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"I don't know what's going on yet, the teachers haven't been informed," he answered, though he didn't scold Brodie for calling him by his first name.
"Yeah, he's feeling better. But he's really tired, which is to be expected after last night," he replied with a sigh, reaching up and running his fingers through his silver bangs. |
Brodie sat back in his chair, the answer didn't make him feel much better. One girl spoke up, "Then, does that mean we're all just going to wait here until they do tell you?"
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"Most lik--" his words were cut off by the beeping of the intercom again.
"Mr. Marez, please come up to the office," the voice spoke into their classroom and their classroom alone. Shozii looked up and blinked at the intercom, a stumped look on his face. 'You're kidding, right?' he thought to himself with a sigh. "Mr. Fisher, Miss Padoff, lock the door after I leave. When I return I'll slip a piece of paper written with something that'll make it clear who I am. Don't open the door for anyone else," he instructed, walking to the door and unlocking it. He slipped out into the hallway, quickly pulling the door shut behind him. Electra hurried to the door and locked it, then went about taping pieces of paper over the small window to prevent anyone from seeing into the room. "Hurry, get the blinds!" she said, looking over at Brodie. |
"Right," Brodie jumped out of his seat after a slightly stunned moment of silence. He fumbled with the blinds for a few stressed seconds before he could close them. The fact that Shozii was no longer there only made his anxiety worse. Brodie sighed as he looked around the room, most of the other students didn't look much better off than he was.
"It's just a bomb scare. A prank, I'm sure of it," he said as he leaned against the wall trying not to stand much on his shaking legs. "It's fine," he hardly sounded convincing enough to himself. |
Nearly half an hour passed, causing Electra to become fidgety. Finally, a slip of brightly colored paper slid underneath the door. Electra bent down and picked it up, looking at it.
"The cat hates it when his bedmate snores," she read under her breath, looking over at Brodie with a confused look on her face. "What's this mean?" |
Brodie, already tired from pacing the whole time, walked quickly to the other side of the room as soon as Electra asked about the little piece of paper. He wasn't sure if he would know what it meant if she didn't. She was, after all, Shozii's niece, Brodie assumed he'd write something only a relative would know. He looked at it anyway, reading in his head.
His eyes widened as he snatched the paper out of her hand. "It's him," he said as he crumpled it up, "definitely him." He turned to fumble with the door knob. He didn't think Shozii would write something like that. The thought that someone else might know they spent a night in the same room, let alone the same bed, freaked him out a bit. 'Besides,' he thought indignantly as he twisted the door knob, 'how the Hell am I supposed to know if I snore or not?' |
Shozii stepped back into the room with a solemn look on his face, holding a stack of papers in his hands. He took off a portion of the pile and sat it down on the closest desk. The weren't single papers, they were booklets consisting for four pages stapled together.
"Take one, pass the rest down," he said quietly, moving to the next row of desks and setting down enough packets for the entire row. "Take one, pass the rest down," he repeated. He did this until he had reached the last row and set down all but three packets. He walked over to Brodie and Electra, handing them both theirs personally. "Attention, please," he said, turning to face the class. "You're all to calmly make your way to your respectful buses. Make SURE your parents receive those packets!" he said firmly. He turned to face Electra, leaning in so only she and Brodie could hear, "Go to Andrew's apartment. Stay there. Call your mother and tell her where you are. Don't leave until I say so." |
Brodie looked blankly at the packet he now held, hardly looking over it. The rest of the students, rather slowly, got up and walked out the door. The hall outside was filled with students in a few seconds, all talking and asking what they'd heard, there weren't many answers. Brodie looked between the door and Shozii before speaking up, "Wait a second, what happened?" he said it as he clutched the packet near his stomach, "It was- nothing happened, right?"
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"Two students are dead and a teacher has life threatening injuries," he said once there all the students but Brodie and Electra had left.
"Electra, hurry to the buses, the one that goes to Andrew's is the first in the bus line." "Right," she said, nodding. Grabbing her things, she hurried out of the classroom and out to the buses. "I'll take you home myself," Shozii said, his eyes falling on Brodie. "Grab your things." He walked over to the desk and picked up his messenger bag. |
Brodie, struggling to keep the packet in his arms after almost dropping it, watched Shozii and his niece exchange their few words. He picked up his backpack and followed close behind Shozii, "But," he wasn't sure what he was asking, just that he needed to know more, or just to say something, "But how? And who? And, and..." 'God, why do things have to move so quickly?' One minute he thought he could get over all this death stuff, then something like this happens- "-Again! Why does this shit keep happening all of a sudden?!" He demanded as he looked at the back of Shozii's head.
