Free Timeless by Alexandra Monir

time. Had it all actually happened? But now she had her first day of school to face.
    She had never been the new girl in school before, and starting in the middle of the year made it extra brutal. With a sigh, she pulled her cell phone from her bedside table to check her messages. The first text was from Kristen’s phone: WE LOVE YOU, GIRL! Good luck tomorrow, we’re thinking of you and hoping it goes okay. Call us after! Xoxoxoxoxo, K & A . Michele read the text a second time, overcome with a fierce longing for herfriends. It was going to be so weird being in school without them.
    Unable to sleep any longer, Michele decided to use her extra time for getting ready. The strict Berkshire dress code meant that most of her own clothes were out, but her grandparents had instructed Annaleigh to buy her a first-day outfit: a white button-down shirt paired with a knee-length plaid skirt. Bare legs weren’t allowed, so Michele found a pair of nude nylons to wear with her black ballet flats. She couldn’t help cringing as she looked in the mirror. This überpreppy look was not her.
    Michele blow-dried her hair, put on some light makeup, and then headed downstairs to the morning room. As usual, Annaleigh was at the table, sipping green tea while she looked over her to-do list. Classical music played lightly from the nearby radio. Annaleigh had offered to have breakfast brought up to Michele’s room in the mornings, but it made Michele feel even lonelier to eat alone in her room, so she preferred to join Annaleigh.
    “Good morning,” Michele greeted her, plopping into an empty chair.
    Annaleigh looked at her approvingly. “Good morning, dear. You look great. How are you feeling?”
    “Pretty nervous,” Michele admitted as the kitchen maid, Lucie, placed a glass of orange juice and a plate of sizzling bacon and eggs in front of her. She gave Lucie an awkward smile of thanks, still uncomfortable with the whole concept of being served like this.
    “Don’t worry. I can’t imagine that you’ll have any trouble making friends,” Annaleigh assured her. “I bet everyone’s excitedto have a Windsor back at Berkshire. And besides, you already know Caissie.”
    Michele nodded politely, thinking that Annaleigh clearly underestimated the Exclusive-with-a-capital- E high school clique system, which rarely admitted intruders.
    The two of them fell silent, and as the symphony playing on the radio faded out, a new one began—and Michele nearly spilled her juice in shock. She knew that music. It stirred something in her, an aching for something that she couldn’t quite remember. She had heard this symphony before, somewhere important. She knew she had. But where?
    Suddenly, those mesmerizing blue eyes filled her mind. This was the song that he was whistling in the hall of mirrors from her recurring dream—the handsome stranger.
    “Michele, what in the world is the matter?” Annaleigh asked, clearly alarmed by Michele’s sudden frozen state.
    “This song—I’ve heard it before,” she said shakily.
    Annaleigh looked at Michele quizzically. “Well, yes, I would imagine that you have. It’s one of Schubert’s most notable compositions.”
    Michele nodded, but she knew that she had never heard it before, aside from in her dream. As the song ended, the deejay announced, “You’re listening to 96.3 FM, New York’s premier classical music station. You just heard Phoenix Warren and the New York Philharmonic with Schubert’s Serenade .”
    “Phoenix Warren,” Michele said with a small smile. “My mom named me after his composition Michele . That’s why my name is spelled with only one L .”
    “Really? I love that piece. It’s so beautiful.” Annaleigh beganhumming it under her breath. Just then, her phone beeped with a text message. “Oh, Fritz just arrived. You’d better get going. You can’t be late for the first day of school!”
    Michele nodded nervously, pushing back her chair and heaving her bag over her