Happy Mask

23rd and Berry

I suddenly wake up in a car my dads car he is singing jazz music we heard at a Cafe in New Orleans.

Something tapes me on the shoulder I am suddenly back in the subway car almost to 23rd and Berry. I

hunch over and put my head in my hands. It has been three years and I still have flash backs to when it

happened. Ella looks at me worryingly about me. I sit back up " I'm fine " I say " You sure " she replays. I

nod. The subways comes to a stop. " Ok. " I say. We all stand up. " Ok lets get going." I say we walk out of

the subway car I feel snow slowly falling down to the ground as we walk out of the subway station.

We walk towards a old market place with only a few ma and pa shops still up that are still there from

when mall the still living and vibrant. We walk towards a large abandoned warehouse. Ella looks at me

with that putirde mask on . She points in the direction of the entrance. We walk towards a older subway

entrance. We walk down the stairs to the entrance to our school.

everyone who goes to this school is as our government calls "broken" The hall towards the school is

covered with spray paint and art previous students have painted here. Dozens of us walk down the hall

talking about there summer break.

The end of the hall is a large room with bean bags everywhere where students can sit around When

learning certain subjects. Most of us throw our bags to the side of the wall since we have no lockers and

we can get stuff quicker.

I look to the wall to see Elliot. I run over "hi." I say as he turns around towards me "Oh, Hi ! " He says

happily giving me a hug. "How was summer ? " pretty good since I have not talked to any officials since

the year mark. " Me says ending with a smile. "You?" " Umm been covering up the metal leg pretty well,

and I am not dead so , Great ! " I say .

I look at Elliots hand and see the nail polish so delicately place on his finger nails purple. Thank god he

wears gloves everywhere he goes. WE enter the main room seeing paintings everywhere except a small

pictueon the wall of the founders . Jacob and William Billard.

The school was founded in 2063 by the two of them founded this school. Only a few months earlier there

sister was executed for being Blind. After that they did not wat anyone else to deal with that. So they

made this school for people like us who would be in much danger outside the schools wall and here we

can celebrate these imperfections.

I grab Eliiot and call for Nick and Ella to come to were we are. We all meet in the center pf the room, We place bean bags in a circle We sit around and look at our numbers today. Everyone quickly looks back but my eye was ccaught on one group of people who were standing close together holding each other, someone must had been caught Hannah,Tom, Audrey, Christ ,Ben, Morgan . Theodore. I then turned around putting my head in my hands hoping Theodore is alright. "Alice You ok ?"asked Elliot I shack my head lying. "Alice you sure you ok ?" asks Ella. I quickly tense and turn up towards there direction "Yes ! I fine." I say with tear marks on my face. " W-we may have lost Theodore."I say shakily . Everyones face turns serious. We are silent until class starts.

Erin Billard , The daughter of Jacob Billard goes over the inter com saying class is starting now. My friends and i ran to science class my favorite Mr.V .We all sit at desks in a circular arrangement with his chair in the middle of that circle"Good morning class open your books to pg 287

"OK,So how was everyones summer ?" he asks "Oh, I went to my friends house lot. " said a student "I did mission trip to Romania." Said another.After she said that the class were all in awes since Romania was one of the few countries that do not have masks and they wear what ever they want ans act how ever they want.

" I went there once " Said Mr.V "Anyone else ?" he asks. The class is silent. "Ok so , Let's get started " he says clapping his hands together. As he turns on his computer I can hear the quiet purring of the computer as he turned on the video. I took in a deep breathe as the opening credits appeared on the screen.

The sleep deprivation from summer is finally catching up with me. I fight back the longing to close my eyes, I slowly gave in to exhaustion and feel asleep.

I wake up in Elliot's arms and feel alert like I just had coffee. I look around to a silent and empty room except for Elliot humming. I bring my head up and see Elliot's mysterious grey eyes look at me with a smirk. I stay stuck on his eyes , those grey eyes that are like storms that you wonder if the storm will become more peaceful or dangerous.

A low pitched noise pierce both of our ears. The lights of the building flicker and engulf us in darkness.I hear the sound of metal toed boots stomp. Bang. My ear ring at such a high pich I cup my hands over my ears. Another bsng goes off, The ringing intensifies.

I see the storm growing dangerous and frantic as Elliots eyes dart around the room. I hear My breathing becomes as shaky as if just saw a murder.He looks back at me. Elliot places his hand on my cheek. " It's gonna be ok , It's gonna be ok ." He says as i can see the storm of emotion becoming more and more dangerous. I grab Elliot's hand and crouch under the desk .

Then I hear, a scream and those boots moving towards the scream. My shaky breathe turns to hyperventilation. I hear that same high pitched scream but louder and shriller. Elliot, probably seeing my irregular breathing puts his free hand over my mouth.

I can see through the door way I see the source of the shrill screaming. Girl with black hear and green eyes ,about age 14 .Deaf. She was a bookworm always sneaking a book or two into class and sometimes finding sneaky ways to cheat on tests. I think her name was Emma.

