Thirty Reasons Not to Date a Player

12. He Likes to Play Hero

There are only two possibilities:

1. This is a drill

or

2. The school's actually on fire.

The second option seems highly unlikely, especially with the unreasonable number of fire drills we've had in the past. The idiots in my school never take them seriously, which is why principal Davidson finds it necessary to have a drill every two weeks.

The distraction of the fire bell gives me an opportunity to push Ryder away and begin speed-walking down the hall. "As much as I'd love to see you burn to death, I think we're supposed to evacuate," I say, when Ryder follows after me.

Within seconds, the hallway is flooded with a parade of panicking freshmen. It's still fairly early in the school year, so I'm not surprised that they're a little disorganized. But when I see kids begin to trample over each other and scream unnecessarily loud, I think they're going a little overboard.

Ryder and I brace up against the indented part of the wall, where the water fountains are, in order to avoid the chaos.

"Don't they know it's just a drill?" I ask, mostly to myself.

"I would think," he comments, "but they're freshmen." There's obvious disdain in his voice. He has a case of senior-itis. I don't understand why seniors think they're better than everyone else, just because they're graduating.

We wait until most of the stampede has already gone down the staircase to follow after them. Some of the teachers are yelling things like, "single file!" or "no talking!", but no one really listens. The footsteps of dozens of students echo's down the stairwell, only adding to all the noise.

We had been on the third floor when this whole thing started, and when we get to the second floor landing, a group of girls comes tumbling out of the metal door. They forcefully shut it behind them, and much to my surprise, they're all coughing and covered in patches of black ash.

All my anger toward Ryder and my annoyance with the noisy freshmen is replaced by fear. This isn't a drill, I realize. My school's actually on fire.

"There are some kids stuck inside!" One of the girls shrieks, before tumbling town the stairs along with the others. My eyes widen in horror, not knowing what to do with this information. Kids stuck inside? They might not make it before the firemen get here.

I look toward Ryder, who pauses for only a split second, before he pulls open the door and walks straight into danger, instead of running for his life like any logical human would. I have no idea why, but I follow after him.

"What-what's wrong with you?" I ask, raising my shirt over my nose. There's a cloud of smoke spreading from down the hall and Ryder is heading straight for it.

"Some kids need help," he says. "You heard the girl."

"Yeah but what are you going to do about it?" We are dangerously close to the smoke now, and I can feel the heat radiating toward our direction. I can't believe I'm following Ryder into almost certain death.

"Something," he says, sounding determined. If he's this set on playing hero, he must know what he's doing. Ryder may be a cocky bastard, but he's not an idiot. I follow him into the smoke, and it's so dense that the only thing I can see clearly is a flashing red light.

It's getting hard to breathe. "Ryder?" I choke out, completely regretting the fact that I followed him into this mess.

"I'm here," he says, although his voice is muffled. He grabs my free hand, as if to make sure not to lose me. Under any other circumstance I would have found this gesture disgusting, but in this case, it seems like the most natural thing in the world. I nearly jump out of my skin when we hear a sharp crash, followed by a scream. The sound comes from the left side of the hall, and Ryder instantly darts into one of the classrooms, pulling me along with him.