Page 1 of The Only Shot that Mattered

“I’m telling you…if we just slip out right now before Mr. Landon gets here, we can be eating french toast sticks from Burger King before the bell for first period rings.” Cam’s grin made Kenna roll her eyes. Her bestie stayed trying to cut school. Honestly, she couldn’t blame him. As a senior, it was their right, but she couldn’t fall for his shenanigans today.

“You know I have a calculus test this afternoon. Counts for half my grade. I can’t skip today.” While she responded to him, she pulled a few notebooks out of her blue backpack, peering around at her classmates filing into the room. The first bell for homeroom would ring in about two minutes, so the activity in the hallways and in their homeroom was high.

Cam let out the most dramatic groan as he laid his head on his desk. His cheek was pressed directly against the smooth surface as he peered up at her. “Are you sure?”

She giggled at his antics. “Positive. Now pick your big ass head up before your junior high acne returns.”

His head popped up, causing the long braids he had in his head to swing wildly. The pink beads on the ends clacked together in a symphony that reminded Kenna all too much of her childhood. She used to hate when her mama put beads in her hair.

Cam slit his eyes at her and pointed a finger in her direction, the long press on nails he put on that morning nearly poking her in the eye. “You’re never supposed to speak of that. It was hideous. Hideous! How dare you muddy up my day by bringing that up?”

This was Cam—forever dramatic and always over the top. Kenna rolled her eyes, trying to focus back on the black notebook in front of her, which was designated for calculus. She was nervous about the test. Good grades always seemed to find her, but it wasn’t without much fretting. Her nerves were always bad on test days, but she somehow managed to ace them every time.

“Camden Lewis, will you ever stop being such a drama queen?” she asked, not bothering to look up from her notebook.

The gasp that fell from his mouth caused a few of their classmates to look in their direction, but Kenna was unfazed as she kept reading over her notes.

“Not the whole government. I don’t know what I did to deserve this kind of abuse,Kenna James, but I rebuke it in the name of He who is holy and righteous.”

From the corner of her eye, she peeped Cam making a cross motion with his hand, waving them in the air fiercely.

Kenna opened her mouth to respond, but the bell rang, cutting her off. She noticed Mr. Landon wasn’t at the front of the class, which was odd. He was always early and greeted everyone as they came in. She was about to comment on that when she heard a loudbangin the hallway.

She exchanged confused glances with Cam. “What was that?—”

A piercing scream punctured the air, spilling into the classroom, causing every hair on Kenna’s body to stand on end. Mr. Landon stumbled into the classroom and slammed the door shut.

He was a tall man but skinny as a rail with skin the color of deep midnight. Today, though, he somehow looked pale—ashen—as if he’d seen a ghost.

“Active shooter,” he muttered, looking at his students with wide eyes. And then, with a louder voice, he repeated, “Active shooter.”

As if to drive home his point, two more shots rang out, only slightly muffled by the door. It felt like everyone in the room snapped out of a daze, and all at once, students screamed, scrambled, and cried out, seeking safety.

The first thing Kenna did was stand up. She knocked over her book bag and reached for Cam, clinging to him.

Cam was only a few inches taller than her, but he was solid. He didn’t work out, but his mama gave him some good genes because he was sure thicker than a snicker, and in his embrace, Kenna felt safe. That secure feeling only lasted for a couple of seconds because another shot rang out, shaking her to her core.

“Come on,” Cam sputtered.

They were at the back of the class already, and their classmates had already filed toward them, in the far back corner away from the door. Mr. Landon quickly locked the door and made a beeline toward them, sweating and breathing heavily.

Kenna’s heart raced as she looked around the room with tears in her eyes, desperately looking for somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere. Underneath Mr. Landon’s desk was entirely too obvious. If the shooter got in, they would surely check there. Other than that, it was a standard classroom with a coupleof elevating steps, so the desks gradually rose, allowing the students to have a good view of the front of the room no matter where they sat.

As her peers formed around her, all she heard were sniffles and whispers filled with fear.

“Everyone, please, calm down. Remember the drills we did? Be as calm and quiet as possible,” Mr. Landon reminded, his voice cracking slightly.

“How can we do that?” a girl, Ashley, shrieked. She stood right in front of Kenna, who quickly clamped a hand over the girl’s mouth.

Ashley slumped into her, and a muffled sob sounded from behind Kenna’s hand. Kenna didn’t know the girl that well. They’d gone to the same school since junior high, but they ran in different circles. Oddly, her mind drifted to the one time they had a meaningful interaction. It was on the first day of high school four years ago. They rode the same bus, and neither of them knew anyone else on their route, so they sat together that morning and chatted politely with one another, helping to ease their nerves. By the time they went home that day, they’d already made some new friends and had never sat together again. That memory felt oddly sentimental at the moment, causing tears to stream down Kenna’s face as she cradled Ashely in front of her, trying to calm her as she’d done on the first day of high school.

Another shot rang out, causing Kenna to shudder. Suddenly, her mind drifted to her little brother. He was a freshman, and his homeroom was just down the hall. Rashad was notoriously late for homeroom, and fear gripped her as she prayed to God that today had been the exception. She prayed he was tucked safely inside his classroom just like her right at that moment…

Another shot.

Another shudder.

This one sounded closer to their classroom.

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