I put my hand to the handle of the glass door and slid it open. I smelled the fresh air and felt the slight cool breeze that I loved every morning. Then I slid the door closed and walked through the newly cut grass, feeling the dew seeping through the holes in my shoes. I stood by the edge of our pond, looking out across the water at the reflection of the rising sun. I saw the bright flowers across the pond admiring the view. Our family had made this pond and planted the flowers -- we had never had a backyard as spacious as this one, so we decided to make it unique. We used to live in Chicago, Illinois, but then we moved to Faribault, Minnesota. We had worked on our yard for about three months after we moved here, which was about 8 years ago. Even though I was only six, I remember being out here with my mom helping her with the garden. I loved the atmosphere of this town, it was so peaceful and quiet, and mostly everyone was kind and cared about each other’s wellbeing. It seemed that nothing ever went wrong here. The Faribault police barely worked, other than dealing with the occasional rebel who would bestow some sort of annoyance on the town or a neighbor. Back in Chicago, it was so noisy -- you would hear sirens into the night, there was always something going on. Here it’s quiet, and if there was something to happen, everyone would know in a matter of hours.

I walked around the house to the mailbox to find that it was empty. Suddenly my phone rang. “Shai” appeared on the screen.

“Hello?”

“BREE ANN VANDERS! WHERE ARE YOU?!” she yelled into my ear.

“Well hello to you too…”I answered questioningly.

“Bree! You’re suppose to be here wrapping Megg’s locker!”

“Oh my god. I totally forgot! I’m so sorry, I’ll be right over.”

“You better. See you in a few,” She said as I hung up the phone.

Wow, I’m a good friend. How could I forget my best friend’s birthday?! I said out loud to myself. I ran inside I laid down on the couch closing my eyes. How could I be so stupid!

Next thing I knew I was at school and Megg was hugging me for wrapping her locker.

“Wow, I love you guys!” she yelped, opening her locker.

“We love you too, Megg.” I replied.

Ryan came up behind her wrapping his arms around her waist. They had been going out for about five months, they were a cute couple. I had to admit; even though I had liked him all through junior high.

“Hey babe, happy birthday, miss 15.” He said, twirling her around and kissing her.

“Why thank you, Mr. uh…baby cakes?” she said grinning.

Angi, Shai, and I left them to their lovey dovey business and went to homeroom. The day passed slowly as lunch approached. Only 12 more minutes, I thought. Thank god.

Then I heard some alarm and looked at Mrs. Corrian oddly. She signaled everybody to the back corner of the classroom and said if anybody talked we would be in serious danger. Then it hit me. Oh, it’s just an intruder drill, whatever. We had started these drills because some psycho guy in Colorado killed some girls at their school, and now they were making everybody do intruder drills. I whispered to Connor that it was an intruder drill and he passed it on. Everybody started whispering and then we heard a sound coming from Mrs. Corrian’s pocket. She took out her phone and put it to her ear.

“Hello?”

There was a pause.

“Oh my goodness, are you serious?”

Another pause.

“Oh my, I will, certainly Mr. Hawkins.”

She hung up the phone and looked at us.

“Kids,” she whispered, “this isn’t a drill. Principal Hawkins told me that he was reported to about a man in the hallway that was unidentified. No students ID card, no visitor sticker, no teacher pass around his neck. Please everybody stay calm and whatever you do, do not make any noise.”

Quickly, I took out my phone and texted Megg, Shai and Angi.

“Bree! What are you doing?!” Mrs. Corrian snapped at me.

“Calling the police, what? Do you want the intruder to stay here?!” I paused. “That’s what I thought.” I said, X-ing out the text. I dialed 911 and heard the beeps.

“Press 1 for emergency, press 2 to. . .” I pressed 1.

“What is your emergency?”

“There’s an intruder in Faribault Jr. High, please hurry!”

“Okay Miss, calm down, we’ll be there soon.”

I hung up. Everybody sat silently in the corner of our class looking anxious and nervous. I heard a fart noise from behind me. All the guys started cracking up. Mrs. Corrian glared at him.

“Jason, not the time to be doing that!” she whispered.

We didn’t know what to do. Everybody sat there waiting. We heard vicious knocking at the door. Chelsea stood up to see who it was and my teacher dragged her down. The glass broke. We saw a hand reach for the handle to open the door. We all got closer to each other, watching anxiously. A man’s voice rang through the room.

“Where the hell is everybody?! I know someone’s in here. I know it. I can SMELL fear. Here I come.” I started breathing heavily. I was very scared. I thought this was the end.

“Damnit!” he yelled, fidgeting with the door handle. The doorknob twisted and the door opened. He stepped in the room. Chelsea screamed. He had a black hoodie on and he was wearing baggy jeans. I couldn’t see his face because it was covered with a ski mask. He waltzed in the room and put a hand to his waist and pulled out a gun.

“Would anybody like to try and stop me? Because it’s not going to work. You can trust me on that. Well, see I have a gun, and all you have are what? Sling shots?” he said laughing, “Good luck with those.”

We all were very tense, nobody moved or talked. I don’t even think anybody was even breathing.

“Now that I’ve got your attention, everybody line up against the wall,” the room stayed quiet, “NOW! DO IT.”

We all got up slowly and walked along the wall. He stared at us blatantly.

“See, this is where I get to choose what I want, and who I want,” he announced with a devilish grin. Jason made a move to punch him and the man pistol-whipped him across the face, knocking him to the ground.

“See kids? That’s why you don’t do stupid things. It could get you hurt, or killed. Not that I care.” He paced back and forth in front of us keeping an eye on Jason. He pulled me and Corin up towards him and turned us both around facing the class. I felt something against my head. I shut my eyes tightly.

“This is where the plot thickens, what will he do? Will he let people go? Will he kill the hostages? Well, lucky for you, I have two of your fellow classmates at gunpoint and there’s nothing any of you can do.”

I opened my eyes and looked down at Jason. He had his hand by the man’s foot. He grabbed it tightly with both hands still bleeding. I heard a click coming from the gun.

“Don’t try anything, or I shoot the girls.” He threatened. I shut my eyes as I heard his fingers tugging on the trigger. I felt the man’s leg jolt at my leg. I shut my eyes as hard as I could.

“That’s it. I didn’t want to.” He said pulling the trigger. I opened my eyes and found myself on the couch sweating. I was crying too. I felt the tears on my cheeks. Breathing heavily, I got up and found that I was shaking. I went over and looked at the time. I had been sleeping for 20 minutes. I was late for class and I knew Megg, Shai and Angi would be totally pissed off. But I couldn’t believe that I had that dream. I was scared out of my mind. Still, I picked up my backpack and yelled up the stairs.

“MOM! I’m late for school! Hurry up! Can you take me?”

“Yes, I’ll be down in a second.”

My mom drove me to the school. I ran in the building and went to class. I had cleaned myself up on the way so nobody could tell how scared I was or that I was crying. I went to my seat and breathed in a sigh of relief. Second period came and I sat down in class. I heard an intruder alarm and my heart stopped.