Mel walked down the long main corridor of the expansive male dorm hall. He was trying to find his way back to the Arboretum, but couldn't find his way out. Luckily, someone came his way.

"Looking for something?" Gemini called from behind him in her strong French accent.

"Gemini! I'm so glad to see-" Mel stopped short. "What are you doing in the boys dorm hall?" he almost shouted.

"I was looking for Rusty. He came to look for you,"

"But you don't belong in here," Mel persisted impatiently.

"And you do, no? Since you have not registered yet, you're not an official member of this dorm," Gemini countered, putting her hands on her hips in a mock severe way.

"I'm working on that. My mom should be getting off of work right about now. I'm sure she'll be down here soon."

"Mel! There you are! I've been looking all over for you. Where've you been," Rusty inquired, breathless from running up and down the halls.

"I've been...handling business. This dorm is so large that I must have gotten lost. You can thank your girl for finding me," Mel said, hinting to Rusty.

Rusty sweeped Gemini into a long, luscious kiss. Mel smiled and rolled his eyes in a mock disgustedly way. "The words 'thank you' would've been OK, but not for you two crazy kids. Now go on, you two head back to the Arboretum before you miss something."

"Mel, do you plan on getting lost again?" Rusty questioned. "You'd better come along with us before something happens."

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much. I've got to wait for my mother up at the administration building. If she's not there, I've got to call her and give her directions. I'll see y'all later," Mel called, running off down the long horizontal hallway that lead outdoors near the administration building.

Mel stopped running for a second to find a restroom. He searched several doorways. There was one doorway that was almost hidden by a wall and the black painting that coated the long hallway. It intrigued him, so he decided to look inside. What he found was mind-baffling.

Trace & Allan had broken off wisely from Brent's predicament and made their way to their seats near the back of the Arboretum. While the speaker's voice drone on and on, Trace was talking to Allan.

"I've got to find the best candidate for Miss Midway, and soon. I can't have a messed-up, trashy girl for my date, now can I?" Trace inquired rhetorically. Trace had been elected Mr. Midway of the summer carnival, and it was his job to judge and elect Miss Midway.

"Well, now," Allan replied, not picking up on the rhetorical quality of Trace's question. "Why not pick Amber? She has been voted Miss Midway for the past three years, so why stop the trend?"

"Because, man. I want somebody new, fresh. Amber gets a little old after a while," Trace replied, almost whining.

"Then who are you going to pick, huh?" Allan said in impatient tones. With his girlfriend out of town, he wasn't ready to discuss anyone else's dating life.

"I don't know. That's why I need your help."

"Hold on a minute," Allan said, almost standing up. "I'm not going to help you pick some desperate girl for some stupid contest. That's your own business."

"Come on. Don't be sore just because Francesca's away. I'm sure that soon Brent and I will find a way to get your mind off of her. But for now, you've gotta help me." Trace begged.

"Whatever," Allan said carelessly.

Just then, Jake walked passed them, and an idea shot into Trace's head. "I've just found the perfect Miss Midway."

"Who?" Allan asked, interested.

"None other than Miss Kimberly Anderson," Trace answered triumphantly.

Brent spun around quickly and faced the girl who had put her hands over his eyes. His eyes widened when he saw who it was. "Eve Lancaster! What in the world are you doing back here so soon?"

Eve laughed light-heartedly. "I decided not to go with my parents to Spain this year. I just couldn't stand the thought of you being so lonesome for me here."

"Oh, yeah? Well I was just about to get my groove on. As soon as this man's welcoming speech is over, it's going to be on!" Brent teased, his eyes laughing and his mouth spread into a big grin.

"Well, I could've gone back to Fernando in Spain. He has a thing for me, you know. Every summer he tries to get me to "get" with him. I've been thinking about taking up his offer," Eve said in serious tones, though she was really teasing.

Brent's smug grin disappeared quickly. "Eve, don't even play like that. You know I wouldn't stand for you getting with another man!"

Eve looked at Brent incredulously. "You don't control me, Brent, so don't even try!"

