Bomb Threat

It was one of the rainiest days we'd ever had. Sure, it was Seattle, but this was out of hand. As the rain pounded on the roof of the science building, I wondered when Mrs. Sorenson decided she wanted to be a freshman science teacher. She must've been a little bizarre when she was younger. Blocking out whatever she was saying about the Bohr model, I glanced around the room. Tim was asleep. Probably too stoned to make it through a class. Eliot was sneaking a Twix bar into his mouth. Katie and Lindsay were doing their homework. And Chris was sitting in the front of the room, boredly taking notes. I rested my head on my propped up elbow, watching the back of his head. It was the most beautiful shade of red you could possibly fathom. Sighing, I looked back down to my paper of scribbled notes, day dreaming about Chris's deep sea eyes. Suddenly I jumped at the sound of a loud buzz over the ancient intercom.
"Attention students and teachers..."
The class looked up, welcoming the much needed break.
"Please evacuate the building immediately. Students that take the bus report to the field A.S.A.P. Students that drive home may leave. After school activities..."
The rest of the message was lost to the rush of students cheering, pulling out their cell phones and packing their things. No one had no clue what was going on. Some were scared, some were relieved, but all of us were quite happy.
"The roads must've flooded!"
"No, they wouldn't have us go to the field then."
"Guys, what if the school's on fire?"
"How could anything catch on fire in this rain?"
Katie hung up her cell phone. "Vanessa said that she heard someone talking about a bomb threat."
We all started laughing. No one would ever put a bomb here. This was the most sheltered suburb you could find.
By the time I left, 3/4 of the class was already on their way to cars or buses, but there was panic in the air. I glanced around at the kids frantically questioning teachers and then looked behind me into the woods standing over the high school. Suddenly, something moved.
A policeman stepped out from behind a tree. He was holding a stick. No, not a stick. I squinted, then gasped a little. Turning, I walked at Lance-Armstrong speed to my brother's car. A few of my friends were already waiting for a ride.
"Luci! Isn't this crazy? Do you know what's going on?"
I caught my break quickly, responding. "No. I saw a cop in the woods with a sniper rifle."
The group of girls stared at me for a moment until Adri spoke up.
"I'm really scared," she muttered. Tina sighed and leaned back on my car. "Do you think someone got shot?"
I laughed and shook my head, looking around at the chaos. Chickens running around with their heads cut off. Calling their moms on cell phones. Honking their horns. Hugging their friends. Clucking out more rumors. They'd all go home and get on their AIM of course, and by next week, this would all be forgotten, replaced by "Did you see what she was wearing?"
As soon as we got home, we went on the school website. It was a bomb threat. They didn't find anything though. And there was school tomorrow. Darn.

A few weeks later, the same fateful message came on the intercom. We all went through the same procedure, but now without the panic. By the 5th time in a month, no one took them seriously. Someone was just getting out of a test. Some idiot that didn't study and thought "Hey, I know! I'll just pull a little bomb threat!" Idiot. As I was walking out of that one, Chris came to my side. "Man, these things are getting annoying." I laughed, glancing at him and smiling. "Well, at least we don't have homework in Science." He nodded, letting one side of his lips rise in a slow half smile. "Yeah, and at least no one got hurt. I would've been so freaked if you got exploded." I smiled a bit more "Um, thanks?" Laughter lit up his face and we parted.

I was walking with Chris to my locker when we first heard someone screaming. "BOMB! GET DOWN! GET OUT OF THE HALLS!" Chris and I were slammed to the floor when a shattering explosion shook the hallway. He looked around quickly and grabbed my hand, pulling me up and running with me out of the hall. Everything was going in slow motion. My breath seemed unusually loud, and my heart pounded. I felt blood in my mouth. Dang, I bit my tongue.
Chris led me out of the school and sat with me on a bench, pushing back my hair and breathing heavily.
"Are you alright? Let me see you. Are you hurt?" My ears were ringing, but I shook my head and looked at him. I didn't realize I was crying until he gently wiped a tear from my cheek. I felt his arms wrap around me and pull me into a hug but I wasn't thinking straight. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. I pulled away from him.
"Chris, I... I saw a boy in the hall with us... he..."
"I know... I know."

The funeral was that Saturday. Most of the people there had never met him, but we all felt like we knew him. His parents sued the school, and there weren't any more bomb threats after that. They caught whoever made it and he was sent to some prison for troubled teens in Iowa. The school had 11 different therapists in the school for the next two weeks, but none of us could forget it. The memory of that first announcement would haunt us for the rest of our lives.