-1-

“Good Morning!,”

I jump at the sound of Nova’s chipper voice. He’d come up behind me silently like some kind of ninja. When I turn to face him he’s presenting me with a venti Starbucks cup and a goofy grin.

Great. 

“What’s this ?,” I sigh, shutting my locker and examining the cup’s label.

His latest obsession was the Starbuck’s secret menu subreddit. He’d forced me to try dozens of "secret" menu drinks and they’d all sucked.

“Relax, it’s your favorite,” he says and sure enough the label on the offered drink reads venti 6 pump, no water, vanilla chai.

His own drink is a  decaf pumpkin spice latte.

“Why the generosity ?”

“For last night, duh. We’re even now,” he says shouldering the Strand Bookstore canvas bag he carried his books in.

Nova had called me in a panic  last night because he needed someone to edit his paper for Civics. His Dad was working an overnight and he’d gotten into a two hour fight with his stepfather after they tried to edit one paragraph together.

We’d worked on it  through Google Drive and he’d submitted it just seconds before Ms. Bennett’s midnight deadline.

“Thanks, but you know…we were never not even,” I tell him.

“I know…I was just joking around,” he says a little awkwardly. “I feel like I always fucking need you and…there you are.”

We’d only been friends for just about 6 months and there were still awkward moments. I figured he’d dump me once he met more kids at school but we’d just gotten closer. We did homework after school most days and he'd stayed over my house a few times.

We walk to the stairwell near the cafeteria, our usual pre-homeroom hangout, and sit on the step below the landing where the marching band nerds hung out. Nova stares at me with an unreadable expression as he starts drinking his pumpkin spice latte.

There is something different about him today.

He’s got on the distressed designer jeans and  thrift store vintage t-shirt outfit I’d seen him wear a thousand times. His parents didn’t like him wearing his wrist tattoo out at school so every school day he wore a braided cuff on his right wrist to cover it. His blonde hair is in it’s usual hastily done high ponytail and circular gold rimmed glasses sit on his nose.

My eyes land on the label on his cup. Decaf pumpkin spice latte.

“Wait. Why didn’t you get one of your Reddit drinks ?”

He never passed up a chance to read some complicated recipe from his phone to a very confused and over it barista.

“I wasn’t in the mood,” he shrugs and then brightens. “Oh, speaking of Reddit when we were working on my paper last night I found this subreddit about--”

“I knew you weren’t in the tab--”

“I was multitasking,” he shrugs. “Anyway, I read this thing that in the first few runs of Prisoner of Azkaban all of the chapter illustrations have little hints that tell you how it all ends---.”

“Bullshit. That would mean JK Rowling told the artist person--”

“Mary Granpre--,” Nova adds, all offended.

“---Rowling would have had to tell her the ending.”

He shrugs.

“I’m sure Jo had NDAs or whatever,” he puts his hand in his tote bag and then pauses.  “Let me log into Reddit on your phone so I can show you. You can totally see Kreacher with the horcrux in chapter--”

“You are not logging into your Reddit account on my phone--”

“Why not ?”

“You’re always upvoting super inappropriate fanart--”

“I do not--”

 “Use your own phone--”

“I can’t,” he whines.

“Why not ?”

He looks up abruptly like he’s said too much.

“Nova ?”

“I…kind of lost my phone."

There it was.

The thing that was off about him suddenly clicks.

He didn’t have his phone.

 Nova always had his phone in his hand.

“When did you lose it ?,” I ask.

“Yesterday,” he mumbles. “Can’t believe it took you this long to notice. I called you from a landline last night for fuck’s sake--”

“Why haven’t you gotten a new one ?”

“Because I didn’t just lose the phone. I also lost the Burberry leather jacket it was zipped up in,” he pouts. “And if Dad finds out I lost a jacket he told me not to wear to school in the first place he’ll fucking kill me.”

“You lost a thousand dollar jacket ?”

“No,” he hedges. “More like $5000--”

“Nova! Jesus Christ--”

“Relax, I’ll find it. Jeez, this is why I didn’t tell you.” he scoffs.  “The lost and found is closed in the morning but I’ll go after school.  Now, let’s settle this bet once and for all--”

“What bet ? We should find your jacke-”

“Our bet to see if Jo really left the clues in the chapter art like I read about. If it is there you owe me Starbucks for a week and if it’s not there I’ll buy you Starbucks or a week.”

“I don’t even like Starbucks like that--”

He shrugs and stands reaching his hand out to me.

“C’mon! The library has a first editions of--”

“The bell is about to--”

“It’ll only take a second. Afraid of losing ?”

This was exactly the kind of ridiculousness that  kept me from ever being bored around him.

I follow him to the library. Nova loved our school's shitty library but I only used it to sneak naps when I came to school early to take Spencer to open gym. The librarian, Ms. Leigh, was pretty chill about the library rules. All the students knew she spent most of the day texting with her supermodel boyfriend and writing some crazy popular One Tree Hill fanfiction.

