How to Survive A School Shooting

2. Two Months Before

"Welcome back to Second Pines High School, Spartans!" Came over the intercom as we settled into our homeroom classes. "Don't forget the first pep rally to support our Spartans football team is this Friday! Everyone's invited! Be there!  Also, some staffing changes for this year. Many of you know Mr. Torrance retired at the end of last year, so please be sure to welcome his replacement, Mrs. Landon who will take over in the Math Department. Also, Miss Tracey went and got married over the summer, so you may now refer to her as Mrs. Klein. Congratulations, Miss Tracey! I mean, Mrs. Klein!"

The rest of the announcements were general welcome stuff. An assembly for the Freshmen at nine, tryouts for basketball and field hockey, stuff like that. 

Mrs. Watson took attendance and handed out our locker assignments before we headed to our first classes. Erica and I were in the same homeroom but she had English first and I had Music.

"I'll see you in History," she said as she headed to her classroom and I went to the Music and Arts building.

I greeted classmates I'd known my whole life as I got into the music classroom. This year I was taking choir and piano. This morning was choir.

Mr. Racicot ran us through some warm up exercises after discussing the Winter Concert and the Spring Cabaret, the Sophomore Project, his expectations for Sophomores, and the usual start of school stuff.

I smiled as we worked on the first piece he had for us to work on. A repertoire of songs just to exercise our vocal cords.

"Next week, once I've had a chance to work those vocal cords and get you all back into shape, I'll start splitting you into your duos for the Sophomore Project. I have a lot of fun things planned this year. See you all tomorrow!" Mr. Racicot said as the bell rang for class change.

I followed the rest of the class out into the hallway, bumping into Kevin Darnell, a Tenor in the class. I knew him from last year in music class and he had been in my science class.

"Watch it!" He spat at me.

I stopped, stunned. Kevin had never snarked at anyone as far as I knew. He was always polite, nice to everyone. I'd worked on a science project with him last year. He was really smart and I swear we only got an A because of him.

I watched as he stormed off.

"Ashley?" Mr. Racicot said, coming up behind me, standing like an idiot in the doorway. "Are you alright? You're going to be late for class."

"Oh," I said, coming to my senses and giving my head a shake. "Yeah. Sorry. Just, got a bit in my head for a second there, I guess."

"Well, I have this period free and if you don't mind, I'd like to go to the teacher's lounge and attempt to make what passes for coffee in there taste something like coffee," he smiled. I laughed a bit.

"Sorry," I smiled as I moved out of his way. I had English next and it was on the way to the teacher's lounge, so Mr. Racicot fell into step with me.

"Did you have a good summer?" He asked.

"Yes, thank you. I did," I smiled. "You?"

"My husband and I went to Italy for three weeks. It was beautiful. We saw an opera in Rome and rode a gondola in Venice. It was perfect. Did you do anything special?"

"Well, not quite as special as Italy. We did go see my grandparents in Seattle for a week and then went to Tahoe for a few days," I said, stopping before my classroom door.

"Well, location isn't what makes a vacation special. It's spending time relaxing and decompressing with the people you love," he said.

"I guess," I shrugged and smiled. "I gotta get to class."