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School Day The Original Story (Part 2)
By Aragorn
In Science Class, the teacher, Mrs. Grunow, was handing out a worksheet to the class. The door suddenly opened and Mark walked in, looking sheepish. He was very rarely ever late for class and when he was, he felt extremely bad about it.
“Why are you late, Mr. Abbott?” Mrs. Grunow narrowed her eyes at him.
“So…Sorry,” Mart stuttered from the pressure of having all eyes on him. “I was using the ba…ba…bathroom.” Mrs. Grunow turned back to continue handing out the worksheet. As Mark began to make his way to his desk, he stopped and looked down at his hands. He frustratingly stomped his foot.
The sound of someone stomping the floor caused Mrs. Grunow to turn around and face Mark once more. “Is there something wrong?” She asked.
“In my rush to get to class,” Mark replied. “I left my books in my locker. May I go get them?” His face turned beat red as he picked up on a few low giggles from within the room of students.
“Hurry back,” Mrs. Grunow sighed, not even bothering to get mad at the sensitive teen.
As Mark turned and left the room once more, Drew looked out the window and noticed that the snow was coming down faster and harder then before. It looked as if it was turning into a full-fledged storm. “It’s snowing bad!” Drew stated to the class.
The class once again diverted their attention to the windows, but Mrs. Grunow drew their attention back to their work by stating, “Come on now class, we’ve all seen snow before. Let’s get to work here.”
As Mike started to work on his worksheet, he whispered to Drew, “I hope it gets so bad that we get sent home early.” Drew agreed with him and also began his worksheet.
Mark soon returned to the room with his binder and textbook and took his seat. Everyone else in the class was forming into groups to work on the worksheet as Mrs. Grunow laid a copy on Mark’s desk.
Knowing it was useless to try to team up with anyone in the class, he took out a pen from his pocket to work on the sheet alone, but before he could write anything, the voice that belonged to the Principal of the school, Mr. Codarre, came over the P.A. system.
“Attention students and staff, due to the intensity that the snowstorm is expected to reach, it is with great displeasure that I announce that you will be sent home shortly,” Students could be heard cheering all over the school in union. Mr. Codarre continued, “You will be sent home in class order, starting with the lowest class and working its way up, so as to avoid high traffic in the halls.”
“Damn it!” Curtis shouted. The school only went up to Grade Nine, and their class number was 9B, which was the second and last Grade Nine class. They would be the last ones to leave the school.
“When do we have to come back to school?” A random student asked.
“I know as much as you guys,” Mrs. Grunow stated. “Listen to the radio in the mornings to find out.”
***
Forty-Five minutes later, everyone in the class of 9B were bored out of their minds as they waited anxiously for their class to be called.
Breaking the silence, Mr. Codarre’s voice came through the intercom one last time to call out their class. Everyone in the room cheered and quickly began to pile out of the room.
Some of the students looked through the windows on their way to the hall and noticed that the storm has gotten even worse during their wait.
***
Jimmy and Simone, who were both from the 9A class, had waited for Mike and Drew by their lockers and now the four friends were making their way to the main doors. Jeff, Danny, Allison, and Dillon were also all in different spots of the same hall, heading towards the main doors, but none of them were walking together.
Just before they reached the doors, the lights turned off, plunging the school into instant darkness as the power cut off.
“Shit,” Allison swore. “Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Gee, what gave you that feeling?” Jeff asked sarcastically. Allison stuck her tongue out at him, but was obscured by the darkness, which the students’ eyes had not yet adjusted to all the way.
Dillon stepped forward and pulled on the handles of the doors, but they wouldn’t budge. “The power must have locked up the magnetically-sealed doors,” he explained.
“Damn,” Drew complained. “I don’t want to be stuck in this school for God knows how long.”
“Maybe even days,” Mike groaned. “This is definitely not good.”
Jimmy chuckled, “It’s not so bad.” The others turned to look at him and he went on. “We could spend our time hiding in the dark and scaring Simone.” As Drew and Mike laughed, Simone slapped Jimmy painfully over the back of the head.
Jen emerged from the darkness of the hall and the others brought her up to speed on their situation. “Well, to pass the time we could always hang Jeff up and torture him,” Jen jokingly suggested, still sour about her run-in with Jeff over lunch.
“You’ll have to catch me first, bitch.” Jeff turned and took off down the hall, running full speed. Of course he knew better then to fool around immaturely in a situation like the one they were all in, so his plan was really to go to the office and ask Mr. Codarre what to do. He had to still be in the school.
As Jeff ran down the dark hall, he almost ploughed right into Mark and Curtis, who were both on their way to the front doors.
“What’s going on?” Curtis asked Jeff. “The storm’s knocked out the power.”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. “And those magnet doors can’t open without power running to them to open them. We’re stuck here until the power comes back on.”
