Sydney
Early morning, a buzz wakes me up. I stand up and stretch, but my foot stings instantly.
All of a sudden, Travis comes running out of nowhere and sits me back down.
"Hey! You're all right!" He smiles and hugs me.
"Yeah, my foot is a little beaten though."
"Then don't stand, I'll get the door," He grins ever so sweetly at me and props my foot on a pillow before he leaves for the door.
I admire all of the scars on my foot, and the fantastic bruise tracing from my ankle to my little piggy toe from when I knocked that eraser over with my foot.
"Can I help you?" Travis asked the guy at the door.
"Walt Postmen, Wall Street Journal And this is my partner and photographer, Ralph Qurrie.." I sit up.
"We heard of there being minors in the Saint Chavers building when it was attacked. We'd like to interview you for the front page article, we are writing."
"Why us?" Travis asks, looking at the man I guess is Ralph.
"Well like we said, you guys are minors. And that'll make a fantastic story. Everyone wants it! "Minors caged inside building during explosion!" If you two would please come outside to be-"
"Well it's not just us sir, but if you'll wait for me to wake them and get them ready, we'll join you in the lobby," I call from where I sit.
"Actually we have the green room reserved so that's were we will be, and take your time!"
"Thanks," Travis and I say in unison as Trav shuts the door.
"Oh my God! Front page of the Journal! This is going to be awesome!" Maya instantly screeches from the room, jumping out and waving her arms everywhere.
"Everyone is going to know who we are, now!"
"Wha-" Chandler's muffled voice says, as he stumbles in the doorway.
"Oh, hey Syd." He pauses for a moment and does a double take.
"SYD!"He rushes over and tries to jump on me.
"FOOT! FOOT!" I cry, pointing. "Oh yikes! You should have someone look at that," "Yeah, later though, we have interviews, would you wake the others?" "I'll call a doc," Trav assures Chandler as Maya rushes off to choose an outfit.
"Will you be okay in what you're wearing?" He asks me, phone in hand. I give him a look.
"Right," he says, "Stupid question."
"Hello front desk, are there any doctors in the area that make house calls?"
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Travis carried me the whole way down to the green room where a doctor was waiting along with the Journal reporter and a camera crew. Suddenly I felt a little thank full Maya had fixed my makeup.
"Brilliant idea, kid!" Ralph told Trav.
"Severe foot injury examined! Ha! Great!"
The sat me on a chair and the doctor placed my foot on a stack of cushions.
"Hold off on that, so we can get it on tape," a woman says to the doctor coming up to me and my friends.
"Hello everyone, I'm Kim Garcia. I work for CNN, Ralph, Walt and I will be interviewing you all."
"Pleasure to meet you, Kim, I'm Maya Reginald, and this is Chandler Elder, Travis Handler, Allison Kitteridge, Tarea Suarez, and Jude Young." Maya immediately introduces herself, and shakes Kim's hand.
"Pleasure is mine, and this lass with the lovely hair is?"
"I'm Sydney. Sydney Falcon, and this is my older brother, Duncan Falcon," I say, as Duncan roughs up my hair.
I lightly slug him in the arm.
"Of course! How could I forget you, Syd," Maya starts to bubble.
"Just say the truth and everything you feel," Kim smiles nicely at us then gets up, counts to five to herself.
"And action," Kim says to the cameraman.
"Thanks Gina, and here I am in the green room of a Best Western here in the fabulous NYC, where I am joined with Wall Street Journal reporters, Walt Postmen and Ralph Qurrie, and here we sit down to interview seven minors, Maya Reginald, Chandler Elder, Travis Handler, Allison Kitteridge, Tarea Suarez, and Jude Young. Some of which are slightly injured, all aged sixteen, and were together in the Saint Chavers ballroom before and during the explosion and attack. Where more than twenty people were shot and\or killed." More than fifteen, I felt a twist in my gut and prayed my face didn't drain of color on screen. I used my head to flip my bangs out of my eyes, nonchalant. " So, Maya, why were all of you in town and in the Saint Chavers ballroom?" Kim asks.
"Well, Kim," Maya says trying to look a little pathetic, clutching the top of her shirt like it was a narrow escape.
"My aunt and uncle had invited me to join them, cause they work for people who were invited and were invited themselves and how we all ended up there was because, my close friend, Sydney's, birthday was during that time and we were all going through a bit of a rough patch, so I took the whole team. I never thought it would end like this."
"There weren't any signs at the start of the party towards when the first shot was fired?" Kim asked, giving the mike to Chandler.
Except I saw my bird boyfriend and the flock.
"Not at all, everyone was formal and kind. I never saw it coming, and Sydney, she's very intuitive, and she began to look and became very sick looking and all of a sudden she started to beg us to leave, then the shot was fired."
"Wow, well you guys certainly label Sydney, here, out as a hero," Walt says as Ralph snaps some photos.
"Quite!" Kim agrees, glancing back at the camera.
"Well, she is!" Maya butts in.
"She stayed in longer to make sure everyone got out!" Tarea exclaimed.
"Really!" Kim says and sticks the mike in my face.
"Yeah, all of a sudden a shot of adrenaline rocketed through me as soon as I heard gunfire I knew something was wrong and all of a sudden smoke and no one seemed to understand how an exit worked so…"
Kim choked back a snorting laugh. And I smoothed down my black t-shirt.
"And did you get everyone out in time?" Walt asks, scribbling stuff down.
I looked down at my knees and rubbed my eyes. Don't you dare cry Sydney! Don't you do it!
Quickly Ally came in for the rescue.
"Are you okay?" She whispered to me.
I couldn't shake or nod my head. So, careful not to smear the thick eyeliner, I rubbed my eyes and blinked quickly.
"Unfortunately, no," I mumble. Thinking of Angel and her sweet face and of Max kicking and screaming for her.
"I was grabbed and hauled out before I could get to any others," I lie, "That included a close friend's sister." I mumble quietly. Tears welling dangerously.
"Well that's strange, there were no women killed in this attack,"
"What?" I ask, startled. "Yeah, we found no bodies that belonged to any women."
How…
"What?" I repeated, staring dead into the screen, and all of a sudden I heard Nudge in my head, saying 'I told you so'.
"That-"
"Is it possible, she could have been burned to ash?" Ralph whispers to me.
I glance at him and blink for the first time in ten minutes.
"Yes," I whisper, then kick my voice up a few notches.
"Yes, yeah I guess that's what happened."
"Oh my," Kim sympathizes.
"Please ask them to accept my deepest sympathy."
"Yes ma'am." I tell her and nod.
"So now, how frightening was it in there?" She asks me, and I look dead into the camera.
"Oh Kim, Kim, Kim…" I whisper, laughing lightly and shaking my head.
"Your worst nightmares couldn't cover it."
