The teacher looked surprised for a moment, not sure whether to believe the student or not. I am not sure myself. The teacher went over to his desk to check his cell-phone. There was a brief moment of disbelief, then sudden realization. As if on cue, the principal of the school can be heard from the overhead speakers. “Students with their own transportation readily available now may leave. Students that rely on buses must wait for a few moments while we ready them.”

Students who drive, and students who already have parents at the school, got up to leave. The teacher, packing up his items, was talking in a quick and panicked voice, “Everyone, to the front of the school. We must leave quickly and safely. If not, you may accidentally get left here.”

With that, he left the room before even the rest of the students exited. I was getting really nervous, especially since I did not have a cell-phone, so I did not know what was going on and I had no ways to contact my parents,who work further away from the town. I can only hope that my parents are already here.

I left with the other students at my side, all murmuring about what was happening. I keep asking them for the reason why the town was evacuating, but they were all too distracted with finding their own way out.

Students that ride buses usually have to go to the front of the school, and that is where I went. There were other students waiting for buses, one of them being Jason. He looked about as worried and nervous as I was, trying to talk with the others when they are not talking back. I approached him, and he became slightly relieved when he saw me. “There you are. Do you know why they are evacuating the town?” he asks me.

“No, no-one is talking to me and won’t tell me what is going on.”

“I’ve tried looking to see if mom or dad is here, but I haven’t seen them.”

“Maybe after this, they’ll finally get us a cell-phone just in case this happens again.”

“Perhaps.”

Buses come driving down the street and onto the school grounds. When the students saw the buses, they all crowded together, hoping to be the first ones on. Only three buses came, and Jason gave me a look that matched mine. It was not enough. As the students fill the buses, the less likely of a chance that we will have a spot. Jason and I try to push our way through the crowd towards the buses, but we get pushed back in response. I get a feeling that we will not make it on a bus, and I see that Jason may be getting the same feeling.

After a sigh of defeat, Jason turns around and speed walks towards the school building. I follow him, confused, but trusting his judgement. All of the staff of the school are outside helping the other students, so they did not see us walking into the building. We walked into the front office, and Jason went over to and started dialing on the office phone. I kept an eye on the buses, in case there may be room for us, as Jason first tries calling our father. He did not answer his phone nor his work phone. Jason then tries calling our mother. At first, she did not answer her phone, but then, to our relief, she answered her work phone. I can only hear Jason’s side of the phone call, but it is enough to know that we might not have a way to get to safety along with everyone else. After about two minutes, Jason says bye and hangs up the phone. He looks at me with a “there’s nothing we can do” look and watched as the buses drive away, leaving behind a few students.

“Did mom know what’s going on? Why we need to evacuate?” I ask Jason.

“She says she doesn’t know, but I get this feeling that she’s hiding something.”

“What do we do now?”

Jason shrugged his shoulders, “Want to go home?”

“Well… we have nowhere else to go.”

“Alright, then let’s go home.”

We both leave the school building, and started walking down the road that leads into our neighborhood. A person from the group of students that were left behind calls out to us. “Where are you guys going?”

Jason and I just looked at each other, and then Jason responded, “Might as well go home!”