Then
A February wind rocked the windows at Forks Junior High, and as if it knew something wasn't quite right about the day. The mood indoors was dismal as any Monday afternoon may be. It was the period before lunch hour and the students were getting restless. One however, with a darker sort of anticipation.
Over the weekend Jason Zillinger's girlfriend had broken up with him. Even as she denied it up and down, he had a feeling his friend Trent was the reason. So he yelled and yelled, until she ran off, screaming back at him that he was a jerk. It didn't occur to him that he could be overreacting, especially seeing as he'd been checking out her friends a time or two. All he knew was he had to knock Trent down a peg.
Jason made sure throughout Monday morning that his other friends Mark, Todd, and Ricky knew what was up. He had Todd get a note to Trent to meet him and the others. Even though Trent was the bigger of the two, Jason was too ticked to be worried. And brought his ace in the hole as he called it. He didn't just want to rough Trent up, he wanted him pissing himself scared. That was Jason's first mistake. His second was showing his friends who ditched class with him, just what he had stolen from his Dads closet. The ones headed down the same path as he didn't look with fear, but a sense of awe. But when Ricky looked, he panicked. Soon Jason led them towards the back of the school. He didn't even see Ricky backtrack towards the main office.
Ethan had seen them pass as he was in the cafeteria study hall, not even pretending to do his work. He perked up enough energy to make a face resembling the one made at him. Passing the cafeteria, Anna was wandering from her theatre class to return the paints they'd borrowed from the art room for the plays set design. At the far end of the school, Cole was in home-ec daydreaming out the window.
Minutes later just before the chaos of the ringing bell was underway, most students hadn't noticed when their respective teachers answered the wall phones. None of them noticed a tension rising.
Before everyone could scatter to lunch, every teacher in the school began locking the doors and announcing to their classes that the school was in a lock down situation, and they were to behave as they had in every drill held since 9/11 two years prior. Despite the assurance that everything was under control and they were safe, something got through to three in the school. And at that moment, Ethan, Anna, and Cole felt the same thing.
A fear for the other two.
Ethan didn't think twice, he just slipped into the kitchens as the cook came out before Mr. Davis thought to lock that door as well. He eased out to the hallway, he saw his gym teacher making the rounds checking the doors, and snuck around the corner before he could get caught. If they were locking all the doors he wasn't going to be able to get into the auditorium. But he sure as hell wasn't going back without them.
Hearing the news from the still open main office, Anna hesitated for a breath, spinning a plan. Once she had it, she dropped the box of paints and kicked them under a water fountain as she darted back.
While Ms. McHan ran through a role call Cole thought over his options. Staying put wasn't one of them, but he didn't see how he was going to get out either. And even if he got out, if they were locking all the doors, he'd have to find a way to get in to the others. As quickly as he thought it, the answer came. Making sure no eyes were on him, he walked backwards to the row of windows he'd been staring out of. He opened one only wide enough for him to fit through, and eased his way out.
Now
"Ho ho hold it." Hayley waved her hands around as if wiping the images clear. "Absolutely not."
"What?"
"You just climbed out the window?"
"I've climbed many." Cole smirked at the pencil pointed at him. "It's a small town Hayley. The school is one floor."
"That's not my qualm. My qualm is no one noticed you?"
"They rarely did those days."
"The window was unlocked?"
"I thought you said you grew up in a small town too?"
"Ours were opened with a crank."
"Oh well those are real tough to break in and out of. Ethan snuck into a girlfriend's house once with that type. Screwed his shoulder up something terrible."
Leaning back, Hayley sighed. "Ok so you managed to get out from window. How did you find another to get back in the school?"
"How do you know I went back in and didn't run for it?" Cole countered. At Hayley's head tilt he smiled. "I knew which classrooms were empty, we all did. Part from the small school factor, but also if either of us was having a rough day it was good to know where the quiet spaces where. Anna used to say it was the benefit of being least seen. For Ethan, ditching class or sneaking around was a process. For she and I it was a bit simpler. The lockdown changed that of course, they buckled down quite a bit." Cole flashed a grin. "Doesn't mean we didn't find our ways though."
"That doesn't surprise me."
Cole considered Hayley a moment. "Did you skip class often?"
"Not until my senior year of high school." Hayley re-twisted her hair to the top of her head. "And then if I did in college it was more of a rob Peter to save Paul. Sometimes you need to work on a lit paper more than sit in poly sci."
"I don't miss that. I was on scholarship so that's when the ditching stopped. Felt like it would've been wrong when I wasn't paying for it. You went to NYU right?"
"A few years behind you."
"Still."
"Yes. Still." Though her eyes turned wary, for that moment Hayley didn't feel like acting as though she didn't know what he meant. Why didn't they notice one another then? "So you looked for an unlocked window in one of the empty classrooms. Where did you end up?"
Cole nodded slightly. He wondered if she'd let him photograph her one day. All those changing expressions. Nerves to pondering to sly smiles. He could do a study on the many faces of Hayley. Keeping it light, he answered.
