The Phoenices Volume 1 - Expired

Chapter 22 - Elizabeth

I sat awake for hours, staring into the bright white screen of my phone, scrolling through all of my social media, posting occasionally to each, waiting until midnight so I would still get my normal 6 hours of sleep that I learned to survive on during swim season. I figured I could be working on something productive for the group, but I really didn't want to write an announcement at that specific time, instead living vicariously through my followers. I posted another post on my life to death account, all of the four founders of the group now having the account information, the other three occasionally posted. I snapped a photo of my wrist with flash, the light reflecting off the still slightly swollen number that I had recently tattooed onto my wrist with a hope of extending my life. It finished uploading, immediately getting almost 200 likes and a few comments. I felt my eyelids begin to droop around 4:30 am, seven posts and five hours later.

I jolted awake, my eyelids super heavy and my head pounding as though I had been hit by a truck. I stood, heading to my bathroom to look at my face, eye bags the size of Texa marking it with shades of blue and purple. I sluggishly pulled a sweatshirt over my shoulders, a pair of tennis shoes onto my feet and slinging my bag over my shoulder, heading out to the car, which my mom was already sitting in, her eyes glued on her phone. I climbed into the other side of the car, turning on my phone and driving to school in silence, my mother still very disappointed in my little scandal of the past days. I scrolled through Instagram, posting a photo of the school as we pulled in, captioning it "Why do I even have to go at this point #4MoreDays", before posting it, the likes and comments flooding in, setting a small smile on my face. I had the most supportive followers. I glanced up, climbing out of the car into the dark morning, quickly rushing to the front door and heading in. My phone buzzed, and I glanced down at it, checking the Instagram notification that came through, for I have like notifications shut off. I was mentioned in a comment on a post, "@dying.before.death dude don't be so fucking suicidal". I felt my face heat up with anger, my fingers itching to rip at him through the internet, about how I didn't really get a choice as to when I die, and if I had the choice, I would've lived much much longer. I ended up just powering down my phone, tucking it into my pocket and speed walking to the bathroom where we agreed to meet. I was a tad late, but so were most people, only six people had arrived so far, including me. I sighed, plunking my bag down and slowly sliding down the wall to the pillowed floor, pulling out my laptop, grabbing a doughnut and coffee from the food that Jeremy had brought with him. I opened my laptop, double clicking on my icon for instagram and posting a screenshot of the wordcount of our informational essay that we put together from our notes. I was trying to post more often, get as much of me in before I died, and I recommended to the others that they do the same.

"What do you guys think of this," one of the sophomores called over our voices, taking a breath to begin reading the announcement she had written, "On November 21st, 2017, something big is going to happen, and you may already know, but if you hadn't been tuned in to the emergency news broadcast on the 13th of November, there are 38 students and two teachers who are going to die in our school on the 21st. This is not a threat, but mere facts, the dates on our wrists say so. Your friend that hasn't been showing up for classes very often lately, maybe acting strange? Ask them to see their dates, if you don't know them already. Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Krynski, why don't you show your students your dates right now. This is not meant to put pressure on anyone to act, simply to bring awareness to the issue, showing students that this will affect them in some way, there is no escaping the loss that is going to occur. Some of the students who have already joined our effort are the founders, Marissa Sanchez, Reilly Trammell, Elizabeth Higgins, and Aidan Bishop. The students who have recently joined after the attention we received six days ago are Celia Staton, the speaker, Sean Paul Grix, Heather Erickson, Maggie Needham, Joshua Sharp, Cameron Dunn, Natalie Haft, James Beauregard, Henry Gaetino, Ali Moore, Grace Bates, Samantha Brown, and Dallin Kline. They have all participated in the creation of the posters you see plastered everywhere on the walls, along with this announcement. They have also spent several of their remaining days researching the few people who have lived past their time, writing essays on their findings and leaving them open to whoever would like to read them, they just have to look it up on Google. No, we are not in the office, I know teachers will be demanding this be shut down before we continue. It can't be, we hijacked your technology, this needs to be made public. Thank for your time, I hope you begin to consider your future, and what to spend your time on. Does your phone seem quite as important now?" she finished, all of us staring at her, hooked on the story she had just read aloud. Henry started clapping slowly, everyone joining in eventually, excluding the people who helped write it, all of them blushing furiously.

"That was wonderful, now we just need to record it and get the recording to me before 12:30," Marissa tapped at her watch, the girl who read standing quickly and bringing a friend with her into a bathroom stall, presumably to record the piece.

"You all are gonna have to shut it for a couple minutes, absolute silence or I with cut you." she threatened, her head popping out of the stall, all of us staring at her with mild shock as she had always been pretty quiet. Her head disappeared once again, and she began reading, her voice echoing around the bathroom, as we all dug our noses back into our respective computers. I got some of the editing done on our research paper, when my phone quietly buzzed, and I looked down at it expecting another hateful comment on Instagram, instead receiving a text from Aidan.

"We are going to have to run prints from all around the school," he sent making eye contact with me across the circle, rolling his eyes, annoyed. I sent a small grin his way, before looking down at my phone to tease him about something.

"Your lips are looking a little bruised, Aidan. Did someone hit you?"

"Haha very funny, did Reilly tell you." he texted, his face very annoyed.

"Who else would've? But just so you know, nothing but love from my direction, you two are very super cute." I replied to him, winking at him when we made eye contact and causing his face to redden a considerable bit. Someone from the other side of the circle caught my attention, waving their arms at me and gesturing to the door. I had to go grab some copies. I reached out for Reilly's arm, dragging her up and out the door.

"Are we runners again now," she asked after the door had closed and we put some distance between ourselves and it's wooden frame.

"Sadly, yes, but since there's two printers in the library, we can both go there." I answered her, speeding up to a jog, Reilly falling behind before catching up once again, jogging a tad faster than me. We reached the library doors, both of us a little winded, walking into the room, the ceilings opening up and the floor plan wide open with exception to the bookshelves and tables scattered about the room. We each grabbed the already huge stacks of paper from the printers, bringing them back to the bathroom, having the other three students that were working on the announcement count and tie them into stacks of 2,000. We both headed out of the bathroom once again, this time heading different directions, Reilly joining up with Aidan who was also running to go back to the library, as I headed to the computer labs on the second and third floors. I bumped in Jeremy as I ran, engaging in some small talk as we jogged, both of us pretending we were less tired than we were. I began to pant, slowing down and leaning against a locker a short distance from the second floor computer lab. I slowly walked into the room, catching my breath, waving over my shoulder at Jeremy as he picked up his jog once again. I gathered the stack of papers, heading up to the third floor to grab those ones too before heading back down the dark bathroom, dumping the stack neatly in front of the counters who were looking very overwhelmed. I began to help them count out the posters, and we ended up with 4 stacks with 2,000 copies in each, meaning we would have plenty enough to go around. I tied the last knot on the top of the stack, standing and cracking my back before slinging my backpack over my shoulder once more.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow, I have to go but text me the plans for the morning things. Bye!" I waved at them, backing out of the bathroom and bracing myself for the cold late November air. My mothers car was outside waiting for me, and I met her cold glare I as climbed in, preparing for a silent uncomfortable ride home.

A/N: 1669 words according to NaNoWriMo