The Z Files

Chapter Four

"Oh, hey Sereena." I said, glancing over at Aria, who was redder than ketchup.

"Don't mind me! I didn't mean to startle you. I'm sorry, I'll go." Sereena began to turn around and leave the room.

"No no," I said, grabbing her shoulder, "you have just as much a right to be here as we do. If we expected privacy we should've chosen a more secure location."

Aria nods then begins to say something too, "Skylar's right, Sereena. You're fine." Aria then added a smile, making my heart melt.

"So.. are you two like, official?" Sereena asked expectantly.

Aria and I exchanged nervous glances and then looked back at Sereena.

"We'll get back to you on that one." I said then i leaned in and whispered to Aria, "I hope so, though." which made her giggle.

"Oh. Okay!" Sereena sat down and began to change the subject, forgetting the whole thing even happened, "So what'd you guys get for number 9?"

"Oh um.. Let me get it out real quick." Aria said, detaching herself from my arms.

"Yeah me too."

We answered each others questions until other classmates slowly trudged in and we then took our usual seats, ready for today's lecture.

After calculus I walked Aria to class just to make sure she'd be okay, kissing her on the cheek right before I turned to leave for my own class.

I pushed through my classes until I reached 4th period, just waiting until I saw Aria again.

Everyone was acting kind of strange as i worked on my overdue chemical lab, but with my head engulfed with thoughts of what Aria said I didn't take any notice and kept working.

The time passed slowly and after I finished my lab I headed over to the goggle and mask cupboard to put the last of my materials away.

Suddenly a tall boy from the back of the room hurled a chair with much more strength than he could possess across the room, nearly hitting Ms. Bron before crashing into the whiteboard.

"Mr. Ortega! That is completely unacceptable! Go to the principal young man!" she shouted, but before she could begin assigning a buddy to take him to the principal she was distracted by a large explosion from the opposite side of the room.

Isabel Pastine had thrown her experiment at Lia who was covered in fire, screaming loudly.

"Oh my god! Ms. Hollow go to the showers!" she shouted taking her attention off the rest off the class.

"The vents! It's coming from the vents!" shouted a smaller boy.

Instinctively I put my mask back on and grabbed a handful more before exiting the classroom as quickly as possible.
I ran toward Aria's classroom shouting for her at the top of my lungs. Once I found it I entered without hesitation to find Aria bashing someone's head in, much to her teacher's dismay.

"Aria! No! Get off of him!" I shouted pulling her off with all of the strength I possessed.

She just growled at me and went back to beating the boy bloody.

Again I tried to pull her away, angry and frustration flooding my body, tears streaking down my face i tried again to reason with her, but only got a punch to the mouth. I fell backward, crying out. I knew what had to be done, even though I hated to be the one to do it.

I grabbed the nearest blunt object, wiped away the tears and closed my eyes as I began to hit Aria atop the head until she woozily fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry, Aria. I tried to save you, I really did. I love you." I whispered in her ear. My vision blurry from tears I delivered the final blow.

Blood covering my face, hands, and clothes along with tears and sweat, I marched out of the classroom to go save who ever I could from whatever was spewing from the vents.