"Luckily there was one close to my class, which was good for the plan. I was the furthest away from the others and Anna was the next closest so it would have been her coming to get me out. Ethan would make his way to Anna's class, which she and I would double back to. An auditorium isn't easy to lock down, but there are better hiding places and Anna likely had ways out besides."
"The three of you spent time coming up with game plans incase another student went off?"
"No."
Hayley hadn't written anything in a few minutes but found herself still scratching her pencil across the paper. Anything to keep her hands busy. "If you're trying to tell me you can read each other's minds..."
"No." Cole laughed. "Well. Not technically. After all these years it doesn't take much. But no, then it was more that we just knew. Somewhere along the line we synced up with each other and that was the first instance we were tested on it."
Then
Ethan ducked behind a pillar before he nearly ran into two teachers talking. He heard the mention of Jason and frowned as he inched just a little closer.
"That's what Ricky Vizio said, Jason brought in his father's gun. Thinks he's just going to use it to scare that friend of his but they aren't in the hide out Ricky thought they would be at."
"Shouldn't we be evacuating?"
"Not when we don't know where these kids are, they might be outside by now. I can't imagine that Zillinger boy taking this far but the principal wants this by the book."
As their voices moved away, Ethan shakily leaned back against the pillar. Jason was a punk but would he really hurt anyone like that? Ethan felt uneasy thinking how Jason had never lightened up towards Cole. Hell, not towards any of them since that day in fifth grade. Maybe he was this stupid.
Ethan scratched his initial plan of finding a way for them to get into the auditorium, and instead he started making his way towards the back of the school.
In that direction, Anna's heart started speeding when she saw Cole's classroom doors window panel was covered. Part of the lockdown she told herself, but still she felt the worry heighten. She checked the door numbers and went to one two doors down. She didn't know where Jason and his ilk usually hung out so she wasn't sure if they would still be in the school or somewhere outside of it. But she was running out of time to get to Cole. Soon it wouldn't just be staff looking for Jason, it would be cops.
As she checked to be sure it was empty, she heard a window opening and let a sigh of relief escape. Still, she stayed at the door, ready to close it if need be, as Cole climbed through.
"What's happening out there?" He whispered, closing the window as quietly as he could.
"Jason Zillinger. One of his minions ratted him out that he's going to fight Trent Weeks, but Jason brought a gun to school." She held up a hand before Cole could rush forward. "We can't go back out there. They don't know where he is yet. That's all I know."
"Where's Ethan?"
"He'd have heard by now, he's coming." She allowed herself another look into the empty hall and then felt a shudder as she saw him round the last corner.
"Close the damn door." Ethan shoved her in and flicked the lock.
"You ok?" Cole clutched at Ethan's shoulder.
"Promise. All good now. How did you get out?"
"Window."
"We're a terrific influence on this one." Ethan said to Anna who rolled her eyes.
"Qu'est-ce que tu penses?" She said to both of them with a jerk of her head towards the door.
"What I think is that we should make like Cole out that window. But for all we know Jason likes to hang out by the school sign, so stay here it is." And he plopped down to the floor.
"How much trouble do you think we're in?" Cole said as he sat next to Ethan.
Anna let her head fall back before going to the classroom phone and dialing the main office. "Hi Mrs. Burl, this is Anna Simone. No. I was in the halls, I snuck into an empty classroom. I'm here with Ethan Kelly and Cole Masen. Yes they did too. Room 309. Alright. It is. We won't." Anna hissed as the line went dead.
"I'd say a fair amount." Ethan answered Cole. "Not nearly as much as Jason. What's he thinking?"
"He's not, which is the usual for Zillinger." Anna sat in front of them. "The cops are here, Mrs. Burl said one will come to sit with us or take us to the office."
"Better in trouble than wondering. I knew you two'd think the same and hightail it to the auditorium. Shine probably built tunnels through that place. So that's where I was headed but then I heard."
"No tunnels but that's the better spot to be. I knew you wouldn't stay in the cafeteria, too open. Trust you to get at least closer to us and give me enough time to find a way to get him out." She narrowed her eyes in a glare. "About gave me a stroke when I couldn't see into the class to be sure he was in there."
Cole managed a small smile. "Three for three. I knew you would come but maybe now you'll remember so will I."
Anna took each boys hand. "Well. That will come in handy."
Now
"We were still sitting there like that when the officer came in and got us." Cole met Hayley's eyes. "Most importantly, no one was hurt. Jason and Trent fought, but one of his other buddies had the sense to swipe away Jason's backpack so they ended up going at it the old fashioned way. Jason was suspended for the rest of the year and had to go to all sorts of counseling. He was back by the time we started high school."
"How long were you all grounded for?"
"Oh we weren't. There were many many lectures. Yelling too, once John got wind of it and rolled to town. Then Phillip took off with Anna for a while. Did some sort of street performing in New York." Cole shook his head. "But mostly I don't think they were surprised. Not that we were either but it was something that taught us about ourselves even more than about each other.
