The walk to the dormitory through the fresh air was enough to help clear Rachael’s mind. Sammi Knight was written to be the anti-hero, one of the good guys, but not someone you immediately fell in love with and wanted to cheer for, like Chell. Instead, she was angry and bitter most of the time, but a hell of a fighter. So… if it looked as if she wanted to punch Rachael in the face without ever having met her, that met her personality, and there was really no reason to think it was personal.

Graham tapped a code into one of three entrances into the two-story dorm building, the one in the center at the front of the building, which was the easiest to access from the gym. Rachael pretended not to watch him punch the number in, even though she already knew his code was Chell’s birthday, and waited for the door to chirp that it was open. He pulled on the heavy wooden door and gestured for her to enter. “After you.”

Rachael walked into a small lobby area, one she’d taken time to describe in great detail in a few of her books because all of her main characters lived in this building and came in and out of these doors so frequently. The room was comfortable and welcoming, in neutral earth tones, with a plush sofa, two chairs, and tables with lamps flanking the seating area. Rarely did anyone sit here, but sometimes it made a good sitting area for characters to reflect while waiting on a teammate or to have a quiet discussion after a critical battle.

“There’s a large lounge down here on the first floor, as well as the cafeteria,” Grant said, heading past the sitting area. Rachael followed, noise from the cafeteria leaking out of the thick doors she knew she’d see as soon as she walked a few more paces.

Sure enough, two dark brown, wooden doors separated the main walkway from the cafeteria on her right. Graham pushed one door open but didn’t take her all the way in. “The food really is good, and it’s available all day and night.”

Rachael glanced around the room. It was large enough to seat about two hundred people comfortably at the round tables that filled the space, but there were only a handful of clusters of students seated here now. Again, she didn’t recognize any of them. They all looked friendly enough. No one was sitting alone, and the conversations at each table hummed and buzzed, punctuated with a laugh now and again. The colors here were slightly bolder than the lobby, but still welcoming, and she’d been certain to make sure the furniture was higher-end and comfortable. “Nice,” she said with a nod.

“You’re welcome to take food back to your room, too, but we don’t deliver.” He snickered like that was funny somehow, and Rachael smiled but didn’t quite get it.

Graham let the door close and led her further down the hall, ignoring the door right across from the cafe that Rachael knew led to the staff lounge. “This is the student lounge.”

This room had taken forever for Rachael to get right--as had the staff lounge, where her characters congregated a lot. The two spaces were similar, though this room was purple and gray and the other was a dark blue and silver. A large screen filled most of the far wall where TV shows and movies could be projected. Seating was plentiful, with large couches and chairs. A refrigerator and microwave sat over to the side, and Rachael knew the fridge was stocked with beverages of the nonalcoholic sort and that the cabinets had plenty of snacks before Graham even told her. “It’s not that you can’t have alcohol, but we aren’t gonna make it readily available for everyone.”

Grinning, Rachael said, “No, that’s probably not a good idea.”

“And we do have some students who are underage.”

“I am not one of them.” She laughed, and he did, too. “It looks like a great space.”

“Yeah, it’s usually pretty busy in the evenings. Most of the students are in class right now, though.”

She nodded, fully aware of that. “All right. What’s next?”

“Let’s go take a look at the dorms.”

Rachael was more than happy to follow him toward the stairs.

“The elevator doesn’t get a lot of use since there’s just one flight and most of us would rather get a little exercise, but there is one.”

“Got it.” She knew that--and there was a freight elevator, too, for furniture and larger items.

At the top of the stairs, there were two doors. Pointing to the one on the left, Graham said, “That hall goes to the staff dorms. They’re all a little larger and have full kitchens, sort of like apartments.” Rachael nodded in understanding. A box for a pass code separated them from that hall, but she knew plenty that would’ve worked if she needed in there.

Graham stepped to the other door and punched in a number. “You’ll get to set your own code. It’s just an extra security step in case someone gets in the building we don’t want to be here.” Rachael remembered when that had happened once before, in chapter fifty-four, but kept that information to herself. The door chirped, and Graham pulled it open. “And these are the student dorms.”

Rachael stepped through onto plush purple and gray carpet, with matching gray wallpaper in a simple textured pattern lining the walls. The doors were painted dark gray and there were a lot of them. Graham headed down the hallway, and she followed. “We try to keep students in each of the semesters in rooms as close together as possible. There are three halls.” He pointed back to where they’d first entered, and even though they were out of view, Rachael knew there were doors that led to the left and the right there. “You can access the other halls back there or at the end of this hall. Currently, Upper Summer is housed in the first half of this hall, and we are in the process of moving Lower Summer in down here.” He stopped about halfway down the hall, leaving about thirty rooms between himself and the wall of windows behind him where this hall came to a junction with the perpendicular hall that led to the other two sets of dorm rooms.

“So one of these would be my room?” Rachael asked, as if she hadn’t already made up her mind.

“That’s right,” Graham said with a nod. “We have six committed students already for the summer semester, and ten still in the recruitment process. You make eleven.”

“Am I your last contact for the semester?”

“You are. It was odd. You weren’t even on my list, and then a few days ago, I did a routine check, the same one I do every day, and your name popped up.” He shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck, like he’d been wondering for days how he’d missed her.

Rachael also found the situation curious. A “few days ago” corresponded with when her life had gone all wonky, too. Had something happened to both of them at the same time? Her eyes widened as she pondered the possibility that somehow, something had caused two worlds to collide. It sounded impossible, but the evidence that something had happened was right in front of her face. How or what it was, she didn’t know, but it made the situation that much more strange. Despite the oddity of her present reality, if there was a way to put things back to how they'd been before… she didn’t think she’d want to find it.