Third Time Unlucky

Darryn sat at the back of his English classroom, listening to his favorite radio station on his phone. Technically speaking, he was supposed to be jotting down notes about essay structure and fluency, but he honestly just could not be bothered. He reckoned, in all honestly, that he would rather be anywhere than in this dark, dreary, and ever so slightly putrid classroom that was filled with song of the worlds’ most stereotypical and predictable people.
Darryn looked around himself as his mind wandered. His eyes fell on Logan, the boy sitting next to him. Logan was a ginger, slightly spotty psychopath. He was infamous for making pretend guns out of his pens and had been warned multiple times already this year by multiple members of staff that if he continued to mess around he would be expelled, but their warnings never quite seem to penetrate his brain.
Beside Logan sat Brandon, a far saner boy who was Darryn’s best friend in his class. Next to Brandon sat Mitch, Vinny, and Dayner, a very small yet loud trio of friends.
Just up from them was Hannah’s girl gang that contained the more feminine girls: Natasha, Grace, Emma, and Elizabeth.
Following them was Kameron and Laura, Kameron being the most irritating boy in the entire world according to Darryn, and Laura being the class ‘fat girl’. Darryn’s feelings for Laura were indifferent- she was pretty average in his eyes. Laura at the moment was conversing with the classes’ English teacher, Mr. Bunderella, who had just caught sight of a very relaxed Darryn. ‘Shit!’ muttered Darryn under his breath, which is ironic because this is exactly what he was up to his ears in, now that he has been spotted. For Darryn was displaying the three great pet hates of Mr. Bunderella: first, being relaxed. A relaxed student is a comfortable student, and Mr. Bunderella despised comfortable students. The second pet hate being laziness, as a lazy student was a relaxed student. Lastly, the third pet hate of Mr. Bunderella was Darryn himself, something his current behavior was not helping.
Darryn parted himself from his music in a rather frantic manner that he hoped seemed nonchalant to those around him, in an attempt to seem more on task. However his attempts were in vain, for when Mr. Bunderella reached him his lips were curled in a manner that was even more acidic than usual… Darryn braced himself for a 'Bunderella rant'.
‘Darryn’ called Mr. Bunderella, his Michigan accent echoing off the walls. ‘Just out of pure… curiosity, what have you achieved so far this period?’ Now, it seemed, the whole class was listening in on the conversation, even the goody-goods like Marie and Morgan.
‘Uh, well, I… I finished writing down your tips on essay writing’ Darryn stated unconvincingly. Mr. Bunderella’s eyes flashed.
‘Really, well, it looks like you were listening to music on your phone. But… I may be wrong. Perhaps you could, oh I don’t know, empty your pockets?’
‘Dammit!’ muttered Darryn under his breath, the last thing he needed was another detention. Before his phone was even laid on the table, Mr. Bunderella tore it from his hands; thus the headphones were pulled from his phone, and the radio blasted out for all of the class to hear. But instead of the latest Dubstep mix or ‘Niki Minaj’ song, the voice of an alarmed broadcaster echoed through the room:

"Breaking news, the combined forces of Russia and The United States of America have began to penetrate the defensive military of Australasian waters and have successfully taken the central command center of the British Military at around four o’clock this morning. Rumors of a third World War have been recently confirmed by the Chinese military, which has allied with British, Anzac, French, and German forces. The government informs us to, despite the circumstances, remain calm at all times and continue daily routines as per usual, and to await further updates."

Suddenly, in a matter of flimsy seconds, the world had turned upside down. The tension in the class was eerie; no one knew what to do. A strange feeling rose up in the stomachs of every single class member, a feeling that could be only described as alien. This moment was alien, impossible, and foreign. Somehow everyone managed to lift their heads to face a very ashen faced Mr. Bunderella. His mouth opened to talk, but the words never came. All trace of acid had been wiped from him. The fact that Darryn had been enjoying a little bit of Green Day was nothing now. Overhead, the roaring sound of choppers was growing ever nearer.
‘No’ said someone. Everyone looked in the direction of the voice, and saw it was Laura. ‘No!’ she repeated, louder, almost shouting this time. This was highly unusual, as Laura barely ever raised her voice. But, then again, the whole scenario was highly unusual. In fact, Laura’s sudden outburst was slightly comforting for the alien feelings in everyone’s stomachs… comforting, but not numbing.
‘This… scenario… that, that report, it, it ca- cannot be true! I mean, lets… lets think logically about this all… Think about all the build up to any invasion, or war, or any political storm, there was always stuff leading up to those events. It’s not like one day Hitler got bored and decided to conquer the world! I mean, years of planning and preparation go into these things… there was no warning for any of this, not any at all!’
Her words hung in the air, echoing through the minds of all of us. There was argument, indecision, denial, and shock through the next few minutes, but in the end it was decided that the report was genuine, for reasons that far outweighed their challenges. Darryn was not paying that much attention, however, he was working out a very complicated situation in his head. Suddenly, drew himself back to reality, and half cried the words
‘Piha Beach’
The class stared at him, curious and scared. He continued without needing any direction to do so.
‘My family has a set of cabins in the forest surrounding the Piha coast, filled with supplies, ready for a moment like this if we grab one of the school vans, we could travel down there before the invasion starts to really kick off. We- we could gather a large amount of imperishable foods at the supermarket, and a radio, and other things… the cabins are completely undetectable because they’re built into the ground, they were made during world war two, you see-’
Mr. Bunderella and Laura interrupted Darryn at the same time. ‘Shut up!’ said Mr. Bunderella, at the same time Laura said ‘Great, lets go steal a car!’
Thus, the top stream freshmen’s of Grey Cove High School left their English class for the last time, World War Three looming in their wake.