“Could be worse,” Curtis stated. “I mean with a school this big, almost no other people, we can easily play hide and seek in the school, or we can even find many entertaining ways to frighten anyone else that’s stuck in here too.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Mark gave his opinion. “That sounds kind of mean.”
Jeff and Curtis laughed at Mark’s response as they headed back down the hall, on their way to the main office. Before long however, Mr. Codarre came across them in one of the halls.
“I’m rounding up everyone stuck in the school,” he informed them. “We’re going to all meet in the Cafeteria. Do you kids know of anyone else still in the school?”
“There used to be a group of people hanging out by the main doors,” Jeff told him. “But I don’t know if they’d still be there.”
“Head to the Cafeteria and I’ll be along shortly,” Mr. Codarre said. “There are already others waiting there.” And with that, Mr. Codarre continued on to round the others up as Jeff, Curtis, and Mark changed directions and began to make their way to the Cafeteria.
***
Drew, Mike, Jimmy, Simone, Allison, Dillon, and the newly-discovered Danny were all walking down a hall as one big group. Mr. Codarre had found them by the entrance and told them that he wanted them all to meet in the Cafeteria and to head there. Jimmy had informed him that there was another student, Jen Landry, who went off by herself only minutes before. Mr. Codarre said he’d look for her, but repeated that he wanted them to head directly to the Cafeteria. Along their way they had come across Danny and brought him up to speed on everything.
“God, I wish I could get drunk,” Allison sighed. “If I wasn’t locked in here, I’d probably be at Alicia’s party right now.”
“Speaking of drinking,” Simone stated. “I really need to use the bathroom.”
“Mr. Codarre said for us to go straight to the Cafeteria,” Drew reminded her.
“I won’t be long,” Simone argued. “I’ll meet you guys there.”
“It’s probably a good idea to use the bathroom now, before we all get settled down,” Dillon agreed.
“Well now I’ve got to go too,” Danny complained. While Simone headed off for the girl’s washroom, Dillon and Danny left for the men’s and everyone else continued on to the Cafeteria.
***
Many minutes later, Simone washed and dried her hands in the sink of the dark washroom and then walked out into the empty hallway. Man, this school is really dark, She thought to herself.
She walked down the hallway, headed for the Cafeteria, when she heard a clattering noise behind her. She stopped and turned to look. Through the darkness, she could faintly pick out a shape at the end of the hallway, holding something sideways in both hands.
“Hello?” She called out to the figure, but got no reply. Simone suddenly smiled, remembering that Jimmy was planning on scaring her. Thinking that the figure was Jimmy playing a prank on her, Savanna didn’t bother to move when the figure started to slowly walk towards her.
When the figure got closer, Simone noticed that Jimmy was dressed up as the Grim Reaper and that he was holding a toy scythe sideways in both hands. “Nice try, Jimmy,” Simone said, not buying the act for a second. “But I’m not falling for it.”
A slight glint of light from a nearby window glared off the scythe, catching Simone’s attention. She looked at the glint and realized that the only way it would reflect off the object was if it was metal, which would then mean that the scythe was real. And if the scythe was real then that meant…
Simone’s eyes shot wide as she uttered, “Oh shit,” and turned, taking off down the hall in a run. She looked behind her to see what her stalker was doing and saw that he was walking at a quick pace in her direction. When Simone turned her head back to face in front of her, she stopped.
In front of her were the gym doors. She tried to open them, but discovered that they were locked, as they always were when the room was not in use. She franticly looked around, but the only way out of the area was past Grim Reaper, who was now almost upon her.
“Please,” Simone begged, tears coming to her eyes. “Please don’t kill me.”
Grim Reaper ignored her as he approached. Grasping his scythe in both hands, he reared it back and swung it forward, digging it into Simone’s stomach. She let out a primal blood-curdling scream as blood flowed freely out of the massive wound.
Grim Reaper, unsatisfied that the blow did not kill her instantly, painfully tugged the scythe back out of Simone’s stomach, only to ram it in again, this time finishing the job.
***
In the Cafeteria, Allison sat at one of the dozens of tables in the room, joined only by Jen, who Mr. Codarre had came across in the halls earlier and brought to the Cafeteria. Drew, Mike, and Jimmy sat at another table, while Jeff, Curtis, and Mark sat at yet another, all three groups engaged in their own conversations.
Dillon walked into the room and went to sit at the table that Allison and Jen were sitting at. A few minutes later, Danny walked in and sat at Jeff, Curtis, and Mark’s table. Mr. Codarre, Mrs. Grunow, and Mr. Hovland, the school’s balding Social Studies teacher, all stood together by the snack bar counter, conversing quietly among themselves. “The back-up generator must have been damaged,” Mr. Codarre whispered, “in order for the power in the school to have gone out.”
“Maybe it wasn’t installed properly,” Mr. Hovland suggested. “It’s happened before at other schools, but thankfully it was always discovered before anything drastic happened.”
