Ellie yawned as she made her way down the hall, to the restroom. She had her bag hanging from her right shoulder and the hall pass swinging in her left hand. She slowed down, as she heard voices, which were seemingly coming from right around the corner. She stopped walking for a second, trying to hear who it was. When she couldn't make out any of the things they were saying, Ellie walked around the corner. What she saw shocked her. She saw Sean, Emma, and Toby, with their backs facing her and she saw Rick, covered in what looked like mustard and feathers, clutching his backpack to his chest. None of them had noticed her yet. She took a few steps forward, trying to get their attention. Rick was the first to notice.
He looked at her with narrowed eyes, anger clearly written all over his face. "You! What do you think you're doing?"
Toby and Emma were the first to turn around to face her. Sean only turned his head, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. "Ellie, what are you doing? Why are you not in class?" Sean asked, turning his head, so that he was facing Rick.
Ellie blinked and walked the rest of the way towards them. "Well, I was going to the restroom." She said, standing beside Sean.
Sean glanced at her again. He opened his mouth to say something, but Rick interrupted, saying, "I don't care what she was doing! She walked in on this and now she's a part of it too."
Ellie gave Rick a look of confusion. She looked to Sean for an answer. "What does he mean? I'm now a part of what?"
Sean looked like he was having a hard time trying to control himself. "You haven't heard about Jimmy have you?"
Ellie shook her head. "No. What happened?" She was confused.
Sean was shaking his head. Anger written all over his face, his fits clenched.
When Sean didn't answer, Ellie looked to Emma and then Toby. They both stared at the floor, apparently not wanting to tell her. She huffed and looked back at Rick. "What happened to Jimmy?" She asked Rick, demandingly. Rick laughed, without any humor behind it. "I shot him." He pulled the gun out, dropping the bag to the floor.
Ellie stood there, blinking at him. Rick had shot Jimmy? How was that possible? Had Raditch not seen that this boy was at breaking point and would blow at any minute? Who could've even made him hit breaking point in the first place? From what she saw this morning, Jimmy, Emma, and Toby had all been friendly to Rick.
Ellie was awakened from her thoughts by the sound of Emma, whimpering. Ellie glanced back at her, then turned back to Rick. "Why? Why would you shoot Jimmy? You both seemed to get along really well this morning."
Rick laughed. "He did THIS to me." He said, holding out his arms. Ellie assume that he meant the mustard and feathers. "He was just pretending to be my friend, so that he could turn around and completely HUMILIATE me in front of the ENTIRE school!"
Ellie took a step towards Rick, which, in turn, caused him to point the gun at her. "Stay back!" Rick all but screamed at her.
She took a deep breath, before speaking. "Look, Rick, I don't think that Jimmy did this to you. Jimmy is a pretty good guy. I'm not really friends with him, but I do know that he isn't capable of doing something so mean. It had to of been someone else. Someone who is the king of being mean."
"Oh yeah? Who?" Rick demanded, not believing her.
"I would tell you, but I'd be scared that you would go after them next." Ellie said, swallowing hard. She knew who was most likely behind this. She was surprised that Sean hadn't said anything yet. She knew that he knew who she was talking about. Jay. Jay Hogart. That ass didn't care about anyone but himself. Jay most likely had help with the prank, and she wasn't sure who it could be, but she hoped that it wasn't Sean.
"You won't tell me? Ha. I should've known you wouldn't. You're just like THEM aren't you?" Rick said, spitting in Emma, Toby, and Sean's general direction.
Ellie couldn't help but laugh. She was so far from being like them. She wasn't like anyone in the whole school. She knew all to well how it felt to be whispered about. How it felt to be stared at. To be laughed at. She shook her head. "Listen, Rick, I'm not like them. I'm not like anyone in the whole school. Just ask around. I'm known for one thing. Some people believe the rumors, but few people really know the truth. You're not the only one who feels like a freak, Rick."
