Burn My Paranoia One Last Time

4. What Happened Before

"Sh.. Shelby?"

Amber rose her head from a cold surface and shielded her face from the light. Her eyes finally adjusted, and she recognized the gazebo. She shivered despite the few rays of faint morning sunlight hitting the glass ceiling.

On her lap was a sleeping Shelby, dried up mascara tears stained her cheeks.

"Shelby, wake up!" Amber whispered while shaking her friend.

"Huh..? Amber you're ok!" Shelby jolted up and hugged her friend, then patted her self and touched her disheveled black bob. "We're alive!"

"It seems so. Where's Carmen?" Amber turned and saw Carmen laying on the ground across from the girls, her back towards them.

"Carm!" Shelby cried.

They rushed towards the other side of the gazebo, half running and half crawling for fear of what they would find.

"Carmen come on, wake up please!" Amber tried her best not to shake her too desperately.

"Ughh.. my head hurts," Carmen groaned. She sat up and brushed her long, curly raven black hair away from her face.

"Oh my god you're ok," Amber and Shelby hugged her tight, Shelby already starting to sniffle.

"What the hell happened last night?" Carmen shook her head and looked around at the dusty gazebo.

"Your hands are freezing," Amber interrupted her.

"I say we leave, like right now," Shelby pulled both her friends up.

"Our equipment!" Amber remembered, patting her jean pockets, then bending down to find the EMF meter. "My dad would kill me if I lost this!"

"Damn it, the camcorder's out of juice. Now how will we know what happened?"

"We can put in new batteries when we get home. Now come on, let's go!"

***

"Ms. Wright, Ms. Fuentes, Ms. Thatcher, you are late."

The old man stared daggers at them from over his scholarly glasses, his bushy grey eyebrows furrowed into a stern expression.

"We're sorry," the girls mumbled in unison.

Shelby's apology, however, came out in a piped pitch. She hid her mouth with the sleeve of her semi-low V-cut checkered sweater in embarrassment and walked with the girls to their seats.

"You are exactly twenty-five minutes late. I—" Mr. Dacus threw up his stout arms in exasperation. "How does that even happen? No, Ms. Wright, that's a rhetorical question."

Amber closed her mouth and slumped into her seat in the second row of the classroom. It wasn't everyday that a straight A student like her got called out. And when one did, it just so happened that the teacher was all in favor for making the biggest deal out of it.

"I'm disappointed, I truly am," The teacher paused to make eye contact with each of the three delinquents. "You know I get up early, dress in my formal attire, make myself coffee and grab a bagel and I still manage to get here on time. Now Shelby, one more tardy and you're setting yourself up for a truant young lady. Carmen and Amber, where is this coming from? You two are some of the.. well I probably shouldn't say it here—"