“I need to go back!”
Eliza fought her way through the sea of peers who were all running in the opposite direction of her – she was a fish swimming upstream.
“My purse! Move! Ow! Out the way, I need to get my purse!”
Despite the numerous bumps and bruises of her peers, Eliza finally made it back to what used to be the Chemistry Lab. It was barely recognizable. “How could this have happened?” Eliza asked herself.
Monday had started like any other school week, slow, sluggish, and for the most part, pretty mundane. Although the forecaster spoke of a potential threat, Wake up San Francisco said the exact same thing twice last week. The only difference now was that the school wasn’t in one piece. Despite the circumstances, however, no one expected the day to lead to this.
“Oh no!” exclaimed Eliza upon reaching the Chemistry Lab, “baby where are you?!? It’s okay mama’s here. Where are y-”
At that moment, a second, more violent tremble shook the school. Eliza immediately fell to the ground in her not-so-suitable heeled ankle boots. Just as she was pulling herself to her feet, a spine-chilling shriek pierced through Eliza’s ears.
“Help! Someone please, help me!” someone screamed from down the hallway. “That voice…it sounds familiar” Eliza thought to herself. She got to her feet as quickly as she could and cautiously made her way over the concrete boulders and iron wiring.
Eliza squeezed her way through the door, nearly catching her sweater on an exposed metal beam. When she turned around, her heart sank into her stomach. She could barely see the girl standing with her arm wedged between some lockers and a large chunk of the roof that fell to the second floor, but it was just enough for Eliza to recognize who she was.
The girl froze as soon as she saw Eliza’s face.
“Dior!” Eliza gasped in disbelief, “oh my goodness! Hold on I’m coming!!!” Eliza slid, jumped, and nearly somersaulted her way over to her friend. “Don’t worry Didi, I’m here.”
“Haha,” Dior grinned, “those gymnastic classes really paid off, huh?”
“Yeah,” Eliza chuckled, “I guess they did.” Eliza struggled to wedge the block off of Dior’s arm. Thankfully, it wasn’t too heavy and Eliza was able to make Dior a little room to slip her arm out.
“Thank you so much Eliza,” Dior said, “my arm really hurts, I hope it’s not broken again. But more importantly, we need to find a way out of here.”
“You’re right,” Eliza said, “and don’t worry, I’m going to make sure you get to a doctor.”
“Thanks ‘Liza.” Dior smiled.
The girls looked around at their surroundings; their options were limited.
“We need to get to the first floor,” Eliza said. “The fastest way is down the main staircase.”
“Okay, let’s hurry,” Dior said, “we don’t know when the next trimmer’s going to come.”
The girls scrambled through the debris to get to the center of the school. Eliza led the way to minimize the chances of Dior adding more injury to her swollen arm.
“I can see it!” Eliza said. “Just around this chunk!”
“Hallelujah!” exclaimed Dior.
Eliza turned around and helped Dior over the last chunk of roof debris with her good arm and on to the first, squeaky step of the staircase.
  “Be careful Didi, we just need to get down these stairs ever so gently and we’ll be saf-”
Just then a third, earth-trembling shake went through the building.
“Come on!” Eliza yelled. “We need to get outside!”
Eliza placed Dior ahead of her with Dior taking two steps at a time. Then, the unthinkable happened. A piece of the ceiling fell on the staircase right behind Eliza and created a huge gap. Eliza tried to step out of range but her ankle twisted on the edge of the stair causing her to slip and lose her balance.
“Oh no, DIOR!!!” Eliza screamed.
“’Liza, no!!!” Dior yelled. Then, with all her might, Dior reached out and caught Eliza by just the threads of Eliza’s sweater and by a familiar-looking bracelet. Dior didn’t have any time to be shocked so she and Eliza quickly descended the stairs into the foyer.
“You kept it?” Dior asked, keeled over, catching her breath. “After all these years…you…you kept it?”
Eliza lifted her stretched-out sleeve revealing a small, sparkly charm bracelet. “Forever and always, right?”
Tears welled up in Dior’s eyes. She wiped her them and smiled, letting out a laugh. Eliza just doesn’t know how long Dior’s been waiting to hear those three little words. She too revealed her charm bracelet on her same wrist. “Forever and always.”
As they both were going in for a hug, the school shook yet again. The girls both looked at each other and ran out the front doors. When they reached safety, they gave each other a long-overdue embrace. While they were hugging, there was a loud crash and mini explosion. Eliza and Dior looked at each other, slowly turned around, and saw that the school had completely collapsed in on itself.
“Man…,” Dior sighed, looking more tired than anything else, “I hate Mondays.”
Eliza turns to Dior and laughs, “Hey, look on the bright side, this means that there’s no school tomorrow.”
“Oh ‘Liza,” Dior said, “You always know just what to say.”