The California Adventure

Chapter 7: A walk with Ruby

Police cars flooded the area of PS 38 and students and teachers were led out by officers while some of them took a struggling and screaming Gina to one of the police cars.

"It was Nate, officers! It was Nate! I'll get you, Nate, if it's the last thing I do!" Gina screamed as she put into one of the police cars.

And sooner or later, parents were called and came to pick up their grief-stricken and shaken children to their cars while other parents and other people who lost their loved ones were bawling very loudly.

And that shook Nate to the core while he was being led to police to have a conversation about what happened and why it happened. Randy was also being led to the police to have the same talk.

The conversion lasted about 8-15 minutes. Nate and Randy explained everything about Gina and the pranks against Nate and Gina and what happened during the chaos.

The police considered arresting the boys (which shook the boys so badly, they started crying), especially when Nate recognized one of the officers from the mall when the officer caught Nate using the intercom, but let them go after learning the heroism from the boys when they took down Gina. But unfortunately, the boys were lead off with a warning: should the two get into trouble again, the charges will be considered, no matter who's involved and how bad the trouble is.

A vigil was held later several days later. Friends, family, everyone one went.

"This is all my fault," Nate thought to himself as a single tear went down his face. Nate tried to ignore the upset feeling in his stomach and eye contact to his ex-friends.

"Something has to be done. We cannot go down this route anymore," Dee Dee thought.

Several more days later...

"Nate, are you ever going to come out?" Martin called to Nate from the kitchen.

Ever since the PS 38 shooting, Nate stayed in his room for most of the time (with the exception of bathrooms, breakfast, lunch, dinner) and refused to leave his room. And it really got into Martin's nerves, especially when he learned about the taser part.

Martin had enough of Nate being in his room all the time, so he marched to Nate's room and hustled Nate to put on his clothes, and get out of the house for a while, much to Nate's dismay.

"But Dad, I don't want to show my face out there! People would recognize me for what I did to Gina and-" Nate started.

"It's not your fault. Just relax and go get some fresh air," Martin interrupted Nate before kicking him out of the house.

Nate tried to get back inside the house, but the door was locked on purpose to keep Nate from getting back in. After a few moments, Nate let out a huge sigh and began to wonder what to do next, so he headed to the city park and sat on a bench for awhile.

That's when a mean voice comes in:

"What's wrong, Mopey Pants? You just sittin' around and doing absolutely nothing?"

Nate turned to see who it was and it was...

"Nolan?"

Nolan is a student at Jefferson Middle School and an enemy to Nate and his friends. He was always good at basketball, soccer, concerts, whatever. He's a bully and he's not exactly driving the helping wagon, either.

"Heard your school got canceled. Gotta say, I'm not too bothered by that," Nolan smirked.

"L...look, I don't want trouble. Not today," Nate said back politely.