School :

Bree slides her phone shut and walks over to Adam and Kiara, her black and white polka dot leggings standing out against her chained black mini and tie dye halter.

KIARA: “ decided for a random look today huh chica.”

BREE: “ nah, more comfort, but hey its totally there.”

ADAM: “ what happened to your arm you look like you slammed it against a pole?”

BREE: “ I got hit by a BW Beetle…..”

Adam bursts out laughing and Kiara smacks him in the back of the head.

KIARA: “ hey, not funney.”

ADAM: “yes it is. She cant make fun of all the times I got hit by stuff.”

BREE: “ oh yes I can, I didn’t get hit 10 times as a pedestrian. One of which involves a hybrid and another that involves a moped.”

ADAM: “ HEY!!!”

KIARA: “ Really?”

BREE: “ yeah, really?”

KIARA: “ that’s bad Adam. But chica we should take you up to the health office and get you checked out. Did you hit your head at all?”

BREE: “ look guys, I’ll be fine, I just got a head ach and a bruised arm…not too much different from any other day.”

ADAM: “ yeah, except the torn back pack. How’d you manage that one?”

BREE: “ Tripped on a curb and the seem ripped. But hey before I got hit I saved my camera and my drawings, but I’m afraid my binder of forever has now bitten the dust.”

Bree holds up the binder that’s been shredded in 1/2, the rainbow duct tape that was holding it together ripped, rings bent and broken beyond repair. A sad look washes over her face as she looks at the binder that she has had since 6^th grade. So many good memories…

KIARA: “hey want one of mine? My mom baught me too many and its blue! It’s a bit worn but it works.”

BREE: “ sure? Either of you two happen to have a mini sewing kit?”

ADAM:  “ like you even had to ask. Here.”

BREE: “ With how often you get holes in your pants I figured it was a 50 50 shot. “

Its true, he is always snagging a pant leg on a fence, or tripping over a rock or something. He has always been one of those who cant do anything with out injuring himself or his clothes. But when it counts he’s always able to to pull it all together with out getting hurt too badly.

ADAM: “ hello? Anyone home? The bell rang your gonna be late to woodshop AGAIN!”

BREE: “ Oh Shit! C ya!”

Bree shoves the binder and the sewing kit into her bag and slides into her seat just in time to hear the bell ring. Bree pops her head up when she hears her name and sees a substitute teacher. Translation, quiet day. The day when the talkers talk even louder, the kids leave for the bathroom and don’t come back and the rest pretend like their working. Bree turns to look at her back pack and starts to wonder how she is going to secure the zipper. Line sewing wont do it unless she does it like a million times. Then again she is in here for about 2 hours.  She grabs the needle and the neon thread and starts on her way sewing back and fourth while the teacher tries to incorporate what todays lesson was supposed to be.

She finishes her bag with far too much spare time and tests the zipper. But before she can pull out her book she hears the PA system kick on.

“ STUDENTS AND STAFF, THIS LOCK DOWN IS NOT A DRILL. PLEASE FOLLOW PROPER PROCEDURES AT THIS TIME. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

While the sub figures out what to do, one of the loud girls grab the keys off her desk and walks over to the door while another kid turns off the lights and motion for the kids to quiet their phones. Some kids are sending txt messages to their parents or other kids around the school and some are grabbing their stuff and heading towards the wall when they all hear it. A gun shot hitting something metal near bye. Every one drops to the floor, they hear screams coming from near bye classrooms full of terrified kids. Bree quietly grabs her knife out of her bag, scoots over to the tool closet and gropes for something heavy and metal. Her hands find one of the larger heavier long wood clamps with the 3 feet of excess metal and she adjusts it so she has the longest grip with the bulk of the weight at one end. The loud girl with the long brown hair who shut the door scoots over to her and wispers.

“please say you aren’t really going to try to be a hero.”

“no, but if that person comes in here I am so not going down helpless. “

“this isn’t the movies Bree! That isn’t going to help you or anyone else in here, this is about surviving not pride.”

“yeah, hence the big fucking wood clamp.”

Another gunshot hits something close to the classroom making the brown haired girl jump and cower. Bree puts her arm around her to try to comfort her.

“ I have too much to live for, I don’t wana die like this. I waned to be a doctor, I wanted to be Dr. Eliot Alender and have kids and stuff. God I don’t want to die like this. I … ”

“ shhhhh…. It’s alright, you aren’t going to die, none of us are.”