Mr. Codarre put his finger up to temporarily silence their conversation, and then turned to face the students in the room. “Is this everyone that you know of that is here in the school?” He asked the students.
They all looked around the room at one another in silence before Jimmy spoke up, “Simone is in the bathroom, but she’s the only other person I know of that’s still in the school. She should be here soon though.”
“We should discuss what we’re going to do,” Mr. Hovland turned to face Mr. Codarre once again, but said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
“There’s not much we can do until the city gets the power back on,” Mr. Codarre stated. “We can’t even call out to let people know that we’re in here, because it seems that the storm has knocked out the phone lines.”
“None of this is right,” Allison spoke up on the verge of frightful tears. “Does this not sound right to anybody else?” She had a bad feeling about the convenience of everything that had been happening and she really didn’t want to be in that school at the moment.
“There’s no reason to be scared,” Jeff sincerely told her. “It’s only a minor hiccup in the system. Power will be back on in no time.”
“Jeff’s right,” Dillon agreed. “It’s not like his story where there’s a killer dressed as Grim Reaper stalking us.”
“I know that, god damn it!” Allison snapped at him, fear driving her to show her mean side. Jeff was well-known among his classmates for his stories and his newest one had been read and liked by everyone, as it was the first of his stories to involve them as characters. Allison actually hadn’t even been thinking of that story until Dillon mentioned it, and even though she knew it was foolish to think about it, it only added to her fear.
***
As time slowly passed in the Cafeteria, everyone quickly grew extremely bored once again, conversations having long since gone dead, attempted to be revived, and returned to being dead once more.
“Simone should have been back by now,” Jimmy stated after a long five minutes of silence at his table.
“She could be trying to pull our legs,” Mike suggested. “As a way to scare us before we get the chance to scare her.”
Mr. Codarre overheard the conversation as he walked by the table. “Well I think that her prank is long overdue for an ending,” He said as he turned to face the direction that the teachers were in. “Mr. Hovland, there is still a female student in the school someplace. Would you be able to search for her and bring her back?”
“Sure thing,” Mr. Hovland replied as he grabbed the only flashlight in the room and left.
“We should all go look for her,” Drew suggested. “It’s a big school and it could take him a long time to search it all by himself.”
Mr. Codarre didn’t agree with that idea at all. He wanted everyone grouped together to keep track of them all easier, and he didn’t want all these people back roaming the halls again. However, he knew he had to try to keep everyone satisfied, so instead of saying that, he said, “If Mr. Hovland still hasn’t found her in an hour, than you can go help.”
Mr. Codarre knew that an hour was more then enough time for him to find a single student.
***
Over at Jeff’s table, the group sitting there was thinking of other things other then Simone. “This would be a perfect set-up for a horror movie,” Jeff stated gleefully.
“You watch way too many of those kinds of movies,” Curtis said to him.
Ignoring Curtis, Danny informed Jeff, “I heard a rumour that the new Halloween entry is supposed to take place in a school.”
“What are guys talking about?” Mark asked, annoyed. “Halloween is a day of the year.”
The table erupts with laughter as Danny mocked him, trying his best to badly impersonate Mark’s voice. “Halloween is a series of horror movies,” Curtis explained as he slowly stopped laughing.
“Well I don’t watch that crap, ok?” Mark defended his lack of knowledge on the subject matter. Danny laughed even harder, and Mark tried to change the topic. “So Curtis, about that StarCraft mission I was telling you about earlier, the third Terran mission, do you know how to pass it? Because no matter what I do, I…cannot…beat it!”
***
Mr. Hovland walked out into the dark hall from an empty classroom. He moved down the hall, shinning the flashlight beam around in front of him and calling out Simone’s name.
He had been searching for far longer then he felt he should have been. He checked all the bathrooms first, with no luck, and was convinced that she was hiding out someplace, for some kind of reason, and it was making his job all that more difficult.
***
Back in the Cafeteria, Drew looked at his watch impatiently. “Mr. Codarre, it’s been an hour,” He called out across the room.
Mr. Codarre looked at his own watch and sighed. Well, he did promise the boy after all. “Alright, we can go help search for her,” he gave in. “Anyone in the room who wishes to get out and stretch their legs can help look for the girl if they want.”
As the majority of bodies stood up from their seats and stretched, Mrs. Grunow said, “I’ll stay here in case she arrives while you’re gone.”
“Good idea,” Mr. Codarre agreed.
As Allison and Dillon stood up, Jen remained seated. “You aren’t coming?” Dillon asked.
“Nah,” Jen replied. “I don’t really like Simone too much. I think I’ll just stay here and catch up on some sleep.”
Exiting the Cafeteria, Drew, Mike, and Jimmy split off into a group as they headed in one direction down the hall, Jeff, Curtis, Mark, Danny, and Allison formed a second group and headed down the opposite direction, and Mr. Codarre and Dillon headed off alone, each in their own directions.
1/18/2006 6:02:40 PM
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