The library in the morning is usually just the anime kids  but the bell is about to ring so it’s cleared out. The only person I see inside is the new girl. She’s standing in front of the small glass window of the librarian’s office and staring at the vase of bright white roses on her desk.

Nova breezes right past the new girl and to the Harry Potter and Harry Potter readalikes display he’d volunteered to make the second week of school.

“This is bullshit,” Nova grumbles flipping through Prisoner of Azkaban.  “This is a first edition. They must have doctored the picture I saw online. Fucking fake news--”

“Does this mean I win the bet ? Cause I want McDonald’s for a week.”

I’m a little pleased I won a bet I didn’t even make.

He huffs and puts his glasses on his head. I think he’s about to make up some bullshit loophole when a soft beeping sounds from the PA.

“Is there a drill today ?,” Nova asks looking around. “What are we supposed to do when no teacher is around ?”

“I don’t think it’s a drill,” an ominous voice says behind us.

We both spin around to see Arrow Grigori.

I hadn’t seen him when we walked in but he had a tendency to sink into the background. There was something a little haunted about Arrow. He was a sophomore like us but kind of a loner and always wore black—today it was a black long sleeve shirt and black joggers with an oversized gray jean jacket.

I’d suffered through Nova’s borderline stalker-y crush on Arrow the first few weeks of school but  then Nova just lost interest in him.

My backpack buzzes and I swing it off to dig out my phone.

“Holy shit--,” I start looking at the alert on my lock screen.

“Hey! Where are you going ?,” Arrow yells.

I turn to look at him but he’s not talking to me. He’d charged across the room and grabbed the elbow of the new girl who had one hand on the library door. 

“I heard you say it is not a drill,” she says primly. “If there is a  fire I am going outside to be safe.”

We all stare at her like she was a ghost.

“It’s not the fire alarm…it’s an active shooter alarm,” Nova finally says.

-2-

Her pale eyes sharpen and she  looks at each of us as if waiting for someone to say it's a prank.

“….you really have shooter drills ?”

“Yeah. Where did you transfer from ? Mars ?,” Arrow asks.

“France.” she replies firmly. “Honestly, this country. Well, if this is real I will not be staying in here for target practice.”

Now that she’s talked more I can hear  something foreign in her voice and she’s dressed kinda European. Her flower patterned blouse and cuffed jeans looked like they could have been tailored and her fuchsia Converses were spotless.  

“Um, you don’t leave during an acti—HOLY FUCKING SHIT! FUCK! ” Nova screams.

We all jump back as a hooded figure runs past the  window on the  library door. The figure was followed by a blur that looked like Mr. Prior, the school resource officer.

Arrow reaches over our heads and dims the library lights.

“What did you do that for ?,” the girl chastises him.  “Now he’ll know we’re in here if he comes back.”

“It’s protocol--,” Arrow starts.

“Besides he won’t come back. Mr. Prior will get him,” Nova says but I’m not so sure.

Two gunshots sound and we all go still. Everything is silent.

“That was Mr. Prior’s gun… right ?,” Nova asks no one in particular.

“The teachers have guns ? I can not believe Emile lied to me about how bad American public school---”

Another distant gunshot cuts her off.

“I think we have to lock the door,” I say, trying to think about what we’d done during active shooter drills at my old school.

“We need a key to lock this,” Arrow says feeling around the door.

“Let’s just barricade it,” I tell him. “I don’t want him coming in here. That’s exactly what the two guys did in Columbine--”

“This isn’t going to be that,” Nova sighs. “ I didn’t even hear anyone scream…and besides, Mason you’re the only  straight boy here so your chances of survival are infinitely  high right now.”

“Why the hell do you know we’re not straight ?,” Arrow asks although the girl seems unconcerned as she tries to peak out the library window.

Nova turns to him and looks a little ashamed.

Which is a new emotion on him.

“Oh, well…I use the same tablet as you  in the English but in the period after yours. You never shut it down right so your browsing history is always still there,” Nova explains.

“You spied on me-”

“Not intentionally. I used to have a crush on you, but I totally respect your ace so I’ve moved on,” he turns to looks at the girl.” And you spend all of study hall staring after Abigail Winters and then you start reading whatever book of poetry she’d been carrying around the week before.”

“Yeah, okay and I’m straight,” I cut in. “We get it. But we still need to block the door  before we all become a fucking hashtag.”

We each take an end of one of the wooden study tables and push it against the door’s handle.

Once it looks properly blocked I shoot a quick text to Spencer asking where she is. She responds immediately:

S:  Locked down in Mr. Jayden’s econ class. U ?

M: In the library. Just saw the shooter run past

S: HOLY SHITTT!!! You need to hide, Mason

M: I know. Doing it now.

Even though the library is a big and we could all spread out, we end up sitting together on the floor between two shelves in the 500s stacks. I learn the new girl’s name is Rose Fierro.

We don’t talk after the basic intros are done.