I can see she has determination. I see she is clawing, biting, kicking , screaming trying anyway to have them go away as if nightmares.

They somehow Grab her and take her away. I still her screams of horror.

Alice. Breathe in ,Breathe out. I pull my feet towards me and curl into the fetal position next to Elliot. I feel Elliots arm rap around me as i cling to his shirt as if a fortess from what just happened.

When i let go of Elliot's shirt I see Ella and Nick. Nick is crouched next to me studying the surcomstances. Ella and Elliot are talking. The lights have flicked back to life. And I hear people outside. " Guys can we go ?" They all nod. They know I can not deal with this kind of stuff well.

. . .

I collect my bag from the side of the room So does Elliot, Nick, and Ella. I look down to see the glint form my metal leg. I pull up my sock.

Walk through the exit of the building to the subway track. I ring my mask around my wrist As we walk I see glimmer of the sun from the small breakages in the concreate. I slip my mask on as I walk through the normal world. We walk to Elliot and Ella's house. They live in a more "perfect " part of town where there are no " Broken " other than Elliot and Ella.

as we walk past the park A man in his early twenties and a little girl walk down the street. The girl cheerfully skipping her Father holding her hand with a Childish smile.

A man with a tactical suit on walks quickly in the direction of them. I push past Ella, and Nick, my bag dropping to the ground. Elliot tries to grab my hand to stop me but I already in too fast of a run. I run to the man . The little girls playful glee fades as I come towards them with. As I see the black peaking out the side of the mans head I put two fingers to my chest ,tap twice then put my fingers into a shape of a gun, The sign for the deaf someone is coming to get them. He face turns petrified as stone he nods He kneels done to the little girl. " Sweetie You have to go with this girl ok? " I little girls eyes flood with tears she shakes her head " It's gonna be ok Gale, It's gonna be ok. " He says with a shaky voice embracing Gale. Gale holds her dad as if a a large teddy bear she got for Christmas. He kisses her forehead "Now go."

I embrace gale and run, Elliot, and the rest of them have our bags and are ready to run. I see the street signs. Two blocks from their house I turn the street . I look back as we turn , I see the man being tackle to the ground and being beaten as he is handcuffed."No, No!" Gale screams. My run slows down to a walk . We all are walking hoping Ella's house gets closer.

I see the glorious Dalmatian waiting for our arrival. Ella's Dalmatians Bugger Rushes toward Ella and likes her face as if a steak. Nick rubs Bugger behind the ears. Ellas mom waves us in "Come on in kids ." she says with a cheerful smile but with caution since the 7 year old standing there .

I walked through the door Gale holding my hand. I sit her down on the couch and sit in a chair opposite of her. I look at her seeing what she looked like. she had green eyes with flecks of hazel her skin was very tan. Her hair curly brown and blonde. Her arms with brusies. " How old are your parents Gale ?" I say. She put all fingers up twice and then two of her fingers again. 22. Her Parents must have been teen parents.

I stand up. I take a breathe, I walk to my bag to get my computer I look for an airfare legal or not I need to find a way out of this hell hole. One where my friends and i do not end up dieing for being freaks. I look on a few websites. I see one my eyes widen like saucers as I see this I almost yell with joy. I bult to the others " Guys, ! " my breathe from excitement quicke. Alice, calm down ,no screw it is the happiest I have ever been in months. My breathe quickens from excitement. I run towards the room everyone else is . I open the door almost shakily. "Guys, Guys ." They look at me with looks of curiosity wondering why there is so much profound joy on my face.

"You good Alice?" said nick taking few steps towards me. I nods quickly. I turns the computer around. Nick raises an eyebrow with curiosity. He studies the screen reading the bright writing. the farther he gets into reading I see the grin slowly cross his face. He broke concentration to the screen. Nick hollered with joy and hugged me. "Guys we can actually get out of here ,tonight ." Says Nick. Ella, Elliot, and Nick come back and hug me. " Wait, guys the only thing is that in stead of only a few hours to pack, we have a week ." I say seeing the smiling fade a bit. "Ok, so week still have a way out of here. we should try to get as much stuff in as little space. we have more time to plan, and more time to get our family's ready." says Ella. We all nod knowing she in right. we need to plan this.

We walk to the dinner table with our bags after a few minutes of planning. I lay my bag on the table . I pull out my sketch book, pen, and a calendar. I flip through the pages scanning thought dozens of doodles. i find a blank page "Ok,so the flight is in 10 days." I grab the calendar. " tonight we buy the tickets and tell our families what is going on". They all nod " Tommorow we buy our gear. Food, Money, personals,. " they all nod once again. We go through the rest of the plan.

By the time we have finished getting packed up. I smell chicken ,chicken and lemon sauce. Ella's mom bring out chicken rice and soda for all of us. After we pray, I franticly look at the prices. 400 $ per ticket. Now stressing out so much my head is staring to throb. I brush my finger through my hair. I close my computer. I take a bit of chicken, pretty dang good.