Beautiful things - jaylor story (peace book 4)

Wondered where the best hiding spot would be

** friday april 25th 2036**

-ellie pov-

We pull up to the school and I'm really nervous. It's after school hours so there aren't other students here, but some of the kids that was shot last week are coming here to walk through the hallways. It's hard to imagine coming back to school at all after what happened, I don't know how I will handle stepping my foot there again.

"you okay Ellie?" my mom asks, and I shrug. I don't know if I can say anything right now, I just keep staring at the building in front of us. But we get out of the car when we see Alex and his mom coming towards us.

I'm still using the cane but with my free hand I wrap it around his waist. I would wrap it around his neck, but I know it hurts where he got shot. It's fine when we are in bed, I can wrap my arm around from the side where he wasn't shot, but when he is standing it gets more painful because I'm shorter than him, so it gets pulled down. Anyway, I enjoy feeling him wrap his free arm around me too.

"I don't want to do this" I whisper, and he kiss my cheek "me neither. But I will hold your hand and we will get through this" he whispers back to me. After exchanging a little peck on the lips, we head into the school hand on hand. Our parents are following close behind us too.

Walking through the big double doors entrance of the school makes me more nervous. The hallway is mostly empty except from some kids that are walking around too, some kids that got hurt.

My lip starts to tremble, I clench Alexs hand and stop. "I can't do this" I say, and tears are sliding down my face. There is an arm that wrap around my shoulders "you can do this Ellie. We are right here with you. There is no one here that can hurt you, it's perfectly safe. We are going to go walk through the school and then we are going to go get lunch together all of us afterwards just like we planned" my mom says and kiss my cheek.

When I look over at Alex he has tears welling in his eyes too, but we agree to keep walking. Some of the lockers are decorated, but it stings when I know that it's the people that didn't make it. On the floor there are stuffed animals and fake candles, as well as their locker being full of pictures and kind words. The 17 kids that died here that day or later in the hospital because of the damage.

There are also decorations on the lockers for us that did make it but got shot. Of the 35 kids that got shot 18 is alive today. That means that almost 50% of us died on that horrible Wednesday.

We reach my locker and stand to lock on it, actually Alex's locker is two rows left from mine so we can see both of them at the same time. There are pictures of me dancing, pictures that clearly my friends have hung there of Alex and me, as well as me with my friends. There are pictures of me winning a writing competition in school December which makes me grin.

On Alexs locker there are similar pictures and kind words which makes my heart melt. Someone, probably our friends, took the time to do this which means a lot. Out of the six of our closest friends, only Alex and I got shot. I haven't really talked to them about where they were or what they were doing on that day, but I know that they hid somewhere and didn't get hurt.

My breath is getting shallow, I'm starting to panic so I turn around and lean into my mom's arms as I start to sob. "Oh Ellie, you're okay" she says, and I feel several sets of hands on my back gently holding me. I really need my mom now, I need Alex too a lot, and my dad, but my mom and I have a special bond. Having her next to me is the only way I've let myself be separated from Alex, I need someone by my side.

Last night my dad sat with me for a while though, helped too. Kenzie was having a hard night with side effects of her chemo, so she was throwing up and whining for mom. It's hard to see her this sick, so of course I didn't put out a fight. My dad let me cuddle up against his chest and he held me close. We aren't as close as I am with my mom, but we are still closer than most teenagers are with their parent.