Maya's POV:

Within just a few moments, my world had gone from just the usual to just..a disaster. I told my best friend, Riley Matthews, that everything would be just fine. I told her that the sounds we both had been hearing were nothing. Then all of this happened and she could be dead for all I know! I...I should've listened to her. I should've protected my poor little plant. Well, I..I guess it's too late now. I took a look around at all of my surroundings. Most of what I could see was people just suffering. A good few of them were even unresponsive! I didn't know what exactly to do so I got up on my own two feet and attempted to find Riley. But that was a mistake. It hurt to stand up more than any pain I'd ever experienced in my twelve years of life. I decided to just get down on my knees and crawl to a nearby exit. It didn't matter if it burned me. I just needed to find her. I bashed a window open and climbed right out of it. I felt a huge stinging sensation as shards of glass made their way into my skin. "O-Ow.." I managed to whimper. It really was getting hard to breathe. I continued to crawl until I found a body that was trapped under the subway. The entire body of the victim was crushed underneath of the subway except for the head. I noticed that she was on fire so I had to aggressively blow air on her to get the flames to go out the best I could. She had severe scrapes and burns to her face and long curled brown hair. It was definitely was my best friend though. She didn't seem to have any life in her so I decided to give her a soft nudge. "R-Riles..?" She didn't give any sort of response. I began to get very worried. I didn't want to lose her. I..I just couldn't lose her. It'd be all my fault. I nudged her again in hopes of getting a response. But yet again, no response. "R-Riley Matthews. Wake up. Now." I said with strictness in my voice. But in all honesty, I was beginning to break down. I just couldn't take seeing her like this. I couldn't take thinking of the possibility that she was dead so I just began to sob. I sobbed and sobbed but it just made no difference. Riley seemed to be dying and it was all my fault. After calming myself down just a bit, I discovered that my phone was still in my pocket. I pulled it out, noticing it remained undamaged. I then called the number '911'. The phone rang for about thirty seconds before I got a response.

"911, what's your emergency?" The lady who picked up the phone asked me in a gentle voice.

"T-The..subway.." I managed to choke out after slight hesitation. "T-There was an accident. I-I-I dunno if anyone else besides me is alive. I'm s-scared." I cried weakly.

"Shh.. It's okay, honey. Calm down." The lady spoke in a soothing voice. However, it wasn't soothing to me in the slightest bit. "Just, can you tell me how bad it is?"

"I-I..I dunno. It...caught on fire and exploded. I-I see...blood everywhere. My best friend..she's not answering me. I-Is she dead?!" I said at an incredibly fast pace.

"I dunno, hon." The lady sighed, noticing how I was still in such distress. "Is she breathing at all..?"

"H-H-Hold on.." I whimpered, crawling back over to Riley. I put my ear up to her mouth but didn't hear any breathing. This just broke my heart and I tried my very best to hold back sobs. But despite my best efforts, I just failed. I kneeled over her body and just cried. I couldn't even make myself get back to talk on my phone.

"Ma'am..?" I could hear the voice on the phone through my sobs.

"P-P-Please.. Just send over h-help! I can't lose her!" I yelled at the phone although I continued crying. I then aggressively pushed the 'end call' button.

"Riles.. Don't leave me." I whimpered quietly, looking straight down at her. I wanted to just hold her hand but, unfortunately, both of them were crushed underneath of the subway. I resorted to gently caressing the singed hair on her head as I waited for help to come our way.

Cory's POV:

I hung around in my classroom, waiting for the first period students to come barging in. I happened to like this class the best. They were usually the most well-behaved class of the year. Also, Riley and Maya were in this class, which made it even better. I decided that I'd teach the class yet another valuable life lesson while incorporating some great history along with it. I shuffled through some papers I was gonna hand back to the class today. I just wanted to be sure I didn't miss anything while grading them. It seemed like I didn't really miss a thing so I just sat back behind my desk and decided to just take it easy until the kids were to come in. It was only about fifteen short minutes until the first student finally arrived.

As usual, it was Farkle Minkus who was the first to arrive. He greeted me with a toothy grin. Man, I loved that kid. "Hey, Mr. Matthews!" He shouted with joy and I just couldn't help but chuckle.

