The play was a disaster. Not in a hilariously quirky teen
sex comedy kind of way either. Sonya could handle directing a flaming pile of
high school theater if it was jerky, stilted Shakespeare or the schools
fortieth presentation of ‘Our Town’ But the districts new list of ‘age
appropriate’ material had nothing from Shakespeare, in fact it had nothing on
it written before nineteen ninety six. So she and everyone else were stuck with
‘Let’s all be good students. A musical in five acts.’ The evening had mostly
been wasted muddling through the opening number which took up half the first
act ‘five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred detentions’. There were six
weeks of rehearsal and she already hated the play as much as the rest of the
cast.
She finished her performance notes, gathered her things into
her backpack and slide it over her shoulders. She shut her desk lamp off and made
her way to the auditorium exit. The door handle echoed in the empty hall. As
she got closer to the parking lot she could hear the music coming from the
football players cars. Thankfully she had parked several rows down and would be
able to avoid them for the most part.
Gordon had had better practices, hell he had had better
days. But thankfully the day was over and he could go home, ice up his foot and
look at the nearly three thousand photos he had taken during the spirit day
assembly.
Gordon pulled the strap of his duffel back higher up onto
his shoulder as he hobbled out toward the parking lot. A girl with wet hair
came out of the girl’s locker room and saw him, she did a double take for the
girl’s locker room but decided to stay. Gordon stopped walking, they stood
silent in the hallway.
“Bummer about the game yesterday.” She finally offered.
“yeah.” He nodded. He turned and continued to hobble for the
door. She walked beside him.
“Was coach pretty mad?” she asked.
Gordon leaned against the wall next to the exit door. “I had
to make five field goals every five yards all the way back to the thirty five
yard lines. So yeah, I’d say he was pretty mad.”
Kelly looked unsure of herself. “Is
that a lot?” she asked as the girls locker room door exploded open again and
the cheerleaders appeared in an exuberant pack. The leader of which grabbed
Kelly’s hand.
“Let’s go Kelly, the guys are waiting.” The leader pulled
Kelly into the mob and they headed out to the parking lot as a single unit.
Gordon saw the rest of the team had parked their cars around his and were
spraying it down with shaving cream and silly string. He sighed heavily and
leaned back against the wall.
Kelly watched as the other girls climbed into the backs of
half a dozen different cars. The head cheerleader also happened to be her
sister which was the only reason she was in this situation. Her sister had
climbed into the back of Tori’s car. He was the captain of the football team
and a self-centered douche bag. “Get in the car Kelly!” she heard her sister
shout over the music. Tori took one look at her wet hair and damp clothes and
shook his head.
“Not unless she’s got a dry towel, I don’t want that pool
water messing with my interior.” He ran his hands over the passenger seat.
Kelly unzipped her bag and started to pull out her only towel. Two of the guys
defacing the jeep jumped into one of the other cars and the driver peeled out
and took off.
“Too slow!” Tori yelled as he reached across slammed his door,
revved his engine and took off after the rest of the pack. Leaving Kelly alone
next to a jeep covered in piles of silly string and shaving cream.
“You guys suck!” she shouted futilely after the long gone
caravan of popular kids.
Gordon hobbled up to his jeep and set his bag down. “if you
help me scrape this mess off I can give you a ride home.”
“Thanks” She said, not thinking twice about the offer.
Calling her parents was out of the question. She began to grab handfuls of wet
slimy gunk off the driver’s side window. Each fistful hit the parking lot with
a light splatter. Sonya walked past them as they worked to uncover the Jeep.
“Hey Kelly, how’s the swim team?” Sonya asked.
“Really great actually. We’re undefeated so far this season
and I’m anchoring the 400 relay.” She slid a huge clump of string off the
windshield. “how’s the play?”
“It’s a dumpster fire.” She replied, pulling a cigarette out
of her bag and lighting it. “Don’t narc.”
“They can’t all be winners.” Gordon offered as he scraped
crap off his car.
“I take you it speak from experience.” She sniped back.
“Kelly you need a ride home, or you good with the white knight here?” She
finished her cigarette and flicked the dead butt.
A blush began to form on Kelly’s face. Sonya smiled and turned toward her car. “I’ll
take that as a ‘get lost’ then.” Far in the distance what sounded like
intermittent pounding on a bass drum. “Besides, sounds like the rest of the
Calvary is coming back.” The thudding came closer and soon it became apparent
it wasn’t on the ground but in the sky. Then just above the tree line were
flashes of light. The flashes and the booming got closer and were definitely
the same thing. Gordon got out of his jeep to get a better look at the
spectacle. There were three smaller flying objects chasing a single larger
flying object. The larger one being chased was venting smoking and on fire. The
prey ship took a direct hit and it became clear that it wasn’t staying in the
air much longer and it was coming awful close to the school.
“RUN!” Gordon yelled, slamming the door to his jeep. Kelly
and Sonya didn’t need further encouragement and quickly shot past him as the
crashing ship made its way toward the parking lot. The girls made it to the library
door only to find it locked. “MOVE!” Gordon shouted and they were barely out
of the way as he shoulder checked the door at full speed. It exploded into the library
and Gordon hit the ground hard. The girls entered the building and helped
Gordon to his feet, He growled in pain when Kelly touched his right shoulder.
The ship hit the parking lot in a ball of flame and skidded toward the library.
“Gordon lets go!” Kelly screamed. The trio found and open
door into the stacks and made their way to the far corner of the building as
quickly as they could. It seemed impossible but the ship tore into the library
seeming to have lost no momentum. They were against the furthest wall with nowhere
left to go. Sonya doubted the huge group study desks would provide much protection
but she shoved Kelly and Gordon under them as they heard the ship smash
through row after row of stacks. They had no way of knowing if the ship was
still coming because each row of stacks was falling into the next like dominoes.
Until the final book stack crashed on top of the desk they were hiding under.
