Holland Tech Vignette: Episode 1 

**Names have been changed for privacy reasons** 

It was the best day ever. I was wearing my Ugg slides, a pair of black sweatpants, and a blue sweater from the store Pink. I was casually chilling with my friend group on a Thursday morning. Spirit is smart and outgoing, Jari is a light skin girl with curly hair, Soni has long brown hair and a Spanish accent, Hannah is brown-skinned and wears hijab, Bella is the tallest and has brown poofy hair, and Paris is the shortest in the friend group with bright red hair. 

We arrived at our math class a few minutes late and our math teacher Mr. P, who was very athletic and had glasses, stood up and asked us why we were late to class, I laughed and said, “Sorry sir, we were in the bathroom.” 

He shook his head and told us to sit down, we walked to our seats not knowing what was coming next. As we started working on our math packet a few of my other friends Carter and Mark were talking about Fortnite and how there’s this new Peter Griffin skin you can wear. I overheard them and ran to them to talk about it, surprised Mr. P did not mind me talking with them. 

Eventually, I returned to my seat and I sat watching TikToks because the bell would ring soon. The class went quiet and we heard a big boom. We all jumped and the whole class got loud. You could tell this was the first time Mr. P had experienced something like this because his face looked lost and he was having a very hard time trying to keep everyone calm. Moments later, on the intercom, the principal yelled “This is a lockdown! Please stay where you are! Close all doors and stay away from the window!” After hearing that I felt more unsafe and had so many questions. My mom called me expressing how she was so scared and on her way to get me. When my teacher heard he told me I had to get off my phone. 

Time goes by and on the intercom, they announce we will be leaving early. We all sighed and stood up to go home. When I got outside my mom was there, very upset but glad I was okay. All the teachers were outside so my mom went up to them to see what was going on and tried to discover why this happened. She was very worried about my safety. The teachers told her that they were very sorry this happened and that we had to leave because right now it was an active crime scene so we left. 

Finally, we arrived back at school and the shooting was the main topic. Everyone and their friends just couldn’t get over it. Everyone still had so many questions and the teachers just shut us down each time. Many weeks went by and it died down and wasn’t really talked about anymore. My school Holland Tech aka Burke High School is a very crazy school, and to be honest you should be very scared of anybody who attends this school.