Okay, this is my first Final Destination Fic. It's based on the Columbine High School Massacre, so the people in my story have the same last names as the victims.
Final Destination does not belong to me. It belongs to James Wong. Although my surname is also Wong and I'm also from Hong Kong, it doesn't belong to me. All I own is a FD2 DVD (which I lent to someone else) and an used FD3 ticket.
Calvin Fleming held up a calculator next to his middle finger. The numbers and symbols on it showed 'D1ED1ED1E'. Bringing the calculator, his finger and his face close to the lens, he drawled. "Take a picture of this."
Nicole Sanders brought the camera to her left eye and closed the other. Guiding her finger to the button, she pressed. The classroom shone with a bright flash as the flashlight went off.
"Great!" Calvin grinned. "That'll go really well with my First in Maths certificate. Hey, I.I.R.C., you got a Chem one too. Want me to take a photo of you?"
"Oh, I was planning on taking it in the Chemistry Lab. Also, I'm trying to get photos of people Best in all subjects and the Student Council people."
"So you want me to help you?" asked Calvin.
Nicole shrugged. "If you want."
"Okay. North staircase, then."
As Nicole and Calvin stepped out of the classroom, she heard Matt Townsend's voice. Matt was a computer genius. Some people claimed that he hacked into the school database to steal the test papers, which led to his Best in Computer Studies prize, but these rumors quickly died down when the spreaders noticed his failures in other subjects.
"Hey guys! Over here!" Matt yelled from across the hallway. He waved at them and gestured towards the Computer Room.
"Oh, Matt, I was wondering-" asked Nicole, as she stepped in the Computer Room. She stepped back when she spotted the naked woman on the projector screen. She was caressing her breasts, and her nipples were barely covered by her hair. "Ew!"
Matt grinned. "Isn't she gorgeous?" He pretended to pry her hair away.
" Matt, come over here," she pointed at a white wall, "and I'll take your photo." "No, no, you come over here," he grabbed her elbow and dragged her to under the projector, then stood in between her and the screen, posing in a way such that his shadow cast right next to the girl. Nicole took a picture of him.
"I'll remember to put that in the yearbook," Nicole joked.
"Just don't show my face."
They were right next to the library when they bumped into Trisha Curnow. "Hey guys, you gotta come, it's too funny for you not to see." She giggled, barely suppressing a burst of laughter.
"What's up?" Calvin asked. The three of them entered the library through the side entrance and turned into an aisle. The hanging sign proclaimed 'Law and Order'. Nicole didn't know much about the library – most of the books that led her to her First in Chemistry were borrowed from the Chemistry Lab – but she understood that it was boring enough to keep unwanted visitors away.
Upon entering, Nicole spotted Curtis Rohrbough, the good looking German she recognized as the one who got First in English, lying in the library bookcase. Apparently, with the help of his girlfriend Trisha, he removed all the books along one row and lay in it. Eerily, Nicole thought that his position had a striking similarity to a morgue. All of a sudden, Curtis raised a hand and made the victory hand sign. Caught in surprise, Nicole pressed on her camera, taking a photo of Curtis.
"Hey hey hey!" Curtis said. He started to get up, but accidentally smashed his forehead against the plywood on the bookcases. "Son of a-" He rolled off the compartment, landing heavily on the carpeted floor. "Oof!"
Trisha stepped aside to dodge her boyfriend's flailing limbs. "Oh, by the way, you guys are heading to the Lab, right?"
"Right." Calvin said.
"Oh, the other exit's closer. Turn left at the Art Room and it's right below the Science Labs."
"Thanks," Calvin turned around by Nicole grabbed his sleeve.
"Wait, Trish," Nicole said. "Didn't you get an Art Prize for your Cow on a Grassland pic?"
"Sheep on a Prairie, and yes. So?" Trisha raised an eyebrow.
"One, two three, smile!" Nicole took the picture. Trisha removed her hands from the leaf on the nude Greek statue of a man and stepped front.
"Thanks," Nicole smiled. "No offence, but when I said 'pose', I expected a wave or a wink. Not to put your hands all over a Statue of David replica."
"Say cheese," Calvin said. Nicole tried her best to smile from behind the pale green gas jar. One wrong move and the glass jar would break, releasing deadly chlorine gas which would most certainly kill her immediately.
SNAP! Nicole winced and stepped back. A flash confirmed that it was the camera's sound, instead of the gas jar. She bounced back.
"Oops, it's a bit shaky. I don't have a firm grip." Calvin apologized as he handed Nicole the camera.
"Even without your shaky handgrip, my face looks corroded." Nicole complained.
"Even without the sulphur your face looks corroded!" Cal joked.
"It was chlorine." Nicole muttered.
In McKinley High School, the science laboratories were arranged next to each other so students carrying out experiments requiring more than one kind of apparatus could get it conveniently.
On her way out, Nicole spotted her friend Jeffrey Mauser in the Biology Lab. From outside the window, which were double-glazed and thus, soundproof, Nicole noted that he was arguing with two girls. She observed that they were wearing really short miniskirts, despite the strict rules of McKinley High School. Jeff threw his backpack and threw his arms around the human skeleton model hanged from a pole and pressed his lips onto it, giving it one hell of a kiss. Nicole took a picture silently. That would come in handy later. Jeff pushed the skeleton away and turned back to the girls, who pulled up their tank tops, showing him their breasts.
