Hey everyone.

Here is Chapter 3.

Enjoy.

PS: I'm going to bring in Haley in this chapter :)

Chapter 3: Cat and Mouse

All of a sudden we heard a loud popping noise from the classroom beside us. Me and Addison covered our ears. A second after there was silence. Me, Addy, and a couple students just stood there confused and a little frightened. One of the freshman decided to see what was going on and went towards the door. As soon as she got by the door there was another loud, POP!

Out of instinct I tried to pull the girl out of the way of whatever was flying at her. She fell on me knock me to the floor. Everyone looked on in horror as she began to bleed from her abdomen. She had been shot. She looked me directly in the eyes. She was scared just as much as I was. I held her hand not knowing how to react.

"OH MY GOD!" I heard people yelling all around me.

I watched as the girls' eyes slowly closed and her head shifted away from me. I didn't know what to do. I was in shock.

Suddenly more shots were fired. I looked up at Addy who was in shock also. Addy wasn't one for blood. She hated it. I tried to speak but it was like my heart was lodged in my throat. When I finally did get something out of my mouth it was a scream.

"RUN!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Addy just stood there, frozen. It was as if she hadn't heard me at all. I knew the girl in my arms was dead and my heart went out to her though I hadn't gotten the chance to know her. This was her first year of high school, the first step into the real world, and some psychopath had taken everything for her. She would never graduate and go to college. She would never grow old with the man that at some point in her young life she learned to love and their children. Any chance she had at a life was gone.

I slowly and carefully laid the girl in my arms on the floor. I didn't want to leave her there but if I stayed I was as good as dead also. I stood up and grabbed Addy. Her eyes were dead locked on the girl.

"ADDY! SNAP OUT OF IT!" I yelled shaking her, "If we don't run were dead."

The halls were complete chaos. People were running and screaming. We could hear shuffling and screaming. I couldn't even imagine what the people inside that classroom were going through. It seemed as though me and Addy had been standing there forever but it had only been a few seconds. All I could think about was that we had to get out of the school.

Suddenly something snapped inside of Addison. When I saw that she was back from wherever she had gone in her mind I grabbed her hand and pulled her along as we ran through the hallways towards the exit. Behind us we could hear more shots and screaming. I had to resist the urge to look back and see if the shooter was behind us because I knew if I looked back there was no doubt that I would stop running and I couldn't do that. This was a life or death situation and if I made one wrong move I knew that everything could be over.

Soon the exit came into view down the hall. As we got closer something else did also. There was a student dressed in black cargo pants, army boots, a tank top, and a mask. He had a duffel bag at his feet. As he watched the other kids running for the exit he opened the duffel bag and pulled something out. I grabbed Addison's arm and we stopped running. She looked at me confused but I couldn't talk. All I could do was point as the machine gun came into view. The kid pointed the gun at the student who tried to stop and turn around but it was too late. The kid opened fire. Some students fell when they had tried to turn and go in the opposite direction, getting trampled in the process. The shooter picked them off one by one, in no rush to end his killing.

"Sam what do we do?" said Addison frantically.

"That way." I said pointing down a different hall way.

We ran again. I tried to think. If that exit was blocked then there was no doubt that the others probably were too. This was no random shooting and I knew that. The premeditation was evident. The shooters, which I was sure there were more than just two, wanted to trap us and pick us off at their own pace. I tried to think of a place that we could hide. Somewhere not a lot of people knew about so there was no chance that they could find us. Sadly there was no place like that. This was a high school after all which meant not a lot of secret passageways or rooms like you see in the movies and television shows. Our best chance was the science lab.

The science lab was one of the few classes that didn't have a door with a window, locked completely, and didn't lead to an in locked courtyard. If we got there we would be safer and could escape. The window led right out to the parking lot where I was sure would have swarms of cops and swat teams.

"The science lab." I said.

We ran as fast as we could. We didn't have that much time until the shooters drifted away from their posts and began exploring the school. If we were still in the hallway when that happened we would be sitting ducks.

Suddenly we saw people running in the opposite direction as us. I stopped running. Addison stopped also and looked at me like I was out of my mind.

