Second, i would like to thank Nate for being there for me. this is how the story goes: we were in social studies class (as i mentioned before, each class has around 16 people in it) looking at a website for our current unit of study (economics) when there was a knock on the door. It was frank, who is pretty much the school handyman needing to talk to the teacher (ted for this class). the two stepped out the door for a second to discuss something. i was on the opposite of the room so i couldn't hear them. seconds later ted entered the classroom again. Apparently it was raining because ted had a few drops of water on his shirt. i didn't think much of it at the time but i do now. It couldn't have been more than a minute before the fire alarm went off.
"don't respond to that please, frank just warned me that that might happen and that we should just ignore it." yelled ted over the fire alarm. If you have ever been in a school when the fire alarm goes off, you know how incredibly hard it is to ignore (with the blaring alarm and the flashing lights an all) but the alarm discontinued in a about a minute.
they must be running some tests on the alarm systems I thought. we continued on doing the things that we had been doing until the intercom came on and someone said "teachers please get your classes to the natural disaster safety positions" and we all went to the tiny back room.
Now you must know that our classrooms are in what is best described as six double wide trailers. they are all separated so we have to go outside to get to our next classes. the school has recently invested in building a new building which is commonly referred to as "the new building".
For some reason i felt the need to be near one of the boys but i ended up lodged between Luci and Rachel with phoebe across from me. we all sat down. It didn't smell good at all in that room and when i looked around i realised why, there was a hamburger, covered in a whitish greenish mold and smelling heavily of decomposition, right next to my right ear.
"when is this drill going to be over?" inquired somebody to my right after a while
"this isn't a drill" said ted.
I must say, that was quite reassuring (NOT!). Seconds later ted got a call on his cellphone.
"were going to the new building" was what he said after he hung up.
we all rushed to the door. when it was opened, we could see rain pelting the ground. each person ran out into the the rain. water was flowing over everything. i couldn't help but think how absolutely beautiful everything looked. there must have been about half of an inch of water flowing across the parking lot. We entered the new building and veered to the right into a medium large room that looked like half of a hexagon and squished across the inside wall. we were inside the building and in safety. more kids and teachers streamed into the door. Everyone was completely soaked. the 8th grade was in the room and 6th and 7th were following. we all sat against the wall. i was to the far back of the room leaning against a sink. One of the seventh graders (Nate) was looking around for a place to sit. i gestured to right next to me and he came and sat down. i was huddled up into a ball and shaking (not only was i wet and the room was cold but i was scared out of my mind) but i still smiled at him. ted commanded everybody's attention. "there has been a tornado watch posted for this area. we are pretty safe here though, these walls are a full foot of concrete. we will stay down here until the post has been withdrawn."
We sat in silence for a while.
"everybody partner up with someone sitting near you." i looked over to Nate and held out my hand. he took it. it was so comforting to know that someone was near me that would look out for me. I was expecting to clasp for a second then releas but he held on. maybe he could see that I needed it. what ever the reason i was greatful for his hand wraped around mine. it must have been around an hour that we stayed like that. just being quiet and sometimes wispering to eachother how much we wished that we had our cellphones with us so that we could check on our families.
I sometimes wonder how long we would have stayed like that if i hadn't let go of his hand. i didn't want his girlfriend to see us like that (yeah, she was in the room too) and i didn't want the other people in my class to see us holding hands (that would result with not only people teasing us but possibaly nate and his girlfriend's breakup).
When we finally got out of there, i looked up at nate and said "thank you".
So again, thankyou so much nate, you were there when i needed somebody the most and you really helped me get through the tornatio watch.
~elsie
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