Arrow pulls out a photography book called Follow The Unicorn Fish by Delilah Thompson and Rose quietly looks over his shoulder as he flips through the full color glossy photographs. Nova opens my Snapchat and when he gets bored with my phone I start a game of Bejeweled and he starts re-reading Order of The Phoenix.

“Fuck it,” Nova says into the silence after an hour.

My head snaps up. Fuck it is what he says when he’s about to go from chaotic neutral to chaotic evil. Sure enough, when I look up, Nova’s lighting a cigarette and bumping another one out of the carton.

Rose glares disapprovingly as Nova offers the second cigarette to Arrow.

Arrow’s eyes travel from the offered cigarette to Nova’s passive  face.

“Come on,” Nova sings.  “You’ll like this better than that cheap shit you always smoke.”

Nova arches his eyebrow in challenge.

Arrow frowns.“ 'Didn’t spy on me' my ass.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Nova smiles. “I see you smoking at the city bus stop outside of my apartment building every morning. If you ever get tired of the whole brooding jaded loner thing and don’t mind my asshole stepdad you can catch a ride with me to school.”

“Asshole stepdad ?,” Arrow repeats taking the cigarette and rolling it between his fingers. “ I know all about that.”

“You have an asshole stepdad too ?,” Nova asks.

Arrow seems to think.

“Well, I guess not…never mind,” he shrugs putting the tip of the cigarette to his lips.

Nova crawls closer to Arrow and touches the lit tip of his cigarette to Arrow’s until it lights.

“Hey, Nova,” I call as nonchalantly as I can.

“Hm?”

“Have you lost your fucking mind ?”

“Oh my god, Mason, chill out! They clearly aren’t calling the all clear for a while,” Nova says.  “I’m stressed. This is how I cope.”

“You should really find a new way to cope. Cigarettes are dangerous.” Rose says pointedly and points to the surgeon’s general warning on the box. “Did you see this ?”

Nova rolls his eyes.

“If you’re  afraid of getting cancer you can hide somewhere else.”

Her entire body seems to flinch  and she purses her lips before  opening her mouth.

“I’ve already had cancer,” she says.  “And frankly…I don’t recommend it.” 

“I’m sorry,” I say.

I don’t even know why I say it. It just slips out of my mouth in the sudden silence.

“What kind ?,” Nova frowns, almost like he is challenging this girl on how bad her cancer was.

“Nova, what the fuck ? Cut it out-”

“Acute myeloid leukemia.” she supplies

“See ? I bet that’s not even the kind you get from smoking,” Nova points out and Rose looks even more offended than she already did.

Arrow stays out of it but he blows his smoke away from her.

“My great-uncle had cancer,” I say awkwardly. “He got it from smoking actually--”

“You said he was also a meth head,” Nova adds and I glower at him.

My phone buzzes and a news alert pauses my Bejewled game.  It was a news alert I’d seen hundreds of times about other schools in other places. The alert is from the local news and it says the active shooting is  still in process.

I click on the alert and we gather around my phone to watch a  live news clip of a reporter outside the school. Most of the students had been evacuated when the alert went off and some had even run out the door without being told to. No one had identified the shooter yet and he was still in the school somewhere.

We’re scrolling through the comments when I get a barrage of texts from Spencer that makes my blood run cold.

S:The fucking shooter is in my classroom. He’s taking phones. He shot Mr. Jayden.

S:I don’t know the shooter. He looks familiar...like a student ? He’s young.

S:I’m scared

S: We’re going to be hostages. Mason, I’m so scared but I love you. I love Mama and Daddy and all our siblings. I love being in our family.  It makes me so happy. I’m going to try to live. Show this to everyone if something happens to me.  We had the best life. Don’t be sad forever if I go. I’ll be in heaven with Gran.

My hand shakes under the phone and when I look up Nova, Arrow and Rose are staring at me. Nova lunges forward and hugs me.

“Fuck, Mason,” he says tightening his embrace. “It’s going to be okay. If this asshole coward is taking hostages it means he doesn’t want to hurt anyone--,”

“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT,” I shout, backing out of his embrace but he won’t let me go.

“Call your Dad,” he says pulling away. “He’ll know what to do.”

I go to pick up my phone but  the screen stays black and my phone is hot to the touch. I’d noticed the power going down. My used iPhone 7 was unpredictable and I’d figured I’d charge it at lunch. I could strangle Nova for opening Snapchat on it earlier.

I look at Nova and remember his phone was lost.

“Can I use one of your phones ?,” I ask Arrow and Rose.

“It’s in my locker,” Arrow says quietly.

“I didn't bring mine to school,” Rose says.

“It’s okay,” Nova tries to assure me. “Let’s use the phone in Ms. Leigh’s office.”

We doesn’t get far because Ms. Leigh’s office door is locked and we need a faculty ID to get past the lock. Arrow gets the idea to use one of the library’s loaner laptops and make a voice call but the loaner laptops are all locked in a storage cabinet.

“I got this,” Nova says pulling a bobby pin out of his hair and working it into the storage cabinet lock.