"What are you doing?" Addison asked me.

"Somethings wrong." I said, "This is a trap."

I looked around trying to think quick. We needed to clear the hallways like now. All of a sudden I thought of something.

"The library." I said.

Me and Addison went into the library. We could hear the people screaming and glass breaking as a few bullets broke the window on the door. Addison pulled me to ground as a bullet hit the bookcase beside me. We both scrambled to get behind The wall that separated two bookcases. We needed to get out of sight just in case anyone looked in.

We sat there in silence. I could hear the shooting and screams louder than ever. I covered my ears and shut my eyes. I couldn't take it anymore. I tried but I couldn't be strong for this. It just didn't make sense to me. Why was this happening? How could people be so ruthless to come to school and kill people. How could they not regret it?

I just couldn't believe that everything I had overcome, all that I had went through to get to who I was today, I could die and so could Addison, and...

"Haley. Oh my god Addison I have to get to Haley." I said as I began to get up.

Addy grabbed my arm and pulled me back down.

"No Sam! There are shooters in the school. You are not leaving this library until the cops come." said Addison.

"She could be hurt though. She's my Aunt Addy." I said trying holding back the tears.

"Listen to me. What do you think she is going to feel when she finds out you were shot because you wanted to get to her? Do you know how guilty she will feel? I do Sam. I do because when I got that call from your mom telling me that you OD'd on pills I felt solely responsible. I felt like it was my fault. If I had just keep insisting and didn't let you push me away it would have never happened." said Addison beginning to cry.

I didn't know what to think. I had never known that Addy felt this way, not that I asked her how she felt. I was so busy worrying about myself that I didn't even stop to think about how my friends and family felt after what I had done. I never took the time to talk to them and tell them I was sorry. I hadn't done anything accept be angry. I was angry with my mom for saving me, with Addy for trying to help me, with my family and friends for caring, and myself for not being strong enough to get the job done. I was in a dark place back then and didn't care about anyone but me.

I pulled Addy into a hug.

"I'm so sorry." I said, "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

(Haley's P.O.V)

I waited for the class to pile in and once everyone was settled I wrote Shakespeare on the board. This was my smallest class. I only had eleven kids in the class. We were going to start a new book today and I decided that Romeo and Juliet was a good choice. It was filled with love and fundamental education as well as just enough action, lies, and murder so that the class wouldn't daze of on me. I remembered when I was in high school and they had assigned the very play for them.

"Okay today we will be starting romeo and Juliet." I announced to the class.

There were a few groans in the class and I couldn't help but smile.

"Can anyone tell me what Romeo and Juliet is about?" I asked the class.

I saw a few hands go up so I knew I hadn't lost their attention just yet. I knew that with my classes I had to create a sense of interest. Romeo and Juliet wasn't the most interesting play, until you read it that was. When you did you could find a sense of relatedness to a particular character sometimes or just the who situation. It wasn't just lovey dovey junk. There was an underlying element that people failed to notice.

With Romeo and Juliet their wasn't the happy ending that everyone always expected. Their was actual death in it. Usually people expected the characters to live happily ever after but Shakespeare thought rather realistically or I guess creatively. He focused on the nasty side of humans, the side that others usually covered up.

"Okay..Terry how about you?" I asked.

Terry wasn't much of a talker. She didn't really socialize that much. I made a promise to myself that I would get her to open up a little more. I wanted her to feel comfortable around people and talking. I knew she had a story to tell just like Sam did when she cut herself off from everyone.

"Um.." said Terry.

"Come on and spit it out freak show." said a boy in the back.

Brian Macarthur. He was the class clown. He loved to speak out and pick on other students. Some teachers didn't act on his behavior saying "boys will be boys". They thought that it was okay for kids to do this to each other because it made them tougher. I did not.

"Brian detention for a week. There will be none of that in my class anymore. Everyone is entitled to speak here at their own pace and in their own way as long as it doesn't include profanity. I will not have anyone putting each other down here. Do you understand?" I asked him seriously.

