Braxten High

Chapter 29

Ayden's POV

It's been two weeks since Mr. Dayton's funeral and with the SATs around the corner, it was all anyone could talk about. And kids like Jake Williams were especially getting on my nerves. He's currently being very loud and boastful on the table across from us.

"I can't wait to see the look on the faces of the poor kids who lost the place at Princeton University to me. It's their fault, anyway. Who did they think they were, competing against me? No one can beat Jake," he said to no one in particular, looking over at us and winking at Scar.

Scarlett just pretended to gag and laughed. Jake then tried to save face by smirking at Zara, but I don't think he had thought that one out well enough or knows Azriel.

"Just ignore him. Why does he even bother to speak anyway? Also, I got these study guides for you from the library since you've missed on a lot," Zara said, trying to divert Azriel's attention from glaring at Jake and succeeding.

"Jeez, you actually went to the library for study guides? I could never," Scar mumbled in awe.

Zara laughed. "Why are you even surprised at this point? We've known each other forever."

"Knowing Azriel, he won't use them so feel free to give them to me," I chuckled. 

"Oh shut up, asshole," Azriel replied and grabbed the books. "If you must know, I actually plan on getting into a decent college," he said, laughing.

Just as we were finishing up our lunch and discussing the latest Chemistry project our annoying teacher had given us, the loudspeaker above the clock in the cafeteria gave out a weird static-y noise.

"All students and staff members are requested to exit through the nearest emergency door. I repeat, all students and staff members are requested to exit through the nearest emergency door." It was our principal, which was odd because all announcements were made by the secretary or HODs. 

The static noise sounded again, now heard loud and echoing, because the announcement had rendered even Jake silent. And then, all of a sudden, everyone snapped out of their daze, running towards the cafeteria emergency exit in a panic-induced hurry.

And then we heard a gunshot.

The loud hysteria afterwards gave me enough time to quickly pull Scar under the table with myself, signaling Azriel to shake Zara out of her stupor and pull her down so we could maybe crawl to the exit.

"Stay low and move along the wall till y'all reach the exit," I whispered while making Scar wrap her arm around my neck. "Hold on,"  I whispered to her while helping her.

"I'm calling 911," Zara said, fishing out her phone with one hand because Scar refused to drop her other. "Keep your voice low, and stay out of their vision," Azriel said from behind her, making it so his body was blocking hers.

Someone yelled out that the emergency door was blocked, and we heard several gunshots following that yelled-out warning.

"Check under all the tables," said a gruff voice from somewhere behind us just as we were moving towards the food counters. We made it just in time because the table we were under was flipped over a few seconds after.

It got eerily silent after a few minutes, and we realized that most of the students were probably caught. That was wishful thinking, obviously, as imagining our classmates being shot dead on a normal school day in the middle of the cafeteria was not something we were willing to think of at the moment.

One of the girls hiding near the edge of the counter with us let out a sob, and was immediately caught. The chaos of everyone yelling all at once began again, but this time it was mixed with the siren of the NYPD and the ambulance, we heard and saw bodies thudding to the floor and a lot more gunshots.

"You all deserve to die a rotten death. Each one of you and your disgusting students, Braxten," we heard a man's voice yell out loud and clear, even through the havoc and the sirens.

We then heard the emergency door finally open, but we all were still afraid to move from our spots. The sirens became louder as the door opened and many uniformed men poured in, along with people carrying stretchers. We all were watching through a little gap between the counters as the men dressed in all black scattered and ran about, managing to escape.

One was caught, though, and shot in the leg. He was then taken away by the NYPD.

I noticed someone sobbing softly, and realized it was Zara, crying into Azriel's shoulder. She has a soft heart and probably couldn't witness all this. Scar just chose to sit with her back against the counters so she wouldn't have to see any blood or bodies.

Once all the noise had quietened down, only the distant sirens still prevailing, we finally crawled out of our hiding spot, as did the few other lucky kids who managed to get away from that unharmed.

"What the fuck was that?" Scarlett whispered as I helped her stand.

"A fucking school shooting, that's what. You'd think for the money they get from the fees they'd have a better security system," Azriel muttered, peering down at the blood left on the once clean, tiled floor of our cafeteria.

Zara didn't, couldn't speak. She looked at all the splatters of blood at the walls with a troubled gaze. All the injured students and staff had been taken away already, and the school was essentially empty.

Approximately two hours had gone by since the announcement was first heard, but it seemed like only seconds. We quietly made our way out of the widely opened emergency exit door that led out to the parking lot and found our cars.

"I suggest a sleepover at the penthouse," Scar stated, trying to sound cheerful but her voice breaking at the end. Seeing people, your classmates get shot like that at a place that's supposed to educate you and keep you safe would mess up anyone, but she seemed to be trying her hardest to stay strong for us.

We all mumbled in agreement and piled into Zara's car, deciding on Azriel as the driver and discussing what movies we should watch and what snacks we should get on our way home. There was no normal way to react to whatever the hell that had happened and as the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

-zoie and dawn