“Here you go.” I placed the coffee in front of her. “Would you like a muffin? They’re fresh.”

“No. Just the coffee.”

No big tip here. I wiped the counter even though it was already clean. I needed something to do while I waited for the lunch crowd.

“You live here?” the girl asked.

“Um, yeah. You?”

“Unfortunately.” Her tone was as bitter as her black coffee.

“I take it you don’t want to be here?”

“Look around. This is a resort town. Though I can’t understand why. Ooh, mountains. Ooh, a river. Big deal.” She took another sip.

“It’s pretty, especially with all the leaves changing colors.”

“Leaves. Yeah, very exciting.”

I wasn’t sure why she was even talking to me. She was obviously a miserable person. I moved away, pretending to check on the sugar dispensers I’d already filled.

“You going to school?” she asked.

“I will. I moved here yesterday, so I haven’t gotten around to enrolling yet.” I still wasn’t sure how Ethan and I were even going to pull off getting into school. We couldn’t exactly ask our old school for our records. We’d be using fake names.

“I guess I’ll see you around.” She got up and walked out of the diner. I reached for her cup, noticing she didn’t even leave me a tip. No big loss. I would manage without the quarter.

Ethan walked up to the counter. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Good.” I kissed him hello. “Gloria’s got me working the counter until the lunch crowd hits. She said it’s good practice at a slower pace.”

“I’m glad she’s not pushing you too much on your first day.”

I took his arm and pulled him toward the coffee pot. “Did you figure out how we’re going to enroll in school? We won’t have any transfer records.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He reached in his back pocket and took out an ID. It had my license photo but the name was different.

“Samantha Smith?” I met his eyes. “You couldn’t come up with anything more original than Smith?”

“The good thing about a common name is there are plenty of records to choose from.” He wagged his eyebrows at me.

“You stole some girl’s records?” I said in a loud whisper.

“I didn’t steal them. I simply duplicated them. Totally different.”

I sighed. It wasn’t a bad plan, but Ethan had never done anything this sneaky before. He was changing—because of me.

“Oh, you moved here from Phoenix.”

“Phoenix? I’ve never even been to Arizona.”

“You’ve got to take what you can get.”

I rolled my eyes and pocketed my fake ID. Sam Smith it was. “What name did you get?”

“Ethan Jones. Floridian.”

“Well, look at that, we both came from the south.”

“Yup. Oh and I had to get you a P.O. box. If we have the same mailing address, people will get suspicious. I don’t want to pretend to be brother and sister because I’m not about to stop acting like your boyfriend.”

I laughed, thinking of how grossed out people would get if they thought we were related and stole kisses by our lockers. Ethan had thought of pretty much everything. I was thankful for these moments of normalcy, but it didn’t take long before Herman’s face popped into my head.

Gloria came out of the kitchen. “You’re early.”

I jumped, hoping she hadn’t heard any of our conversation.

Ethan smiled. “What can I say? I’m happy to have found a job so quickly.”

“I like that.” Gloria handed him an apron and a dishcloth. “There are empty tubs on the cart over there. Fill one up and leave it in the kitchen for the dishwasher. Oh, and wipe down the tables in between customers. That’s about all the instruction you need.”

The lunch crowd was pretty intense. Ethan and I were running back and forth for a good two and a half hours. Other than spilling one cup of coffee down the front of my shirt, I did pretty well. No messed up orders, no unpaid checks, and the tips were good. I was starting to feel like a normal, working teenager until the black spots started to appear. At first, I thought I’d spilled coffee on the counter, but when I wiped at them, they didn’t go away.

“How are you holding up, Samantha?” Gloria asked.

“Um, actually, I could use a bathroom break. Would you mind covering the counter for me?” I didn’t wait for a response. I left the dishcloth on the counter and headed for the bathroom before I lost my sight completely. Or worse, had another vision in front of a diner full of people.

I didn’t want to see Herman again. The last glimpse of his future—I guessed that was what I was seeing, the life the person would have lived if I hadn’t killed them—was unbearable to watch. I remembered what Gloria had said about the universe coming back to get you. Maybe this was my punishment. Having to see what I’d taken from the people I killed.

I splashed cold water on my face as everything faded from my view. I braced myself for whatever horrors Herman was about to commit. But it wasn’t his face I saw. It was an older man, probably in his seventies. He was holding his wife’s hand and smiling at the young children playing a game on the floor.

The children were adorable, but I kept my focus on the old man. Something about him was familiar. His eyes. They had a warmth to them. A warmth I knew.

“They’re not being too loud, are they, Dad?” asked a younger woman coming into view.

“No, no. Let them be. They’re children. They’re supposed to be loud. Besides, there’s no better sound than the laughter of your great-grandchildren. You’ll understand that someday.”

The woman walked over and kissed the old man’s cheek. “They adore you, Dad.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

My vision blurred and went black. I was sad to see it go. They all seemed so happy. But then I remembered I was seeing things that would never happen. Things that couldn’t happen because I’d ended the person’s life. But who was that old man? He didn’t look like the guy with the cowboy hat. They had different-colored eyes. Was I seeing my next victim? Was that possible?

Next victim? What was I thinking? I couldn’t let myself take another life. I wouldn’t let myself. I had to find a way to keep from dying without taking life from another living being. This had to stop.

“Samantha!” Gloria called.

My sight was slowly returning, and I could see that the door was open a crack.

“We’re backing up. Hurry it along in there!” Gloria was sweet, but from the way she’d screamed at the dishwasher when he took too long on his break, I knew she didn’t tolerate her employees wasting time.

I rushed back into the dining room. “Sorry!” I grabbed the coffee pot from Gloria’s hands and made my way from table to table.

The rest of the day was a blur. A flurry of activity. But no more visions and no loss of breath. Ethan and I stayed through dinner, too. Finally at eight, Gloria waved us out.

“That’s enough for today. I’ll see you both after school tomorrow.”

School. The next big thing I had to tackle in my new life.

“Dismissal is at two-thirty, so I’ll expect you here no later than three.”

“You got it,” Ethan said.

I waved goodbye and followed Ethan to the car. I slumped into the seat, practically melting into the leather.

“I’m beat, too,” Ethan said.

“At least I made some good money in tips.” I pulled a wad of bills from my pocket.

“Not bad.” Ethan smiled as we pulled out of the parking lot. “So, I got us all registered for school.”

“How did you do that?”

“I filled out all the paperwork online and paid a homeless couple to go to the school and pretend to be my dad and your mom. All we have to do is report to the guidance office in the morning to pick up our schedules.”

“I don’t suppose you were able to work your magic and get us into all the same classes, were you?” I leaned my head back on the seat. Even my hair was tired.

“Honestly, I have no idea what our schedules will be like. Only that the school has block scheduling, so we have four periods a day along with lunch. But we were placed in classes based on Samantha Smith’s and Ethan Jones’s records, remember?”