"Yes Mrs. Scott." said Brian as the smile on his face disappeared and he sank into his seat.

I looked at Terry again and saw a small smile on her face. I guessed that no one ever stood up for her before. She was a good kid I knew that by her work. She was a great writer which made up for her quietness. I knew what it was like for people to only know how to express themselves through writing. That was how Luke and Sam were.

"It's about a boy who falls in love with a girl but they are star-crossed loves and fate is against them. Their families do not want them together and forbid them from having any relationship whatsoever. But they are in love and even after Romeo has killed Juliet's cousin and fled the town Juliet is still in love with him. He decides to return but is too late." said Terry.

"Ah. We don't want to give away the ending." I said with a smile, "Thank you Terry that was absolutely correct. Now in Shakespeare tragedies usually there is no happy ending and that may be a little off throwing for you guys but bear with me. There is a mix of love, passion, hatred, death, and fate."

I looked at the class and knew I had had their attention. I began to talk again when...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

It sounded like firecrackers being set off but I knew that was not what it was. The sound was too familiar, too gut wrenching. It was a gun shot. Even after thirteen years I remembered the sound like it was yesterday. I remembered the pain and the fear.

"What was that?" said a girl frantically.

A couple kids got up went for the door.

"No! Don't go out there." I yelled at them.

Of course though the two of the guys thought that they were tough and didn't listen to me. They ran out in the hall.

"What do we do Mrs. Scott?" asked Ava.

I tried to think. These kids were counting on me. I was the teacher, the adult. I had to protect them and keep them calm. So I did the same thing I did thirteen except this time there was a difference. The shooter wasn't in the room. The shooter or shooters, I didn't know for sure yet, were out there in the hall .

"Everyone go to that side of the room." I said pointing away from the wall.

I went to the door and looked around the hallway. Kids were running all over the place. The hallways were covered with book bags, notebooks, textbooks, and other things. Suddenly I saw one of my students, Stephanie. She had blood on her and I didn't know if it was her blood or someone else's. She saw me and I signaled for her to run over. She ran into the classroom and I closed the door, locking it.

Steph sat against the wall with the other students. She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She was shaking. I sat in front of her and put my hands on her knees. She looked at me. I could see how scared she was.

"Are you hurt?" I asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders. I could see that she was in shock.

"Steph, Can you tell me what happened?" I asked her.

"Me and Robbie were in history. It was just like any normal class you know." said Steph as tears began to well up in her eyes.

I shook my head yes understandingly.

"We were talking. Today is our our anniversary. I was telling him that I had news. For the past couple of weeks I have been feeling sick lately like throwing up and stuff. I went to the doctors and they told me I am pregnant. I thought that Robbie would be mad. I didn't think that he wanted a kid but he was happy. He said that we could raise the baby together and I could move in with him and his mom because my parents said they would kick me out if I ever got pregnant." said Stephanie.

I didn't know what to say. I couldn't say that she was wrong for getting pregnant when she was in high school because then I would be a hypocrite. She was seventeen. It may not be an adult but she was old enough to make her own decisions and she had apparently picked the right guy.

"What happened next?" I asked her.

"This kid. Um..Bobby. He was sitting in front of us and he was talking to himself. He was saying how he was going to kill someone. Robbie asked him if he was okay. Bobby started yelling. He got out of his seat and was going on and on about how we would all pay." said Stephanie, "Then he got his book bag. He took out a gun and shot this girl that was sitting in another aisle because she told him to cal down. Robbie tried to help and Bobby shot him too. Robbie's dead."

Steph began to cry even more. I hugged her. I couldn't imagine what she was going through. I couldn't help but think of Nathan and wonder what would my life be like without him and Jamie in my life. Truly I would be lost. They were my heart and kept me sane after long days at work or when I was having troubles. Without them I wouldn't be where I was today.

"What am I going to do now Mrs. Scott. Robbie is dead and now I am alone to raise our child." cried Steph.

"Steph you will be okay. We will all be okay."

If I only I actually believed that. The truth was we would never be the same.

There you go.

Tell me watcha think.

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