“No one expected the day to turn out the way it did….no one.”

The day started out completely normal; the students woke up and got on the bus like any other day and when they got to school moaning and groaning saying, “I don’t want to be here.”, “I have a test today…” or even, “I’m tired…”it was nothing new for the teachers everything was the same; it is wondered if anyone knew or even had an odd feeling about the lurking horror that waits just around the corner. The halls were left deserted as the last few stragglers arrived in class. No one expected anything to go wrong….

Mackenzie ‘Mack’ Erickson, a sixteen year old girl with curly blonde hair and blue eyes and wearing her soccer jersey for the championship game that weekend, was sitting in her tenth grade honors geometry math class drumming a pencil against her textbook willing the time to pass quicker so she could go home and see her father who had been away in the armed forces for nine months. “Mackenzie…… Mackenzie…… Mackenzie Erickson.” Mack looks up to see her wretched geometry teacher Mrs. Harrison who has shoulder length hair as stiff as a board, glasses, and an upturned nose glaring down at her. Mack and her friends would always joke about how her nose matches her attitude because of the fact that she always seems to feel as though she is better than everyone else. Clearing her throat and setting down her pencil which had stopped in mid-tap Mack responds, “Yes Mrs. Harrison?” “I was asking you for the answer to the problem, but obviously you were not paying attention, can you even tell me what we are learning Mackenzie?” Mrs. Harrison questions glaring down at Mack threw her thin silver-wired glasses “Uhhh…. Math?” She hears a few coughs that are too loud and powerful to be real possibly hiding laughs and/or laughs. “Very funny… now if you are not going to pay attention to my class you probably should not be in it, don’t you think?” Not waiting for a response from Mack Mrs. Erickson continues, “Now go wait in the hall.” Huffing Mack stands grabs her things and goes into the hall.

Jackson Smith, a seventeen year old junior with jet black hair and hazel eyes, sits alone in a secluded corner of the art room, removed from the rest of the class in such a way that it looks purposeful, he is drawing. He does not need to see the crumpled up paper ball hit the table to know that it does. He doesn’t even read the paper just scoots it off into the trash can next to his desk continuing to draw. He sits peacefully for the next few minutes until another ball hits the table, ignoring it like the first one Jackson continues not even bothering to throw it away soon another ball joins the second, and another, and another getting slightly annoyed Jackson looks up to see a group of boys writing on paper and throwing it at him it goes on like this for a few minutes the boys throwing paper at him and Jackson trying to ignore the fact of it until finally after five minutes one hits him in the forehead, and finally having enough Jackson straightened out the paper seeing a phrase written on it, ‘ didn’t your mom teach you how to dress? Oh wait that’s right she’s dead…’ holding back tears Jackson looks up to see the boys fake crying and snickering to each other, another ball hits his head as much as he wants to ignore it he cannot and straightens out the paper, ‘cry-baby’. Jackson stands up and walks to the door throwing it open sending one last look to the boys he walks out into the hallway and to the nearest bathroom that is across from Mrs. Harrison’s classroom and he swears to himself he can hear a classroom full of laughter.

Elizabeth Briggs, a senior, is listening attentively to her teacher lecture about the civil war, specifically The Battle of Gettysburg, taking down notes, and her phone stowed away in her back pocket when the first gunshot goes off. BANG! Immediately its mass terror rippling like a wave throughout  the entire classroom,everyone freezes and then the next shot goes off quickly followed by another, BANG! BANG! The teacher Mr. Ronan looks around quickly then whisper yells at a student by the door to turn the lights off. When the lights go off Mr. Ronan tells everyone to go sit in the corner as tightly packed by his desk specifically telling everyone not to make any noise or any sudden movements. BANG! The next shot sends a shock wave rippling throughout the class everyone is terrified but listening to their teacher, and keeping quiet praying that if they keep quiet enough no one will come to their door. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG… at least fifteen more shots are fired that’s enough to be an entire class room. Elizabeth realizing this stealthily slides her phone out of her pocket and opens text-messages shielding the brightness of her phone screen behind her back she types nine-one-one and types ‘help’ and presses send. Another round of twenty or thirty shots go off in the background. The door knob on the classroom door twists but doesn’t turn completely, Mr. Ronan had locked it. BANG! A quick shot is fired at the door knob and it breaks off. Feeling herself shaking Elizabeth grabs her knees and hugs them to her holding her breath trying to curl into herself making herself disappear. ‘This cannot be happening I have to be dreaming I have to be having a terrible, terrible nightmare.’ Deep down Elizabeth knows that she isn’t having a nightmare that this is real and she really is about to die from a shot to the head. The door opens and the heavy weight of a foot step can be heard but before the other one can be heard Elizabeth hears almost a battle cry as she sees through the small gap in her knees Mr. Ronan charging at the intruder, tackling said person to the ground. Everyone is frozen watching the scene go off in front of them no one knowing what to do until finally a shot is heard. BANG! Mr. Ronan falls to the side gasping for air as he holds a hand to his side, even in the darkness Elizabeth can see a dark color seeping through his fingers the intruder stands up and points a gun at Mr. Ronan’s head. BANG. The gasps that were the only noise in the room fall silent Mr. Ronan’s body falls to the ground with a thud. The intruder walks around the room as if looking for something, students to kill. The intruder finds them. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Four of Elizabeth’s classmates and friends fall to the ground never to move again. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Four more, Elizabeth sees the gun being pointed at her. She closes her eyes blocking out all sound just hoping for it to be over. ‘I want my mom and dad,’ was all she thought and then she feels the extreme pain of a bullet wound for the first and hopefully only time in her life. Not in her head like she thought it would be though, but in her foot. She looks up confused seeing the face of her attacker and just barely making out the sounds of sirens as the gun is raised again not at her this time but towards the intruders own head, BANG, the final shot of the day. Later that day as the parents start to arrive desperate to see if there children are all right, if they made it out alive. Elizabeth Briggs is put onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital, she will survive, scarred for life, physically and emotionally, but will survive luckier than most.

As soon as the first student steps out tension rises, you can hear a mother cry and run to her daughter. Many more follow, but not nearly enough it is not until later when everyone whose child did not show up gathers around a police officer who himself is holding back tears as her reads off the names of the dead:

Chris Ronan a teacher that protected his students until the end.

The entire art classroom, except for a boy named Jackson Smith. More than eighty seven more names were called at the last name the officer’s voice cracks,

Mackenzie Erickson presumed to be the first to die while she was comforting a friend (Jackson Smith) outside of a classroom. It is currently unknown as to why she was in the hallway; she never got to play in her championship soccer game. But most importantly never got to see her father one last time.