The Tragic Truth

Needless to say, seducing a cop is not the way to get out of trouble. I got to ride in the back of a cop car, with the window separating me from the cops in the front. And yes, I got to wear the handcuffs. I called Zoe and got her to dig into my ‘saved money’ to bail me out. Although, that meant that I was going to be a little late on the rent check, unless everyone else helped me out.

March, April, and May went by at light speed. We had people applying for colleges, complaining to the councilors when they didn’t get in, and finals. Lots and lots of finals.
Whoever said junior year was going to be hell wasn’t kidding.

Remember Collin? He came back into my story at the end of May. His sister was graduating, and he wanted Drake, Derek, Zoe, and I to come to the graduation with him. His parents were making him go, and having some friends there would make it less-boring, I guess.

I remember the day perfectly. May 25. The graduation was held inside the school because for some reason, the faculty thought it would be more comfortable. Most likely it wouldn’t be. Luckily, our high school had a big auditorium, and not as many people were coming because the senior’s class wasn’t as big as years before.

The four of us all dressed up nice and met Collin at the entrance to the school. I remember Zoe was wearing a cute green summer dress (she refused to wear warm clothes when I persisted that she could get a cold). She was actually starting to look like there was something living in her stomach. Not to sound mean, though. She didn’t look fat. She’s the prettiest pregnant girl I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be able to pull that off. And as time grew on, she and Derek only became closer and closer. Now, when I walked in a room, it wasn’t always a given that I would see them swapping spit like their lives depended on it.

Sometimes, I could walk in a room and they would just be sitting there, staring intently at each other, like Zoe had something in her teeth and Derek was intent on getting it out via laser-vision.

Collin saw us walking towards the entrance, and immediately ran towards us. Man, his family must have been wearing on him. He looked like he had been sitting there for days.

“I’m so glad you guys came. Thanks. You should have seen it-the people behind us now know my dad’s lawyer jokes almost as well as the backs of their hands.” He smiled and came in for hugs. Collin’s dad was in law-he was a judge at the local court. He had law jokes up his sleeves like there was no tomorrow.

“No problem, Collin. We had nothing better to do today, anyway. Right guys?” I looked at the rest of them, nudging Drake in the ribs so he would get the hint. He didn’t.

“Actually, I was planning on-” Drake started, but I stepped on his foot.

“Ow, what did you do that for?” he whined to me. I smiled sweetly and sarcastically and headed towards the inside of our school; Collin and I leading the way, followed by Drake, Zoe, and Derek.

It was early in the morning (at least, for me it was) so we all went to the school’s snack counter and got breakfast burritos. The perfect breakfast. Afterwards, we all went and took our seats, waiting for the ceremony to begin. I’d been to one graduation before; it was my cousin’s, when I was about fourteen. I was hoping this wouldn’t be as long as that one; that was excruciatingly painful. Of course, I was also younger and had a shorter attention span.

The first part of the graduation went according to plan. And as planned, it was inevitably boring. The valedictorians made their speeches (there were four of them) and they were basically all the same, with minor differentiating points. ‘It’s been a good four years, I’ll miss you all, we’ve done our best, look out world, here we come’, blah blah blah. I miss the days when people were actually original. My cousin’s ceremony included a valedictorian who quoted Star Wars. That was fun stuff.

The middle of the graduation was fine, too. The people started walking out in groups of threes or fours (most looked like they were grouped with their friends) and were handed their diplomas individually. Everyone took pictures of the students. No one took pictures of the crowd (which is what happened at my cousin’s graduation. At the risk of re-stating myself, people have no individuality these days). From what I listened to, we got to the last names that started with N’s. I couldn’t really tell; Collin and I were screwing around in our seats, playing an intense game of rock, paper, scissors. So far, Collin was winning, and there were also rockets, bombs, secret ninja bunnies, and sticks. The sticks were for whacking each other with. We were weird kids.

