waiting for the bus, I curled my fists inside the sleeves of my large purple sweater.

By first block, I had already shed that layer and only felt a slight chill wearing a short-sleeved flowered shirt.

In between 2nd and 3rd block, I found it difficult to open my locker.

I wasn't late, and I wasn't going to be, but because I am Taina, wonderful student, I had to hurry along to Algebra II, because even the slightest chance of being tardy makes my heart pound. Especially late to the strict Dr. Bates' class.

So I was hurrying down the math hall when I dropped my lunchbox. I bent to pick it up when I heard a great rumbling noise. I figured it was just the construction team working away, so I dusted off my lunchbox and kept going. I didn't pay attention to where I was walking and I dropped it again. Along with the books I was holding and, somehow, my backpack fell to the yellow tiles.

Now, I know I'm clumsy, but I'm certainly not that clumsy. There had to be some reason why I was acting like such a oaf, I was certain.

There was, I soon found.

The groaning sound grew much louder, and I felt the linoleum quake beneath me. I joined my things on the floor.

From my crouching position, I attempted to stand, but I just feel back down in an awkward heap of long and awkward limbs. My own limbs. Faintly, my brain wondered why no one else was out in the hallway, screaming and running about like beheaded chickens. (A/N: Chickens with their heads cut off could not really be screaming, that would be slightly impossible. But it does make an interesting picture.)

After a few more futile efforts to rise, I let myself rest on the floor. The shaking continued for what seemed to be hours when I felt my body starting to stretch out like a rubber band. Correction: when I got the sensation of my body starting to stretch out like a rubber band. Luckily, I wasn't physically stretching.

Then I got the impression that I was falling. And spinning.

I opened my scrunched up eyes and found that this was happening to me physically. Strange, I mused as I fell out of consciousness and into (what seemed like) a never-ending black hole, it's like when someone ends a nightmare in a cartoon. They just keep spinning and falling and spinning and falling and spinning…