Dead Bodies in the School Building
Got to school today at 6:57, so there was only a very small group of people there waiting outside, for we were the early birds. The librarian, who normally opens the door to let the students get in was unlocking the doors and about to let us in when the mean lady with short curly hair who likes to yell at everyone (the lady yells... not her hair. Her hair doesn't yell) Said sternly: "No, you can't come in here!" The fat janitor man happened to be over next to the librarian too. The mean lady turned to him and said "Have you smelled this building?"
She let him in and showed him around. We sat outside in the cold, group of students and teachers growing gradually as cars dropped off their loads of back-pack heavy children.
All of us were wondering what it could be, because they weren't telling us anything - most likely because they didn't know yet themselves. A classmate of mine, Marie, said she had smelled it when the librarian lady opened the door, and it did smell pretty bad. For the logical sense, we guessed there was either a gas leak or a sewage leak. For the illogical side, at least for me, I guessed/hoped there would be a dead body in the school. You know, some serial killer had broken in undetected in the middle of the night and decided to place the rotting, dead corpse of their victim in our school to be found the next morning - the usual. That way, not only would we all have to go home, we'd also need grief couseling and be out of school for the rest of the week. Chyaa! 'Course it's not so good for the person who was killed. Nor, I suppose, their family. Yeah, that part wouldn't be so good.
A little bit later, after contemplating all the wonderful and exciting possibilities, the janitor man came out of the building and said: "We've got a hole!" And then scurried off. Not quite sure what that meant, but a few minutes later he came back with a bucket. Also not quite sure what a bucket would do, but we figured it was a sewage leak or something.
Nothing happened for a little bit. I studied for my english quiz because I figured that it would be too good to be true if they cancelled all classes. Inbetween looking at my English notes we entertained ourselves by watching people try to open the doors, even though the entire sophomore and freshman class was sitting right outside it.
At the time the first bell was supposed to ring, they told us to evacuate to the gym. As we were leaving, I heard fire engines down the street and figured they were coming to our school. We all went into the gym and sat on our butts in our home rooms. Some people were still doing homework and studying because, like me, they figured we were all going to start classes soon, just relocated to different areas on campus for the ones in the "intoxicated" building. I checked the clock, seeing how far into first period it would be, and realized it wasn't working. Come to think of it, a bell hadn't wrung either.
They took role and we hung out in the gym for a while, until we were instructed to go to out to Pardini Park, which is basically just a big hunk of grass on school campus. When we were going out there, we saw two cool firetrucks and some firemen in cool suits walkin' around. Neato, dawg. We stood out on the lawn for about ten minutes, and I asked my homeroom teacher if I could go to the bathroom. She said she'd prefer it if I went to the bathroom at the other side of campus from the freaky smelly building, so Julia and I started heading over there, but the intimidating attendance lady who is hard to understand when she talks said I couldn't go to the bathroom. It sucked mucho.
Eventually they had us move to our "Big Sisters'" homerooms (Big sisters are like Buddies with the upper classmen. Frosh -->Juniors; Soph --> Seniors) in the other building where classes were held. We all went in their and Julia and Sarah and I started bouncing around because this was muy cool. We sat on the floor and listened to music and ate Chex mix while Mrs. Evashenk put on the movie "Dodgeball," for us to watch. I noticed that the clock in the room we were in was also not working, so there was most likely a problem with some of the electricity. Only thing was, lights and TVs worked.
The time we remained in the room got longer, until I started to stop worrying about if I got to miss English or not, and started hoping this lasted until history class. Things were looking up in that aspect, at the time being. They herded us back to the gym to buy food from the kitchen if we wanted, or to snack on something we brought. We had to sit in our homerooms again - or at least that's what they told us, because I didn't see too much of the point since they weren't really taking role anyway. So we sat there, kind of confused as to why we were all in the gym to eat stuff, when they could have just sent people over to get food in the kitchen and then bring it back to Donelly, because people are allowed to eat in that building.
A little bit later the new principal lady who's name I don't remember got up and said some stuff. She said there was a strange problem that happened with the computer system over night, and it created a really bad smell and had all sorts of other 'symptoms. "When you go home tonight to talk to your parents about what was happening today, you need to remember these things. Nothing was dangerous, nothing was toxic, the school took extra precautions." Then she tried to get us to respond to some strange statement about Living the Goodness 'All the time' three times, but none of us really knew what she was talking about the first time, so we kinda just sat there and looked like dumbasses for a bit. I began to worry that we were going to start classes again, and I hoped that history time was over. But then Mr. Brocco started talking about how all after school stuff was cancelled. The whole gym erupted in cheers. Huzzah! No rehearsal! There was also to be a staff meeting in a corner of the gym or something. So we sat there for a bit until the teachers wandered back through the crowds. Danielle asked Mr. McCaw when he passed by if we got to go home.
"Possibly," he said. I hadn't expected that answer, so I was feelin' happy. "The phones and the computers aren't working, so we ha-"
"Ooh so if we have an emergency we can't call anybody!"
"Right."
I was excited. This was exciting. We were excited. NO history!
So, we kept our hopes up. Danielle figured that a good reason too would be 'what if we all ganged up on the teachers or something? Then no one could call for help! We should petition outside with signs that say: "Save the teachers! Send us home!"'
They ushered us back out of the gym and into our previous homerooms, where we all sat down on the floor and Mrs. Evashenk began writing instructions on the board. Watching eagerly as her writing progressed, twas time to bounce up and down when she wrote about calling a parent to either go home or stay at school. We were also supposed to check the school website that evening to see if school would be in session tomorrow. The group of seniors in our room went to their homeroom teacher in alphabetical order, and our group of sophomores went to Ms. Evashenk in alphabetical order. When it was my turn, I had to call a few times until Mom picked up, because she had been doing exercise routine and was listening to music. She said she'd pick me up at eleven thirty, which was about an hour from then. So I waited, and people slowly began to fade away to their homes until only a few were left in the classroom. Unfortunately in that time however, the sound of a bell resounded throughout the school, indicating the end of a class. The clock also began to tick. Damn.
They moved the remaining students to the Student Life Center, or the "SLC" where there are a bunch of vending machines, etc., and kept everyone on a master list to check out with people once your parent called yours or a teacher's cell phone number to say it was time for you to go home.
My mom finally came, so I went out to the car and shoved my huge pack of unpacked school stuff in the back seat. Then we drove over to Mema's and got to go out to Chevy's and eat lunch. Yay! I was so happy to have the day with no classes. They had been piling us up with so much homework lately that it was the biggest relief to know that we got a bit of a break.
When we checked the webiste that night though, in nice big red letter it exclaimed: "School will be in session Thursday, 9/15"
Yeah, that part sucked. Guess you can't win 'em all, though.

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