He spends 45 minutes trying to pick the lock and only  manages to break 2 bobby pins.

By the time he gets a third one stuck in the lock I have to walk away.

Arrow is anxiously pacing in front of the library door and Rose is sitting on top of one of the study tables, facing a book shelf and swinging her legs of the table's edge.

“It will all be okay,” she says.

“Easy for you to say. My sister could be dead right now--”

“I don’t think so.”

“How do you know ? We don’t know what’s going on out there--”

Arrow suddenly stops his pacing and walks over to Rose and I.

“We should go save your sister--all the hostages,” he says under his breath.

“How?”

“I’ve been thinking. No one really knows we’re in here. But we know exactly where the shooter is. What if we go to the classroom, come up behind and attack him.”

“He has a gun,” I remind him.

“He can’t shoot both of us.”

“Are you suicidal ?”

“I’m trying to help.”

“Why ?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“I think that is a terrible idea,” Rose interjects.

“What do you know about it ?,” Arrow shoots back at her and turns to me. His gaze is intense.  “Sometimes the good guys don’t win by playing by the rules. We all know this active shooter drill stuff is bullshit. Somebody came in to school today just to murder us. Fuck the rules.”

I look over to where Nova is still determinedly working away on the storage cabinet lock. Nova had the type of ADHD that meant when he was focused on a task he would hyper focus and not see anything else.

“Fine,” I agree. “You and I can go but we can’t tell Nova. He won’t let me go.”

Arrow nods.

“We need to find weapons to defend ourselves,” he adds.

Rose unzips her purse and pulls out a hardback white marbled pencil case. Inside is a fountain pen and a set of rose gold office supplies with her initials engraved into them. She pulls out a long pointy looking tool.

“What is that ?,” I ask.

“An envelope opener,” she explains. “Take it for a weapon--”

“That won’t be sharp enough,” Arrow says curtly and instead pulls out the scissors. “These are better. Now we need something heavy.”

Arrow does a quick survey of the library before striding over to the trophy case. He slides it open and starts weighting the forensic team trophies in his hand.

“And what should I do when he notices you two are missing ?,” Rose asks, tilting her head towards Nova.

“You don’t have to do anything, this wasn’t your idea--”

“I want to. You want to save your sister. Arrow is right about one thing I suppose. Rules can’t apply to situation like this.”

“Just don’t let Nova follow me.”

-3-

The second the library door closes behind me  this whole thing starts to feel like a bad fucking idea. The jostling, loud pre-homeroom school hallway had transformed in the last three hours. The lights were shot out and the entire school felt creepy and abandoned.

I’m clutching a metal chair like a baseball bat. Arrow’s carrying the rose gold scissors  and a heavy bronzed trophy. We stick to the walls and inch down the hall towards Mr. Jayden’s classroom. I can hear my own ragged breath in my head and I wonder if Arrow is holding his breath because he’s so calm.

Something wraps around my ankle and I yelp on instinct, Arrow whips around with his scissors in the air and looks confused when he doesn’t see anyone. I look down at my ankle to see a hand relaxing it’s grip. I follow the hand. It belongs to Mr. Prior, the school security officer. He’s lying on the tile floor.

Covered in blood.

I try to see where the blood is coming from but I can’t.

“Mr. Prior--”

“Hide. You boys…need to hide,” Mr. Prior croaks quietly.

“We saw on the news he’s holding a class hostage,” Arrow tells him. “We were trapped in the library and--”

“Go. Back,” Mr. Prior grits out. “Hide. Now.”

“But, sir, my sister is in--”

“Police…are…on…it--,” he grunts. “Go back--”

“Who is it ?,” Arrow asks. “In case you….in case you don’t make it ?”

Mr. Prior’s dark eyes rest on me and then go back to Arrow.

“I don’t know for sure…there’s more than one shooter though. You boys needs to go hide--”

“We can take you back to the library, Mr. Prior,” Arrow suggests.

Mr. Prior shakes his head no.

“I’ll bleed out if you move me. It’s better than it looks. This…will be over soon. You need to go back--”

“You should keep these,” Arrow tells him and hands over the scissors to Mr. Prior. He doesn’t seem to object.

“Go.”

Defeated before we could even do anything, Arrow and I inch back to the library. We have the library door in sight when a kid in a ski mask swinging a firearm speed walks past us in the opposite direction. Arrow and I exchange looks because the shooter walks right past without noticing us lurking in the shadows.

I think Arrow and I make a silent agreement to go back into the library and hide like Mr. Prior said. But I must suck at reading facial cues because  Arrow takes the metal chair leg from me and sprints after the shooter.

When he's a foot away he swings for the shooter’s head but the shooter turns around at the last minute and steps out of the way. Arrow’s swing has too much momentum and the chair leg flies out of his hand, tumbling across the tiled floor. The shooter lunges for the chair leg and slams it into Arrow’s side, Arrow falls face first on the hallway clutching his side.

The shooter's hand shakes as he points his gun at Arrow but he doesn’t shoot.

