I stared out the window, waiting for my friend Sue to come to walk with me to school like we do every morning. Sue and I were best friends and we ALWAYS walked to school together. Both of us were in Mrs.Carlington’s 8th grade class at Westbranch Middle School in our small town of Westbranch, West Virginia.
Finally, I saw Sue walking down the sidewalk towards my house. I grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs to meet Sue.
“Bye Mom, bye Dad,” I called to my parents who were drinking coffee in the kitchen like they always did. I didn’t drink coffee, I thought it was disgusting. Instead, I drank apple juice. Yes, it was only 7 a.m., but it’s delicious.
My parents smiled at me and said goodbye. My dog Flower came running down the hallway to say goodbye. She jumped up on me with a big, goofy grin (if dogs could smile, of course).
“Goodbye to you, too Flower,” I said and stepped outside where Sue was waiting in her blue and green striped uniform, ready for school.
“Hey, Sydney. Ready to go?” Sue asked.
“Yep,” I said. She smiled and we started walking. As Sue and I walked to school, a cool Autumn breeze blew through the air. Sue lived six blocks away from school but I live five blocks away, so Sue and I always walk to school together and compare math homework answers along the way.
When we got to school, we saw Principal Sky waiting at the door with a big grin on her face. She is always smiling, every morning and afternoon.
"Good morning ladies,” she said.
“Good morning, Principal Sky,” I said.
“Hi,” said Sue.
I opened the old school building doors and we walked inside. There are only 4 other girls in our advanced class, Mallory, Lindsay, Crystal, and Samantha. Our teacher, Mrs.Carlington, looked up and sighed.
“Well, I guess students decided to show up again today,” she said with a frown on her face. We all know that Mrs.Carlington hates her job, but whenever Principal Sky comes in she seems to love it. “Take a seat,” she said.
Our desks sit in a row so we can all see the board easily. There is a window across the room from the door and that’s where Sue sits. Then it goes Crystal, me, Mallory, Lindsay, Samantha.
We take our seats, and I turn to Mallory to ask her a question.
“Hey, what answers did you get on the math homework last night?”
“What did you say, loser?” she asks with a smirk.
I sigh. Mallory and I have not always had the best friendship. Once, when we were five, I spilled my favorite morning drink, orange juice, on her. Ever since then we’ve had a crash-and-burn friendship.
“Never mind,” I say, “Question 3 was just a little hard.”
“Whatever,” she says and turns back to Lindsay.
They were, apparently, having an (in her words) intense conversation about the difference between lipgloss and lipstick.
Anyways, I turned to Crystal to talk to her. “Hey!” I said.
She looked up from her History book. “Oh, hi Syd!” she said, “Do you know where Samantha is?”
“No,” I said “but she said she’ll be here today. She even smiled when she told me on FaceTime this morning!”
Samantha has an...er...reputation for hating and skipping school. But if she’s coming today, I guess that’s a good thing!
“Okay, ladies, let’s get started,” says Mrs.Carlington with a sigh.
We open up our math books to get started when Ellie finally walks in.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said and sat down. We all stare at her. Finally, I speak up.
“You live across the street,” I say.
“I..ummmm…” she said. “Let’s just get back to class,” which is what we did.
After our history class, we have art, and then a break. At our break, I go to the restroom, and when I’m walking back I see Sue walking towards the bathroom.
“Hi,” she says, “will you wait on me?”
“Sure,” I said, “I need to call Mama and Papa and make sure they remembered to give Flower a treat before they left for their trip.”
“Oh yeah,” said Karen, “They’re going to sell the bunnies, right?”
My parents are bunny breeders, and a family in England just bought five for...a LOT of money. Anyways, while I was waiting for Sue, I called Mama and Papa, and they really did remember to feed Flower, two scoops of her favorite catnip.
When Karen comes out of the bathroom, she tells me this story about how once her little brother threatened to smash an entire pie in his face if he couldn’t eat the pie.
“And then,” she said, “my mom had to let him have a slice so that he wouldn’t make a mess!”
I laugh.
We turn the corner, and, to our surprise, Principal Green is walking out of our classroom.
“Oh, hi!” I say.
“Is everything okay?” Karen asks.
“Of course!” Principal Green says, “I was just dropping off some forms for Mrs.Carlington to sign. I’ll see you ladies later,” as she and her shoes squeak down the hall to her office.
Karen and I walk into the classroom, where everyone has already gotten back to work. I noticed that Nellie was missing. I sit down in my seat.
“Pssst,” I whisper to Crystal, “what are we doing?”
“We’re writing in our journals, the essay prompt is on the board,” Alice whispers back.
The essay prompt reads: What would you do if you found out one of your best friends had been murdered?
This is a hard one. What would I do? The door opens. Mrs.Carlington walks in with Nellie. Both of them are holding gigantic stacks of paper.
“Could you come with me, Sydney?” she asks “You’re not in trouble, I just need someone to help me carry the rest of the papers.”
“Of course,” I say, and stand up.
I walk to the door, which Mrs.Carlington closes behind us. As we walked down the hall, I heard my shoes squeak on the hallway tiles and my stomach rumble.
What time is it? I wonder.
I look down at my watch. 11:11. When I get back, it will probably be time for lunch.
Suddenly, Mrs.Carlington stops. She turns towards the wall and pulls it open.
“Go on in,” she said. I walked in.
The room looked exactly like our classroom….but different. Instead of me and my friends sitting at the desks, it was...bodies. They had nametags on them. Samantha, Sue, Mallory, and Crystal. The names sound familiar, but I can’t place them. The desks each had a slice of bread on them, and the only desk that sat empty was...mine.
In the back of my room sat more corpses with name tags. Their name tags read Mom, Dad, and Principal Sky. There was also a dog, and their collar read Blossom. Again, the names were familiar but I couldn’t place them.
I looked at the chalkboard. Instead of our journal prompt, all that was written is a number 0.
“What is this?” I asked Mrs.Carlington.
But Mrs.Carlington was not paying attention to me. Well, she was, but she was holding...a knife?
“Lights out,” she said, and the room went dark.
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