"Ugh!" I huffed and puffed my way up the long, muted staircase.
When are they going to clean these hallways up? I thought to myself, while looking at the building, gray dust and small cobwebs in the corners of the stairs. My school, Sydney High School, was no special or unordinary high school in my region (unless you count having a staff shortage as unique, which it really wasn't). But I suppose the rigorous curriculum of many college-level classes and the four flights of stairs was something to look forward to (it was really not, but sometimes I would delude myself into thinking so).
"Finally!" I groaned, taking a brief moment to catch my breath. I leaned on a cream colored wall, letting it cool my skin to help me relax. I had no clue why school stairs always made me out of breath, even though I was a starter for the school's basketball team. Hopefully no one saw that embarrassing moment…
I tried my best to control my heaving breath, yet I noticed that a certain blonde-haired teacher stumbled upon my pathetic sight. Jinxed myself there.
"Hey there, Lily!"
"Uh. Hi, Mr. Simon…"
Yikes, did he see my entire struggle?
He gave me a slight smile, waving me off during his descent. Mr. Simon was probably the most friendly teacher on campus, quite literally everyone loved him (and maybe a little too much). Mr. Simon was known for his out-of-the-world teaching and kindness, but not even such heavenly skills or Mr. Simon's good looks could save me from mediocre grades. I still cursed my past self for selecting Physics C as one of my classes this year.
"Are you just going to take up the entire hallway, or are you going to head to class?" I heard a snicker behind me, recognizing the voice teasing me.
"Cara!"
Cara was one of my closest friends, knowing me ever since we entered high school. We also played basketball together, making one hell of a duo to deal with. With her curly hair bouncing, she jumped near my side. "Was that Mr. Simon?"
"Oh yeah."
She made a biting motion with her mouth while playfully bumping into me. "We are such a lucky pair to have THAT fine man as our physics teacher. Trust in me that I will be paying attention!"
"Oh yes, we certainly are one lucky pair!"
We both erupted in laughter, while full on knowing that our grades were going to slip and fall as soon as we took our midterm.
"Alright, I have to go. I wouldn't want Ms. Cane to blow up on me. Bye, Cara!"
"See you later!"
…
I sat down in the first period, already noticing one of my friends was there one time.
"Woah Pira, usually you're late to school. How unusual for you to be here on time!"
Pira stopped combing through her long straighted brown hair and sarcastically replied, "Well, yes. Har har har, Lily. You are so smart. Has anyone told you that?"
"Of course! Ya know, people call me the reincarnation of Issac Newton himself."
"That's wonderful, Lily! You know, being friends with you is like donating to clarity!"
"Wow, that might be the nicest thing you have ever said to me!" As the bell rang, I pulled out my school laptop and my pencil case. I turned around to check if my other friend, Ava, was there. She was unfortunately not there, so I could not make any weird faces to mock her at that second.
"Lily, it's literally nine A.M in the morning. Where do you get all this energy-?"
The classroom lights flickered on and off before completely shutting down. A random guy jokingly screamed in the dark, shadow-filled class. Shoot, that was kinda funny. Dammit, I should've done that first.
Our strict teacher, Ms. Cane, said nothing. The drizzling rain outside started to make a louder and more dramatic descent, turning into a harsh pounding knock on the gray glass window. I didn't bother to pay any attention to the weather, more occupied by the shutdown. Even the wifi wasn't working.
I couldn't help but also notice that the hallway lights were also turned off. Strange, the entire school lost power?
Yet no one in our classroom panicked at all, including me. It was not scary nor unusual. We have gotten shooting and bomb threats before, so a light shutdown wasn't something to freak out over.
That's when a whitish-blue glitching screen appeared in front of me. In front of everyone, in fact.