The Escape From School
Relief flooded my brain as the deafening bell rang. I picked up my black Jansport backpack and left the class I dreaded. As I was walking through the crowded corridor, I saw HIM, the mysterious man who keeps popping up wherever I go, outside in front of the glass doors. Ignoring all the “Hey Brooklyn’s” and the “What’s up’s”, I rushed into the dirty street. Looking around I saw HIM turn a corner that led to a dead end, without having a second thought I ran as fast as I could in his direction. When I reached the dark alley he was nowhere to be seen. I walked to the shaggy brick building I called home and headed up the metal stairs to the front door. It slowly creaked open and the smell of alcohol filled my nostrils burning my nose hair. I carefully dodged the many beer bottles scattered across the wooden floor and my unconscious dad with his tongue lolling out, a half-empty bottle firmly grasped in his hand. Disgusted, I ran to my room and fell on my soft bed. My comforter feels like the hugs from my mom, whom I miss dearly. Who is he and why is he following me? I need to know! Especially since I don’t know him. I see him everywhere: parties, hover hockey games, the mall, and school. What does he want from me? Should I tell the police.? He probably isn’t following me though. It’s most likely a coincidence. I don’t know what to do. A sudden ding from my phone interrupted my thoughts. My best friend Julie texted me.
Wanna go to Micheal’s party tonight? It’s at 6
sure. what are you gonna wear?
Idk. I wanna match
Ya. I’ll wear my jeans shorts and a grey baggy shirt
K. cya there
Bye
I hastily took a hot shower and got into my very uncomfortable clothes. When did those shorts get so tight? It took me an hour to blow dry, style my long blonde hair, and do my makeup. My phone started to ring loudly
“Hello,” my friend said, “I’ll be at your house in 2 minutes” to which I responded with a simple “k”
I grabbed my emergency bag and headed out the door to find Julie’s bright red Tesla waiting. Waving, I ran up to the car, opened the door, and sat in the cool leather seats.
“Let’s go?” she asked
“Let’s go,” I said laughing
The whole car ride went by listening to Olivia Rodrigo’s hits in the 20s. Jules randomly started singing, “I wanna get him back” to which I continued, “I wanna make him really jealous wanna make real sad” at the top of our lungs. The 20s have the best music! The music these days is just screeches, I don’t get how people like it. Once that was finished, we walked to Micheal’s front door, where he welcomed us inside. The loud disco music filled my ears and the colorful lights partially blinded my vision. There were people here and there, some playing truth or dare and card games. I looked around for my girls and finally found them dancing along to the music. They waved and ushered Jules and me towards them. Excited, we ran to them and said, “Hey, girls!”
“Hi Brook!” they replied
“LETS PARTY!!!!!!!!!!” I yelled and started dancing to which they whooped and danced along.
After a couple of hours of dancing, two friends and I offered to bring everyone food. We dodged many befuddled dancers to reach the food table. It was filled with a variety of chips, drinks, and sandwiches. We grabbed a couple of each on plates and took them back to our friends who enjoyed eating them. Just as we were finished eating, I saw the mysterious man watching me. What was he doing here? Now I know that he’s following me. It can’t be a coincidence. When he noticed I was looking right back, he made a run for it. Dropping everything in my hands I ran after him out into the cool, night. I can’t let him escape again. I was panting by the time we reached the eerie woods and couldn’t find him anywhere in sight. Looking around, I saw a silhouette of a tall person wearing a baggy shirt like the one the mysterious man was wearing. That might be him. I can finally interrogate him about why he was following me. The sleepless nights of thinking about him will finally end. Happiness flooded my body while I ran towards the figure which was running towards me as well. Finally, I will know the answer to one of my many wonders. Disappointment struck like lightning when I saw who it truly was… Cara Blaze. My arch nemesis, we compete against each other in everything: popularity, likability, friends, everything.
“What are you doing here?” I holler at her
“I could ask you the same thing,” she yelled back
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the party?” I said while walking towards her
“So are you. Now quit asking me questions, I’ve got to do something”
“What?”
“None of your business.”
“If you wont tell so be it”
“Fine, I’ll tell you. There’s this creepy guy following me everywhere and I saw him at the party and decided to track him down so I can find out why he’s following me.” Cara said proudly
“I’m pretty sure that he was following me. Who would follow you?” I said unsure
“A normal person. I don’t see him following you anyway.” she snapped back
“Probably because you’re blind” I retorted
“If-” Cara began to say but a black bag was put over her head by a masked man.
