It's been a couple of months since the first day of school.
In that time, I came up with a goal.
I don't remember much about my past life, but the older I get, the more I start to remember. Not full memories—just fragments.
Mostly… my age.
I remember a lot up to where I am now. When I was five in my past life, I was in kindergarten. I didn't have any friends. I kept to myself and spent most of my time alone.
I can't even remember my teacher's name, but I remember he tried.
He tried to talk to me. Tried to get me involved.
Tried to be my friend.
And I turned him down every time.
I don't know why.
But now that I understand that much, I realize something.
I can't use my past life to get ahead.
But I can use it to get ahead of who I used to be.
So that's my goal.
To be better than I was before.
And as I recover more fragments—maybe even full memories—I'll be able to tell if this life has actually surpassed the last.
A lot happened over the next few months.
Winter came, and where I live, it gets cold.
Really cold.
I live in a small rural town in ■■■■■■■. There isn't much here. A mall, three schools, and a small ski hill about thirty minutes away.
Because it's so small—and hardly anyone comes through—I'm allowed to go pretty much anywhere I want, as long as I'm back before curfew.
I've grown closer to my friends.
Close enough to be considered part of the core group.
Which means I've learned a lot about them.
George is even more eccentric than I thought. Whenever we hang out, we usually end up chasing him wherever he decides to go. It's like he physically can't stay still for too long.
Leo is the one who keeps him in check. He's always aware of what's going on, always watching, making sure George doesn't do something completely stupid.
Mel…
We get along better now.
It's still hard to start conversations with her, but we talk sometimes. Usually about whatever she's reading.
Or about how to deal with George.
About a month ago, George got bored.
And when George gets bored, that becomes everyone's problem.
Leo came up with an idea first.
"Why don't we bike across town as fast as we can?"
"Oh! Good idea—let's go up Main Street and race to 25th!"
As they talked, I mapped out the route in my head.
That's when I remembered the old factory building near 24th, right by 25th.
It was on the way.
Dad told me it used to produce reinforced concrete, but it had been abandoned for years. Now it was just an empty warehouse.
"I'm in," I said.
Mel sat out and volunteered to be the referee, waiting near the end of 25th.
"Ready… set…"
"GO!"
The race went about how you'd expect.
George burned out early after starting way too fast.
He still won.
Leo and I kept a steady pace. Our speeds were almost identical. I probably could've beaten him, but it didn't feel worth it.
When the race ended, George immediately started trash-talking us anyway.
On the way back, he spotted the factory.
"Hey! Let's go in there!"
I already knew he would say that.
"The old factory?" I asked.
Mel immediately shook her head.
"No way! It looks haunted! And we might get in trouble or something…"
Her voice faded at the end.
Like she already knew it wouldn't matter.
Leo stepped in.
"The gate's locked. And there's barbed wire on the fence."
"Oh…"
That was enough to shut George down.
For now.
We dropped Mel off first.
And the second she was gone, George brought it back up.
They started talking about ways to get inside.
I suggested we walk around it first.
So we did.
There was no easy way in.
But we did find something.
A section of the fence that looked like animals had dug underneath it.
So we made it bigger.
It took about an hour of digging with our hands, but eventually it was just big enough to crawl through.
We thought about going in right then.
But we were tired.
So we decided to come back the next day—with Mel.
When I got home that night, Mom took one look at me and immediately started yelling about how filthy I was.
The next day at lunch, we told Mel about the hole.
She wasn't happy we did it without her.
But after a bit of convincing, she agreed to come.
After school, I told my sister I wouldn't be walking home with her.
She asked what we were doing.
Since she's still young, I didn't think much of telling her the truth.
She was interested.
More than I expected.
So I asked if she wanted to come.
I told her I'd check with the others first.
I brought her over and introduced them.
"Melanie, these are my friends—George, Leo, and Mel."
Both of them perked up immediately.
"Nice to meet you all. Hello, Mel!"
That's when Leo noticed it.
"Hey… don't the two Melanies look alike?"
I hadn't thought about it before.
But they really did.
They both had short, neat dark hair, styled almost the same way.
But the difference was obvious once you looked closer.
Mel kept her head slightly down, her hair falling forward like it was always in the way on purpose. Combined with her glasses, it made it hard to get a clear look at her face.
Melanie didn't do that.
She stood straighter. More open.
More visible.
"Hey, Mel," I said, "can you push your hair back and take off your glasses?"
She hesitated.
Then did it.
George blinked.
"Whoa… they look like twins."
"Melanie's just a little taller," Leo added.
"Same name, same face… what is this town?" George laughed.
By then, we had reached the factory.
We checked the hole and crawled through one by one. Melanie struggled a bit more because of her height, but made it through.
After that, she naturally took the lead.
Probably because she felt responsible for us.
George was already excited again.
We walked around the building, but every door was locked.
No way in.
George's mood dropped immediately.
"How are we supposed to get in now?"
I pointed toward the office window.
"There's already a hole there."
There was a rock sitting just inside.
Someone had already tried.
They just didn't finish it.
Leo picked up a rock and threw it.
Then another.
George joined in.
Within minutes, the entire window was shattered.
Melanie used her coat to clear the glass from the frame.
And we climbed inside.
The office was small.
Bare.
Empty.
No furniture. No door.
We stepped through into the main warehouse.
It was massive.
Like two basketball courts side by side.
High ceiling. Open space. Nothing inside.
George looked around, grinning.
"Wow… there really is nothing here!"
"Oh… it echoes," Melanie said.
Leo looked just as excited.
"There's so much we can do here."
We spent hours inside.
Running around.
Yelling.
Playing.
No one watching.
No one stopping us.
But the best part wasn't that.
It was the privacy.
It was hidden.
Tucked away.
Like it belonged only to us.
Mel picked up on that too.
"We should keep this place a secret… like a base or something…"
George immediately agreed.
"I like it! Our secret base!"
Leo nodded.
"We should bring stuff. Make it feel real."
"Yeah," George added, "we can even set up a basketball court."
Over time, we did exactly that.
The space slowly filled with random things.
Mel and Leo brought books and comics.
George brought a net so we could play tennis.
I found a metal disc, and somehow, Melanie managed to hammer it into the wall so we could use it as a basketball hoop.
Little by little…
It stopped feeling empty.
It started feeling real.