Chapter 20 #2
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to us.
” Lee gave me one last concerned look before he started to walk Shaw away.
“C’mon, brother. Let’s get some water or something.
We’re good. Alright? We’re good.” Shaw looked back at me one last time as Vail followed, nodding respectively to Mr. Kennard before he walked out, closing the door to the classroom shut behind himself.
“Okay, everyone… calm down, please! Let’s settle down,” Mr. Kennard said, all calm and bright, which helped ease the nerves of the students.
“I want you to get out your homework assignments from the weekend. Mr. Dumas? Would you please collect them for me? Thank you. Miss Cooper,” he called out to me.
I moved over to his desk while the other students got their assignments out.
“Miss Cooper, you have missed quite a few classes,” he said, concerned.
“I know, I’m sorry.” This is precisely what I was worried about. I’d missed two week’s worth of work. “I was really, really sick…” Even to me, that excuse sounded fake and lame.
But to Mr. Kennard’s credit, he didn’t call me out on it. “I see.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “You had been doing so well before your unfortunate… illness. I want to see you pass this course. I can give you some work to do for extra credit-”
“Yes, please!” I said, accidentally cutting him off. “I mean, sorry to interrupt, but yes. I’ll take the extra work. I know I can catch up.”
He smiled warmly and nodded, reaching for the papers that Daniel Dumas collected for him. “I know you can, too. So please see me after school, and we’ll quickly put together a plan for you.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you!” I reminded myself not to blow this chance he was giving me. The last thing I wanted was to have to take my twelfth year over. As soon as spring would come, the boys and I would be graduating, and then we were getting the fuck out.
I went back to my desk, feeling relieved that English wouldn’t be a problem.
It was Math 30 that I was worried about, as Mr. Fortin hated my guts since that very first day when Vail carried me out and has since continued being a major douche by calling me out in class every day for answers even when I hadn’t raised my hand.
When I got them wrong (which was most of the time), he liked to make some remark about how the fancy private school I went to wasn’t worth the money. I seriously hate that guy.
Class settled down, and Mr. Kennard started instructing us about our English 30 diploma examinations.
We went over how we were to interpret literary text and break down the sentences to determine what the writer was saying.
I dutifully took notes, noticing that beside me, Haldon was taking this as seriously as I was, his notebook covered in elegant handwriting as he copied everything Mr. Kennard was scribbling on the board.
Class was about halfway over when the phone on Mr. Kennard’s desk rang with a shrill
“Quiet please,” he told us as soon as several girls started chattering, taking advantage of his distraction to quickly catch up. I took a moment myself, stretching my fingers, my hand cramping from taking so many notes, when I heard him call, “Miss Cooper? You’re wanted in the office.”
I furrowed my brow. “In the office?”
Mr. Kennard still had the phone to his ear, and he looked as confused as I felt as he listened to whoever was on the other end.
“Can it not wait until after class? Miss Cooper has a lot to catch up on from her absence-” He stopped abruptly, cut off by the person on the other end, but he did not look pleased.
Sighing heavily, he hung and nodded to me.
“I’m sorry, Miss Cooper. But Ms. Hoffman insists that it is of utmost importance.
” He rolled his eyes, and now I understood why he was so put off.
If I had to talk to that miserable receptionist each day, I’d probably feel the same.
“Principal Weiser will meet you in his office.”
I gathered up my belongings, figuring that if this “important matter” was gonna be time-consuming, I might not be making it back to class.
“I’m going with her,” Haldon said, getting his things together, too.
“No, Haldon, don’t,” I said, guilt now stewing away in my stomach. “Stay and take notes for both of us. I don’t want you to miss out on-”
“Daniel will share his notes with us. You aren’t going alone,” he said in that matter-of-fact way. Mr. Kennard didn’t even argue with him as we both left the room. We walked down the hall to the stairwell, but I still felt shitty for making him have to miss class just to walk me to the office.
“I’m so sorry,” I told him, my cheeks red. “This is so stupid…”
“It is not.” He didn’t sound at all bothered, but it still wasn’t making me feel any better.
