Novel & Cerita Campus Missed Connections

She expected at least a text or something. She suddenly remembered that Monday evening she had promised to call Kaylee and had forgotten to do so. Cara turned and walked over to the bed to grab her phone. She was fixing to try calling her best friend when the phone pinged in her hand. Looking down at the screen it said that she had a missed call and a voice-mail. Unlocking her phone she clicked on the phone icon. Sure enough she had missed a call. It had came from Kaylee. She immediately clicked on Kaylee's number and hit call. But the phone rang three times and then went to voice-mail. Irritated, Cara hit call again. This time it went straight to voice-mail. Frustrated, she called her voice

But there wasn't time to sit with it, because my phone buzzed again before I'd even put the first call down. The hospital. A new charge on Ephraim's account, something insurance hadn't covered, a number large enough that I read it twice hoping I'd misunderstood the decimal point. I hadn't. Then the university portal lit up — a notice about a missed f*e deadline, my name flagged, a warning that my enrollment could be affected if it wasn't resolved by Friday. Then Valerian. I know you're avoiding me. This isn't over just because you want it to be.

I said, "why didn't you mention it earlier?" His mouth twitched. "You didn't ask." I resisted the urge to throw something at him. Noah looked delighted. "You really are the campus genius." Cole ignored him, while I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Let's say your plan works. How exactly are we supposed to contact all these people?" "I have their information." Naturally. "Of course you do." Cole shrugged. "Preparing a proposal without sourcing contacts would be lousy work." "You say that like normal people keep alumni databases for fun." He gave a simple shrug. "Even if we have their contacts," I argued, "you can't just expect to have a full interview on a call."

"And after she enrolled?" "Two calls in the first month. She sounded happy, Sera. Genuinely happy, talking about research she couldn't fully explain over the phone, a mentor who saw something extraordinary in her. Then the calls stopped. I told myself she was busy. Students get busy. I waited two more weeks before I let myself really worry, and by then—" He stopped, and she heard him breathe unsteadily on the other end of the line before he continued. "By then, when I finally drove out to the campus address they'd given me, there was nothing there. An empty building. No students, no faculty, no sign anyone had ever occupied it at all." "Nothing."

The morning after Carson's late-night call, I woke to sunlight streaming through the palace windows and the persistent chime of multiple incoming messages on my phone. Groggily, I reached for it, expecting to see a text from Carson. Instead, my screen was filled with notifications from the university's emergency alert system.

“You are everywhere online right now. My group chat is blowing up—don’t play with me. Did you *kiss* him?” Norah pressed her palm to her forehead. “No. I didn’t. Kim, it wasn’t like that.” But even as she said it, she heard Mary laughing in the background, Kim squealing through the line, and the echo of comments she couldn’t escape. To everyone else, the picture told its own story. No matter how many times Norah tried to explain, nobody wanted to listen. By Sunday evening, campus felt slow and quiet. Mary stood at the mirror fastening her hoop earrings, shooting Norah a look.

Friday afternoon, with the sky free of clouds and the sun casting weak rays through the open window of her kitchen, Sophia sat in her cane chair with her legs crossed and her laptop settled in the cradle of her thighs, going through notes from missed classes. Halfway through she set her laptop aside, made a light lunch, ate, took a bath, and returned to sift through more notes. On impulse, she retrieved her phone which had been tossed aside to avoid any distraction. Her eyes widened, nearly popping at the number of calls she missed. 10 of them from Nate, 10 from Stella, 8 from Rosa, 2 from Mike, and a couple of messages from them all.

We’re all going to need everything to set up a dorm, as well as more clothes, stationery, and student stuff like bags, laptops, the works. When we get back to the house, lunch isn’t ready yet, so I retreat to my room to call Max. It just rings out. He must be training or something. I text him: Me: Hey, how are you? I miss you. I’m sorry I couldn’t message or call, the last base had no signal and no Wi-Fi. How’s camp? Call me when you can. Zxxx Then I type out messages to the others. Me: Hey, Zach. We’ve moved location again so I finally have signal. I’m sorry I couldn’t get in touch before. How’s camp? How is everyone? Missing you all. Zx

"See how bad it is." I took a deep breath and toggled the flight mode off. For thirty seconds, my phone was a chaotic strobe light of notifications. It was worse than I thought. 12 Missed Calls from Tyler 8 Missed Calls from Hannah 5 Missed Calls from Mia Tyler (1:14 PM): Emma, I’m at the Pine Grove trailhead. There’s no one here. No vans, no shuttle, no sign of any retreat. Are you sure this is the right place? Tyler (3:30 PM): I’ve been driving around the local lodges. No one has heard of your group. Emma, please answer. I’m worried you’re lost.

I didn't want to so I searched my bag for her notes and then it struck me. I'd done Victoria's little tasks the previous night but I'd forgotten it at home on my desk. I desperately needed to get out of class. Or else I'd have more bruises on my body. JAMES' POV I got to school this morning and didn't see Ivory. I know her to be an early riser so it was weird that she was not in school by the time I got here. When lectures started and I didn't see her, I started to get worried but that worry faded when she walked into the class. The silly girl overslept. I'd continued listening to the teacher and his lecture but when I peeked at Ivory, I saw that she was restless.