She’s getting kidnapped. That means I do not have to deal with her for the rest of my life. I’m so ha- A cloth bag was put over my head suffocating me. Thrashing and turning, I kicked the person holding me in his knees. He let out a howl of pain and fell backward. The joy of escaping only lasted a minute before another pair of hands clasped around my waist, another tying my hands and feet together. They picked me up and put me in some sort of car. I can hear Cara’s muffled screams beside me. At least I’m not doing this alone. Now I have to figure out a way to escape. First, let me nap so I can think with my battery full. I slowly began to relax my body and thoughts. 100…99…98…97….
The thud of a door woke me up with a start. The bright light blinded my eyes. The mask was off and my hands and feet were untied. Finally! But why did they take them off? Massaging my sore wrists, I looked to see what Cara was up to. She was wide awake talking cheerily to the man in the chair in front of us like he never kidnapped her. The man was muscular with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. He spotted me and said “You’re finally awake sleepyhead. It’s 10 am.” while laughing.
“Who are you and what are you going to do with me?”
“I’m Charles. A year 5, you guys are my first kidnap.” he said, “it’s the new year after all”
“What?” I said in confusion, “explain.”
“This is a school called Crimson Blades Academy which is a school for assassins. They kidnap young teens like you and teach you to become assassins to overthrow the government. They only pick the ones they think are worthy. I was sent to follow you guys because you seemed fit. Both of you have nothing to lose, you’re not particularly close with your family or friends. I thought you guys deserved to start over and make close connections with the people at the school. I made my greatest relationships here.” he said casually
I stared at him in disbelief. What in the world! Did he just say that he stalked me and figured out the state of my relationship with my family? How can he just kidnap me and expect me to take it lightly? I don’t want to stay here but training to be an assassin sounds cool.
After a long awkward pause, Charles said, “Since both of you are up, how about we get your dorm assignment and schedule.” We nodded.
I looked around the room taking in the dark grey walls with glossy black decorations, and the ebony shelves filled with rare black roses. Everything in the room was a sort of black or gray. I slowly got out of bed and followed Charles through the corridors to the main office.
The angelic lady sitting behind the desk smiled at us and said, “Hello, you guys must be Brooklyn and Cara. I’m Angela, I’ll tell you everything about this school. You’ll be in one class with fellow year 1s and all the teachers will come to that classroom to teach. Sometimes you will go outside to practice shooting on our vast grounds. Physical Training starts at 6 am and ends at 8 am. Then you will proceed to your classes until 12, your lunchtime which lasts for an hour, then you will once again go to class until 4 and the rest of the evening is your free time. Lights out at 10 and no boys are allowed in your dorms. Here are your dorm assignments.” She handed both of us a sheet of paper.
Name: Brooklyn Gonzales Year:1
Dorm: Nightshade.
Bunk: 13.
Classroom: 45.
Homeroom Teacher/ Dorm Supervisor: Ms. Millicent
Weapons: Mr. Harvey
Kidnap Tactics: Ms. Draco
Physical Education: Mr. Clive
“Brook, show me your schedule. I want to see what classes we have together.” Cara asked me.
I reluctantly gave her my piece of paper. She screamed in horror.
“What?”
“WE HAVE THE EXACT SAME THING!” she screamed, “NO! EVEN OUR BUNKS ARE RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER!”
“NO! I DON’T WANT TO HAVE CLASSES WITH YOU!” I wailed, “Can I please change my schedule?”
“No, I’m sorry, unfortunately, I cannot, it’s against the school rules,” Cara said in an apologetic tone.
Cara and I grumbled under our breath and shot each other a nasty look.
“I’ll give you guys a tour. Follow me.”
Both of us nodded and reluctantly began to follow her. We walked into a corridor filled with paintings of the world’s most famous assassins who went to this school. The thing that intrigued me the most was the signature on all the paintings was the same. How? These look like they date back several hundred years. I spotted a map, it was yellow and frayed in the corners. Crimson Blades Emergency ER. What does that mean?
I began to ask her but she interrupted me to say, “This is Nightshade. Your dorms,” the room looked like something out of a book. A dozen leather armchairs around round ebony tables. And a shelf filled with the coziest blankets right next to the fireplace. The walls were lined up with a metal bunk bed that had three tiers, each with a name tag. Anna the one on the top said. Angela beckoned us to a bunk somewhere in the middle and pointed to the top and middle bunk, “these will be your bunks.” I nodded.
