Preparation for this day had been in spades, wing-manning for my friends, making sure I get to go at all. Homecoming was gonna be an epic night for everyone. This would be remembered by all of us for years. We were having a homecoming done to the best possible limit of what a homecoming could be. Fun things like fake gambling with points that let you do things like have a bunch of people try to hug a single person or tackle them to the ground. There was a group of volunteers for that and everything. The snacks lined an entire two walls. The music was voted on at a table near the speakers as people came in. This had so much potential. It was going to be amazing.

I knew all this because I helped set it up. I volunteered to get the inside scoop. My hours of among us came through when they tried to sniff out who leaked it. A girl was blamed due to breaking down during questioning, our vice principal is so sexist in a way where he’s super mean to girls for no reason. I really wanted to get evidence but he’s kinda an adult.

The girl’s name is Sandra, she’s cute, but I don’t really like her. She worships authority figures in a way that I don’t like. Also she’s one of the few who can defeat me in a Kahoot so there’s that. I really think that Alex doesn’t actually like his date then again I don’t even have one.

Now, Homecoming normally happens in September/early October normally. However our school decided we needed a moral boost coming out of quarantine. It was tomorrow so I just need to fall asleep and get through school.

...

I threw open the doors of the gym and got decorating. Lights! Smoke machines! Speakers! Weighted shuffle queue! This was gonna be great! I “sampled” some punch too.

...

As people came in we just pointed to the music voting-rigged-together-oh-god-please-work-music-a-ma-jig and told them to pick some songs they wanted. I said hi to my friends but I was pretty tired already. 

“Nothing punch can’t fix!” I exclaim to nobody in particular. I walk over to the table and go down it as if in a line. I see Elias in front of me carrying two plates. He came with Alyssa, who was walking over with a plate covered in strawberries. I steal one because I can and pop it into my mouth, it tastes... weird. Elias, who had turned around looked at me smiling there while Alyssa stared at me angrily.

”Organizer privilege?” I shrugged before Elias said 

“Clay, you’re really annoying sometimes” In my infinite... drowsiness? Why was I so tired? I replied

”If I wasn’t annoying you wouldn’t be friends with me, I’d be boring.” Elias, while drooping shook his head and seemed to not even hear me. Alyssa lay on the ground passed out. I snapped my head up, the drowsiness barely diminishing. Through the fog in my brain I screamed a thought. Did the carbon monoxide detectors go off? No! I continued thinking, my eyelids closing shut. Sleep gaa..ss? Then I came to a conclusion.

The snnaaccc.....                                              

...

I woke up to sirens, my head hurt a little but I felt well rested. As my eyes opened, everyone was lined up, tied up, where did somebody get all this rope? Everybody was still asleep. Considering how everybody sleep deprived themselves for some reason, they all might stay asleep longer than I, the sleep scheduled master-race.

People came down the hall, wearing... Guns? Like war stuff. They saw me and said “Heyo, we got an awake one! didn’t have much punch did ya?”

I was ungagged for some reason so I replied with blank tone

”I’m sleep intolerant” to which they smiled and laughed

“A joker then.”In a adrenaline induced cycle of make conversation I said

”Wanna see how I got these scars?” They laughed again, they had low standards for comedy. Then, surprising me they stopped laughing in a snap and said 

“Kid, you’re making jokes in a situation that will likely end with you dead” 

oh, thats much worse than what I was expecting.

...

What seemed like hours later, other people woke up. Was I the only one that woke up early? I still heard sirens. Though I felt numb, I really couldn’t do anything. How long had I been asleep? Why were we all trapped? The guards were about to come again. They were awkwardly spaced, so after this one I might have a chance to try to get a look outside... cmon... gogogoggogogogogoogogogogo! I used the slight looseness in the ropes tied around me to scoot forward, then I pushed my legs down. Using my feet I pushed my upper body so I could just barely see out the window. There was a police line, surrounding the school.

Terrorists? What? 

“Eyyyyyyyy! We got ourselves a volunteer!”

oh no.