Three.

Tucker

The 7th of March

In my sophomore year of high school, we had a school shooting. On March 7, 2011, it was a normal morning and I was waiting for Danny and Sam, my friends, to come to school early and at least eat breakfast with me. 7: 25 rolled around and I had to get to my English class and hoped to see Danny and Sam there.

7:30 AM. Still no sign of them. I text them: "Where the fuck you guys at?"

Sam responded quickly: "Sorry! Danny woke up late and I had to wait for him."

Danny added: " Sam I said I was sorry! Tucker We're almost there."

Mr. Lancer yelled at me to put my PDA away. Ugh… great.

7:36 AM. Danny and Sam finally showed up. Mr. Lancer wasn't so pleased.

"I expect this from Mr. Fenton, but you Miss Manson?" He commented and sighed. "I guess I'll let you two slide, but that's because I would be expecting Miss Manson to take you to school early for now on, Mr. Fenton."

Danny and Sam sat to their seats.

7:50 AM. During the class, Mr. Lancer was giving a lecture about the backgrounds of 'Grapes of Wrath' and John Steinbeck. We heard a BOOM! Sound. Mr. Lancer took a look outside to see what was going on. BOOM! The sound came from outside. The school alarms went off and our principal let out an announcement through the speakers.

"Hello, students and faculty. This is Principal Ishiyama reporting that we have an active shooter by school grounds. Teachers, do not let any students or anyone outside of class and if any students are outside, please escort them to the gymnasium. Please lock any classrooms, bathrooms and the gymnasium. We will give any further notice."

7:53 AM. Everyone in the classroom was freaking out. Paulina and Star, two of my classmates was sobbing her eyes out while Mr. Lancer tried control the situation.

The whole class heard a pop! Pop! Pop! Sound from the hallways. Oh, shit. Did the shooter got inside the school?

"Everyone move to the back!" Mr. Lancer ordered us to move to the back of the class. He turned off the lights and closed the shutters. Everyone moved the desk out of the way and barricade ourselves from the shooter.

8:02 AM. Still more gunshots going off. Danny and Sam were freaking out, despite the two are only ones who seemed to be keeping themselves together. "Dude," Danny told us, "I tried to get in touch with Jazz, but she's not answering my messages." Jazz is Danny's older sister, who was a senior. Dash, another classmate took a peek at the window. He said, "The cops and SWAT Team's here!" Mr. Lancer yelled at him to back away from the window.

8:17 AM. More gunshots going off. The whole class heard a scream somewhere in the hallway. Paulina was crying even more and started to pray in Spanish. Danny finally got a message from Jazz.

8:19 AM. We spot the shooter walking by our room. We stayed quiet. Sam started to freak out and began to cry. She kept saying, "Oh god." over and over again.

8:20 AM. The SWAT Team stepped into the school. They passed our room.

8:26 AM. Only one gunshot went off. We could hear it far away as possible, but we could distinguish the sound.

8:30 AM. Principal Ishiyama made announcement. She told each class should be evaluated one by one and by then we are dismissed from school and our parents will be there to pick us up.

8:37 AM. By the time our class was evaluated, I saw bullets lying around the hallways and near the restrooms, there was a white sheet where it was hiding the body, who turned out to be Mr. Ray, the school's band teacher.

As we stepped out of the school, I saw my parents, who were relieved that I was still alive. I looked at Danny and Jazz with their parents and Sam, who didn't have best relationship with parents, was hugging them so tightly, it was out of character for her.

All day, news outlets were talking about the shooting and it was revealed that five other people outside the school, including the shooter were shot and killed.

The school was closed for a whole week since the police was doing an investigation.

After we returned back to school, we had a memorial for Mr. Ray and the other victims who had died. It's scary to know what would've happened if the shooter had come in to our room, but at the same time, I don't want to know.