Just Another Hero (20 page)

THURSDAY, MARCH 10

AS THE HOSTAGE STUDENTS EMERGED
from the doors, the throngs of people outside cheered. Everyone, from news reporters to parents, teachers, and other students, crowded in on them, clamoring for interviews and information. Cameras flashed, microphones were extended, and videotape was streamed back live to TV studios in town and across the airwaves to national news services. Arielle figured Natasha Singletary finally had enough information to televise for days.

November's mother pushed her way to the front of the crowd with tears in her eyes and the baby in her arms. November collapsed with relief right there on the ground, clutching Sunshine to her chest. Arielle watched as a camera operator zoomed in for a close-up.

Arielle had never been so glad to see a group of people in her life. She surprised herself by running to Olivia first and hugging her tightly. “I'm
so
glad you're okay,” she said,
her voice breaking. Then she started to pull back, worried that she'd gone too far. “Uh, I'm so sorry, Olivia, for everything.” And then she burst into tears.

But Olivia hugged her just as hard in return. Then she released Arielle, dug in her pocket for a tissue, and handed it to her. “Chill, girlfriend. We're straight. But thanks.”

Arielle nodded numbly.

“I gotta admit—I came pretty close to wettin' my pants,” Olivia said, “but I knew Jericho wouldn't let anything happen to us.”

Jericho smirked. “Hey, I'm big, but I don't think I'm bulletproof!”

Arielle didn't hug Jericho, but she poked him in the arm and told him, “I heard the NFL is looking for players. They tell me your tackle was world class!”

“Aw, it was me and a bunch of other dudes,” Jericho said with a shrug. “I'm no hero.”

Arielle then ran to embrace Dana and Kofi, as well as Rosa and Luis. When she got to Roscoe, he said, “Hey, pretty girl-face! Why don't you kiss me and erase the trauma of my ordeal? I think I may need to be kissed all day long.” He made a silly pucker face of his lips.

“Get a goldfish,” she told him, but she said it with a smile.

Everyone seemed to be talking at once. Arielle inhaled it all, glad to be included in the hugs and well-wishing.

“When the windows exploded, I thought I was gonna die!” Rosa exclaimed.

“How did he get a gun into the school?” Miss Singletary asked.

“I think he hid it under his coat,” Brandon replied. He waved at Arielle as more reporters surrounded the group.

“What made him start shooting?” Natasha Singletary continued.

“We don't know.”

“Did he say anything that could give us any indication of what was going on in his mind?”

“Jack's mind was parked in a no-parking zone. He was talkin' off the wall,” Luis said.

“He kept talking about noise and light and power and more stuff that didn't make any sense,” added Rosa.

“So what exactly was he shooting at?”

“Windows. Lights. Computers. Televisions. He killed them all,” Roscoe told them dramatically.

The cameras moved in for a close-up as Roscoe spoke. Arielle knew he loved the attention.

“Where's my mother?” Dana pleaded. When she saw her mom push her way through the crowd, she sprinted over to her, picked her mother up, and spun her around. The cameras captured that as well.

“Is anyone hurt?” a medic asked.

“I have a headache from all the noise,” Cleveland replied, “but I'm okay.”

“I got, like, a million tiny cuts on my face,” Rosa told the medic. “I'm not gonna need plastic surgery, am I?” She sounded half-serious.

The medic replied, “Not likely, but let me take a look.”

“I have some small cuts on my arms and face from the flying glass,” Paula told him. “It's nothing.”

Each student was treated with Band-Aids or alcohol
swabs or antiseptic cream, but no one seemed to be seriously injured.

Finally Eric spoke up. “I think I broke my back,” he said to the medic. “I don't think I can walk!”

The EMT, who at first looked concerned, finally laughed. “Don't do me like that, kid!”

“Well, if I can't joke about it, who can?” Eric replied sheepishly.

“Are all my puppies okay?” Mrs. Witherspoon called out as she ran over to the group. It was clear she had been crying.

“I can't think of a word big enough to describe how I feel, Spoon,” Jericho admitted.

