I’ve always complained to my mom about my school, but she never listens. I can’t do good in school. Not because I’m stupid, but because I can never pay attention. The people at my school—they have issues. I already hate school, and the last thing I want to do is end up dying here, but the people here are making the possibility seem bigger and bigger everyday. One day some disabled person has random outbursts and punches the teacher and some other kid floods the entire bathroom.

It seems like ever since they’ve been trying to invite more people it’s been getting worse and worse, and I can’t stop worrying and thinking about how I’m going to escape from this building in an extreme emergency when some kids pulls out a gun in class. Hopefully, that won’t happen in my class, because if it does I’m automatically screwed. And it would really suck if someone has telekinesis, because then the whole city would be screwed.

It’s February now. My mom, dad, and I moved here when the school year started in September. The bad thing about moving is my school, Camden High School, located in the suburban city of, you named it, Camden. The bad thing about moving here is having to go to this boring school with a bunch of crazy kids. I mean, school is going to be boring regardless, but the situation is worse here. The good thing is I actually have friends—or a friend—so I can do the things I normally do but with someone else, and I don’t have to be lonely when my parents are gone. Watching dumb cartoons at night, while drinking hot chocolate is a lot more enjoyable with someone that’s cool.

“Jordan, Adult Swim is trash,” I said.

“Well, yeah, most of their new shows,” said Jordan.

“No. All of them are terrible. It’s not funny at all.”

“Okay, it’s funny because it’s terrible.” The T.V. went to commercial, and Jordan got up to get more hot chocolate.

“Finally, the anime is coming on. That’s the only reason I even watch this channel.”

“Ian, Naruto’s trash.”

“Well, yeah, but you have to have some sort of nostalgia to like it. And plus, there’s anime that’s actually good.”

“And what ‘nostalgia’ connected to it makes it so good?”

“I used to watch it with my older brother before he graduated and moved out. I’m kind of glad you moved here. I mean, there are some cool people at our school, but there’s just so many weirdoes there, like that one kid, Jared.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh! What is that kid’s deal?”

“I don’t know. He just has issues.”

“Wasn’t he the on that drew a horse penis on the wall and peed on the floor?”

“Yup.”

“What was his last name?”

“How am I supposed to know? I don’t pay attention to people who I don’t know their last names.”

“Geez. I was just asking.”

“Well I think it started with a D. It was Dale or something.”

“You know who else’s initials are J.D.? Jeff Dahmer.”

“Are you suggesting Jared’s some kind of serial killer,” Jordan said, chuckling.

“Uh, yeah. He’s is my prime suspect of a school shooter.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“No, I’m serious. Okay, if he was a school shooter, and he pulled out a gun in school, how would you escape?”

“Does he pull it out in my class, or someone else’s? Because if it’s in mine, It’s already over.”

“If it’s in someone else’s. And just because it’s in your class doesn’t mean you don’t survive.”

“Well, if it’s not in my class, run to the nearest exit and just listen to the screams to know where not to go. If it is in my class, run to the nearest exit and hope I don’t get hit. It’s not like he has a grudge against me or anything.”

“If you’re psycho, you don’t need to have a motive.”

“True.” Jordan left and walked down the hallway to go get hot chocolate, and Ian turned to the T.V. just as Naruto came on.

“Hey! You better hurry up! It’s back on!”

“”Yeah, okay! Hold on!”

“You’re missing it!”

“I’ve already seen almost every episode! I doubt I’m missing anything!”

Monday came, and I did not want to go to school. Not because something bad was going to happen, but just because I hate school. What made it even worse is Jared tried to talk to me today. He asked if I had any ketchup packets at lunch today because they were all out, and he saw I was playing Magnet Runner on my phone.

“Hey, that’s a cool game,” he said.

“Um, thanks…” I replied.

And he just left. Anyway some kid got suspended for punching a hole in the wall, so nothing out of the ordinary happened that day. Then the next day he sat down next to me and started playing Magnet Runner and kept looking at me like we were friends.

“Hey, your name’s Ian, right?” he asked.

“Um, yeah…” I replied.

“Don’t we have Math together?”

“Um, yeah…”

“Mr. Clark really sucks, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Sure wish he were dead.”

“Yeah, same…” At that point he finally got up and left. It seemed like I was talking to him for hours and not just 30 seconds.

That day was pretty weird. Not just because Jared decided to talk to me but also because no kid did anything stupid. I just started walking home as usual, which sucks because it was raining today.

“Hey, Ian!” I heard someone say as I got on the sidewalk. It was Jared.

“Um, hey…” He walked toward me.

“You seem like a cool guy.”

“Yeah, I guess…”
“So you know how I said that I hated Mr. Clark?”

“Yeah…”

“We should build a bomb and put it in his classroom.”

I barely know him and he’s already asking me if I want to build a bomb like we’re best friends.

“Um, no thanks…” He just kept smiling.

“No it’s cool. See ya!” and he just left.

So from then on I tried avoiding him. I increasingly got worried because after that day Jared wasn’t in school. I got really bored in language arts as usual and started thinking of how I was going to break out of school, not because of an emergency but just because I hate it so much. I was seriously considering dropping out.

“BOOM!” something went. I jolted up in my seat and my heart started beating fast. It was Jared! I mean, it’s always loud when some kid acts up, but that sounded like an explosion. The loud speaker came on.

“Teachers, please lock your doors and turn your lights off. This is an emergency.” I could never understand why we just sit here and wait to be mowed down by a psycho. Personally, I would be running out the door, and I was seriously considering just getting up and leaving. I didn’t know if he had a grudge against me though. He said I was cool but he declined my offer, and I was afraid that made him angry.

I was getting anxiety from just sitting here, and it didn’t help that I heard screaming coming down from the hallway. At this point everyone in my class got really worried and some girl started crying.

So it turns out it was Jared. Normally, I wouldn’t be shocked if we had a lock down, but a bomb is kind of extreme. He tried blowing it up in the cafeteria but he couldn’t get it to detonate until everybody left, so lucky for us, we got a day off, and my parents are trying to send me to a different school now. I would be happy, but in the end, school is school.