Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 21:39:46 -0500 From: Adam Irwin Subject: Grand Central High 7 Warning This chapter has some controversial topics in it. Anyone who reads past them is reading at their own risks of being exposed to the topic. - * - Grand Central High - Chapter 7 "You ready for class?" Christina asked Justin as she stood by his locker. "I don't know, think we need our books?" Justin asked, glancing up from his kneeling position crouched over the floor. "You better hurry up, we're gonna be late." Christina complained, hoping Justin would hurry. "Alright." Justin quit looking for his book and just shut his locker. With in the minute they were into their geometry class. Class had been going on for a good fourty five, fifty minutes and the bell that should have rung ten minutes ago was yet to ring. The class was growing anxious to leave, as the teacher continued to teach the lesson. They were all confused by it, having been given no reason as to the continuation of class, or the reason why the principal had stopped into their room twenty minutes earlier to speak to the teacher. "Mrs. Colp, may I go to the bathroom?" A small student from the back raised his hand, breaking the silence of note taking. "Um, no. Mr. Pearlman said no students are allowed out of the classrooms." Mrs. Colp replied, and went back to jotting information down on the board. "Why?" A young black student asked from his seat. "Don't start Sean. Mr. Pearlman did not give me a reason as to why you aren't allowed out of the classes." Mrs. Colp replied harshly to the student. "It's okay baby." Sitting next to Sean was a nice looking black girl, her ass far to big for her own body. Justin thought he heard some one call her Jenifer one day. "I really need to go to the bathroom." The same student looked like he was going to piss himself if he wasn't excused any time soon. "I can't allow you to leave the room." Mrs. Colp had a sincere look of apology on her face as she turned around to continue teaching. "Waddya think's going on?" Christina leaned over whispering to Justin. "I don't know, probably just some locker checks or something." Justin shrugged. "That'd be cool. I hope they check Kev's and Brian's. Those two have cigarettes in them all the time. I'd love to see them get busted." Christina giggled, louder then she had expected to. "Justin, Christina, something funny?" Mrs. Colp turned towards them, more anger directed at them then would be consider fair for just talking during class. "No." Christina shook her head. "Sorry." Justin half mumbled, half spoke out his apology to her. Mrs. Colp tried to smile off the incident, but it didn't go unnoticed by the class. "Mrs. Colp, seriously, what's going on?" Sean, the same student as before interrupted class to question the events. "Sean, I would appriciate it if you would drop the subject. Mr. Pearlman is busy with some things outside. He needs the hallways clear." Mrs. Colp was showing signs of frustration, sweat was beginning to form at the brow of her forehead, but she continued to teach the lesson. "Mrs. Colp?" Sean only asked the name, no question this time. "What is it Sean?" Mrs. Colp turned, to notice that Sean and his girlfriend were now standing, and Sean was brandishing a gun in his right hand. His other hand held onto Jenifer. "Sean?" Mrs. Colp gulped, looking around the class room at the students. "I wanna get out of the classroom." Sean requested and asked in the same time. Sean took the chance to aim the gun at Mrs. Colp and slowly walk towards her. The students all scampered under their desks, Christina and Justin were lucky enough to be in the back and close to each other. "Sean, please, put the gun down." Mrs. Colp requested gently in a soothing voice. "If I don't get out of here I know what's gonna happen. I know that I'll get arrested. So I wanna leave, I want you to take me. I'll put the gun away, just, just follow us out. Say we had an appointment, and you wanted to take us to our car so we wouldn't get in trouble for leaving class." Sean started to ramble up excuses, as he shook the gun in his hand. Meanwhile Jenifer stood idly by him, clutching his hand tightly. "I can't do that Sean, I can't let you out of the classroom." Mrs. Colp kept up her gentle voice, trying not to break from the pressure. "Yes you can! I know what this is about. I know why we're in the rooms, it's cuz he's looking for me." Sean insisted he knew the reason, and the fact that Mrs. Colp didn't deny it only further Sean's and the rest of the classes minds. "Sean, why don't you let everyone else leave?" "NO!" The yell caused a few screams from the classroom, and outside the