Ellie closed her eyes, before pulling up her shirt sleeve, showing off all of her cuts and scars. They traveled the length of her forearm. Starting at her wrist and ending just above her elbow.
"I know what it's like to feel like you just can't take it anymore. I'm not a stranger to it. I recently stopped cutting, thanks to Sean, but I still want to do it every now and then. Things get to me and I feel myself slipping and getting out my kit." She kept her eyes on Rick and opened her bag, pulling out her CD case, that contained all of her matierals. The hall pass that she had been carrying had been dropped and was now laying on the floor, at her feet. She unzipped the case and held it out to Rick.
Rick's arm, that had been raised, pointing the gun at Ellie, dropped down a little bit. He looked over everything that was in her case. Maybe he had just found someone who really knew what it felt like. Who knew what it was like to want to just end it all.
Tears filled Rick's eyes. "I never meant to hurt Terry. Honest. I never meant for anything bad to happen to her. But it did. It was an accident. And everyone's hated me ever since! Everybody hates me for something that was an accident. I know that I've been aggressive in the past, but everything's different now! Nobody gets it! I've changed! I'm not the angry, aggressive person that accidentally hurt someone! I'm not... I'm not! I'm NOT!" Rick screamed.
Ellie's eyebrows furrowed. She glanced back at the other three, who didn't look very sympathetic. They looked more scared then anything. She looked back at Rick, who now had tears running like little rivers down his cheeks. Ellie drew in a deep breath. She never really knew Terry, but she had felt sorry for her when she ended up in the hospital because she fell and hit her head on a rock. Ellie had never heard the whole story though. She wasn't saying that it hadn't been Rick's fault, because maybe it had been, but right now, she could see that he was in pain and about to jump over the edge. She needed to comfort him. To calm him down before he hurt anyone else. Before he could hurt himself.
She blew out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding. "Rick... I never heard the whole story about you and Terry, but I know that you didn't mean for Terry to get hurt. You loved her, right? You wouldn't hurt someone you love on purpose. I understand where you're coming from, Rick. I understand. But Rick, you need to put the gun down. You don't want to hurt Emma or Toby or Sean, do you Rick? They haven't done anything to you. You don't want to hurt anyone, so please put the gun down." She held her breath once more, waiting to see what Rick would do.
Rick stood there, a sob escaping his lips. He sucked in a breath and dropped the gun. It clattered to the ground and Sean, Emma, Toby and Ellie let out sighs of relief.
Ellie knew it wasn't over yet though. She watched as Rick fell to his knees. Ellie paused for a second, before kneeling down in front of him. She paused again, not knowing what she wanted her next move to be. After a brief second of debating, Ellie leaned forward and put her hands on Rick's shoulders, which were shaking due to the sobs. She slowly pulled him towards her, pulling him into a hug. Rick didn't return the hug, he just let Ellie hold onto him.
Ellie could almost feel Sean tense behind them. She knew that he wasn't really happy about her hugging this possible murderer, but he would have to get over it. She was trying to save the lives of the people standing behind her, as well as the lives of everyone else in the school. She could hear Emma sniffling. It made Ellie want to roll her eyes. Emma was safe. Rick hadn't so much as looked at her, once Ellie showed up. She didn't know what Toby was doing, because he was completely silent.
"Ellie..." She heard Sean say. She glanced back at him and saw that he was looking straight ahead. She looked to see what he was looking at and saw Mr. Raditch and three police officers walking cautiously towards them. It made Ellie groan inside of her head. Why did they have to show up? It wasn't that she wasn't grateful that they had showed up, but their timing was way off. She was still trying to defuse this ticking time bomb and their being there was just going to make it ten times worse.
"Rick, let go of Ellie." She heard Mr. Raditch say, slowly. Apparently, he didn't know that Ellie was the one holding onto Rick, not the other way around. Rick pulled back from Ellie before anyone could blink. He turned his head to look at Raditch and the cops. Ellie saw his eyes narrow and almost knew what was going to come next.
