"Fuck!" Arden shouts. Just a few minutes ago she was ransacking the desk of her fifth period teacher. But then the alarm on her phone went off, and she was now staring at the familiar wallpaper that greeted her. Every. Fucking. Time. She tries again, locking and unlocking it, opening up her browser, but still... Her WIFI bar doesn't move a inch. Well, that's to saying she even has a single bar.

The Mallon is taken off by it at first, she usually gets good service due to the numerous towers, but for some reason... It instantly clicked off. At first no texts went out. 'No big deal...' was the only thing she muttered at the time. Then it took minutes to even search a phrase. 'America. Best signals ever.' Arden had said to herself, rather sarcastically, while she overlooked the stack of papers.

But, no. As much as she hates herself for staying too long - she goes to her recent texts. The only one that seemed to have gotten in, to be exact. As soon as she goes to check it, suddenly, a notification pops up. "I thought I muted these damn-"

Emergency Alert (2)

Severe Imminent Threat Alert:
Snow Storm Warning this area til -NON-DESIGNATED TIME- Take
shelter now.
Check local media. - NWS

Severe Imminent Threat Alert:
Blizzard Warning this area til -NON-DESIGNATED TIME- Take
shelter now.
Check local media. - NWS

"Holy. Balls." The eleventh grader immediately says. "Has to be a joke."

Alice walked slowly to the meeting room, taking in every detail she could find. She'd missed all the posters and filers around the halls. She was always too busy running to class or else she'd get yelled at.

Hopefully the library would still be open by the time the club meetin ended. She didn't want to get penalized for a late return.

The young girl walked by the large stretch of windows that looked into the school courtyard. Her mind was so zoned out that she didn't notice the enormous amount of snow burying the school benches outside and the more snow coming down.

She turned the corner and caught a glimpse of white in her eye. Wait. Alice slowly turned around. She dropped her book as she gazed at the sight before her.

"Holy shit," she murmured.

"Well....hell." Was the first thing out of Odie McCraken's mouth as he took a look outside of the window. He still hadn't gotten used to a proper winter. He'd only been outside of Texas for two years now, and it still amazed him just how much snow could pile up in a day up North. Yep. He was trapped, along with everyone else still here. He'd just gotten the weather warning from his phone a few minutes ago, and he'd done his best not to swear when he read the message.

Thankfully he'd been able to shower after football practice. At least now he wouldn't be a pain everyone's noses when he inevitably got around to finding whoever else was here. The question, however, was what they would actually do when they met up. They probably wouldn't be able to call for help, with the phone signals and internet being more than likely down for the duration of the storm. He'd worry about it later, though. For now it would probably be best to go and see if he couldn't find the others. A whole bunch of brains together was better than one nerdy 2nd string tackle's.

With a heavy sigh he adjusted his denim sheepskin-lined jacket and started out toward the hallway, calling out to anyone left inside the building.

"Hello! Anyone still around?"

Esther was heading toward their last class of the day, and that class was PE, otherwise known as their least favorite class. Hell, they’d gladly go back to math rather than being forced to exercise. They had even heard people talking around them of doing the dreaded mile on the track. “Yeah no, screw that.” Esther said out loud to no one in particular, turning around on heel and heading toward one of their favorite hiding spots. They glanced out a window noticing the snow was beginning to fall. Hopefully school will be canceled tomorrow. No way in hell am I going to make up the mile tomorrow in the snow. They thought, looking back and forth up and down the hall, making sure the coast was clear.

Esther waited for people to disperse by getting a rather long drink at the water fountain before rushing into the bottom of the stairwell, hiding just beneath the steps. It was cozy and even had some mats the yoga classes used that they used as a seat. They pulled off their backpack, and pulled out one of their favorite manga books. Esther didn’t have a ride home so they’d wait out the class period and head to the buses, something they didn’t rather too often for their grade to suffer.

They began to read, knowing the pages too well as they had read it too many times. They’d certainly have to go to the book store and buy the next volume. After school sounds good enough, it’s not like they were going to do their homework. Not too long after reading, the words began to blur and before they knew it, Esther was asleep, not knowing the storm was getting worse outside.

Alice ran around the hall, abandoning her book by the windows, to run and see how it look from upstairs. She stomped her way up, clinging to the metal railing. She looked out an upstairs window and saw the parking lot buried as well. Alice smiled and laughed. What an opportunity this was!

Alice turned back to the stairs and walked a normal pace down to retrieve her book. Half way down, she heard snoring.

"The hell?" She asked as she looked under the stairwell.

A student was curled up in a ball asleep with a book in their hands.

Alice grabbed a broom from the janitor's bucket and poked the sleeping figure with it.

