Chapter 3

Serena froze, staring at me in disbelief. She clearly hadn't expected me to have been reborn, too.

"Adrian, what are you talking about?" Her lips parted, and her voice trembled slightly.

"Marcus, let's go!" I wasn't wasting any more time arguing. I gave Marcus a look, signaling him to make a run for the windows.

"Adrian, do you really have to act like this right now?" Julian was still at the front of the classroom, playing the concerned nice guy. He clung to a pillar by the load-bearing wall and pointed outside.

"Look how badly everything's shaking! You'll get yourself killed if you jump! And you're going to drag Marcus down with you? How selfish can you be?

"Serena, please talk some sense into him! I don't want anything bad to happen to him!"

Marcus shoved a chair out of his way and snapped at Julian. "Adrian showed me a fire safety video just yesterday! That whole 'triangle of life' theory has no scientific basis! I trust Adrian! If you guys wanna die here, be my guest!"

The shaking grew more violent by the second. Plaster rained down from the ceiling, and the blackboard hung crookedly from the wall. Cracks were spreading across the walls. We were running out of time.

I climbed onto the windowsill and glanced at the grassy lawn below. It was a roughly 30-foot drop from the third floor. If I landed properly and rolled to absorb the impact, I stood a good chance of surviving.

"Marcus, cover your head and roll when you land!" I shouted.

"Got it!" Marcus gritted his teeth and nodded. He trusted me completely.

"Adrian, don't you dare jump! Get back here!" Serena finally lost her nerve. She scrambled toward me, desperately trying to grab my ankle.

She'd thought that getting a second chance at life meant she could control how things turned out. She hadn't expected me to get a second chance, too.

The instant my feet hit the grass, I bent my knees and pitched forward, rolling another six or seven feet across the lawn. The impact jolted my entire body, leaving me feeling like my insides had been scrambled.

My chest felt tight, and I tasted blood in my mouth. I ignored the pain and scrambled to my feet.

"Marcus, you okay?" I looked over at Marcus, who'd landed a short distance away.

He'd managed to roll when he hit the ground, just like I had. He staggered to his feet, covered in dirt, and quickly checked himself for injuries. Other than a scraped elbow, he was fine.

"Adrian! I'm okay! I made it!" he shouted excitedly.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Then I looked down at my right leg. Not a scratch. I took a couple of careful steps. My leg held up just fine, and I was steady on my feet.

In my previous life, Serena had been so terrified when we jumped that she'd frozen up and clung to me for dear life.

With her full weight pressing down on me, I couldn't roll to break our fall. My right leg had taken the full force of the landing for both of us.

It shattered on impact, and blood quickly soaked the grass beneath me. Serena had landed on top of me without a scratch.

I'd been writhing on the ground in agony, but she'd just stood there, pale and shaken. She didn't even try to help me.

This time, though, I didn't have Serena dragging me down. I'd survived without a scratch.

I grabbed Marcus by the arm, and we ran as fast as we could toward the open sports field, away from the school building.

"Keep going! Don't stop! Get to the middle of the field!"

The sky had turned a sickly yellow. The ground shook so violently that we could barely stay on our feet. It felt like the whole world was being torn apart.

We held each other up as we stumbled forward, struggling to keep moving. I finally stopped when we reached the middle of the field, well away from the buildings.

Suddenly, Marcus grabbed my arm and pointed back toward the school, screaming in terror.

Then came a deafening roar. The entire five-story school building collapsed.