Eliot leans into Bree and several more gunshots go off, they can hear some guy yelling at the top of his lungs only hearing bits and pieces of what he’s saying. And Bree starts thinking about what Eliot said. Bree didn’t have any real goals for her life, she didn’t even really want to get a deploma. She took everything in stride, never really planned ahead for much of anything. Her life has always been hectic and so she never bothered.  She wasn’t looking for a free ride mind you but she thought that she wanted to live long enough to get over her past. Bree’s hands begin to shake and quiver at the memory flash that comes for just a brief second when she feels someone wiping her face. She brings her brain back to now and see’s it’s Eliot.

“ You okay Bree?”

 “ yeah sorry, was just thinking about stuff”

all of a sudden the door handle to their classroom starts rattling like someone is trying to open the door. It gets so quiet that not even a breath is heard amongst the students.

“ PEACE MAKER!!! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THIS FUCKING SCHOOL SOMEWHERE GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE OR I WILL START SHOOTING DOORS OPEN!!”

“ shit, shit shit shit!!!”

“What?!?!”

“he is looking for me.”

“why?”

“he hit me with a car this morning. And tried to hit his girlfriend infront of me and I kept him from doing it. And now he is uber pissed. Get everyone into a safer room, there isn’t a class in the photo lab right now and he doesn’t go here, he doesn’t know it’s even there. Get the class into the photo lab and hide yourselfs, it’ll be cramped but that’s okay.”

“ don’t try to be the hero”

“ I’m not, I’m doing the right thing. I’m the person he is looking for. And no one is going to get hurt in my place.  Do it now!”

She gets the kids into the photo lab and shuts the door. Bree sends a quick txt to Patrick telling him that she loves him, regardless if he likes her or not at least she said it. She dials 911 and quiety tells them where on campus he is and leaves her phone connected to the operator under a desk. She grabs some of the heavy tools and sets them next to the door just in case keeping her wood clamp close but hidden, her knife in her bra held secretly in place by her underwire.

“ in here!”

She dives under the side of a table while she hears 5 shots fired into the door handle, hearing the door squeak open and foot steps walking towards her.

“ you just RUINED MY LIFE!! Do you have ANY IDEA how hard it is for me to get a girlfriend!”

“ well if you were more respectful of women there wouldn’t have been a problem. “

“ SHUT UP!!! JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN!!!”

“Okay! I’m listening.”

He steps towards her keeping his gaze at eyelevel and his pistol towards her face.

“ I’ve been in love with that woman for 3 years. And you just ended that! I cant get into football now cause of what you did to my ankle. You have RUINED ME…”

He points the gun and shoots near bree’s feet making her to jump backwards.

“ … I HATE YOU!!! You and your FUCKING WASH LAWS! YOU shouldn’t call yourself peace keeper. You Aint a peace keeper, you’re a stupid bitch who messes in other peoples business.”

“no.”

“EXCUSE ME”

Her voice drops all pleasantries  and becomes numb.

“ I didn’t chose that name it was given to me. I’m only a bitch when picked on. And you are the one who’s stupid.”

“ care to explain your thought behind that before I fucking kill you.”

“ you put an entire school under lock down, 90% of which have cell phones. You and your friends picked that fight and lost, and she would have broken up with you due to your abusive nature.  So no matter what you just ruined your own fucking life. Especially now cause I guarantee that there are cops here by now. I don’t tolerate people like you. Do you wana add murder to your charges? don’t be stupid and really ruin your life.”

He shoots near her feet again, this time she doesn’t flinch, she is so numb that she just lets the shocking sound roll over her. She stares him right in the eyes, he dares himself closer and points the gun closer to her forehead. 

Bree starts thinking how things even got to this point. She never tried to run into anyone in the wash, she didn’t mean to mess up this guys life even though he would have probably done it himself eventually. By taking things in stride she may have just gotten herself killed, she can see how angry he is, she can see he is twitchy. But she cant bring herself to sympathize for him.

 Every person she has ever tousled with or faught with, she didn’t want to hurt them irreparably. Could this be the first time she could hurt someone badly with out feeling guilty about it? Did this mean she was losing her humanity? In a few years could she be doing something like this without caring about the countless people who would need therapy or stitches or gravestones?