"Hello? You awake?"

Their face looked familiar, yet again all the faces she saw in the school did. They all blended together in a mash of the student body. All of them she had to have walked by at one point, maybe even made eye contact with.

After the initial shock died down, Arden immediately turned on her flashlight app. She didn't use it a lot, only in times when she felt like using the skatepark at night. She silently thanked herself for downloading it, and then shone the beam over at the window. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to shine through.

Arden walked through the rows of desk to get to it. She put her palm on it, instantly feeling the coldness. The thin layer of protection did little to keep it out. Noticing the app was still on, she targeted the beam on it once again.

"Frost." She groaned. "Why would I be so lucky to have a storm on the one day I didn't need it on?"

Instead of answering herself, her gaze lowered to the papers in her hand. Through the small glow, she could tell they were of no use. The class schedules, with scribbled names of who couldn't be trusted. "The schedule is the same bullshit every single day. Why would you need to write it down?" She sighed. It would take a long time to actually fine something actually useful. Maybe the storm was calling for her to use the opportunity.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Jorge stared out of one of the many windows in the hallway of his new school and sighed. White. That's all he saw. He pulled his phone from his pocket and groaned when his suspicions were confirmed. No cell service. At all. The boy stood there for a few moments, confused. What did this mean? That they were snowed in? Most likely. There had to be a way out, though, he was sure of it. With a sigh, the boy turned and walked to the nearest school exit. He put one hand on the handle, and his shoulder against the door. With a grunt and his full force behind him, he pushed against the door, hoping that it would budge, but nothing happened. He tried this for a few more minutes before giving up and walking away, muttering a few strings of curses.

So what exactly does this mean? He thought to himself as he turned the corner at the end of the hallway. Does this mean that I'm not leaving until they get me out of here? When are they going to get me out of here? Am I the only one here? Man, fuck this. I could have been sitting back at home, playing Xbox or even hanging with friends, but no, I'm stuck here in a stupid school, in a stupid town that I didn't even want to attend in the first place.

When the boy stopped aimlessly walking, he looked up and realized he was in a part of the school that he hadn't been in before. He pulled the school map that he kept with him out of his back pocket and tried to figure out where exactly he was. After taking a few minutes to decipher the stupid map, Jorge realized he was close by the auditorium. He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. IF there was anyone else in the school, the last place they would go to was the auditorium. He was sure of it. The last thing he wanted to do was find anyone else and have them talk to him. He had been doing so well to avoid most of the student body, save the one guy who got him in trouble in the first place.

Jorge put the map away and brought down his backpack from his shoulder. He pulled out his iPod touch from the bag and turned it on. Full battery. That would last him a good while if all he did was play music, then when that died, he would just use his phone to listen to music as well. That is how he was going to spend the night; alone, in the auditorium, listening to music and being away from any other potentially stranded students. Jorge slipped his headphones into his ears and quickly walked into the auditorium. He took a seat all the way in the back and closed his eyes. Had there been anyone else in there, they wouldn't have noticed because he was so quiet, and he wouldn't have noticed because he wasn't paying attention. He looked through his music library, stopped at one of his favorite Beatles songs, "Don't Let Me Down," and started singing along softly.

(Slight hiccup. Sorry. Please ignore.)

Esther was rather content in their makeshift bed, and was all for hibernating this cold weather away. Then again, they'd gladly hibernate in any weather, cold or hot, sleep being one of her favorite past times. Speaking of sleep, their nap time was cut short when they felt poking and prodding. Shit dude, it better not be a teacher, maybe if I pretend to sleep a little longer, they'll go away. Esther waited a few seconds before the poking got pretty hard to ignore. They swatted at whatever it was, sitting up and noticed it was a broom they were being poked with.

"Yo man, who knows what the janitor swept up with that? And I wasn't sleeping I was totally helping yoga put their mats away and-“ Esther looked up and sighed in relief, noticing it was a student, looking like a freshman by how young she looked. “Never mind, don’t rat me out, yeah?”

They blinked in the confusion of just waking up, and pulled out their phone, but knowing their luck it was dead. They should really start bring their charger with them. Sitting up and rubbing their head to sort of fix their hair, they looked back up at the girl. “Say, freshman, got the time? Is school over yet? Don’t wanna miss the bus,” They asked, not really bothering to ask for names as they wanted to get out of there and into their bed.

Alice just stared blankly at the older student.

"How long have you been asleep?" She asked.

At least she wasn't alone.

"And my name isn't 'freshman', it's Alice."