“How about ‘thankful'?” said the teacher.

“That's not a big word.”

“Oh, yes it is.” She gave Jericho and every student standing there, including Eric, a big hug.

“So Jericho, Cleveland, and Roscoe tackled him? I knew my football players were heroes,” Coach Barnes declared as he joined the group. He patted his men on the back.

“Olivia, too, Coach,” Roscoe added. “She was awesome!”

“Then I'm proud of you, too,” the coach told her.

“You know what blew everybody away?” Roscoe told the coach and the assembled crowd. “It was Eddie Mahoney who actually saved us!”

“Eddie?” Mrs. Witherspoon said, disbelief in her voice.

“Yeah, man. He talked that dude down from a way high place,” Roscoe explained. “He was like a lion tamer in the cage—it was awesome, man.”

“It was unbelievable,” added Kofi, shaking his head. “But it was Eddie who made it possible for us to tackle Jack.”

“So where is this Eddie Mahoney?” one of the reporters asked.

“I have him down as a classroom troublemaker,” another reporter said, checking her notes.

“Where
is
he?” the first reporter asked again.

Kofi just shrugged and pointed vaguely toward the other side of the school yard. Several reporters raced to find Eddie, but he seemed to have disappeared into the crowd.

Mrs. Sherman, the stress of the day showing on her face, touched Kofi on the shoulder. “You and your friends risked your lives in there today, son. I can't tell you how proud I am and how thankful that you're not hurt.”

“We didn't even think about it,” Kofi replied. “It was no big deal.” Arielle thought he looked a little embarrassed at all the attention.

“Yes, it was, son,” the principal insisted. “And in all the confusion of the past couple of days, I have not had the opportunity to congratulate you on being selected by the Freedom Achievers Association for their scholarship!” She shook his hand firmly. “I am doubly proud of you. Your parents must be thrilled to know what a fine young man they have raised.”

Arielle looked around but did not spot Kofi's parents in the crowd. He simply thanked Mrs. Sherman and walked away with his arm around Dana.

Brandon sauntered over to Arielle then.
Man, he looks good! I wonder if my hair is messed up
. “Hey, Lollipop,” he said with a smile.
Mmm—he smells good too!

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I'm fine. A little embarrassed that I was so scared.”

“It's okay to be frightened. It shows you're human.”

“That's something about Pringle, huh?” Brandon looked serious.

“Yeah. Who woulda thought?”

“You think your phone is in that back room?” he asked.

“I sure hope so. Mrs. Sherman said they had to wait until the police investigations of both crimes are finished before we can get anything back.”

“By that time the iPhone will be obsolete!”

“For real!”

“I'm glad all of you got out safe, Brandon. Really.”

“Me too. So, Miss Lollipop, you want to, uh, go to a movie this weekend—or, like, when my heart rate goes back to normal?” he asked.

“Well, me and my mom are kinda between places right now,” she told him.

“Oh yeah? Where?”

She took a deep breath and decided to tell him the truth. “We're staying in the women's shelter downtown. Long story, but we got away from my crazy stepfather.”

“I don't care where you live,” he told her. “I just want to hang out with you sometimes. And you know you've got a date for the prom if you'll have me.”

Can this be happening? Take it slow. Don't screw this up and chase him away,
she warned herself.

She gave him a genuine smile—nothing phony, nothing
put on. “You're sweet. If I ever get my cell phone back, I'll call you,” she promised. “And if the shelter can help me with a prom dress, I might take you up on that offer!”

He pretended to tip his hat to her and headed to his car. He waved before he drove off.

Yes!

The fire trucks and many of the police cars began to leave, although the police presence was still quite thick as final reports were made. Arielle noticed that the car carrying Miss Pringle finally left as well. News trucks remained, however, with reporters standing in front of each one, telling the story over and over again. It seemed they needed the outside of the school for background shots. The police would not let them inside the building.