“Vendetta sticks together, yes? We are family.” His French was incredibly pronounced in that sentence, making it sound all the more beautiful, and they filled me with warmth.
He was right. It didn’t matter where you came from.
It was who you chose to surround yourself with, the people who had your back no matter what, who were your real family.
We reached the top of the steps, about to head down, when a loud shout echoed up the winding stairwell.
“Excuse me, but what do you think you are doing?” A loud voice, one I knew was Principal Weiser’s from the deep masculine baritone.
No one else in school sounded like that, and I remembered it from the day Vendetta and the Jackals had that fight in the cafeteria.
Haldon and I both stopped in our tracks, listening for a second when…
BOOM!
I fell backwards, the building shaking and the breath of hot air coming up the steps. I swear, it felt like my eyebrows were singed off. Beside me, Haldon crumpled but quickly sat up, his black eyes fixed on the top of the stairs.
“What the hell is happen-” I cried, but was cut off.
BOOM!
From another part of the school, another loud explosion rattled the building.
The overhead lights flickered and at once, the fire alarms went off, followed by the sprinkler system.
All down the hall, classroom doors opened, and in a panic, wave after wave of students came running, terrified, desperate to escape.
I felt Haldon’s hands pull me up to my feet before the stampede of kids could trample me. I could hear teachers shouting, demanding that everyone remain calm and file out as we had practiced, when…
BOOM!
A third explosion, this time coming from above, rattled the building, and several ceiling panels fell onto the students who were running beneath them.
Haldon held me close, his long hair stuck to his forehead, cheeks, and neck as he looked one way and then the other, trying to determine which way was the safest. We wouldn’t be heading down that stairwell, not after hearing what Principal Weiser had said before the first one went off.
Someone was there. Someone was waiting.. .
“Viens avec moi. Vite!” he shouted over the blare of the alarms, and he dragged me up the west hallway, fighting against the crowd. I followed, holding onto his hand tightly, bracing myself for another explosion when a different sound echoed down the halls… screams. Kids were screaming.
“Merde…” Haldon swore and pulled me aside as students scattered, running any which way now. From down the hall, I saw Mr. Kennard and two other teachers ushering students away from the stairs, trying to calm them all while I saw the panic evident on their faces.
The screaming escalated, and smoke started billowing down the halls and through the open gaps in the ceiling. A fresh wave of students came tearing down from the third floor, only to be stopped at the sight of the flames blocking them from this stairwell.
“The west stairs!” Haldon shouted out suddenly. “Run to the west stairs!”
He was right. There had been three explosions, one here near the front of the school, one that sounded as though it came from the back, and the last one from the roof.
That meant there were two possible exits…
the cafeteria, and the basement, which had an emergency exit leading to the back buildings, and two storage trailers that lined up with the outdoor basketball court.
Mr. Kennard had heard him and started instructing kids to head further up the west hall, pausing every few seconds to look back over his shoulder. Haldon took my hand and pulled me along as we joined the crowd.
“Back, get back!” Someone was screaming from up ahead. “Let her go! Stop!”
I tried to see what the hell was going on, but my stupid five-foot-five wasn’t helping, even when I tried to get up on my tiptoes.
“Fucking let her go now, asshole!”
I spun to see Daniel Dumas, the member of Vendetta who sat in English with us, and ran the safehouse for us, glaring over the crowd, absolute fury etched upon his face.
“Right fucking now!” Daniel shouted to be heard over the alarms and screaming.
I couldn’t hear a response, but at his words, Haldon stopped me and spun us around. We pulled back, moving away from the west end just as Daniel pushed his way forward, desperate to reach whomever he was yelling at.
We cut down a hallway that ran through the middle of the school, a shortcut for kids having to reach a class on the opposite side. The smoke was building, getting thicker and heavier and I ran hunched over, coughing as I tried not to breathe any of it in.
Behind us, the screaming escalated, and I could hear the teachers shouting, but their words were cut out from the chaos. The noise was deafening, my heart racing, and I clung to Haldon, praying that we were all going to get out of this alive.