“Liliana. I hope this is fiction.” My throat tightened. I managed to nod. She squinted as if suddenly seeing me through a new lens. Just then another teacher interrupted us—thank God! I escaped into the hall. On my way out I crumpled up the pages, then slammed the wad into the nearest trash can. No, it wasn’t fiction. So what? So this happened to my best friend. And yeah, I was fearful. So I didn’t exactly follow the prompt, but I mean, weren’t writers supposed to write about the worlds they knew? I blinked hard, fighting
