6

When Johnny finally came to pick Sabrina up, she had turned a beautiful roasted lobster colour. If it was possible, steam would literally be pouring from her nose. Yes, she had tried to cool off but cooling off was merely a figure of speech in 135 degrees. She sighed and tossed a matted strand of hair away from her forehead.

She entered class in a furious manner, and she was aware of clothes fluttering and bags unzipping. She took in a deep breath and turned around with a fake smile. ''Hellooooo-ooo everybodeh.'' she grinned and scanned the room. There were sixteen girls, from twenty to twenty four, as she had been informed. She maintained eye contact with one of the older girls in the back and then pulled her gaze away.

''Sooo...'' She sat on her desk. ''Are you the new blood here?'' She smiled at the shy nods she received.

''Well let's see... Today I would like to meet all of you, get to know you better, and tomorrow start with an experiental lesson, a change from usual theory.'' She waited for the murmurs to pause. ''I'm Sabrina Reyes, and together we will learn about social behaviour and human interaction. I know it sounds dull at first but you will see what I have in store for you tomorrow.''

Sabrina was having a series of coughing fits. She decided sleep wasn't worth another try. It was hot, and it was hard to breathe in the heat. She kept tossing her clothes around, but she soon realised she really didn't want to waltz around naked so she stayed in shorts and T-shirt. For the first time in years she had to pull her hair up in a short pony-tail, so she wouldn't feel like her neck was on fire. She wondered how Kelly would cope, with that hair of hers.

She glanced at her watch. 11 o'clock. Outside night had fallen, and a pale moon was shimmering across the dessert. Speaking of Kelly, Sabrina really wanted to know how her colleague was doing. Maybe she had words from Kris as well. Unfortunately, this time Kris wasn't in her class, there was more ground to cover and they had to split up. Quietly, she got up, opened the door and looked around. Clear. She silently made her way to the staff dorms and knocked on Kelly's door.

''Kelly?''

She frowned when she took no response. She tried the knob and the door opened without a sound. She slipped in the dark room, but didn't turn any light on. A small lamp next to the bed was enough to make out Kelly's shape, sitting with her back turned to her.

''Hey, don't leave your door unlocked like that...'' Sabrina said softly. ''It's dangerous.''

Kelly turned around startled and gave her a haunted look. ''What the hell are you doing here?''

''Whoa, relax, I just came by to see if you've found anything.'' She said, taking a few steps closer.

Kelly shook her head. ''No, I haven't.''

'' Is everything alright Kelly?'' She said, as she sat down on the bed, next to her friend. Kelly didn't answer, just lowered her head. Sabrina slowly put her hand on her shoulder. ''Is anything bothering you?''

''Nothing related to the case Bri.'' Kelly sighed.

Sabrina looked down at a bruise forming on her hand and lifted Kelly's chin up gently, to face her. ''You've been crying.'' she stated.

''No I haven't. Shouldn't you be sleeping? You got class early tomorrow, and we got a case.''

''I don't care about the case.'' Slowly she took her hand away. ''I care about you.'' She got down on the floor, so she could look in her friend's eyes. ''What is going on?''

Without a warning Kelly burst out crying and Sabrina grabbed a couple of tissues from the box she had obviously been using earlier. ''Hey, hey...'' she soothed, rubbing small circles with her palm on Kelly's back. She rarely saw her like this, so Sabrina was more than generally troubled by this... outpouring. She was starting to get seriously worried.

''Kelly what's wrong?'' she bit into her lip, waiting for her friend to finally muster a few words between sobs.
''I seriously messed up Bri...''