The Awakening

Chapter One

The bell rings, and I pick up my stuff to head to my next class. Emma leaves me to find her boyfriend in the crowd of bodies that fill the corridors. I find Jane, and Kate just as they enter our next classroom. I pick up my pace to catch up to them but slow down when Sophie taps my shoulder.
"Ella, I swear you are the only person in this school who is eager to get to math class," Sophie says giving me a playful smile. I walk with her, and we are both ranting about our classes within seconds. We reach the door to the classroom, and like always, Jane and Kate are the only people in the room. Mrs. Brown, our mathematics teacher isn't even in the room yet. We have always been the first people to enter the classroom; since the very first day of the semester. Jane sits on my desk, laughing with Kate as Sophie and I move to join them. I always love our discussions, but ever since Emma got a boyfriend, her comments have been missed. We chat for a little bit before the second bell rings. The classroom begins to fill up, and Emma finds us at our desks.
"What took you so long to get here?" I ask Emma, giving her a look when she finally comes over to join us.
"Took a long way, and picked up Devin," she answers, giving a shrug. I look over to see him with his friends standing across the room. I know I am glaring at him, but I don't care.
"More like Devil," I murmur under my breath, but Sophie hears me, and hits my shoulder with the back of her hand. I just shrug. What can I say, I don't like the guy. He is always getting into things he shouldn't, he continuously breaks her heart, and frankly, she could do much better. The final bell comes all too soon; Emma and Sophie leave our table to take their seats. Jane swings her legs off my desk and hops down. She doesn't move far seen as she sits directly behind me. We are only five minutes into our lecture when the speaker above the door makes a beep.
"May all students please make their way down for an emergency assembly," our secretary says in a shaky voice. It's like she has been crying, which is weird because you would think she would get someone else to do the call down. Our class makes our way down to the gym, and kids start filling the bleachers. Chatter fills the stands, and everyone is asking the same question; Why are we here?
"This is so odd," says Kate, looking around the gym for something to give us a clue to what's going on. All of the teachers seem to have gotten lost on their way to the gym because there are only three in the room, and they all belong to the middle school.
"We never have unplanned assemblies," Sophie exclaimed, unable to sit still. For the next five minutes, we sit in silence, listening to our peers chat away about their lives. When the next beep causes us to lose our remaining teachers, who accompany us in the gym I start to worry.
"Do you think something happened to a student?" I ask my friends, who sit around me.
"Maybe," replies Jane. "Max does have episodes sometimes. Remember when he threw that chair out the window?" We all manage a small chuckle while we remember him screaming head off, and throwing stuff at our teacher, cursing with every foul work know in any of our vocabularies. It was all because Mary Dowler called him a sad waste of space. The school didn't tell us anything, but it is clear that he has some sort of mental disorder. He is out of school a lot now, which just make us believe our point even more.
"I don't think they would need all the teachers though, and why would we go to the gym?" Kate says, standing up to look around, but sitting back down when nothing happens. Five, ten, fifteen minutes go by before I am just about to tell my friends we should leave. I don't trust the feeling I am getting in my stomach, but something is urging me to stay. There is something past the butterflies and the bad feel that glues me to my seat. I want to move, to leave to do anything, but my heart is urging me to stay; to find out what happened. Then without warning six men in black suits walk into the gym. They look a bit like police officers, but all black, and with no badges. Four of the men line up in the centre of the gym, while one paces back, and forth in front of them, and the last start to make is way up to where the five of us are sitting. Everyone in the gym hushes as he walks closer and closer to us. I still can't move, but I don't think it is because of my heart anymore.
"Miss," the man grumbles in such a low tone, it makes me feel as if the ground will split open, "we require you on the floor." His large, muscular hand is wrapped around Emma's upper arm, and his voice is filled with such authority she gets up after he forces her out of her seat, leading her down to the gym floor, towards the pacing man.
"Get your filthy hands off of me you weirdo," she warned before giving him a good punch to the side. The man lets go of her arm, but as she is trying to walk away she is grabbed by two other men who move from the line. She struggles to loosen their grip but isn't getting much slack. They hold her tight, as they bring her closer to the centre of the room. My heart only starts to race when she reaches him, but by then it is too late, and the next thing I see is his gun resting between her eyes.