Alice Stranger

I Think Crying's Contagious

After a few minutes of pathetic sniffling in a dark gym I realize I needed to get going. Right now my daddy issues weren't important. I knew there were bad people here, bad people looking for me. And it was my fault that kids were scared outta their minds, a bunch of teachers were knocked out, and we could all possibly die. It didn't sound like these men messed around. I slowly crawled out from behind the bleachers and stuck my head out into the hallway. It was empty. I slid along the walls quickly trying to think. I needed to get out of here. The men were searching for me, so if I managed to get their attention and get out of here I was pretty sure they would follow. Like.. 60% sure. I made my way back to my first hour class. I slowly opened the door and tried to ignore the faces staring at me as I walked into the room. There was my happy go lucky teacher, slumped over his desk. The sight made me want to cry. But I quickly looked away and made eye contact with Greg. "Hey uh... Can I talk to you in the hallway for a sec?" I asked him. He looked completely confused but he nodded and followed me out, his leather jacket slung over his shoulder. "Alice.. What's going on?" He asked me. He didn't sound terrified or hysterical, just inquisitive. That's another thing I liked about Greg. He always reacted just the way you hoped for. Doing his best to never put all the pressure on you. I took a deep breath before saying "All these terrible men with guns are here because of me. Well, I mean, I didn't ask them here, but they're looking for me. I don't know why, but someone sent them on account of me being a dreamer, which by the way I'm not even sure what that means! But I have to get them out of here and it's really hard to focus on account of i'm going crazy and I just had like a vision where my father talked to me and-" I hadn't even noticed I was crying until Greg enveloped me into a hug. My tears made his shirt damp and I tried to pull away. He patted my back reassuringly and said, "Alice, you're fine. You're not going crazy. We're all freaking out here. This isn't your fault at all." I leaned back and looked at him, trying to ignore the fact that I looked like a train wreck. "No Greg, they're here because of me, I'm sure of that." He looked at me and dropped his arms. "What do you mean?" He asked. I looked at the floor, at the ceiling, anywhere other than him. "You know, reasons and details realllly aren't that important, and I honestly just came here to tell you bye. I still have to find Sierra, so I should probably just be on my way. Thanks for the talk, Greg!" I tried to slip past him, but he quickly grabbed my arm tugged me back. "You're not going anywhere until you explain yourself." He said evenly. I sighed. "Greg... It's not safe out here!" He rolled his eyes. "Fine. We'll find Sierra together. I happen to know what class she's in right now." I groaned dramatically but finally agreed to let him tag along. I had kind of overlooked the fact that I didn't know what her first class was. On the way there I slowly let Greg in on all the daydreaming stuff that had happened to me. I told him that they were getting weirder, more different. And about how the gunmen, Reeves, had mentioned trying to find the 'dreamer'. I even told him about my latest episode with my father. He was pretty stunned. But not unbelieving. "Why didn't you ever tell us about this before?" Was his only question. "Because it's insane!" I practically shouted. He shook his head and sighed. "Alice, Sierra and I are your best friends. We'd listen and at least try and believe whatever you told us. I'm not saying that's completely normal. But it's not like we didn't already know you were crazy." He teased, bumping my shoulder with his. I sighed and nodded. We had arrived at Sierra's classroom by that time, and I repeated the process of calling her out into the hallway. She walked out and I quickly gave her the speech I'd given Greg. She had a slightly different reaction. "I can't believe you hid this from us!" She hissed and swatted my arm. I tried to say something but she cut me off by tackling me with a hug. "This is terrible." She sobbed into my shoulder. Sierra had always been the more... Emotional of the three. Greg gently pried her off of me and held her as she cried. "Look," I said. "I got you guys because I wanted to say goodbye in case... In case I can't come back. Or something happens. But I know I have to get these men away from everyone else, which means leaving the school and having them follow me! So... Thanks for everything you guys. It's been fun." I gave an awkward wave and turned to go before I felt to pairs of hands yanking me back. "Um, where do you think you're going?" Said a shaky Sierra. Her face was blotchy and her nose was red but her eyes were fiery. "Um.." I started, but Greg cut me off. "You're not leaving without us." Greg stated in a bored tone. I glanced between my two best friends realizing the would follow me wether I wanted them to or not. I hugged them and pulled them along the hallway, all of us thinking about the best way to pull off getting these gunmen's attention. This was going to be one interesting day of high school.