safe || on my block

chapter three

A few weeks into the new school year and things were going well for Mae. Her students seemed to enjoy coming to class, she had become friends with her co-workers and none of her classroom plants were stolen. After the summer she had, Mae was suspicious of just how well things were going.

"Good you're here." Mae eyes snapped from her computer to the doorway where the voice came from. Monse and Olivia stood by the door with their lunches in hand. Monse took no time as she walked into the classroom, pulled a chair to Mae's desk and took a seat with Olivia following along behind her.

"Go ahead." Mae mumbled pushing her laptop aside. She was working on grading lab reports during her lunch period, but she knew her cousin wasn't going to let her get any work done.

"Teenage boys are the most vile things to happen to high school." Monse stated.

"Yeah, as soon as we call them out on not seeing women as human beings they assume we're on our period." Olivia complained.

"It doesn't get much better when you're older." Mae stated, her thoughts thinking of a certain someone.

"Oh?" Olivia's eyes perked up at the potential gossip. "Spill."

"An old ex from high school. It all the same shit, we're just older now." Monse looked at cousin with curious eyes. To the knowledge of their family, Mae has never even had a boyfriend in her life. "But it's whatever. I'm assuming you guys aren't going to the dance then if boys are so vile."

"Nope, we're protesting against misogyny."

"That's a way to look at it. Maybe that's how I'll look at it having to be a chaperone for the dance." The woman had no choice but volunteer the dance with from the coach after overspending on her classroom. "Coach says we have to prepare for draping. Whatever that is."

Monse opened her mouth to explain, but the bell stopped her from explaining.

"Saved by the bell." Mae exhaled before saying goodbye to the girls.

Two class periods later and Mae had finally dismissed her last class of the day. Instead of staying for an hour or two later like she planned to every Friday, she was packed up and leaving the classroom behind to get a talk from Coach about what to expect for her first dance as a chaperone.

As Mae was turned a corner down the hallway she saw two boys fighting on the ground.

"Hey." Mae shouted in her authoritative tone - which she practiced multiple times in the mirror. "Stop it right now."

One of the boys did seem to momentarily stop, the other didn't as he was quick to pull a .45 from his waistband pointing at the boy who let his guard slip. Mae's eyes widened as she realized what she had done, before she could completely understand what she was witnessing a security guard tackled the boy from behind getting the gun out of his hand.

"Oh my god," Mae repeated as she tried to stop herself from hyperventilating. She didn't know if it was because how close she was to getting hurt or the fact that it had been awhile since she had seen a gun, but she couldn't seem to calm herself down.

Mae flinched as she saw the other boy get tackled by a security guard despite the fact that he wasn't do anything. "He's not do anything." Mae shouted at the guard who was putting the boy in zip ties.

"Mae." Someone said gently guiding her to turn around and away from the scene, but she couldn't look away despite leaving the scene behind her.

"Wha-" Mae asked snapping out of her daze when the scene was finally out of sight. She turned around to notice the person guiding her was Coach Ron.