“no”

“NO WHAT!”

“no I wont be like this.”

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!”

“you, I don’t want to be like you. I don’t want to not care about the effects I have on other people. So I’ll tell you the same thing I said to the last person that was stupid enough to stick a gun in my face. “

bree reaches out her hand and pulls the gun barrel to her forehead closing the last foot of distance between them.

“Pull the trigger.”

“wait what??”

“ did I studder? Pull the trigger.”

“ I’m not going to pull it cause you tell me to.”

“ You do understand that I got my name for a reason right? If I’m just going to ruin everyone’s lives then fucking kill me. I’m not doing my job. We have 10 laws, they are simple and have an obvious reason for each, to prevent shit like this. But there will always be ass holes like you who don’t listen or think to pay attention to the world around you and the consequences that happen from your every thought.  ”

She lays one of her hands lightly on her pendant letting her other hand drift slightly behind her close to but not grasping the wood clamp. Then she hears a light gasp from the other side of the room. Jake notices the sound and looks up to see a door cracked and begins point his gun in the direction of Eliot. Time slows down, bree grabs the knife and slashes the wrist holding the gun as her left hand grabs the wood clamp, making her body spin so that she hit him as hard as she could in the back of the head. His gun fires but misses its mark by about 2 feet. He staggers for a second and drops to his knees and stares at the blood flowing from his wrist. Bree kicks his head making sure to hit him in the same spot as the wood clamp.

“CLOSE THE DOOR TILL I OR A COP TELL YOU OTHERWISE!!!”

she hears the soft click of the door latching and turns back to Jake. Jake is still staring at his wrist and the growing puddle of blood he is dripping on the ground. He starts shaking but grips his pistol tighter and takes aim at bree.

“ fine, I’ll start with the damage you did to me.”

She goes to swing the wood clamp at the gun but her hit doesn’t connect in time. He aims for her ankle and pulls the trigger, but due to his shaking he only grazes it enough to make it bleed for a while. The wood clamp connects and the gun goes flying across the room. Bree goes to swing at his skull again with the clamp aiming for is head again.  He starts to move towards the gun when an officer enters with gun drawn.

 Bree is already in full swing when she notices the office and cant stop the clamp in time before it connects with his skull. The second before it connects she stops feeling numb and feel an emence pressure of guilt for what is about to happen. The clamp connects and he drops with no hint of movement, his skull bleeding perfusely blood spattered across brees hands..

“DON’T MOVE!”

three more officers come into the room guns drawn only to notice that bree has bloo spatter all over her hands. they know they are here to get the boy but a single tear escapes her eyes as her emotions shut down at the horror that lay before her.

 “ Miss are you okay? You’re bleeding.”

“ I’m fine, I don’t feel it. Go tell the kids behind the door over there that its okay to come out now.”

“ Miss, you’re bleeding heavily. We should patch you up. We have a medical car out front I’ll escort you to it.”

“let me get my phone..”

She reaches under the desk and hangs up her phone. There was a reply txt from Patrick.

TXT MESSAGE:

FROM: Patrick B<3

I love you too. =) I’m happy u feel the same. Riff called me and asked if I could grab u after school for Griffith, I’ll be there in like 30 min. I have something for you. Wana have lunch together?”

TXT MESSAGE:

TO: Patrick B<3

=) yes I would!!! But the school is under lock down and I need to go to the ambulance cause I got a good graze. Yes I’m fine. See you in a bit. “

The officer walks her over to the ambulance where she waits for them and the school to release her.

Riff

            Bree jolts and her back slams against the wall. Her body quivering as she starts to remember that she isn’t drowning. Her heart is pounding and every part of her body hurts. She tries desperately to calm herself down but it isn’t working. Nothing she does has any effect at all. She tries to get up from her bed and finds that she is shaking too hard and almost falls from the safety of the cool walls and her comforter.

BREE (THINKING TO HERSELF):

“ WHAT THE HELL!?! I REALIZE I’M DREAMING AND IT TOSSES ME INTO THE FRIGGEN OCEAN???  And why the HELL does HE keep showing up! I HATE all these shaking fits I fucking HATE them! I FUCKING HATE HIM! So why does my body do this, what the hell caused all this shit in the first place? I don’t even remember when I started shaking like this almost every single night…… God I need to talk to someone right now…… Riff said I could call if I needed to. He might be up and doing stuff any way, its like 7:30. I’ll give it a shot. I think my body is calmed down enough.”