“Now I’ll show you the cafeteria and your classroom. Follow me.” We followed her through the hallway filled with paintings and took a right to another corridor, this one had a vareity of deadly weapons including knives, axes, guns, and nunchucks hanged on the walls like a display. We walked along the corridor for another 5 minutes until we reached a room, Class 45, the small plaque on the door said. Angela opened the door to reveal hundreds of seats in rows and a large projector. It looked like a movie theatre from the 20’s. It sucks they discontinued movie theatres in 2029.
“You will come to this class every weekday after physical training,” she explained, “and you will stay here for the rest of the day. Different teachers will come here so you don’t have to move. This place is ancient so many secret passages lead out if there’s an emergency. That’s a fact that not many people know.“ she winked
“Can we go see the cafeteria and learn about the food?” I asked politely.
She nodded. We walked for about 7 minutes until we reached the main hallway. Angela took a right and went into a room filled with long ebony tables. There were many stations, each had a different type of food: sushi, Indian, Salads, Thai, and Italian. My mouth watered at the sight of all of the different food. This is going to be the best school ever! I love all of these cuisines.
“Now let’s get to your dorms so you can make some friends.“
“OK,” we both said simultaneously.
We followed her back to Nightshade where we found a group of girls chatting.
“Hi, girls! Can you hang out with these two? They’re new here.”
“Ya sure! You’re Brooklyn, aren’t you?”
“Ya” I replied
“We’ve heard of you. Almost caught Charles didn’t you? That was awesome, Charles is one of the best year 5s, the fact that you almost caught him shows that you’re observant. You’ll make the perfect assassin. Also, you’ll have no problem fitting in, you’re pretty, smart, and popular, even before you joined.”
“Thank you”
“I’m Jessica by the way, this is Ashley, Kylie, Lara, and Natasha,” she said pointing to the other girls. Ashley had short brown hair, a sharp jawline, and large blue eyes. Kylie was the one with long jet-black hair with wispy bangs. She also had a little button nose and pink plump lips. Lara on the other hand had bright brown eyes, shoulder-length blonde hair, and freckles on her slim nose. Natasha had a bold look, she seemed like a bad girl, like the one who always breaks the rules. Her chin-length black hair and nose piercing are the main reason she gives off that vibe.
“Hi guys,” I said shyly,
“We’re so excited to hang out with you! You’re the only one from New York. So you have to tell us all about it,” Lara said cheerfully
I enthusiastically told them all about my life in New York. About my school, friends, the different parties I went to every weekend. They were most interested in knowing how I got kidnapped. I had to recite the story 20 times, it was getting quite annoying. After their intense interrogation, we began to talk about where they used to live and their life before Crimson Blades and went to bed.
“WAKE UP!” Ms. Millecent shrieked.
I bolted upright in shock. “What’s going on?” I asked still terrified from the shock she inflicted on me.
“It’s time to train,” she told me, “get ready”
I hastily grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and changed into them, ran into the bathroom, and brushed my teeth. Jess, the girls and I went outside to the field where Mr. Clive was waiting for us.
“Hello Class! This year will be fun especially since it’s your first one,” Mr. Clive said smiling, “the greatest friends you make are in your first year. Remember that. Now take five laps around the track”
All of us sleepily nodded and began to jog. I tagged along with Jess and the girls who were busy talking about different makeup looks. I miss Jules so much. She probably is worried sick about me. What’ll happen to my little sister, Britney? I must take care of her even though I’m enjoying it here. She’s more important. Wait. Angela said there were secret passages that led outside. Maybe I can …escape. But Cara will notice something’s up. We have all of our classes together and her bunk is right below mine. I can’t do anything without her catching me. She will tell on me, no question. That’s what enemies are for I guess. Getting me in trouble… I’ll still try though. Think Brook! How do I escape? Wait! I saw a map in the hallway of portraits. It said……. Crimson Blades Emergency ER. What does ER stand for? Emergency Room? I don’t know what it stands for.
“Earth to Brooklyn, so how do u like it here?” Jess said
“It’s fun, we get an hour of lunch. In my old school, we only got 30 minutes.”
“Well we learn more so our lunch is proportional to the amount of work we do,” Ashley said
“Ya, that makes sense and the work here is way harder than the work at home”
“This is your home now Brooklyn,” Jess said seriously, “you can’t go back.”
Shivers ran through my spine, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. The way she said it was bone-chillingly creepy. Like she knew what I wanted to do.