I see movement out of the corner of my eye and turn in time to watch the library doors quietly open. Rose slips out of the library brandishing her rose gold letter opener and Nova slides out behind her.

Rose steels herself and then she runs and jumps on the shooter’s turned back. She tries to put the envelope opener in his neck while also attempting to  pull off the ski mask. He whips around and tries to  elbow her in the face to get her off.

With the shooter distracted by Rose, I race over to Arrow, get him up and walk him back to the library. He’s doubled over whimpering and I have to bear most of his weight.

The shooter bucks as he tries to get Rose off of him and by some miracle he drops his gun.  Nova scrambles across the hallway to pick up the fallen weapon. I think he’s going to turn it on the shooter but instead he takes a piece out of it and the bullet clip clatters to the ground, bullets click and roll down the hall.

Nova should run back to the library but he doesn’t. He  keeps going, disassembling the gun and letting each piece fall to the floor. It was so stupid, but a good idea if the shooters had more clips.

The shooter digs into his pocket and jerkily pulls out a bigger and scarier looking gun. He starts swinging it at us. Rose falls from his back and scurries  back toward the library with Arrow and I. Nova is too busy disassembling the firearm   to realize the shooter has another gun. Only the sound of a gunshot makes him look up. He drops the pieces and sprints towards the open library door.

We quickly put the door barricade back up, turn the lights off in the library and crouch together on the floor.  The shooter tries to open the door, he slams his body against it and even shoots a few rounds but then seems to give up. For a few minutes the only sounds in the library is our heavy breathing.

Nova hugs me for the second time that day.

“Mason, what the hell were you thinking going out there ?,” Nova hisses.

“I had to try and save Spence--”

“Fuck. Rose, did he get you ?,” Arrow croaks.

I turn to see Rose had the palm of her hand  crammed into her eye.

She nods.

“He elbowed me. I’m fine.”

“Rose, I think you saved my life,” Arrow croaks. “You just jumped on him. You’re fucking insane.”

She just shrugs.

“Letter openers do have their purpose,” she agrees.

Arrow tentatively lifts his shirt. There’s a bruise on his rib cage.

“That looks bad--,” I start.

 “Eh. Just had the wind knocked out of me.”

“Or your organs are bleeding,” Rose suggests.

“Let’s look it up,” Nova says, opening a laptop.

“Holy shit, you actually picked the lock on the storage cabinet ?”

“If by picked the lock you mean gave up and melted it open with my lighter then, yea—ROSE!,” Nova screams.

Arrow yelps and I follow his gaze.

“Honestly, boys,” Rose sighs.

She’d moved her palm from her face and where there should have been another eyeball there was…nothing.

“It was a prosthetic. It must have come out during the tussle,” she says, pulling a white lace eye patch out of her purse. “How do you say ? Cancer is a bitch.”

Nova looks guilty as sin for making fun of her cancer earlier but we can’t dwell on it too long because Arrow’s bruises are looking a kind of purplish black.

We search for stomach bruising on the laptop and find out it could be anything but since he wasn’t nauseous or vomiting it likely wasn’t fatal.

The  internet connection is shitty so we can’t make a voice call but we are able watch the blurry live coverage of the hostage situation.

Mr. Prior was right, there was more than one shooter. The one holding hostages had let some of the  hostages leave but the news didn’t say names. An hour later he allows the police to bring in stretchers for both Mr. Jayden and Mr. Prior—who were still alive.

Almost immediately after the injured teachers  are carted out we watch the SWAT team charge into the school. They bring out the shooter who tried to kill us (with his face covered) followed by a body bag that the news says holds the shooter who was holding the classroom hostage.

Minutes later,  thundering footsteps echo down the hallway followed by a loud banging on the library door that makes us all jump.

“POLICE!” 

Before any of us can respond the police try to open the library doors but they can’t because of our barricade

“OPEN THE DOOR! COME OUT WITH HANDS UP ON YOUR HEADS! I REPEAT HANDS ON YOUR HEADS.”

“Um, I think you should go out first,” Nova says, nudging Rose. “Just in case they think we’re a shooter too.”

-4-

Rose doesn’t look at all interested in going out first but does it anyway.

We move the desk barricade and she walks out , followed by me, Arrow and then Nova. The school hallway is lined with masked SWAT officers straight out of the TV show my mom loved.

One of the guys takes his face shield off and orders us towards the east side exit of the school. I really need to go to the bathroom and want to get my jacket out of my locker  but these guys don’t seem like they care about any of that.

“KEEP YOUR HANDS UP!,” an officer orders, when I try to rest my arms.

When we get to the  exit door a male police officer and woman with an FBI badge are standing with Mr. Hotako, the assistant principal.

“What’s your name ?,” the FBI agent at the door barks at Rose.

“R-r-ose Fierro,” she says shakily.

The FBI agent looks to Mr. Hotako who nods. He must be here to confirm out identities.

