Once Eloise had reached her classroom, she noticed more than half of her class was missing, to what she assumed was being sick.
She placed her bag down and sat at her desk.
"Ok kids, I'm sure you can see that a lot of your fellow classmates are missing, a lot of people are out sick today. Not to worry, we are going to have a nice, fun class today, starting with a movie." The teacher said, excitedly.
A few hours had passed, when someone loudly knocked on the classroom door, causing Eloise to jump in her seat.
"School is closing early today, your parents have been alerted, please head to the front to be collected, we have arranged for extra school busses for those of you who need to be driven home. Please check in the office if your parents have requested for you to take the bus." The principal yelled out from the doorway.
Eloise collected her belongings and quickly paced down the halls to the office, only to see her brother standing there, already waiting for her.
"Come on, smoodge." Chris said as he gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders and led her to the bus. They both climbed in and took a seat in the middle of the bus.
"Will mom be home when we get there?" Eloise asked her brother.
"I don't know, Elly, we'll see when we get home,"
"Ok," Eloise responded.
"Hey, it's ok, people are just getting sick, but we'll be ok… alright?" Chris said, pulling his sister in, trying to comfort her. Eloise nodded.
The rest of the drive, Eloise just stared outside, watching traffic pass by. Her brother blocking out the world with his earphones. Sirens started blaring outside, and the bus pulled to a stop.
"Cops shot some homeless dude. Shot him like twenty times!" A man yelled from the front of the bus, passengers got up and followed him in response.
"Come on…" Chris said, pulling his sister toward the front exit.
"No, no Chris, I want to stay here, I want to go home."
"It's ok, look, this is important. We need to go, ok? I'll protect you."
Eloise hesitated.
"Come on, you either come with me, or stay on the bus on your own."
Eloise began tearing up, but decided to follow her brother.
As they followed the passengers from the bus, they passed by hundreds of people yelling and chanting. Eloise squeezed Chris' hand. Chris then pulled his sister in closer to his body, keeping her away from the crowd.
"Chris?" Eloise called out, Christopher ignored her and kept pulling her further into the crowd.
Chris pulled out his video camera, focusing on the police officers behind the tape, and the man laying on the ground, covered by the sheet.
"Hey kid, put the camera down." The officer demanded.
"No, no homie, keep that camera up." A man yelled.
"Wanna go to jail, son?" The officer continued, coming closer to Chris.
"Chris? Put it down, please" Eloise begged.
"Jail? For what? Freedom of speech?" The man retorted.
"He aint breaking any laws, man" Another man joined.
Chris kept his camera up as the officer started talking on his walkie.
"Hell no, we won't go!" Someone started chanting, causing the crowd to join in in unison.
Chris' phone rang.
"Mom! Mom!"
"Where the hell are you?" Travis responded on the other line.
"Dad, why do you have mum's phone?" Chris questioned, ducking down in the crowd, Eloise began tugging on her brother's arm, wishing to speak to her father.
"I'm with your mother, we're coming to get you, tell us where you are."
"There's a protest… I'm at a protest" Chris responded, yelling into the phone over the crowd.
"Where are they?" Liza yelled at Travis.
"Where?" Travis asked Chris, once again.
"Th-The cops… they shot some homeless man… this poor guy, he wasn't doing anything." Chris rambled into the phone.
"Ok, let us come and get you," Travis interrupted.
"The people, we're taking action… this is important, Dad."
"Yeah I get it, I get it ok, but this isn't safe, we need to get you and your sister…"
"Dad, I'm important here, ok? I gotta go, I gotta go, Dad." Chris yelled, then hung up the phone.
The crowd became even louder at this point, frightening Eloise, who clung to her brother even tighter.
"Chris, is Dad coming? I wanna go home… I don't want to be here anymore… please." Eloise begged her brother.
"We have to do this… It's important, I'll keep you safe, come here." Chris responded, then pulled Eloise in toward his body, wrapped one arm around her, and then lifted the camera with the other to continue filming the riot.