I slump down in my seat next to Sloane, who is taking selfies with numerous Snapchat filters.
"Ah, I see you're going for the bitchy look today," I say as she poses with the dog filter.
She rolls her eyes in the camera. She sets her phone on her desk and turns towards me. She exhales, "Guess what!?"
"What?" I plop my notebook on the desk and pull out the textbook from the broken rack underneath the chair.
"You have to guess!"
"Mmmm, I don't really want to."
She pushes my lightly on the shoulder. "Come on Ren!"
"You..." she inches forward waiting on my guess. "have the clap?" I clap twice.
She slaps me on the shoulder and I wince. "Okay, you're terrible at guessing. I finally lost the V-card!" She whispers.
"Ahhh, so herpes?" She rolls her eyes at me and goes back to her phone. "You're not denying it!" She flicks my forehead and sticks her tongue out at me.
"Aaaaalrighty class, let's get started on polymonials!" Mr. Keaton says. The class groans. "Huh, well talk about poly-groan-ials!" Even more groaning.
I turn to my left where Alex would be, but it's just an empty desk. I swear to god I saw him earlier.
"Hey, Kels," I call out to Kelsey, Alex's cousin. "See him at all today?" I nod my head towards his desk.
She shrugs her shoulders. "He's usually with his girlfriend, but I didn't see them together. I just saw Tara with her friends. Maybe they broke up or something."
"Huh."
If something did happen between them, I should have known about it. Alex and I have been friends since I moved here six years ago. We tell each other everything, or so I thought.
This is all too weird.
In the middle of Mr. Keaton lecturing us about math and numbers, the intercom goes off. We all stop and look at the speaker placed on the ceiling. It's just silent crackling for a solid ten seconds.
"My beloved students," Principal Mathers' voice comes out. Although it doesn't quite sound like his voice. This voice sounded weak and hushed. "We are going on lockdown. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."
In the background, before the intercom cut off, there was a a scream and a loud bang.
"What the fuck?!" I struggled to make to get the words out. I barely made any noise.
"What the fuck was that?!" Someone screamed from the back of the classroom.
"Everyone remain calm." Mr. Keaton said forcefully. "Lana, get the lights." The lights shut off all at once. "Alright, Keegan, Mortan, help me barricade the door. Get the other side of the desk." Three silhouettes push the desk toward the door. Soft murmurs fill the room. The only light is coming from people's phones and the slim window on the door, which I think, Mr. Keaton covers it with a cloth.
I sit criss cross underneath my desk switching through Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, to find out any information about what the fuck is going on. A majority of what I see is posts about an active shooter on campus. On Snapchat it's pretty much the same thing. After going through Sloane's story of conceitedness, I see it. It's the only thing posted by him.
On Alex's story, there is only one picture with a black background with the text: Everyone will see tomorrow.
And then I knew.