“Alright, Rose. Walk out with your hands on your head and  go directly to your parents.” the agent orders.                                                                                                                         

Through the door I watch Rose walk to three solemn faced adults huddled together behind the police tape.

Her dad has the whitest skin and hair I’d ever seen. He’s dressed in an expensive looking three piece suit complete with ascot and pocket square. He wraps his charcoal peacoat around Rose’s shoulders and kneels to hug her. Rose’s mother is in tall heeled boots and a long pale pink coat that looks like a fancy dress. She’s pretty like Rose with the same dark hair. They both look young.

Between her parents is a Black man wearing a fitted navy flannel and vest under his brown leather jacket. Tears run down his face and he lets out a loud, wounded cry as Rose approaches him for a hug.

The FBI lady give the rest of us the same instructions they gave Rose except the male officer pats us boys down for weapons. It only lasts a second but it still feels weird.

When it’s my turn to step out into the chilly afternoon I spot Mom, Dad and Spencer standing next to Mr. Grace and his mother. On Nova's Instagram she had short red hair but now she’s wearing a curly gray wig under a baseball cap.

 Spencer is wearing Dad’s winter coat and Mom has her plastered to her side like she was a little kid. When I lock eyes with Spencer she breaks away from Mom’s hold and runs towards me, tears streaking her face as she hugs me.

I don’t think my sister and I have ever hugged like this without being told to.

“You’re okay!” she cries. “I was so scared.”

“You’re okay,” I say.

“They let me out with the first hostages right after I texted you,” she explains. “I texted you again but you didn’t…text back and….I thought---I thought--”

“My phone died.”

My parents join in on the hug, my mom whispering “thank you, Jesus” under her breath. She kisses my cheek, and forces a zip up hoodie over my head.

“Okay, Spence. You’re brother’s okay. We need to go to the station so we can give that officer your statement and be done with all this.” Mom says quietly to Spencer.

“Ya’ll be careful,” Dad calls to them as  Mom says goodbye to Mr. Grace and guides Spencer away.

Dad  puts his arm around my shoulder and squeezes. “You okay, son ?”

I nod and he kisses my forehead.

“Where’s Dad--,” I hear Nova greet Mr. Grace.

“Helping at the hospital. We gotta go,” Mr. Grace returns sharply.

Mr. Grace grabs Nova’s arm and pulls him along as he wheels away from the school.

“Why--,” Nova starts, stumbling to keep up.

“SIR, WE TOLD YOU TO WAIT FOR QUESTIONING. SIR. STOP, SIR!” a police officer shouts in our direction. “STOP RIGHT NOW.”

I turn to see a pair of uniformed officers jogging towards Mr. Grace who has not stopped rolling away. When Nova pauses to look back at the yelling police, Luce’s mother takes his other arm and jerks him forward.

“STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW!  GET ON THE GROUND!,” the clearly pissed officer shouts. “GET ON THE FUCKING GROUND!”

Three more officers join, shouting for Mr. Grace to stop and  but he ignores them.

The officers close in on them and two officers pull Nova away from his stepdad.

The officers throw Nova down on to the asphalt, push his face into the ground and zip tie his hands

“Get your hands off my, kid!” Mr. Grace growls. 

One officers makes an asshole remark about Nova's nail polish and getting a female officer as they search him again—this time pulling his t-shirt up and feeling between his legs. He looks terrified.

I hear an electric crack followed by a hoarse cry and scream. I tear my eyes away from Nova to see the ends of a police taser  sticking out of Mr. Grace’s shoulder.

Three officers struggle to pull Mr. Grace slumped body from his wheelchair and lay him out on the asphalt next to  Nova. Mr. Grace’s mom is yelling at the police, the cops tell her to shut up and threaten to arrest her too if she keeps talking.

I still didn’t know exactly why Mr. Grace was in a wheelchair, but he doesn’t seems to be able to move his legs. Mr. Grace resists as they zip tie his hand and search inside his clothes too. He keeps telling the officers to go fuck themselves and that seems to just make them treat him worse.

The  man in the brown leather jacket who was standing with Rose’s parents comes over with his cell phone aimed at the arresting officers.

 “What are your badge numbers?,” the man demands. “I’m recording this. Is this how you treat your  citizens--”

The lead officer pulls out a zip tie for him too but Rose’s mother gets in the middle of it. She starts yelling in the face of the officer in charge, demanding the name of their commander. They back off  but still load Mr. Grace and Nova into separate police cars.

Luce’s mom looks lost but when Rose’s family tries to talk to her she runs away.

Dad pulls me away from the scene and towards our car.

“Dad, we should--” I start

“Come on,” he says pulling me along. “That ain’t none of our business.”

“But we should do something--,”

“Come on,” he repeats in a clipped tone.

We get in his car and he puts the child safety lock on so I can’t get out. He looks at his phone and then back at me.

“Dad, we should have done something to help--”

Dad sighs loudly.

