You Saved Me

Hour One: Surprise

"Chi, I swear you are mental," my friend Mel exclaims as we walk into school. Our whole group giggles as Chiara slides her mini vodka bottle back in to her purse. I look around at my friend group and smile. We spent four years helping each other through high school and now it's May, one month before school ends and we are all off to college. Alex, Blair and I are going to FIT up in New York which is a far way from home but Madison is too small of a town for me. I want to be a fashion designer. My best friend Alex and close friend Blair are coming up with me but Blair is going for a different major at FIT. I'll miss all of these girls and I take a moment to study their faces because sooner than later I won't get the chance.

There is Alex, on my right side. Her brown hair and green eyes seem to capture a lot of boys attention but she has never had a boyfriend. Then Chi the party animal with curly black hair and dark brown skin that make her blue eyes pop. Then there's Abigail who has a dark brown hair color that match with her eyes. Blair has a blonde pixie cut and green eyes and she has such a petite body that we used to call her Pixie. Then one day she came in with a pixie cut as a joke and she was her real name again. Mel is next and she is every books stereotype of a cheerleader. Blonde hair and blue eyes and she's part of the cheerleading squad.

We all are actually part of different social groups. Mel the cheerleader, Chi the party animal. Abigail the Goth, Blair the geek and Alex and I are the Fashion Divas. Every outfit we wear are straight off magazines and we go to Fashion Week every year.

Anyway, I'm Kate. I have brown hair and brown eyes and I like to bake but I also like to party. I have been best friends with Alex for as long as I've been alive. My parents are Lennon and Parker Campano. I have three brothers, two of which are my twins and one that's older than me. My oldest brother is Jason, he's out of high school now and then there are my twin brothers Jack and Eric. We are all seniors in high school.

When the first bell rings we all say bye to each other and go our separate ways. I have study hall now and I usually go to the library because no one is there so it's easy to work in that place. I sit at one of the tables in the far back and take out my work.

Not even 30 seconds after the first bell rings I hear a boom then screaming in the hall. I quickly stand up and run to the door when suddenly I recognize the sound as a gun shot going off. The sound stops me mid-run and I almost double over. I quickly follow what I've learned since the beginning of school and go to shut the blinds and lock the door of the library. As I'm about to shut the blinds another senior stops and looks at me with pleading eyes to let him in. I don't know what to do so I stand there for a second. He could have a gun. He could have a knife.  He could be an accomplice to this gun thing. But then another gun shot goes off and it's near by. He pleads with me again and I see the true fear in his eyes. I unlock the door and let him in quickly. Regretting it already I look out in to the hall and see a gloved hand about to round the corner with the gun pointing out. Just a few more seconds with that door open and my life could have been over.

As another shot goes off he slides in and we both lock the double doors and pull down the shades.

He looks at me pointedly, and I look at him back confused.

"Lights," he hisses and I rapidly slide my hand to the light switch to turn them off. A scream sounds through the hall and I don't realize it but I'm crying and my heart is beating so fast. The kid looks at me and his shaky hand clasps my shoulder in a small gesture of comfort.

I wipe away my tears and pat his hand before shrugging it off and walking away. I lose myself in the sea of bookshelves and close my eyes. How can this be happening to our school. I hear the sound of the window blinds being closed and the library darkens considerably more. All my friends, my brothers. Out there when that shooter pulled the trigger. Where were they? Close by? Or did everyone just start running into classrooms and they followed close by? Who would want to do this?