Rydell
September.
Start of the school year. Cool air blowing away the remnants of summer. Leaves falling in golden-brown accents round campus.
It's Rydell.
Rydell Rozlan.
Rye for short.
It's my senior year at college. Finally. I
can't wait to be done and get a job.
School isn't something I'm keen on,
but hey, gotta make the parents
happy. Enter class, off goes the
hoodie. Mr. Bailey enters the class.
Heavy footsteps echo the hallways.
I look up as a girl just makes it into
the class as the bell rings.
"Ah, I see you just made it. If you came
a second later I would've kicked you
out.", Mr. Bailey remarks.
"Won't happen again, I promise", Girl
Next Door squeaks out.
She drags her feet to the nearest table and sits down. Mr. Bailey starts lecturing,time rolls by slowly. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen her around here before. In my classes anyway. I shrug it off. Whatever.
Rain pours heavily as I step outside after class is done for the day. I hop from one foot to the other sideways to avoid water puddles. Can't afford it in my cheap battered Vans. Not Nikes. Arrive in my apartment twenty minutes later. Open the curtains to a nice skyline. Perks of off-campus housing. Hop onto the couch. Pull out my PC and login to SoundCloud. I've been listening to this artist C.V.B. for a while now, and they're good. Seemingly in most genres. I play their latest song and relax for a bit, mumbling the lyrics along (bad singer here).
I stand up to grab some soda when the TV remote falls on the spacebar, pausing the song. Except it didn't. I stood still, shocked, as the song was audible, but not from the laptop, but from the wall. I quickly walk over and put an ear to the wall: yep, wasn't my imagination.
Out of curiosity, I went to the next
apartment door and knocked. The
song stopped. The door opens...and it's
Girl Next Door. Literally. She has her
headphones round her neck, with her
studio microphone in the background. Electric blue eyes look at me quizzically.
"Sorry to interrupt, but are you C.V.B.?" I ask, curious.
"Dang,got spotted. I was tryna be low-key. Erin, nice to meet you",
she says,stretching out her hand.
"Rydell or Rye if you want", I reply.
"You're really good at singing, not gonna lie."
"Thanks, appreciate it."
Just then, her mood changes. She looks beyond me, like someone's there.
Before I can ask, she yells, "Get down!!" and pulls me down as the entrance door flies off and whooshes where my head would've been and it hits the opposite wall before falling to the floor.
"Shit, almost got us", she says standing up quickly, determination etched into her face.
She's like a completely different person, not the socially awkward girl of this morning.
"There's hell to pay!!", she yells sprinting outside.
Damn. Didn't see that coming.
Who did that anyway? Is it the
quiet kids? Nah.
But what if?
Can't trace her, don't know which direction she went.
Not long after, she drags a skinny dude into the apartment, effortlessly it seems. Dude has a tanktop with California written on it Sans Serif and a fedora hat that is now on the floor. Now he begs for mercy.
"I'm serious, I didn't think it would blow off your door. I thought it was a glitter bomb," he whines panicking.
"Tell that to the Dean, Brad. You gotta pay for damages or I'll redesign your face", she says in a low tone.
"Ok, ok I will," and off he goes.
She turns towards me, realizing I witnessed the whole thing.
"Look, it's not what it looks like. I'm not always like this", she explains with her hands gesticulating wildly.
"Uh-huh"
"Whatever, cat's out the bag," she sighs, running her hand through her black hair with blonde accents.
" I gotta go, see you later I guess?"I say, retreating slowly.
"Yeah sure"
The next day I enter class on time. Barely. Classmates are sitting down and pulling out their laptops for the upcoming lesson.
I spot Erin at the back row and join her.
"Surprised you came early," I grin.
"Had to lose sleep for it. Can't start the year on a bad foot," she replies, with dark patches under her blue eyes.
"Bad door you mean."
"Quiet, you."
The lights suddenly start to flicker and Mr. Bailey stops teaching and looks up like the rest of us. The lights stop flickering. His chair turns round slowly. He's sitting on it alright.
But dead.
That seems to finally snap Erin awake. Her eyes widen with shock and she struggles to speak. I'm just as shocked as she is.
"W-what just happened?"she whispers.
Screams fill the air as other guys are also reported dead. Panic rises and everyone's rushing towards the exit, shoving and kicking. My legs refuse to move out of fear. I glance at someone pull the fire alarm and the bell rings out, sprinklers dousing everyone with water. I notice Erin is missing. Where is she?
Just then an air horn blares, shutting everyone up. I look back and up, towards the back wall where a familiar figure, soaked wet, blazing electric blue eyes is hanging off a hook in the wall surface. Everyone faces her. She sweeps her black and blond hair backwards and grins.
"Now listen up people!! Things have changed. Our professor and several other people just got murdered. We don't know the cause yet, but instead of crying to ya mommas and running, why don't you stand your ground and protect this fort?!"
Her voice echoes in the massive hall. She's doing it again. The thing. A second ago, a shook frail girl. Now...now I see a frickin battle commander. Why does she do that?
Whatever. I'm supporting her. Survive or die trying.
"Yeah!!! Let's do this!!!" I scream as hard as I can.
One by one, people join in until it becomes a battle cry.
Erin grins savagely. "Aight then, musketeers, let's go battle!!"
She jumps and lands on one of the desks, before jumping onto another, gaining momentum. People got out of her way as she heads towards the front of the class. She picks up an umbrella and uses it as a wedge to open the door. Everyone streams out like angry wasps leaving the hive. Erin javelin-throws the umbrella towards the emergency cabinet across the hall, which shatters on impact. She swipes the axe and swings it twice before leaning it on her shoulder. Someone nicked the fire extinguisher, another the interstate track and field trophy and another, well...took a tennis racket. I took a golf club from a nearby cabinet. Default weapon besides my fists. We storm outside and are caught off-guard by yellow prison buses forming a massive perimeter around campus. The bus drivers are honking a mocking melody and everyone blocks their ears at the loud cacophony. They stop and a sleek black Mustang rolls in between the buses facing us. A guy steps out, arrogance radiating from him in waves. He stands tall, at about 6'3" and walks towards us slowly. My classmates charge before I can call them out. A loud symphony of barrels reloading echo around us. Each man aiming at us with SMGs.