Storm Runners

Chase and Nicole arrive at school in a half-empty bus. She walks him to the office, where he checks in and meets the principal, Dr. Krupp. She chats with Chase briefly about the Rossis, including Nicole’s brother Tony, who attended school there with distinction and later became a football star at the University of Georgia.

Looking around the office, Chase notices Dr. Krupp’s family photo. Her husband looks like a movie star, while she’s ordinary looking. Somehow, he recognizes her husband but cannot place him.

Typically, parents bring their kids to a new school, but Chase’s dad is away looking for work. Chase tells Dr. Krupp she can call his dad—he wears his phone around his neck on a lanyard—but she’s not concerned.

Dr. Krupp places Chase in all of Nicole’s classes except PE. At 8:45 a.m., the hurricane offshore begins to move again. Students watch the TV weather news, which foretells Emily making landfall near St. Petersburg, as predicted by Chase’s dad. Chase focuses on the view outside the window, where the sky has turned gray and the wind has kicked up. He gets a “strange feeling” about it, a sense that the forecasters are wrong, and wonders if this is how his dad guesses the weather.