The laughs and gossip of her fellow classmates filled Callie's ears. She let out a heavy sigh as she slammed her locker closed. She had a few minutes until her next class, and it was around this time Mariana would drop by and they would walk and talk to kill some time. She kept an eye out for her, but she didn't see her anywhere.
"Hey Callie," a familiar deep voice said. Callie rolled her eyes and decided that if Mariana wanted to talk to her, she's meet up with her on the way. She started walking the usual route to her classroom, trying to ignore Brandon.
"Callie, wait," he called behind her.
Callie picked up her pace, desperately trying to get away. Her efforts failed as Brandon grabbed her elbow, bringing her to a stop.
She gritted her teeth as she turned around to look her brother in the eyes.
"I'm sorry about the fight we had," Brandon said.
She didn't know what it was, but there was something on his face that made Callie think that Brandon didn't truly mean it. She's had it with Brandon, and she doesn't see why she should be forced to make amends with him when he obviously could care less.
"Whatever," Callie replied.
Brandon rolled his eyes and turned away from her, walking in the same direction he had come from.
Callie decided to ignore it and continue walking.
"Hey Cal," Mariana said as she turned around.
Callie smiled seeing her younger sister. She really like having a sister, and even though they didn't get along too well before Callie became part of the family, they were pretty close now.
"Hey," Callie said.
"So I need your help with Zac," Mariana started.
Callie's eyes widened as she thought of the humorous but not surprising scenario; Mariana asking for help with boys. Pretty typical.
"Okay..." Callie said.
Mariana fidgeted with her hands, not really sure how to start, so she just went for it.
"We kissed," she finally said.
"Wow, how was it?" Callie asked.
Mariana thought back to all her problems and friendship with Zac, and was honestly not sure why he was treating her like this, like kissing her was a mistake.
"It was great, but later... he said that he didn't want a relationship," she said.
"Ouch," Callie said.
"Yeah, and I think his mom has something to do with it, but he won't say," Mariana said.
As they passed by the lockers, Talya watched them, overhearing their conversation. Watching Callie walk past her like it was no problem made her blood boil. Talya was certain that all the problems prevalent to her was Callie's fault.
Talya had big plans for today, and the lump in her pocket cemented the deal. Talya knew at this point, there was no way she could turn back.
She slowly started following her target, listening to their conversation closely.
"Why would his mom have a problem?" Callie asked.
"I don't know, maybe she found out about the panties," Mariana said.
She heard Callie scoff.
"If Talya had never given you that advice, you would never be in this situation," Callie said.
Overhearing that, Talya's blood wasn't just boiling - it was steaming. She truly was steaming mad.
"My advice?" she finally spoke up.
Callie and Mariana turned around to see her standing there. Seeing the wild look in her eyes, they both felt immediately uneasy.
"Just ignore her," Callie urged Mariana, trying to escape the situation, but Talya was not going to allow for that.
"DON'T..." she shouted, immediately making both Callie and Mariana jump. They both realized at this moment that something was wrong, they just didn't know what.
Above them the bell rang to go to the next class. All the students around them started scurrying to their classes, but Mariana, Callie, and Talya seemed glued to their spots in the hall.
"Walk... away... from me," Talya finished.
Mariana felt totally frozen. She had seen creepy scenes like this in movies, the kind of movies her parents were still wary about her watching.
Callie was more concerned about how she could figure out what was going on. She had never seen someone act so strange, and it made her uneasy.
"Talya, what's wrong?" she finally asked.
"What's wrong with me?!" Talya asked, walking up to Callie and getting in her face. She was so close, Callie had to take a few steps back.
Mariana watched in confusion and fear, afraid a fight might start out.
"You are my problem Callie! You have ruined my life! If you had never come around, Brandon would still be with me! We'd be happy! Nothing would have changed! You ruined everything!" she shouted in Callie's face. With every step Talya took, Callie took a step backwards.
"Talya, I am really sorry about what happened between you and Brandon. I really am... but your starting to freak me out," Callie said as calmly as she could.
"Talya, just leave us alone," Mariana said behind the two of them.
Talya immediately whipped around to look Mariana in the eyes, and, fearing for her sister, Callie ran over to Mariana instinctively.
"Mariana, go to your class room," Callie said, urging her to go, even shoving her, but Mariana refused to move.
"I'm not going anywhere, I need to protect you," Mariana said.
"No, I need to protect you," Callie said back.
"Her problem is with me, not you, so don't get involved," Callie said.
Looking to her side, Callie could see through the glass frame around the door that there was a tenth grade class going on, the same grade as Mariana. Zac was in there, and Callie wondered that if needed, she could get Mariana in there.
"You stay out of this, little girl," Talya said, now turning her attention on Mariana.
"Leave her out of this," Callie said, trying to shield her sister with her own body.
"No," Talya said simply.
Talya started shaking her head and she smiled, even though there were tears flowing from her eyes.
"I want to annihilate every single one of you Fosters," Talya said.
Mariana's breathing stopped, as she realized that a fight wasn't about to go down; something much worst was going to happen.
