"Mine!" yelled Marisol, jumping to meet the volleyball that flew towards her and setting it back up into the air for her best friend, Katie, to spike over the net. The two high-fived when the six girls on the other side of the net, including Bianca, failed to prevent it from hitting the gym floor on the other side.

Mr. Armstrong blew his whistle to gain the attention of the senior girls' P.E. class. "Okay everybody, that was game point. Good work, ladies! Now, I think we should –" A bang rang out and rattled the gym. Marisol looked around at her classmates, and then looked back to her teacher whom was rolling his eyes. "Why is the gym so close to the shop?" he mumbled before heading out into the hall to close the external doors.

Marisol skipped over to Katie. "So, you wanna go to the mall after school? There's this sale at Pretty, Pretty and I've had my eye on this little black number."

Katie rolled her eyes at her friend and replied, "I'll go but don't let me buy anything! I've got to keep saving every penny if I have any chance at affording Stanford in the fall."

The gym doors flew open and Marisol's teacher came running into the room and shouting, "Everyone into the change room, c'mon, let's go!" The panic in his eyes was enough to make sure there were no protests.

Marisol followed the others into the small room that was clouded with the smell of a class full of girls' different perfumes. Everybody was talking at once about what Mr. Armstrong looked so scared about. He hadn't followed them into the room but instead ran back into the hallway, yelling at the girls to lock the change room behind them and to stay put.

"What do you thinks going on?" Katie asked Marisol quietly as they sat down on a bench at the far side of the room.

Marisol shrugged at her friend and replied, "It just sounded like a truck in shop faltered or whatever."

"Or a gun," Bianca DeSousa said, daring to sit down on their bench.

Marisol and Katie rolled their eyes at her. "You would know, wouldn't you, Bad News Bianca?" Marisol said pointedly at the girl.

"Whatever." Bianca scowled and stood up from the bench. Marisol watched her strut over to Fiona and Imogen who were sitting at a bench nearer to the change room entrance.

Marisol looked to Katie who was adjusting the brace on her knee. "Your face is pretty white Matlin."

"You don't really think it was a gunshot, do you?"

Marisol smiled at her friend. "Doubt it, I'm just glad to be finished playing. I am completely tired after running around town all weekend. Trying to find last minute sponsors for grad is tough work."

Katie nodded slightly and started to retie her shoe.

Marisol pulled her fuchsia gym bag from underneath the bench and pulled her iPhone from the side pocket. She checked the time to find there was still half an hour left of class. She hoped that Mr. Armstrong would get whatever it was cleared up so she didn't have to suffer through Fiona and Bianca's rude looks from across the room the whole time.

She scrolled through her top contacts and selected Mo's name.

MARISOL: Hey babe, how's skipping with Jake? I'm stuck

in the girl's change room, something has Armstrong

worried.

She almost pressed send before adding two words to her text.

Stay safe.

Marisol tucked her phone back into her bag and continued to dig in it for something to do. There wasn't much other than some deodorant, a pack of gum, and the few odd hair elastics. She was about to reach for the gum when a loud sound over the intercom startled her.

The intruder alert signal boomed throughout the change room. Marisol had heard it before; the school had a practice every year for the last four years she had been attending Degrassi.

The change room went silent. Marisol saw Katie's face pale even more than she thought was possible.

Bianca's voice cut through the quiet of the room, "Told you."