hallways were empty, all but Mr. Pearlman and a few other teachers, who were aware of the screams. "Over there!" Mr. Pearlman screamed. Although he heard the noise first and picked out the room, his large weight allowed him to be the last to arrive at the door. None of the teachers however opened it, they only took the chance to look into the classroom to see that a student was holding the rest of the class at gun point. Meanwhile in the back of the classroom... "I'm scared Justin." Christina was whispering quietly, her voice barely audible to Justin. But he could sense the fear in it. "Me too Chrissy." Justin grabbed for her hand, and that's how they stayed silently watching. "You think we'll get out?' Christina asked, looking at Justin truthfully. "I hope, I hope." Justin replied. "Me too. You think the group's worried about us?" Christina tried to talk about anything. Justin didn't even want to speak, at that moment he just wanted to rush out of the classroom and run, but he knew talking would calm Christina down. "I would be. I'm sure they all are, but we have to be worried about each other. It's you and me in here Chrissy, not Josh, not Britney, not Joey, it's us." Justin replied to the question at hand. "We can get through this, if we worry for each other, then we don't have to worry alone." "I'm scared Justin. I mean, why is it us?" Christina tried to keep the conversation going. She could tell that Justin was scared too, that he didn't want to talk, but she needed to. It was her escape from the situation. "I don't know Chrissy, I'm just glad it isn't Josh." Justin replied honestly, thinking to Josh at that moment. "I bet he's worried about you Justin." Justin was caught off guard slightly. "He probably is." Justin frowned at the situation, frowned at the reality he was stuck in. ____________________________________________________________________________ "Mr. Lezner, could you please explain what is going?" Chris asked with a smile on his face. He was always the annoying one in the class, the one the teacher's hated. "No, I cannot explain what is going on Christopher." Mr. Lezner stared at him. Just then the classroom was interrupted as a teacher walked into the room. "Excuse me class." Mr. Lezner excused himself outside with the other teacher. "What is it?" "Mrs. Colp's class. Sean Combs, and his girlfriend Jenifer Lopez are holding the class and Mrs. Colp with a gun." The teacher informed Mr. Lezner. "Keep your students in the classroom. If they ask questions, tell them the truth. Tell them that they're safer, and by staying in the classroom that they are keeping their fellow classmates safer." "Alright." Mr. Lezner could say no more, as the teacher was off running down the hall to different rooms. "What was that about?" Chris asked with a happy face, smiling down at Mr. Lezner just to annoy him even farther. "Two of your fellow classmates, are holding another classroom hostage. One is wielding a gun. It's safer if you all stay in the room. For your own benefit, and that of your fellow students and teachers a like." Mr. Lezner replied to Chris. The comment even made Chris drop. "Um, what classroom is it?" A young girl asked, the first to speak after the information was given. "Mrs. Colp's." Mr Lezner replied. "I don't have much else to teach, so you all can talk, please just don't try and leave." Mr. Lezner sat down at his desk and took off his glasses, leaving the class to speak with themselve.s "Did he say Mrs. Colp's?" Joey asked, looking at Josh and Chris who were having a conversation. "Yeah." Josh replied, not really even thinking of the name. "Isn't Christina in there, ya know for geometry?" Joey asked again. "Yep." Josh replied, still not thinking and placing the pieces together. "Isn't Justin in Christina's geometry class?" Joey asked again. "Yep." Josh answered looking at Joey. At first he still didn't catch on, but soon his face dropped in retrospect of the situation. "Justin, Justin's in there." "I'm sure they'll be fine." Chris tried to help quickly, thinking of anything to say. "I mean, Justin and Christina are together, so at least neither of them are going through it alone." Chris continued not really knowing what to say. "Um, Josh are you okay?" Joey just looked at Josh. He had expected him to say something, to be upset, angry, scared, afraid, but he sat silent, facing forward with a blank look of emotion written on his face. "Yeah, yeah, I, uh, I don't know." Josh replied in a mumbled tone. "Seriously though Josh, I'm sure they're both fine." Joey tried to assure Josh, but in the same sense, he had to assure himself too. Because he was scared for his friends too, scared for Justin and