"I can't imagine that feeling. To count on someone that much at that age and be counted on. Not to mention what that probably made school like."
Cole lifted a finger to swipe through the air at her point. "That was a turning point. Sure kids made cracks before then. But a majority of that was the question of why social star Ethan slummed it with Anna and I. Now it was the teachers looking at us. And our classmates thought we were crazy. It's an age where everything changes no matter who you are, we were no different."
"But you were." Hayley looked down at her notepad and closed it. "I think that's probably a good place to stop for now. I want to reread my notes and see what direction I want to go with all this."
"Ok. Tell me something before you go. Anything you want."
"About?"
"You." Cole kept his tone light but felt the urgency within him. "Hayley you think this isn't about you, just the story but as it turns out I can't tell you these things and watch you, and not know something about you in return."
Hayley huffed out a breath of annoyance. It wasn't in her to argue with sense. She hitched up her hip to dig her phone out of her pocket and scrolled through to her oldies but goodies picture album. Handing him the phone she said, "That's me when I was around the age you were when you met them. I didn't have siblings, so I made up my own games. One was newsroom, that's what I'm doing there."
She watched him as he grinned at the picture of her nine year old self. Her sunny hair was longer but just as straight, with skinny braids mixed in. She was spreading a newspaper out on a dining room table. Various stuffed animals took up the other chairs.
"You knew what you wanted to do then?"
"God no. Well." She moved her head from side to side. "I loved the movie Little Women." She held up a hand. "Yes I know it's a book first but I was a child. I thought the movie where the sisters had their own newspaper was the coolest thing. So I made my own. I just didn't have the sisters."
"Also a member of team only child, huh?"
Hayley hesitated. She could nod and move on and Cole would let her. Or she could share as he so openly had.
"I said I haven't lost anyone in that way, and I meant it. I don't remember the people I lost. In some way that makes me feel like it's a loss I can't fully claim." She searched his eyes and saw understanding there. "I was raised as an only child, but my older brother died when I was a baby. He was riding his bike home from school and was hit by a car."
"Hayley…."
"My parents had an understandably difficult time with it. We didn't live in the best area in those days and they got involved with drugs. I was dropped off with the neighbors most of the time. Then my dad OD'd the following year." Though she appreciated his sighing curse, it always felt as though she was telling someone else's story. She always felt just a step apart from it all.
"It should have broken my mother more." She continued. "It breaks so many people. But it didn't. She asked the neighbors to take me one more time while she went away to get well. When she came back we moved to a new town just outside of Rochester. She worked her way up at a salon until she was able to buy her own. So I may have been alone more than not, and I may have had a pretty rocky start, but she made the rest pretty solid."
"She's an incredible woman."
"She is." Hayley agreed with an easy smile.
"You still lost them. Even if you were too young to remember, it doesn't mean you aren't allowed to feel it."
"Logically I know that. I don't always let myself, but I'm trying." Hayley shrugged and took her phone back as she gathered her things. "You know something about me then."
"I do. I'm greedy and will probably want to know more before this is done, but for now I'm grateful." He took a glance around to see if she forgot anything, and then began walking her to the door. "I can take you to the subway, its dark." He shouldered her bag before Hayley could.
"Ethan teach you that?" She smirked.
"Something has to rub off in eighteen years."
They walked along quietly, down the street but she didn't feel uneasy. It was nice to be with someone and not feel that expectation to keep a conversation going. Now and again she saw him consider something, his steps slowing and hers automatically matching. Then he'd nod to himself, as if recording a memo for future pictures.
Once they reached the train Hayley took her bag back. "When is a good time for you?"
"I'll be at PIN tomorrow, we can figure it out then."
"Ok. You should call them."
"Who?"
Hayley tapped the pocket of his jacket where she knew he slipped his phone. "Them. You'll feel weird if you talk about the three of you that much and go home to them not being there. So call one of them or both."
His smile was slow and crooked as his eyes moved across her face. "Alright Miz Gillies."
"Goodnight then." She said and with a blush turned hastily to the steps and down.
Cole stood there watching even after she'd gone from view. With a shake of his head he got out his phone and punched the 2 key. At the second ring it clicked.
"I mean, I knew it." Anna answered.
"You know nothing."
"I do so. Ethan did so. But we weren't about to get you all bajiggity over it."
"Whose bajiggity? I wasn't. I merely expressed annoyance at you two jumping to conclusions over me conversing with a female. Did the three of us not get that enough in school?"
"Baby you can wordsmith me all you wish, doesn't change a thing."
"I might like her." He could practically hear Anna smile but knew it wasn't an I told you so smile. "I might. And that probably messes with this. But something is there."
"Good. You've never had something real be there. Doesn't matter what it messes up. Life is messy."
"You're not wrong." Cole sighed. "How long until you tell Ethan?"
"How long until you hang up the phone?"
Laughing Cole looked at the phone. "I'm patching him in." And walked with his friend's voices and laughs there in New York with him.