“Are you okay?” she asked me, “you look like something’s up”
“I’m fine.”
“Ok, just wondering,”
The bell interrupted our unpleasant conversation. I rushed to the dorms, quickly changed into my regular clothes, grabbed my backpack, and headed for breakfast. The colorful cereal crunched in my mouth while the chatter began to get louder.
“Hi! Can I sit here?” a boy about my age asked. He has bright green eyes and short blonde hair. Kind of muscular and pretty tall.
“Ya sure!” I exclaimed, “I’m Brooklyn, and you?”
“My name’s Jake, so are you new here?”
“Ya, I just came here yesterday,”
“Cool. What class do you have next?”
“Homeroom with Ms. Millicent,” I said grumpily. Natasha told me she was the worst teacher at this school.
“Same! Do you maybe want to go together?” he asked confidently.
“Of course!”
The bell rang, and we both grabbed our backpacks and headed to Homeroom where we saw Ms. Millecent, a sinister-looking lady, sitting at her dark ebony desk. We headed toward the back of the class and sat next to each other. A couple of minutes later, Cara walked in alone, she gave us a look full of loathing and sat down in front of us.
“Welcome to Homeroom. This is a time to finish any homework. The only rule is to be quiet.”
“Sure we’ll see about that,” Jake whispered to me.
The rest of the class was uninteresting. I would’ve much rather stare at a blank TV for an hour. Finally, this class ended and Kidnap Tactics started with Ms. Draco, with her white blonde hair tied back in a loose bun, a pleasant expression on her face, and her pastel pink cardigan with jeans looking awesome. It started off boring but as we progressed into the lesson, it became more and more interesting. The best part was that this was only the beginning, I wonder how interesting the other lessons will be when we start learning. Next up, we had Weapons with Mr. Harvey a tall man with short brown hair and a thick mustache. This was the best class yet! He brought different weapons like guns, knives, bows and arrows, and more. We got to try them out in the field and learn the history of each of them. I hurried to the dorm and plopped on my soft bed.
Now I need to figure out what ER stands for. The E can’t stand for emergency because Emergency Emergency R doesn’t make sense. Didn’t Angela say that there were secret passageways that lead out of the school? What if ER stands for Escape Routes? That makes sense because the secret passageways are routes to help everyone get out of the school in case of an emergency. I need to try to find the map and copy it down because it’ll get suspicious if the map is missing. I check the time, 8:00 PM. Lights off isn’t until 10, so maybe… I could sneak out and copy the map down.
So slowly, I started to change back into my usual clothes and headed downstairs where I found many people laughing and talking. Making sure no one spots me, I slipped away. The corridors looked as dark and creepy as ever. As I reached the end of the corridor, I peeked over to see if there was anyone in the corridor and went right to the hallway of portraits. The dead eyes of all the paintings stared at me blanky. I finally found the map and carefully began drawing it hoping to not mess it up. When I was about halfway through, I heard footsteps heading in my direction. My heart racing, I looked around frantically to see if any teacher was coming. Luckily the dark shadow approaching me looks like a student. I raised my flashlight to find Cara coming towards me.
“What are you doing here?” we both asked each other simultaneously.
“Nothing,” we both answered again
“Actually, I’m going back to the dorm,” I said and bolted out of there.
That was close. What was she doing there? Maybe she wanted to escape too. She also has a little Caleb to take care of especially with her mom working 2 full-time jobs to barely scrape by. Should I talk to her about this? We’ve always been really similar, so we must have similar thoughts too. I’ll talk to her tommorow at breakfast or PE. I went to bed. All my thoughts disappearing slowly.
Ms. Millecent woke us up with the same loud shriek which startled me once again. How do people live with this? I groggily got out of bed and changed into my PE clothes. Jake tapped my back and asked me if I wanted to jog with him. Gladly, I said yes. We went to the field while talking about how awesome Taylor Swift is.
“Nice to meet you, where you been,” we started singing together and burst into laughter. I saw Cara walking by herself with her head down.
“I’ve got to talk to her for a sec, I’ll catch up with you,” I told Jake
“Hey, Cara,” I shouted while running up to her.
“I know what you’re going to say, I’ve been thinking that too,” she said
“What?”
“You know, wanting to escape from here, I know you want to do it too,”
I nodded, “so do you want to give each other the information we have and do it together?”
“Ya of course.”
“I’ll talk to you at the dorm after classes, I told Jake I’d hang out with him during breakfast and lunch.”