Christina. And looking at Chris he could tell that Chris shared those feelings. But he couldn't read Josh, he knew he had to be afraid, he knew he had to be hoping for his boyfriend, but he couldn't tell. "So, let's talk about something else." Josh tried to change the subject. "Did you have fun this weekend?" Joey asked, almost getting a kick from Chris. "Yeah, yeah. Uh, I didn't get to see the movie at Justin's, I mean, we fell asleep. But, I'm not going to complain about that. Well, and my sister and brother found out about me and Justin." Josh seemed to be content with changing the subject. "When did they find out?" Joey asked, hoping that maybe it would keep all their minds off the situation that was going on classrooms away from them. "They walked in on us making out. In my bedroom, on Saturday morning. You guys had all left, and we were about to leave for his house, but we kinda started to make out. And Heather walked in on us." Josh explained. "What she do?" Chris asked. "She screamed." Josh laughed. "She called back Tyler too, and he got pissed. But I explained it to him, and surprisingly he took it nicely." "That's cool, maybe him and Justin will get along." Joey shrugged. "Yeah, if, if Justin gets to know him." Josh's face went blank again. "Josh, nothing's going to happen to him. He'll make it out of there fine." Chris reasoned. "Maybe, maybe he won't. I don't want to lose him already." Josh didn't raise his voice, his voice didn't even shake. Joey and Chris had known Josh for years, and after all of them, they still couldn't read Josh's emotions. They knew for one thing, he wasn't a cryer, and at the same time he never lost his cool, never rose out in anger. "You won't Josh, you won't." Chris looked at Joey, and back at Josh. That's what they were all hoping, but none of them really knew for sure. ____________________________________________________________________________ "Sean, I need you to tell me something. We've been like this for twenty minutes, if we don't work out something it will be too late." Mrs. Colp tried to reason with Sean for what seemed like the hundreth time in those last twenty minutes. "I don't know, I'm not sure yet. I just want to leave." Sean repeated his same request. "You just can't walk out Sean. You have to let some one go, let the students go, some one." Mrs. Colp repeated the same request she had given to his request. "Fine, fine, just one." Sean broke under the request. "Everyone stand up." No one did anything at the request, most likely because everyone was to scared to follow the order. "I said stand up!" Sean yelled the order this time. "Stand up." Mrs. Colp repeated in a gentle tone. To this the class did as they were told, all of them standing up cautiously. They watched as Sean looked them over, scanning out the crowd. He finally stopped. "You." Sean pointed his gun at Christina. "You can leave." Christina looked at Justin, and he smiled at her. She rushed out of the room quickly, looking back once, which was why she didn't even notice that she had run into Mr. Pearlman. "Where are you going?" Mr. Pearlman grabbed her. "Sean, he, he let me go." Christina explained. "Alright, alright. How many students are their in that classroom?" Mr. Pearlman asked. "About 20." Christina replied. "Sean, who's Sean?" Mr. Pearlman asked. "Sean Combs, him and his girlfriend, Jenifer Lopez. I don't know if he's holding her, if she's helping him." Christina explained. "Would you like to go home?" Mr. Pearlman asked, sensing her nervousness. "No, my parents aren't home. Could I go to another classroom?" Christina looked up at Mr. Pearlman with pleading eyes. "Yes, where?" "Um, Mr. Lezner's room, my friends are in there." Christina answered. "Fatima, escort her there." Christina turned and smiled, she knew Fatima was a nice lady. "Come on girl." ____________________________________________________________________________ "Christina!" Josh quickly ran across the room to her when she entered. Fatima explained to Mr. Lezner the situation and he left leaving Fatima to watch over the class. "How? I mean, is everything okay? Where's Justin?" Josh asked too many questions for Christina to answer. "I was let go, just me. Justin's still there." Christina didn't want to be the one to say it. She didn't want to be the one to tell Josh. "Oh." Josh turned and returned to his seat, Christina followed, taking a seat on the top of Chris's desk. "I'm glad you're okay Chrissy." Chris smiled and she leaned down to give him a hug. "Who's the, um, hostage taker?" For a lack of better words Chris chose hostage taker. "Sean Combs and his girlfriend." Christina replied. "You mean Puff, and JLo?" Joey asked comically