Next door, Nicole saw Karen Kechter, the arrogant cheerleader who liked to make fun of everyone who is not a jock or a cheerleader. She was making motions with her hands as she talked with her boyfriend. The guy smiled and leaned forward, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss. After a while, they broke apart and Karen held up two wires coming from a dynamo close to her breasts. The two of them laughed, obviously sharing a private joke. Nicole took a snapshot when she raised the wires near her breasts again.
"Sure is a lot of kissing in this part of the school," observed Margaret Velasquez. Her step brother Dexter Scott smiled. Contrary to the popular opinion that step brothers and sisters never get along, Margaret and Dexter were best pals. They always hung around each other. They even chose the same subjects. They both hated sports. Most importantly, they were both annoying. While Dexter was stiff and strict, Margaret was too talkative for her own good.
"Um, hi, Margaret." Nicole said out of sheer politeness. "And hello to you, too, Dex."
"That's Dexter to you, Sanders." He answered in a rigid tone. "Incidentally, have you come across Mrs. Clover?"
"Um, no. Why?"
Margaret took over. "Because I borrowed this ancient sword from her for that History presentation I gave last Friday – you know, that one on the Renaissance - and I have to give it back to her by five thirty today." She swung her backpack around and opened the zipper. From inside she withdrew a sword wrapped in plastic. "This is it." She unwrapped it.
"Wow, cool!" Nicole tried to sound enthusiastic, but from Dexter's sneer, she didn't think it was convincing. "Here, swing your sword a bit, I'll take a picture."
As Margaret brandished her sword, the bottom of her waist bag split open and coins poured from it. "Oh crap, my game corner coins! I have exactly 4500 coins here, and one coin less means that I can't redeem that hair dryer-" She was cut short as the camera flashed. Dexter, already bent down, fumbled with the coins as Margaret tried wrapping the plastic sheets around her waist bag.
"Need help?" Nicole asked.
"No need, thanks. I'll handle this myself." Margaret tried to smile at her, but Nicole was already gone. Margaret sneered.
She walked into Danielle Bernall and Jennifer Shoels next. "Omigosh, is that, like, a camera?" Jennifer called out.
"Yup, as a matter of fact it is." Nicole replied sarcastically. "What do you want?"
"Gosh, that's not very polite, is it?" Danielle said.
"And impoliteness does deserve to be punished…" Jennifer approached her slowly.
"Wh… what do you want?" Nicole backed up.
The two girls jumped at the same time. Danielle pushed her to a corner while Jennifer snatched the camera.
"Hey, thanks!" She waved back.
"Give it back!" Nicole struggled to push Danielle away. Her resistances were futile, Danielle was gone. "Come back with my camera!
Nicole discovered the two of them on the third floor, leaning over the rail of a balcony, watching Larry DePooter, the soccer playing jock, play below.
"Hey Larry!" Danielle yelled.
"Over here!" Jennifer blew a kiss.
Larry looked up just as he head butted the ball. The girls took a snapshot.
"Thanks, cutie!" Danielle smiled.
"Give it back!" Nicole groaned. She launched herself at the girl, tackling her to the floor.
"Oh!" She shrieked in surprise, before raising the hand holding the camera to support her with the railing. Her elbow accidentally slammed against the wall and her clamped fist opened with shock "Oh my-"
"My camera!" Nicole wailed. The camera fell on the ground and flashed as it took a picture. Jason Tomlin and Gabby Dreyer, the Student Council President, looked momentarily blinded by the flash, and stood stationary in front of a statue of a golden globe. Had Nicole not been so worried about the camera her cousin Amber Regan lent her, she would have appreciated the irony that Jason was First in Geography, and it would only be appropriate that he got his photo next to a golden globe.
Danielle, Jennifer and Nicole were all sitting in the Vice Principal's Office. Mrs Tasha, a bitchy woman in her fifties, was furiously scolding the three of them.
"…and that is why I need to tell your parents about this intolerant behavior! Honestly, starting a fight on the last week of school? I'm ashamed of you. Don't leer at Nicole, Jennifer, I'm addressing this to the three of you! If only you had the courtesy to ask! I've been telling Hendrick for all these years that…"
Nicole is sitting at the bleachers of the abandoned football field. The game has ended, the fans gone and the jocks in the locker room. Needless to say, Larry's opponents won, thanks to the disturbance of Danielle and Jennifer.
She was viewing the photos in her camera, which had, fortunately, escaped serious technical problems and winded up with a crack in the lens instead. She clicked through the photos. She flicked through the pictures she took, coming to a stop at an unseen photo. It was one of Jennifer; she was lying on a piano and looking at the camera seductively.
The next one was Danielle's. She was sitting in the French Room raising her middle finger. The words 'Merci, chienne' – 'Thanks, bitch' in French – were scribbled on the blackboard. The last one was Larry's on the grass.
She flicked again and uttered a little gasp as she came across the one of two girls. Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin. Her cousin Amber had once told her about the teens who boarded the Devil's Flight, a roller coaster that crashed when the hydraulics leaked. A girl – Wendy something – had a vision and saved a dozen people. The weird thing was they slowly began to die off. If she recalled clearly, the two girls were burnt to death. In tanning beds, no less.
Nicole shivered as a gust blew across the field, gathering loose withered leaves. It did not escape Nicole's notice that the flags were unmoving.
