Times A Ticking

1

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

I tap my pencil against my desk as I watch the little hands on the clock move, I couldn't wait for 2:55 to get here. Mrs. J has been blabbing all day about the court system, you can tell her husband has put her on edge.

"Gabriella!" I jerk my head slightly and make eye contact with Mrs. J. "Is there something more important than my lesson?" I shake my head as I sigh heavily already preparing myself for one of her boring lectures on how I should respect her.. and blah blah blah.

"Hey. Gabbie are you okay?" Andre asks as he pokes my side. I look over in his direction and shake my head, "That's what I figured. Tell me." He says as he leans closer to me in his seat.

"Later, Mrs. J is already down my neck currently." I whisper to him as I relax against my seat but keep my eyes on him as I watch his curly hair bounce around on his head as he shakes his head in disappointment.

"She has it out for you." Andre laughs as he plays with his pencil on his finger and stares up at the board in the front of the classroom. "At least this is our senior year and you won't have to deal with it anymore."

"Yeah tell me about it." I mumble as I raise my eyes brows slightly as let out a long breath. I draw some random stuff on my paper before slowly looking up to stare at the clock again.

Only ten more minutes of class are left and I couldn't sit still in my seat. I couldn't wait to leave this classroom and go home for the weekend, nothing can stop me from leaving this room now.

A static comes from the intercom and the secretary's voice booms out. "Teachers and staff please stay in your rooms. Stay calm. Do not come out of your classrooms until we give the signal. Thank you." Static again.

I groan and lay my head down on my desk in frustration. "What a fucking day." I mumble as Andre laughs beside of me.

"Hey now we have time to talk about why you are so grumpy today." I turn my head to the right my head still against the desk as I stare at him.

"Well, Zoey and Ruby kept me up almost all night. Mom grounded them from their electronics so they kept sneaking in trying to grab my phone to use." I close my eyes and sigh, "So I was up dragging them back to their room every five minutes until they finally gave up and went to bed. Then I woke up this morning and my car was out of gas, so Dad brought me here on his way to work."

"Ah so you're tired and upset." I nod my head and pout a bit before I open my eyes and look at him. "Well we could sneak out of here I'm sure your Mom is out there waiting for you anyway. Besides Mrs. J is already falling asleep."

I advert my attention to her desk and giggle as I watch her head hang low and her eyes fighting to stay open. I look over at Andre who was already staring at me waiting for an answer.

"Ugh, I don't know. They never said that this was a drill. Maybe something bad is happening, I wouldn't want to get caught in that." I say as I close my books and place them into my backpack.

"Oh come on Gabby. When has anything ever happened here? We live in the middle of nowhere, we get excited when we see a new store being built down the road." He chuckles as he places his books into his backpack as well.

"You are a pain in the ass you know that?" He shrugs his shoulders and a smirk appears on his face.

"But you love me." He replies as he shows his beautiful white teeth. "Come on let's go she's literally almost out." He says pointing to Mrs. J.

I roll my eyes as I grab my back and we tiptoe to the door. The rest of the class watches some of them snicker to themselves as the others follow along with our plan.

I stop at the door and look out the small window. "Clear." I start to open it but the speaker goes off again making us all jolt back to our seat as Mrs. J jerks her head back up.

"E-Everyone! This is not a drill, stay in your classrooms! Cover the windows and the doors do not come out! I repeat this is not a.. Ahhhhh!" Click. I sit still along with the rest of the class, none of us dared to move. Fear had us frozen like ice.

"Someone help." Mrs. J says as she grabs some long sheets she had in her closet and covers the windows, I grab some paper and begin to cover the window on the door along with Andre.

"I wonder what the hell that was about." I shrug my shoulders as I use my shaking hands to tape the paper down. "A school shooting?" Andre asks fear clear in his voice.

"I don't know. I didn't hear any gunshots over the intercom." I say as I reach down and lock the door. I press my ear against the door and close my eyes trying to focus on the sounds outside, but it was oddly quiet.

"Everyone get in the corner by the bookshelf." Mrs. J orders. "Gabriella, Andre hurry!" She yells out. Andre grabs my hand dragging me to the back of the class.

My phone buzzes and I look down to see my mother's caller ID pop up. I step slightly away from everyone as I answer and hold the phone up to my ear whispering a hello.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay Gabby. Is Andre with you?" She questions. I could hear her breathing heavy as she waits for my reply.

"Yes. What's going on? It's dead quiet in here, I'm scared." I whisper into the phone as I grip it tightly in my hand.

"I don't know. I have Ruby and Zoey with me right now. Hannah and Adam are on their way back from work." She says into the phone, "You and Andre need to get out now. I'm outside waiting. Be careful. Love you." She says before hanging up.

I slip my phone into my pocket and walk over to where Andre was hovering in the corner. "Hey." I whisper as I touch his shoulder and turn him to face me. "My Mom is outside waiting for us. We need to sneak out." Andre nods his head and takes a deep breath.

We stand and wait a few minutes before Mrs. J finally gets distracted and helps one of the students to calm down. I grab Andre's hand as we sneak to the door, I reach down and unlock before gently opening it and slipping into the hallway.

Andre looks around the hallway as I easily shut the door back. "It's too quiet." He mumbles before I nod my head in agreement as the hair on my arms stand up.

"Let's get out of here." I mumble as we run up the hallway looking around for any sign of a teacher or another student. "The office is just up this way." I run ahead of him before Andre grabs me and yanks me back to the wall.

"What the hell?" I ask as I look into his widen eyes. I gulp as he points up using his shaking finger and shakes his head.

"Look. Just look." He says as he gently lets me go and urges me forward. I lean around the wall and gag slightly as I notice the blood all over the office. The smell of something rotten hits my nose making me cover it.

I squint my eyes as I notice the secretary walking around but a chunk of her neck was missing like someone took a huge bite out of it. She looked dead, but she couldn't be if she was walking.

"She might need help." I whisper but Andre shakes his head stopping me. The secretary groans as she walks slowly around the front of the office.

"What the fuck is happening?"