What high school did you go to?

**Authors note...this may go nowhere...it may turn into many chapters...who knows?? We'll see how this excercise goes...please excuse the typos and spelling errors, just trying to write here!!*** Oh, and I'm going to try and keep names out of it...besides the obvious! I originally wrote this under a different pen name...


Can you remember where you were on April 20th 1999? Do you remember how your day started out, or do you just remember where you were when you heard about the school in Littleton, CO called Columbine High School?

Probably just like you, I'm not sure how my day began, but I will always remember what happened that day.
I know I missed my 2nd hour class, jewelry (I had 1st hour off to sleep in). I know I went to my 3rd hour class, I taught the dance class. Hmmm...not sure what my 4th hour class was, but I did attend.. Fifth hour was choir (whatever, choir was cool and fun at my school!)

Half the school was on lunch break, 'A' lunch. We did have an open campus, so some of the students and faculty were out and about when I was sitting in choir getting ready to do some vocal warm-ups. There were about 120 students or so in this class and some of them were out in the halls, using the restroom, saying hi to friends in A lunch, getting a drink...probably whatever they could to avoid warm-ups!

The room was shaped like a rectangle with a door on each side, one door leading out into the hall and down the stairs to the commons, the other leading through a couple more doors into the auditorium (hard to picture if you don't now the lay-out of the school) There was also another door in the room leading to the choir office where the teachers desks were.

I sat on the side with the 2 doors leading out into the auditoruim next to one of my best friends. Class started at 11:15, I think. (It has been almost 10 yrs)

Within 5 or 10 min. of class starting, a student ran in through the "other" side of the room claiming someone had a gun downstairs. The teacher shot up from the piano and several students shot up from their seats to go investigate.

"SIT DOWN!" shouted the teacher.

The students sat. We heard the sound of hundreds of feet running down the hallway outside the door.

My memory is a little foggy as to what happened next. Either someone came in and told us to run, or maybe the teacher tried to evacuate us, I'm not sure, but some of the kids ran out the door and through the auditorium, or down the hall.

I do remember another teacher coming in and screaming at us to hide because 'they' were coming up the stairs.

Somehow, I didn't make it out the door with my best friend and stood in the middle of the room, confused about whether I should try and run. A bunch of kids ran into the choir office and Adam (he won't mind me using his name) called for me to get in there. I still stood for a minute, deciding...or just in shock.

"GET IN HERE NOW! AND GET DOWN!" Adam shouted at me.

I hit the ground and crawled into the room.

Students closed the door and pushed the teachers desks in front of the door, lifting one on top of the other. We all huddled on one side of the room, furthest from the door and the hall. Now I could hear the gunshots.

You know how fireworks sound on the 4th of July? The really big ones that you need a license for? There is a deep, loud BOOM, then a crack? Well, it sounded like the deep BOOM, reverberating through my head. I can hear it now. And I remember looking around at the terrified faces around me (probably mirroring my own face) and realization sinking in that that noise was gunshots. Yeah, gunshots.

I recall tears streaming down my face and a boy pulling me into a hug, whispering that I would be okay...that we all were going to be okay.