"OK, ok. I understand. But still, that's not funny, Eve," Brent said solemnly.

"Whatever. Come on, let's head out to the park to show each other just how much we missed each other," Eve said romantically, looking at Brent with sparkling eyes.

"As much as I'd love to, Eve, I've got to stay here with Allan & Trace. Allan's been in the dumps lately about Francesca, so I don't want him to think I'm not there for him. Can you understand?"

"Yes, I suppose," Eve lied. She wanted to be with Brent. "Well, if you can't come with me, I'm going to go hang out with the girls. I'll see you later," she said, blowing a kiss to Brent as she walked away.

"Wow!" Brent said to himself. "What a woman. I couldn't imagine having to be away from her. I don't know how I'd get over it. Unless I had a party..." Brent said, smiling. "Aha! That's it! I've gotta go tell Trace!" Brent said, running out of the Arboretum.

"Kim?!" Allan shouted incredulously. "You know she's going with Jake!"

"So? It's just for the dance, anyways. I'm going to make sure that Kim wins."

"Oh, and how are you going to do that?"

"I can't tell you. You just wait and see who Miss Midway turns out to be, Allan." Trace answered smugly.

"I still think Francesca's going to win. I signed her up, you know," Allan countered.

"Look, I'm not going to argue with you. I told you I think is going to happen, so you just wait and see. Kim's going to be Miss Midway, and more importantly, my date."

"What did you say, Trace?" Jake's voice boomed angrily from behind Trace.

Trace's eyes flew wide open. He turned around slowly. "Jake...I...I...I..." he stammered, searching for some way to get himself out of the way of Jake's fury.

Jake grabbed Trace by the collar of Trace's shirt. "If I ever catch you so much as looking Kim's way..."

"Then what?" Trace said, jerking Jake's hand away from his collar and getting up in Jake's face. "What are you going to do?"

"Then I'm going to make sure that you're in absence for the Miss Midway election, for the entire summer carnival, and probably for the entire coming school year. You'll be too busy asking the nurses at the hospital to give you some water, because seeing as how your hands, and entire body, would be bandaged, you couldn't do it yourself," Jake snarled. "And don't think I'm joking, because there are plenty of boys out there who can let you know that I'm dead serious."

"What in the world..." Mel murmured as his eyes feasted on the room. The walls were glass. Images of a startled young boy were all around him, staring at him, almost laughing at him. There was a magnificent cedarwood closet that stood against the wall. A long table stood in the center of the room, with chairs set evenly and primly along its sides. "This is unbelievable."

Mel heard footsteps coming down the hallway. He had no time to hide, so he just turned around to see who it was that had discovered him.

Brent walked past the dark room, then spun around and walked into it. "This wasn't here before," he said softly, his eyes gazing into the mirrors just as Mel had done minutes before. "I wonder what-" he stopped suddenly as he realized he wasn't alone. He could make out the figure of a person in the dim light, but he couldn't see who it was. "Who's there?" he demanded.

"I was about to ask the same thing. I'm Mel Clark. Who are you?"

"Brent. I've never heard of you before. Are you new?"

"Yeah. I was looking for a restroom when I found this place. What is it?"

"I don't know," Brent glanced at the closet and the long table. "I've never seen it before. I don't ever remember anybody talking about it either."

"It's strange. Look at all of this high-tech equipment," Mel said, pointing at the long row of computers on teh back wall, at the large screen embeded in the glass wall on the eastern side, and at a moderate-sized computer panel on the western wall next to the cedar closet.

"It's strange. I don't even remember our teachers talking about it," Brent said suspiciously, fingering the slick long table.

"I wonder what the kids would think about this," Mel murmured.

Just then, Mel & Brent noticed that someone was behind them. A tall man dressed in black had pressed a button, and now a sold, thick glassed wall was sliding into the place of the door. Unknown to Mel & Brent, the door was solid black on the outside. The two ran to the door to stop it from closing, but it was too late. They were trapped inside.