Mrs. Sherman dismissed school for the rest of the day and Friday as well. “Today we have witnessed a tragedy and a miracle,” she told reporters and parents. “Let us go home and give thanks that our children are safe. This incident will receive, of course, intense scrutiny. The safety of our children is of utmost importance. Security procedures will be reviewed and changes will be made.” She paused. “The young man at the center of this incident today has been taken to a medical facility for evaluation and treatment. Whether he will face criminal charges is yet to be determined.”

As the crowd began to thin and parents and students who had been reunited headed for their homes, Arielle noticed Osrick sitting alone on a bench by the flagpole. She asked her mom to wait a minute and walked over to the bench.

“Hey, Osrick.” She sat down next to him.

“Hey.”

“I see you took your hood off. The sunshine feels great.”

He sat up a little straighter and inhaled deeply of the crisp air. “Yeah, feels good. I'm tossing the hoodie.”

“Good move,” she said encouragingly. She paused. “Was it bad up there?”

“I was pretty scared,” he admitted.

“I guess there won't be any more fire alarms for a while,” Arielle said.

“Or thefts.” It was Osrick's turn to pause. “Or You Tube videos. Never again,” he finally said firmly.

“You told Mrs. Sherman who the boys were?”

“Yeah. When you left me in her office to go to the gym and set up the blue-covered stuff in the locker room, I told her everything.”

“I'm so glad you did, Osrick.”

“She's already started the paperwork. I guess when we have school again, they'll get suspended—maybe even expelled.”

“Great!” she cheered.

“I'm sick of being at the bottom of everybody's boot. Enough already!” He stole a glance at Arielle. “Uh, and thanks for letting me do this when I was ready. I know you wanted to go and tell, but it was something I had to do for myself.” He stood up and stretched.

“I understand.”

Osrick picked up a stick and tossed it onto the lawn. The newscasters in front of the building still talked into their microphones, repeating themselves. “Amazing how the newspeople come out of the woodwork when
there's trouble—kinda like roaches,” he said.

“Yeah, you got that right. So, did any of the reporters interview you?” asked Arielle.

“Me? Why would anybody want to talk to me? I just survived the chaos of the day.”

“You've been a hero all day, you know.”

“I didn't tackle anybody. I didn't have enough nerve to talk to Jack. I just sat there praying that I wouldn't die.”

“But Osrick! Your plan found the thief.”

“Dumb luck. I actually feel bad for Miss Pringle.”

“They never would have found her without you, Osrick.”

“Aw, she would have slipped up and been discovered eventually,” he said with a shrug.

“And you were the one who sent the text message that let the police know where you were, and more importantly, you let the parents know that nobody had been killed.”

“That was no big deal.”

“Oh, yeah, it was. You should have seen it down here. Parents were having heart attacks and planning funerals!”

He smiled a little and sat back down. “I was glad you weren't in there when it happened.”

“Why?”

“I kept thinking if you had been there, what I could possibly have done to save you.” He shook his head and chuckled. “I gotta admit—I didn't have a lot of options!”

“No chain saw in your book bag, huh?”

“Just notebooks and homework. Maybe a paper clip and a pencil.”

“It would have been enough.” She knew that neither of them believed that.

“You're like a flower, Arielle, and pretty things like that don't need to get shot.”

“That's the sweetest thing anybody has ever told me,” Arielle admitted. She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek, but he gently pushed her away.

“You know what I was thinking while I was sitting in that room?”

“What?”

“That if Jack had decided to do target practice on students and he'd killed me, nobody would
really
know who I was. Nobody but you, maybe.”

She wasn't sure what to say. “Go on,” she told him, trying to sound encouraging.

“So I'm done with being stomped on. I'm trying out for the school play this month. And you know what? I've decided to go to the prom!” he said triumphantly.

“All right!” she said gleefully. She jumped up from the bench, did a silly little dance, then stopped. “But I think I already have a date,” she added carefully.

“Oh, I wasn't going to ask you,” Osrick told her, looking away. “You know Susan Richards in Spoon's class? I've had my eye on her since school started. And I think she's been checking me out as well. I've just never had the nerve to call her. But all this stuff today made everything come together.”