“I know you don’t want to her this, son but…the police have reason to believe Nova helped with the shooting,” Dad says. “They just matched the guns used by the shooters to Luce Grace--”

“No--”

“It’s not public yet. I got the heads up from a friend on the force.  I know  we think we know them but we don’t--”

“Dad, Nova had nothing to do with it. He was with me the whole time--”

As if by kismet I spot Arrow standing at the city bus stop in front of the school. He's alone. Now that I think about it,  I hadn’t seen his parents waiting for him at the school.

“Arrow will tell you—ARROW!”

I try to open the car door but the stupid child safety is on.

The city bus pulls up and I bang on the car window to get his attention.

“Mason, stop this,” Dad says jerking me back. “That boy has always been trouble. No friend  is worth lying to the police for, do you hear me ? Twenty nine  kids and six teachers were wounded and five are in critical care. You see how your little sister is and she just witnessed this--”

“Nova would never do this—I can tell the police he was with me—”

“What did I say ? ” Dad snaps. “You stay out of it before you get yourself in trouble.”

-5-

Grandpa and Tess are  waiting at the house and hug me when I come inside.

Peyton and Tennessee must have found out exactly what happened because they ask me if I did what they learned in school for drills and then argue about how to hide from different guns.

Dad silences them and we eat an early dinner in the quiet. I worry about Nova. I wonder if they gave him food.

I put my phone on the  charger in the kitchen and help put the little girls to bed after dinner just to have something to do. When I go back to the kitchen for my phone  Dad is washing dishes and I don’t want to turn my phone on with him in the room. 

Mom and Spencer come home from the police station a few minutes later and Spencer goes directly upstairs.

“She should eat,” Dad says, drying a plate and passing it to Mom.

“She doesn’t want to, Rhett. Let her rest.” Mom tells him and turns to me. “I made a therapy appointment with Dr. Season for you and Spencer tomorrow. You don’t have to go if you don’t want to but it might be good.”

“I’m--”

Mom’s phone vibrates and a picture of Mr. Haley pops up on the screen.

Mom picks it up and before she can say a greeting I hear him say he’s outside.

“You should probably go to bed,” Dad tells me.

I reach for my phone on the charger and he stops me.

“Leave the phone,” he says. “Let your mind rest, boy.  Mama and I will come check on you and Spence later.”

I hug my parents good night and then  sit at the top of the stairs to spy.

Mom opens the door and Mr. Haley comes in wearing scrubs.

“I’m sorry to come like this,” he says in tears to Mom.

“It’s okay. Do you want foo-”

“I don’t know what is happening but I  just need you to know Nova wouldn’t do this,” Mr. Haley says firmly and I have a feeling he is talking specifically to Dad. “Nova would never touch Luce’s gun. He knows better--”

“Are they still...in custody ?,” Mom asks

Mr. Haley must nod because Mom says:

“Where is your mother-in-law ?”

“Sitting  in the car outside the police station. She won’t come home until Luce does...but we can't bail them out. They're keeping Nova because of probable cause and apparently my idiot husband has a bench warrant for a marijuana possession from 3 years ago.”

“What do you need from us.” Mom offers.

A beeping sound come from Mr. Haley’s phone and he curses at it.

“I have to go. I’m on call. We're over capacity with injured kids. We can talk later…I just wanted to tell you in person that what the police are accusing him of isn’t true.”

Nova's family only had one car and mom offers him a ride back to work but he refuses. He leaves almost as quickly as he came.

“Rhett,” Mom sighs once he’s gone.  “We have to help. Maybe Mason can give a statement---,”

“J, I told you. They identified the serial numbers of all three guns as belonging to Luce.  And the resource officer saw the shooter was wearing Nova’s jacket. He said he saw Mason with another student in the hall but the other student wasn’t Nova. Mason doesn’t even mention Nova in his texts to Spencer. I don’t want to risk Mason making a false report to save his friend—"

“He wouldn’t do that--,”

I don’t like hearing them talk about me so I go to my room. My phone was still charging downstairs but I still had my cracked iPhone 5 in my desk drawer. I turn it on and hook it up to the wireless so I can look up news on  the shooting.

The news identified the primary shooter as a 21-year-old guy who was killed by a sniper when he walked in front of the window. He had accomplices who they weren’t releasing names for because they were underage.

A notification pops up on my phone screen that I have an incoming call from Google Voice. I’d set up a Google Voice number for Noah Presley and I when he went to Greece with his parents and couldn't do long distance calls. I pick up the call but instead of hearing NP’s voice I get a recorded message warning me this is a call from the county jail.

“Nova?”

"Thank god you finally picked up--”

“Nova. Holy shit, what happened back there--,”

“I have no fucking god damn clue,” he says, his voice is muffled and panicky.  “I can’t reach Dad and this is the only number  I have memorized.”

“Where are you ? Are you okay ?”

“No,” his voice cracks. “They interrogated me for like 4 hours. They told me a bunch of stuff too...I’m so fucking confused. Luce told me not to talk and now I’m being held and can’t go home. I think they’re taking me to adult jail to spend the night--”

“They can’t do that. Nova…Were you involved ?,”

“No!,” he hisses. “That kid Isaiah and that asshole friend of his did this and set me up---,”

“…How do you know the identity of the shooters?”

