My alarm beeps loudly next to my ear, and I jerk awake from the sound. I turn, bleary-eyed, to look at the time. 5:30. School. I'd always thought I would get away with it once I died, but I was wrong.

I slowly push the covers off me and Isla, who's sleeping next to me. She rubs her eyes and groans, not wanting to get up.

"Why do they make it start so early?" she grumbles, sitting up.

I shrug, yawning. We hurry as fast as we can in our tired state to get dressed and eat before grabbing the keys and our packs and heading out the door.

I hop in the driver's side of our rented car, waiting for Isla to get in the passenger's side before starting the car and driving through the thick fog to our old school - yet it's new to our disguises.

We reach the school, parking and grabbing our packs, entering the rusty, beat-down school building.

"Welcome back to hell," I mutter under my breath.

We receive the schedule slips from the front office, looking over them to find that we surprisingly have all our classes together.

"Highlight of the day: we don't have to survive this alone," I say. Isla chuckles.

•••

Gym. The stuffy room filled with sweaty, stinky boys and "preppy, too-cool-for-school" girls. Sounds fantastic.

Isla and I hang in the back of the gym, trying to not get hit by the dodgeballs being thrown around. A short, platinum-blond haired girl was standing near us. She approached us, waving.

"Hello! You must be the new girls. I love y'all's hair! I wish I could dye mine," she says. "I'm Kira, by the way! What are your names?"

"I'm Tiffany," Isla responds, using our code names. "And she's Millie. Pleasure to meet you." she grins.

"Nice to meet you, too." she smiles, then quickly ducks under a dodgeball. "Isn't gym amazing?" she said sardonically.

"Yep. Just great," I reply, catching a dodgeball, getting whoever threw it out.

Suddenly, the bell rang. It's quiet for a second before people realize it rang and start rushing out the door. Isla and I head towards it with Kira.

"Well, see you!" she calls, then waves goodbye and disappears into the crowd.

The rest of the day is a blur, and I'm about to scream when the dismissal bell rings and Isla and I rush outside to the car.

"Thank the good lord that is over. I really thought school was nonexistent when you were dead," Isla says, unknowingly reflecting on my earlier thought.

"Guess we just got lucky," I respond, laughing dryly.

"Hey! Millie! Tiffany! Over here!" we hear someone shout. It's Kira.

"Hi!" we call out, walking towards her.

"Hello again! I was just wondering, do y'all want to hang sometime? I mean, I know we only just met today, but I like y'all," she says.

Just met. Ha. We knew you before we died, Kira. We weren't close, but you knew Margaret and Isla, I think, but out loud say: "Sure! Any plans?"

"How about we go shopping or something this weekend?" she suggests.

"That sounds fun!" Isla says enthusiastically.

"Great! I'll talk to you tomorrow, Millie and Tiffany. Have a good afternoon!" Kira says, smiling and opening her car door.

We wave and head back to our car. I rev the engine, pulling out of the parking lot and heading back to our apartment.

We reach the apartment, unlocking the door and immediately flopping onto the bed.

"Who ever knew Mrs. Winslow was so sickly sweet," Isla says, laughing.

"She probably wants to get on Millie and Tiffany's good side," I reply, mentioning our disguises, and giggle.

"I know, but, 'dearies, you don't have to do tonight's homework. I know you just got here, loves'," she says. We stare at each other for a quiet second before bursting out laughing.

"Definitely going to bed early tonight," I remark once we stop laughing.

"Oh, definitely. We need as much sleep as we can get," Isla responds.

•••

The next few mornings are routine. Wake up obnoxiously early, get to school, studies and classes, get home, homework and hang around, then sleep. I can't wait 'till the weekend.

Although we had our set schedule, I kept waking up each day feeling more sore than the last. It felt as if there were millions of bruises on me. When I mention it to Isla, all she says is that I was just tired from gym. Which may be be true, may be false, because we both know I'm pretty fit. Yet, I just try to ignore it the best I can.

Meanwhile, after school everyday, we try activating our powers from the bracelets. We consider asking the High Angel, but decide against it, thinking that we can figure it out ourselves.