After lunch, her teacher announced that the school
was holding a fire drill. When the alarm sounded,
Carmen and the other students filed out of the
classroom and assembled in the yard outside. As
the teachers read out the roll call, the gang of five
girls decided that this was a great opportunity to
embarrass Carmen in front of the whole school
during the fire drill. They moved over to where
Carmen was standing, near a sewer drain, and
began crowding the poorgirl, getting in her face and
nudging her towards the open manhole.
They pushed her and she tripped over and fell head-first down the manhole. When they saw her falling,
the girls started giggling and when Carmen’s name
was called out, they shouted "She’s down in the
sewer!"
All of the other students began laughing. But when
the teachers looked down the manhole and saw
Carmen’s body lying at the bottom in the muck and
the poop, the laughter abruptly stopped. Her head
was twisted around at an odd angle and her face
was covered in blood. Worse still, she wasn’t
moving.