We need this to live. We can't live without it. Someday we'll be able to, but not now. She turns the leaf over slowly. These things don't need us. They could live and grow and thrive just as well with or without us. But what are they? What are these things? Is this life? Can this even be categorized in the same level with us?

No. We're not the same. She looks around and wonders where all the animals are. Maybe these woods don't go in deep enough. Or maybe they're just avoiding me. I should come out here more often – I feel so out of touch with this. But is this really what I'm looking for? Will it help me at all to spend more time with nature? It might, a little. But this isn't the point. Without humans, what is this? Where does it go, but around in circles, forever? Who has the ability to make use of these elements, to recognize them as the building blocks they are, and to form them into something better? Who but humankind can begin on earth with nothing more than stones and dirt, and build cities? We've created devices that can take us to other planets, out of rocks and dirt...

The plants and the animals have a value of their own, but they aren't what we are. They're not the ones for me to admire on this earth. Only the people who've avoided making mistakes, who've created instead of destroyed, who've been honest and truthful in everything they've ever done...

Only me.

She closes her eyes and leans her head against the tree. Rays of sunlight fall across her body, and she places a hand gently against her chest, listening to the beating of her heart. After a while she hears the scurrying of some animals behind her, and smiles to herself.

A distant bell rouses her attention, and she reluctantly acknowledges the memory that today is the first day of school. The first day of the last year, after which she'll never have to go again. She focuses on that idea and tries to regain her smile, but it's too late. It's gone.

Slinging her bookbag over her shoulder, she makes her way out of the woods. She'll probably make it there before the second bell, but isn't particularly concerned one way or another.

She strolls through the empty school hallways, browsing over her course information. She finds the name of her homeroom teacher and walks slowly to his classroom. Upon arriving she knocks lightly on the door and pushes it open. A few heads turn her way.

"Sorry. I got here late."

The teacher glances at her from his desk and says, "That's fine. Your name is...?"

"Elizabeth Patton."

"Right... your desk is over on the left side there, Elizabeth."

"Thank you."

She walks over and takes a seat, glancing around while the teacher continues to silently sift through paperwork. She returns the waves and smiles of a few friends as she surveys the class, seeing mostly the same old faces. On the other side of the room she notices a boy she's never seen before. She watches him for a moment as he reads a paperback novel, liking the look of him, trying to better scrutinize his features through the rows of students between them. A few moments later the bell rings and she picks up her things, making her way into the hallway with the rest of the students.

She arrives at her first class to find that the teacher has affixed a strip of scotch tape to each desk, on which are written students names. The desks are placed together in twos, and it takes a moment for her to locate "Patton Elizabeth". As she sets down her things she glances at the name tag on the desk beside hers: "Scott Liam".

While waiting for the class to begin she takes a pen and notebook from her bookbag and begins to draw. Soon she has a small scene scribbled out, of herself sitting on a rock near the edge of a steep cliff. Pausing for a moment, she wonders if anyone would be able to recognize the figure as being her.

She hears the chair next to her move, and looks up. The boy who was in her homeroom class lays his books on the desk beside her and sits down. She smiles.

"Hey, you must be..." She glances back at the masking tape on his desk. "Scott?"

"Liam. It's backwards."

"Right." She crosses her legs and leans forward on an elbow. "We're in the same homeroom class."

"Yeah. You're the late girl." He looks down at her desk. "...Patton."

"That's me. So you're new to this school?"

"I just moved here."

"Well, just so you don't hear any wild rumors, this place is fucking awful."

"I kinda assumed," he laughs.

The class suddenly quiets as the teacher enters and walks to the front of the room. Without a word he begins to write on the chalkboard, and most of the class begin silently copying this into their notebooks. Elizabeth turns her drawing toward Liam.

"Hey," she says quietly. "Who is this in the picture?"

He looks at it for a moment, then looks back at her. "That's you."

For a moment they smile at each other, until Liam breaks contact to begin copying the notes.

Elizabeth raises an eyebrow and turns to the next page of her notebook, where she continues drawing.