Long blonde curls stretched down Julie’s back. The new inane school rule allowing the students to bring guns was putting duress on Julie for her first day back at school. Taking her gun with pink sparkly nail polish painted on the handle, she grabbed her lunch and went to her bus stop.

“Bobby! Where’s your gun?” she asked her neighbor from next door: her crush since the second grade.

“It’s in my backpack. Aren’t you pumped about this new law?” He had a smirk on his face causing Julie to question his ethics.

“I don’t know, Bobby,” she looked down at her feet and began pinching her silk shirt between her fingers. Her hands were beginning to feel clammy. The big yellow school bus picked them up and the route to school seemed like hours. New subdivisions and students were joining the route. Hamton High School was the only school to allow guns in the entire state.

“Welcome to Hamton. Please put your cell phone away and report to your first hour class.” The principal of the school was shot within seconds of walking into the school. Students were running rampant through the halls. Julie, witnessing the shot, saw the flagrant danger of this school, but with no ride home, she reported to Biology. Mr. Bisbee was her favorite teacher, and she knew that he admonished his students to behave or he would punish them. After all, he did contain his own gun as well and was holding it in his hand as the students entered his classroom.

“As a first day activity, we are going to take a quiz on what you remember from Science nine. I’ve been told that it is a good way to get your brains to start working, and I concur.” Although he lived a clandestine life, everybody sitting in period one, Biology, knew that this was an inexorable quiz, and the only way to get out of it was shooting him.

“BANG!” The shot came from the back corner of the classroom; Bobby.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO BOBBY!” tears filled Julie’s eyes as she watched the years of their friendship flash through her head. Her crush for the past eight years was a culprit. Julie’s long blonde curls were loosening as she sprinted through the halls to the nearest exit. She knew that Hamton was an inexorably dangerous place, and she needed to escape. The sun shimmered down on her face, and it was as though nothing had happened.