The Whisper Seekers

Heathens

Lily ducks quickly behind Derek. The bullet fires straight at her and then suddenly hits the lockers above her head. The impact makes a deafening bang again and I let out a scream. Ian looks at his gun and we both know that bullet should have hit Lily square in the chest. Not feet above her head. Lily is choking out sobs now and Derek is clutching her against his chest as she shakes. I still have my hands on the gun and I aim it toward Ian.

"Don't make me shoot you, Ian. I will if you pull that trigger again. Please don't!" I plead and Elijah points his gun back at me.

"Shut up bitch!" He shrieks out in the chaos right before he pulls his trigger. But once again, the bullet that should have hit me in the leg hits a foot to my left, making a small hole in the wall. He fires at me again but the bullet finds another place in the wall instead of me. I'm terrified of pulling the trigger, but I can't continue to have bullets whiz all over the locker room.

"What the hell is going on with these damn things!" Ian yells.

Before either of us can say anything, I hear the locker room door burst open. We can hear the sound of the door being blasted off its hinges and I crouch down lowering the gun I still have in my hands. Another loud shot is fired as Mike, Lily and Aaron all fall to the floor. A blood-curdling scream fills the air and I see blood pooling onto the floor, spreading quickly as it mixes in with the water. At first, I can't tell who it's coming from but then I see a pool of blood forming under Mike's leg.

Lily is bawling, barely able to breathe and they both start frantically putting pressure on his leg. The water from the pipes is quickly spreading the blood all over the locker room floor. Three swat team members pile into the locker room and one quickly tackles Ian to the ground. Marissa quickly throws her hands up while Elijah keeps his gun in one hand but kneels to the ground. I see Mr. Anderson scoot around the corner followed by a now visible Liam. He runs over to me and I fall apart in his arms.

More police officers crowd the small space and behind my tears, I watch them take Ian, Marissa and Elijah away in handcuffs. Officers look over to Liam wondering how the hell he followed them in but because he's consoling a hysterical girl, they don't ask him any questions yet.

Paramedics soon replace some of the officers and they hoist Mike onto a stretcher. Lily's lower half is covered in Mike's blood and she follows the EMTs out of the locker room, clearly still in shock.

A police officer asks me how I am doing, but I can't even choke out a response. Liam pushes me through the officers and into the school hallway to get some air once we are cleared to leave the locker room. I'm soaked from the water that was spraying above our heads and my white tennis shoes are drenched as well. I'm shivering from both the cold and my emotions, so Liam grabs a thick gray blanket from one of the EMTs to cover me with. There is police tape blocking off sections of the hallway and I can see students standing on the other side, being pushed out of the building. Liam is the only student not associated with the locker room shoot-out inside the tape because I eventually screamed at an officer that I was traumatized and he was taking the one person calming me down away. They left Liam alone after that. 

Mr. Anderson spots me leaning against the wall next to Liam and leads an officer over to me. Mr. Anderson gently asks if I can answer a few questions and I nod before he switches places with the officer.

"Ms. Adler, I'm Officer Kensington. I would like to get an official statement from you about what the hell happened in there," he says with a rough gravelly voice. I try not to stare at the serious mustache that matches his bushy eyebrows and I'm intimidated by the stern officer. I wish one of the younger, gentler ones would have been assigned to me.

Officer Kensington looks to Liam, implying he should skedaddle, but I hold Liam's hand against me as I tell him, "I'll only talk if he stays here next to me."

Kensington doesn't argue and I head towards a cafeteria table to sit down. I replay everything from Mr. Anderson's office to the last shot in the locker room. Kensington jots everything down and asks minimal questions during my story. When I'm finished, he looks over his notes and flips to a blank page.

"So you guys basically bullied and humiliated this kid and he decided to get his revenge. Why Marissa and Elijah though? This had nothing to do with them."

Liam is the one that answers this time.

"Elijah and Ian are dating, Sir. Marissa is another victim of Mike, Derek and Aaron's bullying. They say she looks like a boy, but with more offensive language."

Liam never told me any of this. I hadn't figured out the relation. It's cruel, but I have heard Lily and Harper talk about Marissa. Marissa hardly comes across as feminine. She has bad acne and wears oversized clothes with dark greasy hair. Everyone knows when Marissa is around because she leaves a foul odor behind from bad hygiene and not using deodorant. A ton of mean names and comments are said about her, to her face and behind her back.

"Now Liam, how do you play into this? I am aware you got Mr. Anderson, but how did you know what was happening?"

"To be honest, I knew Ellie had been freaked from what she overheard Ian talking about yesterday- she had been on edge about him," he says quickly glancing over to me. "So when I came late to class, I happened to be in the hallway when I saw Mike and Aaron walking toward the locker room with Ian behind them. Ian and I are in the same first period, so I knew he wasn't walking into the right hallway. That and all of them looked freaked out. I moved behind an open door and through the cracks, I saw them go into the locker room. Which, I knew was even weirder seeing gym periods don't start until after first period and they were going into the girl's room. I was about to come out from behind the door when I saw Lily coming down the hallway crying. Elijah was holding onto her arm and he aggressively pushed her into the same locker room. I heard her yell for help before the door closed. That's when I moved from behind the door and sprinted to Mr. Anderson. Marissa must have taken Ellie and Derek into the locker room while I was running for help."

Kensington is still writing down his notes and Liam gives my hand a squeeze. From the windows, I can see multiple police cars with their lights flashing and a fire truck parked behind them. Lily is standing outside in front of an ambulance also swaddled in a large gray blanket talking to an EMT. The entire student body has now been evacuated from within the school but most are still standing outside in the parking lot watching from afar. I'm sure this has been splashed all over the news already and I haven't even spoken with my mother yet, 

Kensington stops writing and looks at me again, "You know, according to Mr. Anderson, everyone involved in the locker room has had some sort of brush with trouble this year." He points to my black eye and I look away from him, "Both you and Liam here have been involved in fights on school property. Derek Atwater was also suspended for fighting and Mike Fincher and Aaron Lorne were cited for underage drinking at a party a few weeks ago. From the sounds of all this, I hope you've all learned something. I was also told you've been accepted into Stanford, Pepperdine, and a few other big-league schools and this may jeopardize all of that. Maybe you need to stop spending time together and start focusing on your academics."

I bite my lip in embarrassment and to him, we probably all do seem like a bunch of heathens. 

"Trust me, Sir. I learned a lot about myself in that locker room. There's a lot about me that needs to change." 

I lean my head against Liam's shoulder and watch as someone breaks through the crowd of students outside. I see a tall blonde woman burst through multiple police officers' grips and walk briskly inside the school. When she opens the front doors, I immediately recognize my mother and leap up to run over to her. She quickly envelops me and I take in her sweet flowery scent. She lets go of me to run over to Liam and flings her arms around him.

"I heard you were the one that got help. Thank you so much for helping Ellie. Thank you so much."

She is on the verge of tears but she manages to control herself in front of the officers. Kensington finally releases us and we make our way out of the building. People are shouting out to us but my mom rushes us into her parked Range Rover. I want to talk to Lily but she's no longer standing in front of the ambulance. Liam and I crawl into the safety of my mother's vehicle and she quickly drives us away from school.