Mac sighed and pulled her earbuds out of her ears. There was some sort of school bell going off. She looked at the clock at the bottom of her computer screen and saw that lunch wasn't supposed to be over. Why was the school bell ringing? Mac looked over at the other students in the computer lab to see what they were doing. Other students were reluctantly shutting down their computers, logging out of World of Warcraft, and saving projects. Mr. Wu stood in the doorway.
"Everyone out. Go line up in the parking lot with your period 4 class," Mr. Wu was yelling as he began shooing students out of the computer lab.
Mac picked up her bag and stood next to Mr. Wu for a moment. "Mr. Wu, is this a fire drill?"
"As far as I know, this is not a drill," Mr. Wu said. His eyes were darting around the classroom and looking into the hallway.
"So it's not a drill. Someone must've pulled the alarm." Now Mac was annoyed. She made a mental note to check the school's camera footage when she got home. Mac wanted to know who had done it. She was working on finishing up a project for computer science and had been in the zone when the alarm had gone off. If it was Dick Casablancas who had pulled the alarm (and it usually was), she figured she'd blackmail him for the cash to buy a new graphics card for her desktop. He could afford it. "Do I really have to go out and line up in the parking lot? We'll just be sent back as soon as we reach the lot."
Mr. Wu stopped waving students out of the room and into the hallway and looked into Mac's eyes. "Shots were fired on lunch court. We need to get you guys to safety," he whispered to her.
Mac's heart seemed to stop. She thought of all her friends who regularly ate there. There was Veronica, Wallace, Logan, and . . . Cassidy. Mac hardly noticed that Mr. Wu had shoved her out the door and didn't know how she had made her way out of the deserted hallway into the bright sunlight. Mac pulled out her Blackberry to send messages to Veronica and Wallace. She already had a few texts from Veronica and Wallace. They were all checking in with each other.
I'm fine. Talk to you later-V
Was in computer science class for tutoring, nothing to see here-Wallace
Mac began a mass text message to Veronica, Wallace and her parents. She considered adding Cassidy to the message, but rethought it. Suddenly, the sound of Clemens voice boomed through the crowd.
"I know some of you have cars and want to go home. As soon as your parents come to sign you out, you may leave campus." Students began booing, but Clemens took it in stride. "I'm sorry those are the rules. If you don't like it, too bad."
Mac wandered through the parking lot and found her car. Sitting on the hood, she called her mom.
"Hi, Mom. No, I'm not sick. Listen, there was an incident on campus and I need you to come down and sign me out from school." Mac paused while her mother spoke. "No, I'm fine. Just come and sign me out, okay? I have a project I need to finish for school." Mac ended the phone call and sat down to wait. She looked around at the mass of students shuffling in the parking lot, reuniting with friends, calling their parents, and telling each other where they had been when "it" had happened. Mac became aware of how alone she felt with no one to reunite with.
The smell of Drakkar Noir pulled Mac from her thoughts. "So I'm supposed to be looking for you, but not, you know, be obvious about it."
Mac turned her head. Dick. "Why isn't Cassidy looking for me?"
"He's having some sort of panic attack in his car. Like, full blown. I had to steal some freshman's lunch bag for him to breathe into. He wanted to look for you, but he's having a major freak out. He was only a few feet away when Lucky went postal with the gun." Dick shrugged and pulled out his cell phone. "Found Mac. She is blowing me as I type this," Dick said as he typed out the message. He pressed send and looked at Mac. "What?"
"I'm blowing you? Are you for real?" Mac looked incredulously at Dick.
Dick took Mac's backpack and began digging through it. "It's not like it's even remotely going to happen." He pulled out her green smoothie and the banana she had saved for after school. "Do you have anything in here but fruit? This is disgusting."
"I'm a vegan," Mac said defensively.
Dick put the backpack back on the hood next to Mac. "Not even candy. This is just gross."
"Why am I expected to carry snacks for you?"
"You're not. I just can't believe anyone would be happy eating fruit and veggies all the time." Dick pulled out his phone. "Alright, so I'm gonna take a picture of you as proof of life for Beav." Mac flipped Dick the bird just as the flash went off. Dick said as he looked at the picture on his phone. "This is perfect. Listen, I gotta jet. I hear Madison had a total melt down. I'm going to try and 'comfort' her."
Mac couldn't help laughing at Dick. He was a total jackass, but she liked how dedicated he was becoming to Cassidy. A few moments later she received a text from Dick that he'd sent to both her and Cassidy (how the hell did he get her phone number?!). For your spank bank and the picture Dick had taken of her was attached. Mac shoved her phone back into her pocket, missing Cassidy's reply.
Well, it is kinda hot.