Sunlight pours in from the window, filling the room and warming my face as I lay against my desk. Ms.Nishida drones on about something or another while I glance over at Faye, her face buried in her sketchbook as usual, the sounds of her scribbling further easing me. The sun filters through her shoulder length bleach blonde hair, gleaming off of her third of our matching friendship necklaces, the top corner of the brass heart hanging from a thin gold chain around her neck. She catches me staring and narrows her dark brown eyes at me as she turns to face me and I catch sight of a dark red smudge on her cheek, standing out against her fair skin.
"Are you even paying attention?" She whispers. I give her a lazy smile. "There's marker on your face." "What, where?" She rubs blindly at her face, somehow managing to completely miss the smudge. I chuckle softly at her before reaching into my bag and tossing a pack of wet wipes at her. "Thanks." Just as soon as the word leaves her mouth the bell rings for lunch. "Race you to the Caf!" I challenge her before snatching my bag up and bolting from the classroom, Faye's cursing the soundtrack to my hasty exit.
I (obviously) reach the caf first, I look around and catch sight of Nia sitting at our regular table by the back window and head over. Her long black hair is tied in a glossy braid over the shoulder of her crimson volleyball team jacket, falling next to her third of our matching friendship necklaces, the left third of a brass heart dangling from a silver chain around her neck. The sun bounces off of her warm brown skin as she remains completely oblivious to my approach, too distracted by the book in her hand to notice much of anything.
I plop myself down across from her. "Yo!" My greeting startles her, her cat-like hazel eyes shooting up from her book at my arrival. Nia looks around a bit before returning her gaze to me. "Where's Faye?" I pull a mock frown over my features "Aw what's wrong Nini? Am I not enough woman for you? You harlot!" I clutch my chest dramatically. She rolls her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips as I chuckle at my own joke. "We raced to the caf, but I don't think she was even trying to keep up." I pout. "Oh my gosh almost like you're on the track team or something." She says sarcastically as she stuffs her book back into her backpack and pulls out her lunch bag. I scoff and look towards the flood of students heading into the caf for lunch, I scan the crowd for a short blonde bundle of sweetness and soon find Faye fighting her way towards our table.
"You ditched me!" Faye accuses as she drops her bag down next to me. "No I ran, and I expected you to do the same." I defend as I dig through my unreasonably large schoolbag (Thanks mom) in attempt to locate my lunch bag. "You know damn well I don't run for anything you are not special." Faye snarks as she settles in at the table. My fingers finally brush against my lunch box (Buried at the bottom as usual) but as I go to pull it out the hand braided thread chain of my friendship necklace catches on the zipper. "Crap."
I pull my arm out of the bag, tossing the lunch box on the table before gently tugging at the threads, which mocks my efforts by refusing to budge. "What's wrong?" Nia asks, leaning over the table to get a better look at the situation. "My necklace is caught." I lament giving a slightly more aggressive tug but too worried about snapping the threads to make a truly spirited attempt. "Lemmie see." Faye bats my hands away and after a brief moment of struggle manages to unhitch the ruby coloured threads from the zipper's teeth. I sigh in relief at my newly regained freedom. "Thanks a mil Faye, you're an angel."
Faye rolls her eyes. "Don't mention it." she says, reaching into her (more reasonably sized) bag for her own lunch "Why not just get a new chain already?" Asks Nia. "And rob Faye of a chance to rescue me?" I let out a faux gasp. "I could never." Faye lets out a snort of laughter and the comment. "Oh don't encourage her." Nia chastises. We chat clean through the lunch hour, trading snacks and pouring over homework together, time slipping away as we laugh and smile in the warm afternoon sunlight.
.
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…
I absentmindedly chip away at some of the dried blood on the wall of the hallway as I wait for Peter to come out of the store room. The sound of slow distant shuffling has me loosely gripping my baseball bat as I flick flecks of the dried blood off my fingernails. Just as I start to worry Peter finally emerges from the teachers lounge clutching a box of what I hope is food that hasn't expired, but at this point I'm not especially picky. We share a sharp nod and make our way down the hall as quietly as possible as the shuffling gets closer. Dying sunlight filters through the boarded up windows. I sign to Peter to pick up the pace as we navigate the halls, the last thing we need right now is to be stuck up here in the dark.
We're almost to the store room entrance when it happens. We turn the corner and I stop just in time to avoid tripping over a fresh corpse on the ground. Peter nearly slams into my back, he glares at my sudden stop before he lays eyes on the corpse.
One look at his horrified face and I knew.
I move to cover his mouth but I'm not fast enough.
He screams.
My hand slams down over his lips but not before the noise echoes throughout the hallway. Fuck. The shuffling immediately turns into a rapid clamber as horrific groans ring out from an increasingly short distance. "Run!" I shout at Peter seemingly startling him from his terrified stupor and he sprints down the hall at my command. I'm close behind, gripping my bat like my life depends on it, just in case it does.
We dash for the door as a screeching, ravenous horde of undead charges around the corner at the end of the hall. Peter pounds on the door to the storeroom with one hand while he grips the box to his chest with the other. I stand at his back, bat at the ready as the hoard scrambles over itself in its haste towards us. I watch as the decayed shambling monstrosities that used to be my teachers, my clubmates, my peers… now charge towards me with the single minded intention of tearing flesh from bone.
Peter's desperate pounding finally pays off. I hear the dead bolt slide away and the door to the storeroom swing open just as the horde gets too close for comfort. I shove Peter through the door and rush in behind him, using all of my body weight to press the door shut as I feel the horde start to press against it, the screeching of the undead fills my ears as Mickie scrambles for the deadlock and Eris helps me keep the door shut. Mercy is the sound of a deadlock slipping into place. I nearly collapse with relief as the door stops shaking, though from the sound of guttural screeching seeping through from the other side I know the horde is still clawing at the iron door.
God I miss when school was normal.