Bree grabs her phone out from under her pillow, being sure to wipe the sweat off her hand before grabbing the phone and dialing his number. She sandwiches the phone between the pillow and her ear and just tried to relax as the phone rang. She almost thought he wasn’t going to pick up then she hears the phone pick up on the other end.

RIFF: “ Hello?”

BREE:” Hey Riff its b..”

RIFF: “ kool! Hold on just a sec while I put you on speaker phone…. So whats up?”

BREE: “ I need to talk to someone, I’m not too sure I quite understand some of the shit that’s happening right now and I’m really confused and...”

RIFF: “okay, hold up, step back a few steps , you sound like you just woke up.”

BREE: ” Well I kinda did. But that’s not why I decided to talk to you, can people control their dreams?”

RIFF: “ yeah…… It’s called lucid dreaming…”

BREE: “ lucid what?”

RIFF: “ Lucid dreaming, did you control your dream?”

BREE: “ Well no, but I figured out I was dreaming while I was in it..”

RIFF: “ Coolio, so what was the dream about?”

BREE: “ I don’t think you wana know…..”

RIFF: “ B, you’ve known me for quite some time now, you can trust me,”

BREE: “ Well it was more of a …..well I don’t know, worse than a nightmare, almost a rerun of parts of my life and stuff with some really weird variations. I’ve been having them for a while now and they really fuckin’ suck..”

RIFF: “ Bree, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me…”

BREE: “ How do I know you aren’t going to just wave me off?”

RIFF: “ B…”

BREE: “ How do I know you aren’t going to call me a liar? “

RIFF: “ is there more to this nightmare than just your imagination Bree?”

With some hesitation Bree starts telling him about her night mare while she walks to school, shaking a bit while doing so. She tells him in detail all of the things her brain had projected and This made her nervous, really nervous, she didn’t know how he was going to react. She didn’t like not knowing.

RIFF: “ Woah. Yeah that’s definitely not a nightmare, that’s a night terror.”

BREE; “ Whats the difference?”

RIFF: “Well one is more dangerous than the other for the one having it. For instance screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, those are all symptoms of a night terror. Some people will even open their eyes and move or walk around there have even been circumstances of people punching walls, even though it doesn’t happen that often. A nightmare on the other hand is just a bad dream.”

BREE:  “ah…. Got it.”

RIFF: “ so. When you realized you were dreaming what happened?”

BREE: “ I told you, it dumped me in some random ocean.”

RIFF: “ No, I mean think for a second. Just how did you get from the mirror room to the ocean?”

BREE: “ well…. Um….after I realized what was going on I decided to break the mirror in-front of me cause I just wanted to escape and just get the fuck out of there. I didn’t think it would throw me in the ocean.”

RIFF: “ hold on for a second and back up a step. Didn’t you say that you had kicked the mirror in the beginning really hard and it didn’t break or crack or anything?”

BREE: “ well yeah..”

RIFF: “ Okay good. Now when you went to escape did you have a location in mind?”

BREE: “ No.”

*riff starts laughing out his words a little as he says them*

RIFF: “well then, there is your answer. “

BREE:  “What are you talking about? Where is the answer there?”

RIFF: “ well here is an example, looking at yourself in a mirror while you dream is like looking at exactly the way you see yourself and the problems you haven’t dealt with. If the ocean represents emotion what do you think you breaking the mirrors and falling into the ocean means?”

Bree had to remind herself to keep walking or she wouldn’t get to school on time. But the question he asked made her think, and think really hard. She remembered that the ocean was thrashing, and it pulled her under. So that could mean that she was overwhelmed by her emotions, but that could be just because she is bipolar. But then again she was really bitter and mixed emotions about everything that happened to her and what about the mirrors shattering? what could that be? Could it be her trying to find herself a new image, or could it be her breaking away from her old one by rejecting the guilt she had about everything?

RIFF: “Hey B…? you still there? “

BREE: “ yeah, just thinkin’.”

RIFF: “ Well why don’t you tell me what you think then.”