looking up at Christina. He was startled when he was almost pushed out of his seat by Josh, and his neck was being strangled with Josh's hand. "It isn't funny Joe. My boyfriend's in there with that asshole, I don't care if it was a care bear doing it, it's still serious." By the time Josh even ended his words he was being pulled off of Joey by Fatima, Christina and Chris. Fatima walked back to the desk, and Josh was managed to be settled by Christina and Chris. "Dude, sorry. It's just I know Sean okay. It's not like I meant it as a joke. Justin's my friend, I'm just as scared as you are." Joey half apologized and half fought back with Josh. "No Joe, you aren't. He isn't your boyfriend, you don't love him." Josh shot back. "You've been dating him three days, and you say you love him." Joey kept up the fight. "I do Joe, I do. Just being with him is better then the sex I had with any of my old relationships." Josh and Joey didn't realize now that the whole class was listening to them. "I'm sorry Josh, alright. But we have an audience. Let's just drop it as we're both worried." Joey reasoned. "Alright." Josh didn't reply happily, but he stopped. ____________________________________________________________________________ "Everyone, everyone!" Ms. Simon interrupted the talking of her study hall for attention. "We are going to be heading to the auditorium. Principal Pearlman will be there, and he will explain what is going on." Britney and Nick followed the rest of the class down the hall, wondering why they were taking the long way instead of the quicker one. The reason being that no one was allowed to pass the classroom where Justin was, now by himself. ____________________________________________________________________________ "Por Favor!" The Spanish teacher called for attention to her students. "We have to go to the auditorium now." She used english to get the words across without repeating. Numerous groans were let out. Lance and Jessica who sit by each other just look at each other and shrug. "I guess we'll find out what this is all about then." Jessica mutters in a high pitched annoying voice. "I guess so." Lance replies. ____________________________________________________________________________ "Everyone shut up!" Mr. Pearlman's booming voice carried the room into silence. Josh, Chris, Joey and Christina could see Britney and Nick down the aisle. But they weren't allowed to converse yet.  "Alright, we have a situation right now. Two of your fellow students have a room held in hostage." The auditorium quickly became filled with worried words and assumptions passed through the aisles. "I said shut up! That's why you've been kept in your classrooms. Now you are going to stay here. The doors will be locked from the outside. And you will be allowed to talk, to move freely, as long as you behave." Mr. Pearlman left the podium, and after leaving the auditorium, they watched as the teachers turned in keys and locked the doors. Josh quickly walked down to Britney and Nick. Nick looked around the aisles frantically, searching for Lance. Joey, Christina and Chris followed down to them, and caught eye of Jessica and Lance searching for them. "OVER HERE." Joey screamed, to which Lance and Jessica hustled over. "Where's Justin?" Jessica asked as she came upon them. Lance, Nick and Britney looked at him too. "Like you care Jessica" Josh expressed his anger towards her. "Josh, I'm sorry I've been an ass for so many years, but I guess being Mrs. Popular next to you can do things like that to some one. But I seriously want to know where he is." Jessica replied. "He's in the classroom." Josh replied. "I'm sorry Josh, I didn't know." For the first time Jessica expressed her remorse. "It's okay Jess, you're right you didn't know." Josh replied, his voice growing down to a more gentle tone. "I'm sorry for flipping out at you." "That's okay." Jess replied. "But uh, Chrissy aren't you in his class?" "Yeah, I was. I was let go." Christina explained. "So?" Britney asked, hoping to change the subject, not even noticing that for once Lance was exchanging the silly couple like antics that Lance had been showing him for so long. BANG! BANG! ____________________________________________________________________________ TBC.... I hope this chapter didn't offend anyone. I know that the topic of school hostage situations is a risque area to dwell into, but I thought it would make a good storyline. So I really am sorry if it hurts anyone or offends any one who had to go through the situation or knows some one that did. The next chapter will let you find out where the gun shots came from. Is anyone hurt? Is Justin hurt? Find out next time.