In the Blink of an Eye

2 pt.1

"Tuesday, day two of the week, three more days of 6 o'clock wake ups until Saturday," Ivelle thought, as she got ready for the day ahead of her. Thinking back on yesterday, it seemed to have gone by in a whirl and she most likely wouldn't even remember it tomorrow. She hoped today would go by as quickly. She pulled out some cold pancakes from the fridge, one of her favorite school day breakfasts.

"Ready?" her mom asked, finishing lacing up Levis shoelace.

She glanced at the time and realized that it was already 7 o'clock, "yup, coming."

Ivelle made her way to the door that her mom was holding open and hurried outside and into the car. She turned the radio on before lacing up her converse.

"Has anyone heard J. Lo's new hit single, I'm Real? If not, no need to worry, here it is. Called you on the phone, Said I'm coming through, Hope you're all alone, 'Cause I got plans for you,

We could stay at home or dance and hand all night..."

Ivelle took a bite of her pancakes and listened to the music, besides Destiny's Child, Jennifer Lawrence was her main girl.

"Have a great day 'Velle, I love you and will see you tonight," her mom promised her before pulling away, leaving Ivelle at school. She entered the building and made her way to her homeroom class. It was only 7:10 when she got there so she took out the book she was reading lately and read that while eating the rest of her breakfast.

"Good morning everyone, welcome to Tuesday, remember this is homeroom so do as you please, oh and if you have me today remember that the first section of your lab report is due today," Dr. Sander's told everyone. He was a science teacher, but all teachers had to have a homeroom, he wasn't that into it so we never did anything. Ivelle scanned the room looking for Alena but she wasn't to be found.

"Sorry I'm late sir, my mom lost her keys," Alena was breathing quickly like she ran here.

"No problem, I didn't take roll yet," he smiled at her. Her eyes wandered to room before landing on Ivelle. This morning seemed to be a bit hectic for her; Alena's hair was falling out of her bun and her shirt was coming untucked from her shorts.

"Tough morning?" Ivelle asked a bit amused.

"I swear this day is cursed," she muttered, "got any food I had to run and I dropped my breakfast in a gutter." To this, Ivelle raised her eyebrows at, so she continued while Ivelle gave Alena the last pancake, "once my mom found her keys, the car worked for about one whole second before breaking down, so my mom is probably late to work."

"Wow, weird, " she admitted. Alena's mom worked at Bank of America in the northern WTC, same as Ivelle's mom so they always met up and hung out, which was good for Ivelle and Alena.

Homeroom went quickly and before Ivelle new it; it was 8:20 and time for her first actual class of the day, World History. They started off with a pop quiz on the material had been covered so far this year and then moved on to the day's lesson, continuing their lesson on the US' relationships with different countries.

"You may work with a partner on the class work, you will need a single textbook, but two individual worksheets that I have up front. Now note that I say individual, so I expect not to see word-to-word same answers here. You may begin," Dr. Dwell instructed.

Ivelle caught eyes with Alena and got up to get the worksheets as Alena got the textbook and met her at Alena's desk by the window.

"I hate textbook work," Alena complained as Ivelle flipped to the assigned chapter.

"Me too, but if we hurry then we can have chill time for the rest of the period," she explained to Alena.

"Good idea."

It was 8:46 am; they had been working for about 5 minutes when sudden a jolt and crashing sound filled the room, clouding the once working minds of the students with terror. It was like a missal had crashed into the side of a volcano and set off an eruption. Earthquake alarms began blaring, sending the room into chaos and even more terror. Ivelle looked in to Alena's eyes to find their usual playfulness gone and replaced with pure horror. All that was on Ivelle's mind was, "they were on the 9th floor of a ten story building and the world was falling apart."

"Get under your desks immediately," Dr. Dwell ordered, trying to stay calm, but failing terribly, "Everything will be all right; it's just an earthquake." They stayed like that for a couple minutes in silence. Outside, fire engines could be heard, speeding down the streets and the screams of people flooded the streets of Manhattan. If you only focused on the volume, it almost seemed like the normal New York buzz, but then an announcement came through the intercom.

"We are in lockdown, remain under your desks until further notice, teachers please turn off your lights and close the windows," the crackled voice of our vice principal rang throughout the building.

"Lock down?" Alena whispered.

"Sir what's going on?" one boy asked the teacher after he got off the phone and began closing the windows.

"It appears that we are under attack, a hijacked plane has crashed into the northern WTC tower and they are evacuating it now," he reported nervously.

Everything inside of Ivelle screamed. Her mom works in the northern tower. It was a plane, a hijacked one, and probably flying high. She worked on the top half. Her mom is in there. Her mom may or may not be alive right now. What Ivelle had felt from 0.5 miles away had struck her mom head on. Her mom was in there. She turned to Alena who was crying, at this Ivelle realized she was also crying. It was as if the wind had been knocked out of her then forced back inside and she was choking. Her mom was in there.

Suddenly, another loud sound erupted from the same direction as the last and another violent rumble shook the building. Ivelle found herself gripping the desk so tight that her knuckles were turning white. Had the building collapsed? Had another hijacked plan hit the building? Her stomach began doing somersaults. Who would do this? Why would someone want to hurt America, never the less, Manhattan, her home? Another voice came over the intercom announcing that the south WTC tower had been crashed into by another hijacked plane and that it wasn't safe to be in the school building anymore. The voice asked for the school to evacuate in an orderly fashion and that their parents had been notified to pick them up.