BREE: “ uh, well, I was just thinkin’ a thrashing sea would mean I’m overwhelmed and stuff right? And like what about the mirrors breaking and stuff, like…..um….. I don’t know it could be like me breaking away from another self image. But I was really angry at the reflections. and I don’t understand why the kittens were in the mirror. I don’t even know what those freaking kittens mean and they show up all the fucking time.”

RIFF: “ well that’s quite a thought process. Good job. So tell me some more about these kittens of yours.”

BREE: “ what do you want to know about them?”

RIFF: “ Like when do they appear? Do they appear in good dreams too? “

BREE: “ Riff I haven’t had a good dream in a long time.”

RIFF: “ there we go, so just the bad ones, okay, so, do they all show up every time, or only when a certain memory is tapped?”

That was enough to make her forget to step up for the curb. the sound of her bag ripping brought her back to reality. Bree looked at the mess that had now appeared on the ground. The seem holding the zipper ripped leaving a big enough hole for her drawings, poi, and her books to spread out along the assfault. Quickly she grabs all of her drawings to put back in her binder before the wind catches them and starts picking up everything else as she makes her way back to the curb.

RIFF:  “Hey B? What was that? Are you okay?”

BREE: “ yeah, I’m fine, my bag ripped open, figures, since its really old, I’m just trying to get all of my drawings before the winds does. The fall practically destroyed my binder……”

As she turned to pick up her book she saw something shineout of the corner of her eye.  Her brain kicked into a high gear and everything slowed down just enough to process. It was a silver BW Beetle ripping around the corner of the residential street not to far from her. And judging by the fact that they didn’t slow down they didn’t notice she was there. She quickly saw she really couldn’t get out of their way and tossed her bag onto a bush with hopes of saving her camera. she put up her right arm to cover her face and she shut her eyes. She heard a horn blow and the girls in the car scream as the driver slammed on the breaks. For a moment all she could hear was her breathing, and what sounded like a scream escaping her lips. The next thing she felt was the car hit her arm and her rolling over to the side.

 Her ears rang like bells and her head hurt as she slowly opened her eyes. She was looking at the curb she had tripped on just a couple minutes ago.  She was very dizy, very mad, and definitely no longer in favor of being nice. The girls got out of the car to help her up and see if she was okay. Bree heard a murmuring coming from her phone but didn’t care that he would hear what she was about to say.

BREE: “  Alright! Who was driving?”

GIRL 1: “ Jake.”

GIRL 2: “ your such a snitch!”

BREE: “ HEY ASS HOLE GET OUT HERE!”

Calmly he gets out of the car, and bree recognizes him from the wash. He was the one with the injured ankle. The first emotion to strike his face was apologetic, then it turned to a smirk as he recognized her.

JAKE: “ well isn’t this pleasant. Pay back is a bitch isn’t it!”

BREE: “ you better watch your mouth hot shot, remember how this ended last time you tried to pick on me.”

GIRL 2: “ what? Jake what is she talking about? Were you hanging out with those dim wits again? I thought you said you would stop with this stupid shit!”

JAKE:  “ huny bunney we will talk about this later. “

GIRL 2: “  don’t later me!”

JAKE: “ SHUT UP AND GET IN THE FUCKING CAR!”

Bree watched as he went to back hand her and she grabbed his arm.

BREE: “ you don’t hit a girl.”

JAKE: “ this isn’t your business.”

BREE: “ I said, you DON’T hit a girl. But girls, throw his shit out of the car and drive away. If he hits you you shouldn’t stay with him. And if you are going to do that I suggest you do it now.”

The blond twig like girls got in their car and left, throwing out his back pack. And bree then let go of his arm.

BREE: “ now if you follow me you will be stopped and I know your ankle is still hurt. Have a nice day.”

Bree gatherd her things and put the phone back up to her ear. And turned the corner to the school.

RIFF:  “ B what was that?”

BREE: “ You don’t wana know.

RIFF: “ hmmmm… right… are you busy after school?”

BREE: “ Uh, no I don’t think so, why?”

RIFF: “ cause I think this convo is better suited for being done in person, can you get a ride to Griffith park and be there around 3? ”

BREE: “maybe..”

RIFF : cool tell me by noon if you can or not. Do you mind if I grab a couple people?”

BREE: “ No I don’t mind, but please let them be trust worthy. I gotta go ‘cause Adam and Kiara are waving me in, text you later.”