A/N: I don't own any of the characters from SOR, clearly. All outside characters are mine. Enjoy.
Katie Brown placed her head against the window of her mother's car only to jump back from the cold feeling that made every inch of her shiver. She groaned while pulled her navy blue blazer tighter around her chilled body. The Horace Green Preparatory High School logo was covered by her arms that she had wrapped around herself.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" Katie's mother asked with a note of concern
"What?" her daughter asked before the question registered in her mind, "Oh… yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little cold."
"Are you coming down with a fever?" her mother asked, with a hand outstretched turning the heat dial in the car to high.
"No. I'm fine, mom. I promise," Katie tried to reassure her mother, along with herself. Although the words came out they seemed to have no affect on her mind, which knew the truth. Her body felt awful, and every joint in Katie's body had an achy feeling that would not disappear. The pain only seemed to increase as she stepped out of the car and her feet hit the pavement. She waved goodbye to her mom before making her way towards the large building that stood in front of her.
While walking towards the school, she spotted her friend, Freddy Jones. He responded quickly to her shouts and began to walk back towards her. Finally, the two sixteen year olds were close enough to hear each other when talking.
"Hey, Katie," he said with a smile on his face, "You don't look too good."
"I know… I feel terrible. I didn't want to miss band practice though, so I figured I had to come to school," she informed her friend.
"You should have just stayed home and rested. Dewey wouldn't care," Freddy responded. Dewey had been their teacher in seventh grade. Actually, he wasn't really a teacher at all and after spending months in the classroom he nearly got arrested for impersonating one. He had pretended to be his roommate, Ned, and filled in for an injured teacher while teaching the prep students all about rock music. Eventually they entered a battle of the bands and got second place, proving to all the parents how much they had learned. Nobody was sure how Dewey had gotten out of being arrested, but they were glad. He had now opened a small business called "The School of Rock" and was teaching the new generation how to rock out. While doing all of this, he managed to maintain a relationship with the band he made out of class and they were still together, sharing the name of Dewey's business.
"Yeah, but my mom wouldn't let me," Katie said, referring to skipping school and then going to band practice.
"True. Well, today should be pretty low key. I don't expect excitement."
"Good," Katie began, "I don't think that I could handle it."
The two juniors walked into the school together before meeting up with the rest of their friends in the hallway. Everyone exchanged words with excitement before the bell for first period rang, but Katie just stood in silence wishing her throbbing headache would disappear. Eventually the warning bell rang, but nobody from the group seemed to move. They continued to talk until the school's principal walked by, telling them to get to class. The teenagers quickly began to make their way to class after being reprimanded as they were every morning. Although it had been several years since they had Dewey as a teacher, the class was still the same. At Horace Green you were with the same class until you graduated.
Despite the quickness in everyone's step, Katie walked slowly down the hallway being the last to enter the room of familiar faces. She slouched into her desk, placing her head into her arms, which she had folded in front of her. Throughout the first half hour of class Katie barely responded to anything or anyone around her. Feeling sick put her into a complete daze until finally she became extremely hot and began to sweat. Taking off a blazer, she was left only in a white short sleeved polo. Her peers stared at her, wondering why she was taking layers off in the middle of January. Freddy, who was sitting next to her, shot her a confused look as if to question what she was doing.
"I think my fever is breaking," she whispered, quiet enough so that the teacher would not hear her. Freddy gave her a goofy thumbs up before returning to the doodles that covered his notebook page. She just shook her head, laughing and finally beginning to feel better. When their teacher, Mrs. Wells, wrapped up her lesson and sent the students off to music class, Katie felt completely normal again. While walking in her group of friends, Katie made a comment about how she was glad the worst part of her day was over. The truth was that it was early in the day and as events unraveled this would prove to be one of the easiest parts of her day.
The unsuspecting students chatted and laughed all throughout the day, telling numerous jokes as the minutes passed by. Lunch came and went, after which the class went back to Mrs. Wells' room. At 1:00pm, all of the students in Horace Green would switch classes to go to their math teachers. The hallways were abuzz with noise as everyone moved to different classrooms, but everything would go silent with in two minutes.
Students in the high school either stood, frozen with fear, or ran for the nearest room as a gunshot erupted through the air.
A/N: I know, not to exciting. I'm just trying to set up characters/events for the rest of the story. Ideas are welcome although I already have a general idea of where I'm going, I'll consider anything. Suggestions/constructive criticism are without a doubt welcome, even encouraged. Same for title ideas, since the story is not finished and I'm posting as I'm writing I'm at a loss for a title. Thanks for reading. --tlc