Chapter ThirteenTaylor
AP Physics. A.k.a., a piece of cake. For me, at least. Our exam was next week, and Ms. Dowley kept going over the same problems. I had the material down, and I thought I might lose my mind as she kept repeating herself. How could the rest of the class not get it?
I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t need to. I was in the back of the class, with Ellie next to me, and we were writing notes in my notebook. From where we sat, we weren’t too worried about the teacher catching us.
Ms. Dowley had stopped chewing me out for not paying attention anyway. At the beginning of the year, she would constantly call me out, and she even gave me detention, but once she saw how good my grades were, she decided to leave me in peace.
I wondered if Ellie got good grades, or if she should be paying attention instead of passing me notes. But I didn’t really care. She was making class more fun.How’s your day, Webber?I wrote and slid the pad back to her.
The day before had sucked. I’d found out my girlfriend was in love with my brother, and I’d seen that weirdo who was obsessed with her out in the school parking lot. But I had found out Ellieliked me, and that had made me feel good.
I’m not going to lie and say I had my eye on her before. Even now, it wasn’t like I was trying to hook up, but she was cool, and she thought I was cool, and even if she was my ex-girlfriend’s best friend, I had to admit she was one of the few people who had been straight with me at this school.
It’s 8:20 in the morning. There’s your answer, she replied, eliciting a laugh. I looked up at her. Sitting together had been my idea. Maybe it was wrong, but her company was helping me get over the pain I was trying so hard to hide from the people closest to me.
I was still upset about my fight with my brother, but I wouldn’t take back what I said. I wanted him to stay away from me and from Kami. Acting like we could trust each other, like everything was cool—all that was over, it had been for months already.
Stop complaining and focus on your wave functions, I wrote and leaned back.
She shot me a killer glare, then jotted down the theorem we were working on from memory. I pulled the notebook away from her and wrote,Congratulations, you’re smarter than you look.
Smarter than you, I bet, she wrote back.
“Di Bianco and Webber, can you pay attention, please?”
We looked up at Ms. Dowley and nodded in silence. But we kept passing notes back and forth, and the questions turned more personal. I have to admit, that was my fault. I don’t know why, but I wanted to know more about her: her life, her hobbies, her interests.
I was surprised to find out there was more to her than what I’d thought. For me, she had been the typical pretty cheerleader. But as she told me more about herself, I started to realize why she had been Kami’s best friend for so long. Our notes back and forth, and the laughter they provoked, was the best thing so farabout the morning. Not that it was hard to outdo arguing with my brother and being reprimanded by the teacher for ignoring her boring explanations.
As class dragged on, Ellie and I slipped into a little world of our own.
But then we heard it. Close.
Too close.
The first shot made us jump out of our seats, and we all fell silent for a second that stretched on like an eternity.
Then the screams came.
And then a lot more shots.
They were coming from the classroom next door. We were petrified, but the real shock came when the door that connected that room with ours seemed to shake and the screams got louder.
I shot up, grabbed Ellie’s hand, and pulled her out into the hallway. I could hear other students behind me doing the same a few seconds later.
Just a few seconds. But those seconds were crucial.
It was utter chaos. Nobody knew what to do; none of the stuff we’d learned in protocols as kids did any help. I looked over and saw who was behind this nightmare: a tall guy with a muscular build and an AK-47. He had dark hair in a buzz cut and matching dark eyes. Julian.
As soon as I saw him, I knew this would be the end.
For a lot of people. But almost certainly the end for her.
We ran downstairs in a crowd of students desperate to flee from the slaughter.
All I could see in my mind was the exit. If we made it there, we’d be safe. But that thought wasn’t comforting. Because Kami and my brother weren’t there, and if they were stuck inside, they’d need help.
What I saw as I reached the hallway on the lower floor wassomething I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
