As the world explodes... I am alive

It was just an ordinary school day. I arrived at 7:30, I visited my locker, ran some errands, and sat down to my normal morning socialization at "the spot" by my friends' lockers. Oh yeah, and then all 1600 of students and staff were herded out of the building into the cold morning sun. Yes, it was just your average ordinary Wednesday. As police officers began to rush into the building and began blocking late arriving students from entering at all after they climbed out of their cars, we began to wonder. My first thought... why are we having an assembly at 8 am? No...that couldn't be. Why are we having a drill at 8 am... no that couldn't possibly be. Then, one of my all knowing sources arrived and calmly, cooly informed me that someone had callled in with a bomb threat. Picture the face on the secretary... she has her morning coffee, and at 7:40 am, the phone rings.... she cheerfully answers, "Washburn Rural High School, how may I help you?" and hears the response of some maniac saying that he (or she, I will not stereotype) will be blowing the school to smithereens that day. What does one say to that? I imagine that there was complete silence on her end of the conversation as she perhaps dropped the reciever in shock. If anyone ever thinks that they are having a bad day at school, you try and sit with 1500 of your peers in your school's football stadium in the early morning, being told to sit down and shut up... and waiting.... for TWO AND A HALF HOURS as all feeling leaves your body and you are rendered entirely numb from the lovely morning breeze. Now, bomb threats and other school violence are an old hat for me, who experienced one at the tender age of eight, when my entire fourth grade class walked two miles to my house after some idiot called our ELEMENTARY school with such a threat. That cold November day, I rang the doorbell and smiled at my mother's aghast expression, "Mommy, can we come inside? It's really cold out here." Oh how I wish they would have sent us SOMEWHERE today. The middle school is a two minute walk NEXT DOOR and would have been perfectly able to accomodate us. After losing the feeling in my arms and legs I was seriously considering joining the small line of little girls from that school, running laps outside in their p.e. uniforms. The girl in the stands selling candy bars for some fundraiser, made a killing, selling her entire box in a matter of five minutes. "OH MY GOSH! SHE HAS FOOD. Quick, who has a dollar??" Yeah, stick a couple thousand teenagers in a set of bleachers and tell them to do nothing for hours on end- there were fights breaking out, crazy people running everywhere, person after person picking up their cell phone to call a friend, then standing up to wave their hands at the person they were calling- "I'M OVER HERE!" I am guilty on that last item, I used Bek's cell phone to call Ray, who was sitting all the way across the stadium. Some wimps even got their gullible parents to pick them up! All I wanted to do was call my mom and ask for a sweatshirt... or an enormous pot of hot cofee. But life moved on, bless those band kids who entertained us on the field, not for their normal one hour practice, but for three and a half hours total. Another image I wil never forget... a line of teachers, expressions grim, arms linked, almost as if in protest, standing next to the school, blocking the way to the parking lot so no one, I mean no one could get out. Where is my camera when I need it? Finally, at ten thirty or so... we were allowed back into the holding blocks- I have never been so happy to see those hallowed halls in my high school career. The sudden warmth sent all of our bodies into a sort of euphoric shock. Of course, it affected the entire school day, and insane rumors continued to take wing as no one spoke of anything else for the next three hours or so. Oh, and by the by... total number of weapons of mass destruction that entered our school building this a.m.- zero. The call was traced to some phone at the mall. Fantastic. If this was some sort of senior prank, I don't think that their fifteen hundred peers will be too thrilled with them come tomorrow morning. But I wouldn't put it past some people... Someone is gonna get hauled off! (Tomorrow's episode- Officer Targett- resident bulky police officer/security personnel- bolts down the hall, keys jingling as he tackles and cuffs the culprit...I wish... it happens every week anyway!) Much love and peace and all that... I wish bombs didn't exist... (a naiive wish, I know) but they do make for an exciting school morning.