Callie examined Talya's body really quickly, trying to find something that Talya could use to hurt them. Her eyes traveled down Talya's torso, and there, just under Talya's shirt, in her jean pocket... there it was.
A handgun.
Callie ran her tongue on the inside of mouth. She knew what she had to do now.
"Talya, I'm the one who hurt you," she started.
"I don't care," Talya shouted.
"I hate all of you!" she added.
Callie was going to have to pull some strings if she wanted this to work.
"Look, your problem is with me. Not Mariana. She didn't do anything to hurt you," Callie said. Looking into Talya's eyes, though, she could tell that Talya wasn't budging and that her plan wasn't working.
"She likes you. She really likes you. Brandon likes her. Brandon loves Mariana. If you hurt Mariana, Brandon will hate. He will hate you, and he will never love you again. Brandon doesn't like me. If you hurt me, he won't care. Don't hurt Mariana," Callie said. Some of it was lies, but she had to do it.
"Fine. I'll just take you instead," Talya said.
Callie's heart broke, now knowing what those words really meant.
Callie slowly turned around.
"Mariana, this is you class. Go in there," Callie said.
Mariana was confused by all this. She wasn't sure what Callie was doing, or more importantly, why she was doing it.
"That isn't my classroom," she said.
"Yeah it is, see, there's Zac, and over there is Kelsey. Go in there," Callie said. She walked over to the classroom and opened the door, interrupting the class room.
Mariana was confused, but she walked into the classroom, following her sister's orders.
Just before she got out of reach, Callie stood right behind her, body to body, and whispered vital information into her sisters ears.
"Tell the teachers Talya has a gun," she whispered in her ear.
Mariana froze, realizing now what Callie was doing, and that Callie was about to go back into the hallway with someone who had a gun. She turned around to stop her, but before she made a full spin around, the door closed behind her. Callie's faced appeared in the glass on the side of the door. She could see tears in her sisters eyes as she mouthed the words "I love you."
"Your not in this class," the teacher said.
Mariana still stood frozen, watching as her sister walked away from the glass, and she could not longer see her, her desperation growing deeper and deeper.
"Mariana, what are you doing?" Zac asked from his seat in the first row.
Mariana's cheeks soon became slippery with tears, and she slowly turned to Zac.
Zac's eyes were filled with confusion and worry as he was the look on his friends face.
"Miss, your going to have to leave," the teacher said.
Mariana turned to look at her teacher, and she prepared to tell the teacher her biggest fear.
Outside, Callie prepared herself.
"You shouldn't have done what you did," Talya said.
Callie nodded her head.
"I know. I was horrible, and I still haven't forgiven myself."
The last part was a lie, but Callie was willing to say anything to get out of her situation.
Talya began to shake as she laid her back pack down.
"You made me do this," Talya said. Callie slowly began to walk away.
Taking backwards steps back, Callie tried walking to the end of the hallway.
She watched as Talya slowly pulled the silver handgun out from her jean pocket.
"It doesn't matter how fast you walk," Talya said.
"This baby is faster," she said, holding her gun up.
"I know," Callie said.
Talya smiled, though she was still shaking.
"This was a lot easier that I thought it was going to be," she said.
Callie just nodded her head. If she could get to the staircase, she could jump over the handrail and make it to the lower level before Talya even realized. She just needed to stall Talya without making her mad.
"I was so wrong to steal Brandon away from you," Callie said.
"You were. You were very wrong," Talya said.
"I never should have done it," Callie said. Getting closer and closer to the staircase. She looked over her shoulder for a split second, and saw that she was close enough to possibly run to the stairs... almost.
"Your not going to make it to the staircase," Talya said.
Callie looked at Talya, and knew in her heart, that was probably true. She couldn't not try though.
Talya slowly raised the gun up, closing on eye so she could focus on Callie. Once she set her target, she closed her eyes. She was too cowardly to watch her victim get hit.
The second she saw Talya close her eye, Callie turned away, and started to run as fast as she could.
Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough.
Talya shot once she heard Callie's footsteps, hitting her first at the very bottom of her head, and then again in the back.
The shot's pushed Callie over the edge, literally, and sent her tumbling down the stairs, crushing her bones and sculls on every step.
From inside the classroom, Mariana screamed.
"Callie!" she screamed repeatedly.
The whole entire class went into their lock-down procedure, all of them running to back of the room, except Mariana, who sprinted to the door.
Zac immediately jumped up, grabbing onto Mariana, and with adrenaline running through his body, he managed to pull Mariana all the way back to the classroom.
Zac covered her screams with his mouth, while the teacher gathered the student in the back of the room, and went to the front of the room to call the front office, and put the sheet of paper in her door window.
Zac leaned down into Mariana's ear.
"If you don't stop screaming, she'll come in her and kill us. Is that what you want?" Zac asked.
Mariana continued to kick and cry.
"No!" she yelled into his hand.
"Then shut up," Zac said.
Kelsey's eyes teared up; never had she seen her best friend in so much despair.
Mariana just sat their and cried into Zac's hand, knowing something had happened to her sister.