Special thanks goes to Bilbz for supporting this story with reviews!

Also, you might have noticed that I updated the names of these chapters. At first I named them silly things like the chapter names in Warriors High: Psycho, but I think that just doesn't really work with this kind of story.

7: The Third Shooting

Well, it turned out that Redstripe had actually been having a strange dream when he'd seen the rainbow lion. He had been upset about having to quit vaping and fell asleep while laying on his bed, thinking.

But, more importantly, today was Monday.

Redstripe had dreaded this day for the whole weekend. First, he'd worried about having to turn himself in for vaping, and now he was worried for Icescar. Somehow, his friend was going to have to turn himself in alone, and Redstripe did not see many ways that could work.

. . . . .

The first thing Redstripe noticed when he got to school was that Wavetail didn't come greet him in the hallway before class. Now, that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't there, maybe she forgot or just didn't feel like it. He wasn't really worried.

But by the time he'd settled down in his seat in the classroom, Redstripe was sure he'd heard something along the lines of "Where is Wavetail today?"

He found it very strange that she'd be absent. Wavetail had been at school every day except for the week following the shootings, and besides that there hadn't been any other days this school year.

He convinced himself that she just caught a cold or something and couldn't go to school. There were more important things to worry about today, like how Icescar needed to-

His teacher shot the person sitting next to him.

Redstripe shot his teacher and missed.

The No-Name kid shot someone across the room, and that cat spent his dying breath shooting someone near No-Name.

Icescar got up.

Redstripe sat down.

Jadeclaw punched Owlspring in the face.

Owlspring shot the teacher, Ms. Thriftear, in the back.

Everyone screamed.

Redstripe got up.

Icescar sat down.

Three kids ran out of the room.

Two of them got shot.

There were seven guns on the table.

Cloudslash shot Mintpelt in the neck.

Mintpelt somehow lived and shot Cloudslash in the neck.

Cloudslash somehow lived.

There were five guns on the table.

Blood. Screaming. Cats everywhere. Gunshots. Chaos. Redstripe running away, Icescar running away, Jadeclaw frozen in fear. Icescar jumped out the window. Someone screamed for help.

More cats in the room. More cats in the halls. Redstripe running down the stairs. More blood, more gunshots. Screams intensifying. The distant voices of teachers trying to control the situation. No luck. Redstripe just wanted to escape.

Heading toward the doors. Desperate to leave. Hoping Jadeclaw escaped. The screaming got quieter as Redstripe left the school. Cats scattered once outside, more and more spilling out the doors and fleeing the bloody scene.

The shootings only got worse every time. Redstripe stopped to take a breath, and relaxed. It had all happened so fast; he hadn't been paying attention to the class when he was thinking about Wavetail earlier, and before he knew it, this year's third shooting began.

He fled toward his house. Redstripe was worried about Jadeclaw, but Icescar had escaped and he was pretty sure Jadeclaw would find his way out of there.

. . . . .

The next day, Redstripe stayed home. The school was closed, and he was glad. The report had came out yesterday, and he'd read the whole thing, desperate to see what the hell was going on.

The report went over a brief explanation of the shooting. Apparently, Ms. Thriftear had been blackmailed by a student in a different class. They didn't reveal much about it, but apparently Ms. Thriftear had to shoot someone or else they would "reveal sensitive/personal information or content". Redstripe didn't know what that meant, but it was clearly either nudes, or something like her ID card.

Well, after that, it went over the incident, and this was more detailed. Apparently there was a table starting with eleven guns on it, and by the end of the incident, only three remained. Redstripe had briefly seen glimpses of the table during the fight, but hadn't paid much attention since there was so much going on. Those guns had not been part of the blackmail, but Ms. Thriftear had brought every gun she owned so that if she died, other kids would take them and start a shooting. Nothing was written about why she wanted it to start, but the reason was obvious to Redstripe: she was vengeful toward the cat who blackmailed her and probably wanted everyone at the school dead.

It described the fight and everything that happened, and apparently thirty-four cats had died in all the chaos.

Redstripe nervously read through all the names, hoping and praying that none of his friends were on that list.

Amberflight, Leafclaw, Flamescratch, Ms. Thriftear, Blackspots, Windpelt...

As far as he could see, none of his friends had been killed. That was a relief. Clearly that meant Jadeclaw had also gotten away, so Redstripe was thankful. He continued scrolling through the article, and stopped dead on one specific line.

"The sophomore Owlspring was charged with murder and in-school drug use/drug trading, as well as the sophomore Icescar. They admitted their inappropriate actions to the police the night of the shooting, and are being punished with expulsion, as well as juvenile jail for Owlspring."

Redstripe didn't know what to say. He froze, thoughts racing at lightspeed through his head. How-

He needed to go to Jadeclaw's house. Now.

"Did you read the report?" Redstripe quickly asked.

Jadeclaw looked at him without speaking. He nodded so slightly that Redstripe wasn't even sure if he just imagined it, but he could tell by the look on his friend's face that he knew.

Jadeclaw started walking upstairs, and Redstripe followed. When they got to Jadeclaw's room, Redstripe saw that there was still a few dents in the wall, and some outlines on the floor where blood once was. Obviously, the fight hadn't been totally cleaned up yet.

"Are we still cool, man?" Jadeclaw randomly asked. "I don't think we've talked since the fight. I also got a note from Icescar."

"Yeah. Totally, dude." They high-pawed.

They just hang out together for the afternoon, playing video games and having loads of fun. They didn't bring up the horrible news again that day, but the whole time Redstripe knew they would have to do something about this.