"Hey Farkle! How ya doin' today?" I asked with enthusiasm.

"I'm doing great! Thanks for asking, sir!" He continued to grin at me. He then looked around before deciding to ask me a question. "Say, have you seen Riley or Maya? I was wanting to talk to them!"

I shook my head to tell him no. "Nope! They should be here soon though." But, boy, was I wrong. They wouldn't be coming soon. As a matter of fact, they wouldn't be coming to school at all. But, I had no idea of the events that were to come that day.

But anyways, I waited just a few more minutes for the rest of the class to come. I took attendance once the bell rang. Basically everyone was present except for Riley and Maya. I just shrugged it off, thinking they were just running a little bit late. "Alright guys, today we're going to be learning about 9/11. You all heard about it, right?" I smiled nervously. Knowing these guys, they probably didn't hear too much about it. "Farkle? Anybody?" I immediately asked the class. Nobody seemed to be wanting to answer so I had no other choice than to explain it to them. "Alright, 9/11. It was one of the nation's biggest disasters ever! It was a terrorist attack like none other and America's been eternally changed because of it." I gave a pretty thorough explanation of the attack for the next ten to fifteen minutes. "Okay, now everyone take out your book and turn to page one-hundred-and-three. I want you to read to page one-hundred-and-" I was then cut off by the sound of my cell phone ringing. "One-hundred-and-fifteen. Read to there while I take this call." I heard the entire class let out a collective sigh and I just laughed.

Afterwards, I walked over to one of the supply closets where I was currently storing my phone. I looked to see who was calling and noticed it was Maya. I was just completely confused at the moment on why she was calling me but yet not in my class. I picked up the phone and closed the closet before going into the hallway to talk. I put the phone up to my ear and immediately heard soft sobbing coming from the other end. "Maya? You okay, honey? Where are you guys?" I was really worried. I hadn't heard Maya, of all people, crying in years!

"N-No.." I heard her holding back sobs as she muttered those words to me. "W-We're...hurt."

My heart just dropped in an instant. As a father, you never wanted to hear that your daughter or her best friend were hurt. "O-Oh my God.. How hurt?"

"R-Riley...She's not...s-she's not..breathing!" Maya yelled between her sobs.

My heart was now shattered. The two most important girls in my life were hurt..badly. "Okay, honey." I said, trying to stay strong. "Did ya call for an ambulance?"

"Y-Y-Yeah.. I just did before calling y-you." Maya was still crying as she replied to me.

"I'm gonna try and get ahold of Topanga. You just hang in there and maybe see if you can get Riley breathing, okay?" I replied way too calmly. I should've sounded way more worried but I just...couldn't. I didn't want to end up crying while talking to her.

"I-I don't know how.." Maya told me in a heartbreaking tone.

I sighed before giving a simple response. "That's okay, honey. I'm gonna go now. See ya soon. Hopefully."

I then hung up the phone and returned to the classroom. "Okay guys. I gotta make another phone call or two. There's...a family emergency." I took a quick but hesitant pause. "Both Riley and Maya were in an accident."

A couple of the kids' eyes almost immediately widened. But the majority of them just shrugged it off. But then my daughter's painstakingly obvious crush, whom I often referred to as 'Mr. Friar, raised his hand. I let out a sigh before answering him. 'Yes, Mr. Friar?"

"Are Riley and Maya going to be okay, sir?" He asked after putting his hand down onto his desk. I guess I must've forgotten to tell the class all of the details of the accident. Well, all of the details I actually knew, at least.

"I..I dunno." I said in as firm of a voice as I could, considering the circumstances. The emotional pain I was feeling probably had quite the effect on my voice.

I guess the young man really had no idea how to respond so he just sighed and continued to read from his history book.

"Well, guys. I gotta go make some more phone calls. After you're done reading what I told ya to, just do whatever. Please be well-behaved while I'm outta the room, okay?" I figured they'd end up not even listening to a single word I said. But that didn't really matter. What mattered was that I called Topanga to let her know what'd happened. So I left the room and took out my cell phone once more.