Claire Nallie had just been called to receive her diploma. I don’t know (and never would know) who Claire Nallie was, but she was the last name I recognized before I realized something would soon turn into a catastrophe.

I sniffed the air, aware of my surroundings changing slightly. “Do you smell smoke?” I asked Zoe. She scrunched her nose and frowned.

“It’s probably just the smoker kids in front of us. They’ll probably get lung cancer by the time they’re thirty. Just ignore the smell.” Upon answering my question, she quickly turned back around to Derek and continued to gaze into his eyes. I lightly smacked her on the shoulder.

“No, not cigarette smoke. Don’t you smell that? It’s like campfire smoke.” I didn’t wait for a response this time. I turned to Drake, “Please tell me you smell that. I’m not just dreaming, right?” I sniffed the air again, and Drake followed suit. He took his hand, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.

“I think you’re right, Skye.” I smiled slightly. At least I wasn’t crazy.

“Why aren’t the alarms going off, then?” Derek asked. I shrugged. I let my eyes wander, and they drifted to the front stage, where a secretary from the front desk came sprinting on stage. She snatched the microphone from the principal and breathed heavily into it.

“People, we have an emergency!” She huffed. I looked around at my friends in confusion.

“Please do not be alarmed. We need to be calm. But there is a massive fire on the west side of the building, which is growing rapidly. We need to evacuate everyone from the building, now!”

At first, a slow murmur could be heard amongst the crowd. As realization hit, though, it grew into a cacophonous uproar that could probably be heard from New Jersey.

I looked around at my friends again. Everyone looked worried, of course. Zoe involuntarily clutched her stomach, and Derek looked down at where she had placed her hands.

The secretary looked like she wanted to talk again, but the principal snatched his microphone back and spoke, instead. “Everyone listen!” he shouted. His voice was rough and demanding. “The first two rows on the bleachers and the first two rows in the balcony will evacuate first. After that, every two rows will evacuate. This will not turn into a group-wide panic attack. Got it? Do not bother to pack up your things. Now please people, move!” The crowd, of course, muttered in agreement, and the first two rows hurriedly left the gym.

Throughout all the commotion, I stayed firmly in my seat, as did the rest of my friends. I think Collin’s parents were trying to talk to us, but I could hardly hear their voices. I glanced at the rows in the balcony (which is where we were sitting) and mentally counted up to where our seats were. Row eleven. We would be out of here shortly. Rows seven and eight were already moving out of here, painstakingly slow (at least that’s what it looked like to me). The smell of smoke was now burning my nostrils. Suddenly Drake shook me, and I was thrust back into the real world.

“Come on, we gotta go Skye!” he yelled to me over the crowd. I quickly stood up and followed my friends to the exit.

We were headed towards the front entrance, where we had all met this morning. How odd. The halls were now quickly filling up with smoke; all of us had almost broken out in a sprint to escape the smell that was now burning all of our noses, not just mine.

Drake held my hand, Derek held Zoe’s hand, and Collin was left alone, to merely keep up alongside us all. We had lost his parents in the crowd. I hoped they were okay. Trying to hurry along, I glanced at Collin. I reached out to grab his hand, too, but someone pushed him aside, leading him to blend in with the rest of the crowd. I stopped in my tracks.

“Collin! Where are you? Collin!” I coughed; the smoke was getting worse. People would need to get out of here, and soon, or we were all going to suffocate. Drake, Derek, and Zoe had kept on forward. I could see them push open the doors and out into the front parking lot.

But where was Collin? The hall’s population was slowly dwindling down to nothing; they knew they didn’t have much time left. The deafening sound had been dulled down to nothing more than a couple of voices, it seemed like. My eyes were watering uncontrollably, and I started to cough more violently. I was still attempting to look for Collin through the smog, but to no avail. A figure I thought I recognized seemed to fight his way through the smoke.

Collin? I didn’t know. I closed my eyes completely and felt myself sink to the floor, but not before the figure (or so I assumed) lifted me off of my feet and sprinted out of the school.