It was Friday afternoon, approximately ten minutes after the last bell, and the main hallway was finally beginning to clear out. You were walking past the empty science wing, when a movement in Classroom 204 caught your eye.

​You glanced into the small window of the closed door and saw Valerie Kossman, the new student. She didn't seem to be preparing to leave class. She was standing perfectly still in front of the teacher's desktop computer.

​She wasn't using the mouse. Her right index finger was hovering inches from the monitor, tracing the lines of code scrolling down the terminal window. Her head wasn't moving, yet her eyes were tracking the text from line to line. Her dark-brown eyes had a faint, pulsing red glint that seemed to strobe with the data on the screen.

​Then came a rather peculiar, unsettling sound: a low, nearly subsonic whirring that you realized was coming from her. It sounded like some sort of complex cooling fan working overtime.

​Valerie was... downloading data, and she was doing it directly.

You instinctively recoiled, trying to pull your head back from the doorway, hoping she hadn't noticed you staring. You took a silent step backwards, planning to pivot and sprint down the hall to get as far away from the door as possible.

​But...

Before your foot could complete its second step, a firm hand clamped down around your shoulder. You were stopped instantly.

​You looked up and Valerie stood over you, somehow having covered the distance from the teacher's desk to the doorway in a fraction of a second. The faint red glint in her eyes was gone, replaced by their usual, dark-brown hue. The whirring sound had ceased, and she had slipped her glasses back on, and her expression was now the familiar, dry, and slightly distant look of 'Valerie Kossman.'

​