“I told you, the cops told me. Remember how I thought I lost my jacket and phone ?  The shooter, the one they killed, had them. He was wearing my jacket when he was killed and they found all these weird texts sent from my phone this morning but  I never sent them--”

“But how did they get your stepdad’s s guns--,”

“Remember when I had to do that community service over the summer for skateboarding on private property ?,” he says.

“Yeah, what does that have to do with anything ?”

“Isaiah was picking up trash too and we started hanging out.  The shooter is one of this weirdo 21-year-old he was friends with. I’m so fucking stupid. They were always into domestic terrorist stories and active shooter memes. I thought they were just i being edgelords.... I flirted with his friend a little so he would buy me alcohol for my party---”

“When did you have a party--,”

“Labor Day weekend. It was small but I knew you’d talk me out of it so I didn’t tell you,” he explains quickly. “Anyway, Isaiah's friend got weirdly possessive and I told him I wasn’t interested anymore. He stopped texting me weeks ago. I’m a jerk for stringing him along but they want to try me as a fucking adult and I had nothing to do with the shooting--,”

 “When do you think they got your stepdad’s guns ?”

“I don’t know…I opened Luce’s gun safe at the party. I was playing around and we were so fucking high. He could have memorized the code. I gave everyone at the party the code for the door.  I tried to tell the police this all happened over a month ago and I want to help but they kept saying I’m leaving stuff out. You have to tell the police I was with you the entire time--”

 “I tried,” I tell him. “My own parents don’t believe me. They think I’m lying for you because you’re my best friend.”

“What about Rose and Arrow ?”

“What about them ?”

“They can give me an alibi too.”

“I don’t know how to contact them—"

“Their names are Arrow and Rose it can’t be that hard to find them. Please, Mason…I’m freaking out. …I think when I hang up they’re taking me to a jail cell for the night.”

“If they do…Just don’t talk to anyone or make anyone mad.”

He breathes into the phone. In the background someone is banging the door

“Nova--”

“This is fucking bullshit--,” he says, his voice is pinched.

 “It’ll be okay--”

I hear a woman’s voice barking at him in the background

“I have to go, bye--”

The line cuts out before I can say anything back.

Our school doesn’t have a student directory so I Google Rose and Arrow’s names with the school’s name and get nothing.  I methodically go through the Instagram, Snapchat and even Facebook. I don’t know their friends so I start with the most popular kids in school and look to see if they follow them.

Twitter is a nightmare because people from all over the world are making either predictable political jokes or thoughts and prayers tweets about the shooting. I finally come across a lead--the video of Mr. Grace being arrested was posted on Twitter. The tweet  accompanying it reads:

It was a tough day for a community but there is absolutely no reason for our police to exert this kind of force. I’ve sent a letter to @CTStatePolice asking these officers be removed from the department without pay.

 The video had been up for a few hours and only had a handful of interactions. It was been tweeted  by someone with the handle @SincerelyEmile. I click on his handle and see a bright, smiling photo off the man who’d been with Rose’s family. His bio says he a visiting professor at Yale and it only takes me a few more clicks on the Yale website to get his office number. I call to leave a message and his voicemail has his cell phone number on it.  It’s almost midnight but I call his cell anyway.

“Emile,” a pleasant voice answers.

“Hi, um, my name is Mason Clark…I go to Rose Fierro’s school. Um, I was--”

“Oh, yes. Mason. I’ve heard all about you today. How are you holding up ?”

“I’m good, sir.  I—I actually need to talk to Rose and I wanted to know if I could have her number or if you could tell her to call me--,”

“I could,” he says, elongating the words. “But I’m afraid that wouldn’t be of much use. She’s terrible with phones. Why don’t you drop by the house tomorrow afternoon ? I’ll tell her mother you are coming.”

“I don’t want to intrude--,”

“No, no. I think they’ll enjoy the company.”

>>>>

 

                                                                                        ---
A/N

This story was supposed to just end with them getting out of the school but then I got IDEAS for part II. I felt so weird writing about a school shooting and calling it a fanfic but I could not get this idea out of my head.

I decided not to name the shooter (Isaiah was just helping him). I did a little bit of research on active shooter protocol but most of this was not researched. I knew if I looked up the real texts kids sent their families during active shootings my heart would break

In my head Clierro in By Your Side have a backstory  closer to the one in Nightfall Academy where Clara had Rose at the end of high school.  But the Clierro/Emile relationship is like it is at the end of Monet Drive ? IDK, Emile is hard in this scenario because that would make him that teacher who became close friends with his students ?

I had to create a whole ass  new backstory for the New Aeterna crew that we will explore in part two….

I see that Rhett comes off as a real jerk and kind Blue Lives Matter-y in this but he’s very protective of his family and having fallen for UL when he was a teenager, he is cautious of people he doesn’t know.