Rick jumped up, grabbing the gun in the process. He pointed the gun straight at Ellie, aiming right between her eyes. Emma gasped in shock and clutched onto Sean and Toby. Ellie didn't see it, but she knew that that was what Emma had done. She could hear Sean, shifting from foot to foot, scared of what Rick might do to his girlfriend.
Ellie swallowed and glanced at the cops. They all had their hands on their guns. She looked up at Rick, who was staring at the cops with a look of disgust and pure anger on his face. Her breaths were coming in short bursts. She wouldn't lie. She was terrified. She had only wanted to help and it had backfired on her.
"Rick, put the gun down, please. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you?" One of the cops asked, slowly creeping towards Rick. Seeing this only caused Rick to push the gun against Ellie's skin. Rick turned towards Ellie and spat, "You lied, didn't you? You don't really know how it feels. You just fed me lies to make yourself feel better. Didn't you! And it's YOUR fault that the cops are here! You probably planned this from the start!" Tears were starting to run down Ellie's cheeks by now. She shook her head a little bit. "No. I didn't lie. I have no reason to." A look of loathing crossed Rick's face. In the blink of an eye, a shot was heard.
Ellie's eyes had snapped shut, scared that it had been Rick that had shot her. It didn't dawn on her that it was the cop shooting Rick, until she heard his body fall to the floor.
Her eyes had remained shut, even though it hadn't been her that had been shot. She didn't want to open her eyes to see what had happened. She could hear the running footsteps of the cops. She could hear Emma sobbing. She could hear someone trying to soothe Emma. She could hear the cops saying something to her, but couldn't make out the words. It was like the world had slowed down. Everything thing was playing out so slow. Ellie didn't know if it was because she had her eyes shut or if time had really slowed down, but sobs started building up inside of her. One finally escaped her lips and a second later, she felt arms wrap around her. She felt someone stroking her hair. She could hear someone trying to soothe her.
Ellie gasped for breath and slowly blinked her eyes open. She saw that the cops had already called in the parametics and they were carrying Rick away on a stretcher, right as she opened her eyes. She looked up and saw that Sean was the one holding her. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his gray jacket.
After a few minutes of sobbing into her boyfriends jacket, she heard someone clear their throat. She sniffled and pulled away from Sean. She looked up and saw that it had been one of the cops. He knelt down beside the couple. "I know that it's probably a bad time, but we will need to get a statement from you, on what happened."
Ellie sniffled again and whipped the tears from her eyes, which smeared her eyeliner. She stared at her fingers, at the black that the eyeliner had left behind, and then looked up at the cop. He smiled down at her. "You can go freshen up first, before we head to the station, if you would like. I'll wait for you out front."
Ellie nodded, thankful. She looked back to Sean, who gave her the best smile he could, with all that had happened. She then looked up and saw that Emma was still clutching onto Toby. Toby looked as if he was trying to be a man and not show any emotion, while Emma was sobbing. Ellie sniffled again and stood up, which caused Sean to stand up as well. He grabbed onto Ellie's elbows as she wobbled a little. She looked up at Sean and gave a small smile, before pulling away and slowly making her way down the hall and into the lady's restroom.
When she walked in, she walked straight to the sink, intending on fixing her smudged eyeliner. When she saw herself in the mirror her eyes started tearing up. She turned away from the mirror, leaning against the sink. "Stop crying." She said out loud to herself. "Just stop! You're FINE." She closed her eyes and stood there for what felt like hours, before she turned back to the mirror. She drew in a breath and turned on the water. She got the tips of her fingers wet and moved them up to her face, whipping the smudged eyeliner away.
Once she had cleared it to her satisfaction, Ellie took a deep breath and walked out of the lady's restroom and headed for the front of the school, where she knew the cop or cops were waiting for her.