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"Attacks in schools are an everyday occurrence. Few things are rarely, genuinely, 'sudden'. Everything else you want to know regarding who is in those papers. And there won't be school tomorrow." He made his way out into the parking lot and to the black '06 Pontiac GT. Unlocking it with the remote, he opened the back door on the driver's side and tossed his bag into the seat and closed the door.
Then he slipped into the driver's seat and turned on the engine. "Hurry up, kid!" he called to Brodie. |
Brodie followed him as quickly as he could without losing his train of thought. "An attack?" he asked as he sat in the passenger's seat, "Some one was attacked?" That sort of thing didn't happen every day at his school. He'd never heard of something like that happening as long as he and his family lived there. He lived in a nice neighborhood, there was hardly even any graffiti, stuff like this wasn't supposed to be an everyday occurrence.
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"Read the papers if you're so damn concerned," he said, rolling his eyes and pulling out of the parking lot. It only took a few minutes for the car to pull up to the curb in front of Brodie's house.
"Get out," he said gruffly. |
She nodded slowly, moving to lean against the wall. Tessan was starting to wonder why it had suddenly become awkward and kind of quiet between them. At least by now they should be getting annoyed at one another, but they simply continued to stand.
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Now dressed, Zaitsu stepped out of the guest bedroom and into the hallway, giving Amani a tired glance. "Let's go," he yawned quietly, going out into the living room. He grabbed his backpack off the floor by one of the couches. He picked up his sleeping kitten off the couch and headed for the door.
"Later Andrew," he said with another yawn. "Bye," Andrew replied emotionlessly, as he often did when lost in thought. Amani followed after Zaitsu, following him out into the hall, then passing him on the way to the elevator. He pushed the button to go down to the garage, wondering if Tessan would follow them again. 'I don't know why she wanted to go to work with me... She said it was because she gets lonely... But she can just go and talk to anyone. Why me?' he thought to himself, watching his brother from the corner of his eye tiredly lean against the wall while they waited for the elevator. |
Tessan followed the brothers out into the hall. It seemed to be quieter than when she and Amani were alone and she was starting to wonder if she should simply leave.
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He opened his eyes and looked over at Tessan. "What are you doing here?" he asked, though not rudely. He found it odd that she should return to Andrew's after the night before, and with his brother, no less.
"She came with me. No big deal," Amani sighed, stepping into the elevator as the doors slid open. "I was just asking," he said, almost like a child pouting as he followed Amani's lead. "I was just answering." |
"Did you want me to leave? You know, so you two can have brother time?" she asked, standing hesitantly at the elevator door, putting a lock of her green hair behind her ear.
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"No, it's fine. He's going to go to sleep when we get home anyways, I'll just be left with nothing to do," Amani said, pressed the 'hold door' button so the elevator doors wouldn't close yet.
"Pretty much," Zaitsu yawned, petting the fidgety kitten in his arms. |
"Okay..." she said, stepping through the doors so that they needn't wait for her anymore. "So are you feeling a lot better since yesterday?" she asked Zaitsu, turning and looking at the kitten in his arms.
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"I feel extremely tired, and I'm stiff and sore, but other than that, I'm just fine. Andrew works miracles."
"Your neck was broken and your skull was cracked. I'm sure your back was broken in several places too." He pushed the button for the level of the parking garage the Dodge Neon was parked. "Doesn't surprise me," he said with a tired sigh. |
Tessan nodded slowly, saying, "When I was alive, I don't ever remember being seriously injured. At least until, I, ya know, died." She reached her hand towards the kitten, holding her hand out for it to sniff.
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"I've been seriously injured more times than I'd like to admit. I swear, objects are just magnetically drawn to my head, chest, and spine."
The small black kitten looked up at Tessan with bright red eyes that matched the man's who held her. She let out a soft mew and reached out to bat at Tessan's hand. "I can't remember if I've been seriously injured since the train wreck..." He lifted his head and stepped out of the elevator when it reached their destination. Going to the Dodge Neon, he unlocked it and got into the driver's seat and pulled out of the parking spot. Leaving the car in the lane for a moment, he moved his motorcycle so it took up the entire parking place where the Neon had been, to prevent someone from taking the spot that rightfully belonged to Andrew. |
Smiling, Tessan lightly brought her hand up under the kitten's paw. When Amani had left the elevator, she asked, "Is he always so...distant from everyone? I mean, last night he kind of opened up, but now he went back inside his shell. It's like he's one of those shelled sea creatures that opens up at high tide, then clams back up again."
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Brodie gave Shozii a quick, annoyed look before he started flipping impatiently through the papers. He was annoyed and still really freaked out, hardly even giving any single paper more than a second of thought. His thoughts more focused on could hardly read even if he wanted to. Not that he had to wait very long before he could forget about the packet.
He didn't say a word as he opened the door and stepped out. |
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