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And then I see her getting off the bus

It’s the girl The girl with the gun

Thirty-Six

Her black hat is pulled down over her eyes, and she looks like a guy She’s alone I think She’s wearing dark-wash jeans and a black jacket, and she’s gripping a little backpack so hard her knuckles are white And on the backpack is a button with a picture of a rainboith a line through it My heart thunks around in my chest and I almost can’t breathe So it is the GSA they’re after? I’m so confused

The bus driver inches forward and cranes his neck at me I shake irl I let her get a few dozen feet ahead of me and inchhappens No signal I try hiain, and then I look at the phone battery It’s not dead But there’s a little notice in the corner in the tiniest print that says "minutes used: 250"

"Shit," I mutter And then it really hits me My prepaid minutes are used up I have no phone No wonder neither of the boys has called irl is still in sight At the corner where we’d turn to go to U of C, she stops and waits for traffic I pretend to look in a shop, and then when the light changes I begin to follow again And I don’t knohat I’ to do For all I know, she’s just doing one more stakeout of the ca that little bag tellsaround She scurries along, head down, and e cross a street, she’s joined by the blond guy who she ith the other day They barely say tords to each other, and then they walk together but not very closely And I realize this is really it

My hand findsand the minutes haven’t expired, but it’s futile My phone is useless I want to run ahead, try to find Sawyer, but I don’t want them to see me, and I don’t want to lose track of them I follow the two into the quad as the rain stops, the only drops now co froe, and there are a lot of buildings And the cah the rain, transporting their suitcases, bags, and backpacks back to their doro toward the hall we detero to the opposite corner of the quad toward the Hitchcock Hall dor for Sawyer, but I don’t see hiht I hear a distant church bell chiht bells The two in black stop at the side of the big wooden door and stare at souy looks panicked for a htly and says so for so my brains out to whoever will listen that Sawyer is okay

The two stand there whispering for a minute, and then they come back toward me I freeze, and then I pull a notebook froe out I fumble for a pen and keep s down And then I walk as fast as I can to the Hitchcock door to see what they were looking at

It’s the Gay-Straight Alliance flyer But the green roo place is crossed out and instead it says, "moved to Goodspeed 4th Fl!!"

The blood pulses inI can re sense It’s all happening right now, and Sawyer doesn’t know I look at the torn sheet of notebook paper in my hand, write, "Call 911--Goodspeed 4th Fl!" and take off after the shooters at full speed, shoving my paper into the hands of a surprised student as he enters the dorh puddles, soaking atching the shooters enter the music hall When I reach the door I dash up the stairs to the fourth floor, trying to look casual, as othersbackpacks or musical instruht now All I can think of is that I need to find Sawyer and get him out of here We’re not ready We can’t do this We need to bail Just call the cops, get the hell out of the way, and hope for the best

A few students wander the fourth floor, so at closed office doors or into classroo for the salasses who handed us the flyer yesterday He’s down the hallway, standing in front of an open door, frowning at his watch "Come on, people," he says

He takes a look at my wet clothes and hair "Now that’s dedication," he says with a grin "Hey--I re out "I--he--what?"

His kind eyes crinkle "Oops Did I get that wrong? I thought you were holding hands the other day I’m sorry"

"No, I meannever mind Thanks" I push past hi the two shooters i at the table behind them is Sawyer, whose normally olive complexion is alabaster now He stares at o to the

A minute later, he’s next to me "What happened?" he whispers