I went back to walking with Jake. Finally, another person who wants to escape with me. Two brains are better than one. I already have one half of the map, we can go and copy it down today. I miss Britney so much!
The rest of the day went by pretty quick. Every lesson was fun, except homeroom of course.
“Brook! HI!” Cara exclaimed while coming towards the black leather chair I was sitting in, “You wanna work together to do it?”
“Ya let’s go upstairs to bed. No one will get suspicious,”
We both walked upstairs. Just like expected, it was deserted. I brought out my notes while she brought out hers. Her drawing was intricate, it looked like she put a lot of effort into it with her neat handwriting labeling all of the corridors and classrooms. Wait, she drew the other half of the school. This just proves that we’re meant to do this together. Two halves of a whole. I tell her that to which she shrieks in delight. I quickly finished the map. Happiness flooded my body, I was finally going to go home.
The next morning, I started hanging out with Cara more. We were making plans every time we got the chance, both of us thrilled to get out of this place.
“How are we going to do this?” she asked me at breakfast
“Let’s go at 8:00 or 9:00, right before Lights Out so even if we get caught we won’t be in as much trouble as we would if we were caught after Lights Out.” I whispered.
She nodded and asked, “But when though?”
“I don’t know yet but first we should create a schedule. You know like when we’ll start and what route we’ll take. Let’s work on that tonight at 7:00.”
“Okay”
I impatiently waited for the long tiresome day to end. Even though the lessons were interesting, I longed to go talk to Cara about escaping. She’s the only one who truly understands. The only one I can trust with this. I ambled to the dorm at 7 where I found Cara waiting for me on the chair next to my bed with all the notes we made the day before.
“So the day before we go, let’s get extra food from dinner and pack it in our backpack with some extra clothes.” she said, “I’ll get food and you get water and snacks.”
“Okay, now lets figure out the route we’ll take to get to one of the passages without getting caught” I said while taking the map and a pencil to jot down the times and routes we’ll take.
“Ya, it says one of the passageways are at the end of the weapons corridor. Let’s take that one because the other ones are in the cafeteria and west wing. It’ll look really suspicious because there are a lot of people in the cafeteria so someone will spot us and the west wing is on the opposite side of the school, so we shouldn’t be there.” Cara said in one breath.
“I never thought you were this smart.” I laughed.
“You’re mean!” she said jokingly and we guffawed
“Now back to work! I drew the path we’ll take but when will we do it though?”
“Let’s do it tomorrow.”
“Yes. I’ll pack our stuff up” I told her, rummaging for my clothes and stuffing it into my backpack, “you get the food tomorrow.”
“Okay, let’s go to bed now. We have a long day tomorrow.”
Just like she said last night, today was really long. Every class was as monotonous as ever. Jake wasn’t talking a lot too either. He was too busy working and paying attention. I thought he was the type of guy who doesn’t study and prefers to talk. Instead, he’s the complete opposite. I skipped all the way to the dorm in delight.
“I got food!” Cara howled
“Let’s go”
We grabbed all of our stuff and sprinted to the weapons passage. It was as deserted as my annoying sister’s birthday party. No one in sight. Perfect! That’s what I wanted. We found the large wooden door with metal bolts.
“Should we do it though?” she asked
“Do what? Escape? Of course we should. Don’t you want to see our sibling? Our friends? And return to our usual life?”
“I do but… I like it here.”
“C’mon we did this together. Let’s not give up now.”
“Fine. I guess I have to take care of Caleb. I’ll come”
“Great”
We heard footsteps coming fast towards us, my heart began to race. Ms. Millicent’s long black dress trailed behind her, “What are you doing here?” she asked us.
“Uh…” we mumbled
“Oh hi girls!” Ms. Angela said, “I’ve been needing help with sorting my papers out,” she looked at Ms. Millicent, “They’re with me, Minerva.”
Ms. Millicent pursed her lips and left haughtily
Thank you we mouthed
“So, what are you guys doing here?”
“We wanted to escape. We hate it here. Both of us have younger siblings that need taking care of.”
“Okay… I’ll help you get out,” she said opening the door.
“Thank you!!!” we squealed and stared into the dark passageway.
Finally! I got to see my beautiful sister after a week. We’ve never been apart for more than a couple of hours. I finally got to return to my home. I think Cara and I will still be friends. This experience bonded us, and we realized that even the worst of enemies can become the best of friends. We held each other’s hands and walked in. The darkness overcoming us, the only light from our determination lighting our way through.