SCHOOL'S OUT

Chapter 1

Will was in his office behind the desk. Jack was sitting in a chair in front leaning back with his Converse clad feet up on it. They were trying to decide where to go for lunch when the phone rang. Will answered. After a brief emotional exchange, Jack heard him say, "I'll be right over." As Will hung up, Jack noticed his anxious look and asked what the matter was. "That was Karen," Will intoned, still in shock. "There some kind of trouble at Olivia's school. From what I could understand from her, some nut is holding a classroom hostage and demanding millions of dollars by 5 PM or he's going to start shooting the kids. Karen wants me to meet her there, although I don't know what I can do."

Jack was startled and concerned at the news. His chair came crashing down on the floor. Already in "howler monkey" mode he jumped up he started screaming, "WILL! Whadda we gonna do? Poor Olivia! Poor Karen!"

"Jack, I don't even know if it was Olivia's class that was taken hostage. The rest of the school is being evacuated," Will explained.

"Does that mean we're not doing lunch?" Jack whined.

"I don't know, Jack. I just don't know," Will replied as he rose from his chair and hurried out the door, Jack following closely behind.

Once on the street Will and Jack rushed to Will's car. The two men rose in tense silence towards the troubled private girl's school just outside the city.

When they arrived, they saw police, a SWAT team, news media personnel and the anxious parents of the students that hadn't been evacuated, all milling around in confusion and worry. Will quickly spotted Karen and hurried over to her. "Thank you for coming," she said softly to Will as he took his hand a squeezed it gently, the worry making her reach out to him like that, but seeing Jack, she threw herself in his arms and sobbed, "It is Olivia's class! It is…" she trailed off still clinging to her poodle. "She wasn't among the girls that got out."

"Gee, Kare, that's awful," Jack tried to console. "What's being done now?"

"I don't know, Jack. I think they are trying to negotiate," Karen whimpered.

As if on cue, a police officer with a megaphone began talking with the hostage taker, but the miscreant was adamant and wouldn't budge – still demanding millions – or else. They could see a man's grim face in a window of the second story. Will's and Karen's attention were riveted on the scene. Jack looked around. He felt that someone should be taking some more definitive action than just standing around talking. He though about that Christmastime that he and Olivia bonded over a shopping spree and how he forced her and Karen find their relationship again by locking himself out on the balcony, even though he almost froze to death on the snowy, windblown terrace before they remembered him. Jack made a decision. Unnoticed, he slowly backed away from the crowd and disappeared in the shrubbery surrounding the perimeter of the school.

Scrambling through the bushes, Jack made his was around the back of the school. He knew the front of the building, was being too closely observed and that there would be guards at every entrance, even the back, but maybe not as many. Slowly poking his head above the hedge he saw an alert and determined looking officer pacing to and fro near the back door. Looking down, Jack saw a small stone. He reached down and picked it up. When the cop's back was turned away from him, Jack stood up and tossed the stone as hard as he could away from the door. The policeman, hearing the clatter as the rock skidded on the parking lot pavement and rolled into the grass, quickly spun around with his gun drawn. The lawman slowly moved in the direction of the noise. Jack took advantage of the distraction and bolted from his hiding place and into the school via the back door.

Meanwhile, Will though Jack was being uncharacteristically quiet under the circumstances. He looked around for his friend, but didn't see him. Thinking Jack had wandered away to check out the paramedics for a new companion, Will just shrugged it off, hoping Jack would stay out of trouble and out of everyone's way.