Walker intentionally took the most convoluted route to detention at the slowest pace he could manage without looking like he was trying too hard. His backpack was light with the few notebooks he kept in it and he carried his skateboard with him as he ambled down the hall. Then his phone buzzed in his pocket and hope blossomed in his chest that maybe it was an excuse to ditch detention today. Whenever his friends were busy or the ice was thinning between him and the teachers (or as he silently nicknamed them "the feds"), he stayed for detention, but an excuse, any excuse, would be a blessing beyond measure.

He opened his phone, read the first line of the message and stopped to pump his fist in the air.

"Fuck yes," He hissed and read the rest of the message. Oh, wait. Take shelter now? No, no. Not now. He looked up and frantically scouted out the nearest window. He dropped his board in front of him and jumped on it, letting the momentum carry him to the window down the hall. He put his hands out in front of him, cushioned the collision with the wall and pressed his face to the window. White. All white. As far as his eyes could see: White.

It was a little spooky, but he was safe inside, right? That in mind, he pushed off on his board and planned his next move. Maybe Harper was around. Or Jorge; He had detention, too. And Walker owed him big time for that. He dropped his foot and gave himself a boost on the board. The waxed floors made for smooth riding and he appreciated that. He scanned every classroom he passed in case there was a fed still lurking around. They always found him at the most inopportune times. It only felt natural to exercise a little extra caution.

Then he road past a room where he thought he saw the flash of a light and immediately hopped off his board. He heard a voice- a faint girl's voice coming from the other side of the door. Too young to be an adult, but who would be in there. He picked up his board and quietly tip-toed over to the door and peered through the door's window.

"Hello? Anyone around?" Odie called out again as he made his way down the hall, looking just a little bit concerned now as he noticed a distinct lack of people. He really, really didn't want to be stuck here for the night all alone. He was a social man, even if most of his socializing was done with tiny models of green musclebound aliens fighting evil mutant supersoldiers or with his necromancer fighting with the weirdly mixed party while the gamemaster weaved his schemes.

He stopped when he heard female voices speaking from one of the nearby rooms, and saw a familiar face boarding down the hall. He still looked like a total punk, even in winter clothes. But he remembered that it was part of the Good Lord's will not to judge, and quashed those negative thoughts quickly. He aproached slowly, adjusting his Browning hat a bit as came up behind Walker.

"Heya, hoss. Was startin' to think I was the only one left here." A thick Texas drawl, instantly recognizable in this school.

Esther slipped on their bag, tapping their chin as they thought about it. “Twenty minutes or an hour? I’m not sure, since the beginning of seventh I guess,” They said with a shrug, but then shuddered at the obvious chill of the building that seeped through. They fixed their collar and sweater, making sure to get as much warmth as they could.

“Sorry, bad habit calling youngsters “freshman”.” They ducked underneath the stairs as they got out of their little hiding spot. “Anyway, see ya, Alice! I’m Esther by the way.” And with that, Esther headed toward the nearest door, hoping to catch her bus. Their house wasn’t so far, but was far enough that they’d rather not like to walk. They pushed at the door, but odd enough it didn’t budge. They pushed and pulled it, before looking out through the window.

“Shit, son. You gotta be kidding?” Esther exclaimed, gesturing at the door and looking over toward Alice. “So I guess you also noticed we’re trapped? This’ll be fun.”

Arden had taken her station back by the desk, searching under it, until she found what she was looking for. "Oh fuck yes!" She fist pumped the air as soon as her phone hit it. In the teacher's shitty handwriting it was clear. Records - Data - Junior 5th

Oh yes. This is going to be good. She silently thought. Inside of it seemed to be numerous yellow envelopes, each one with a specific letter to mark it. She grinned like a maniac, and flipped through them. 'A'. She really felt no need to boost up her scores. Surprisingly, Arden Mallon wanted her's to be authentic. And plus, raising it would be a huge red flag. 'B'. Not really anyone important with 'B'. Possibly that kid that always talked about skateboarders being the devil, and that he was a Amish farmer.

She flipped through the other ones, and she could careless, until the light from her phone died out. Arden gave a curse and pressed the 'power' button.

"Shit!" Was the only thing that escaped her. And it was a loud one.

Duncan stepped out of the school showers, finished with his little work out therapy. Drying himself off with his towel, Duncan thought back to what had caused the need for it in the first place. That punk ass little shit Jeffry Martin and his group of shit-keteers, one of the only groups of bullies in this school. Duncan had found them picking on some freshmen and when he intervened they moved their attention towards him, calling him names like "freak", "fatty", and his personal favorite "Gigantor". They thankfully decided to slink away when a incident occurred involving one of Jeff's goons receiving a punch in the face that not only broke his nose, but also knocked him cold.

With a sigh Duncan knew that it would only bring even more trouble than it was worth, but he would deal with that at another time. Changing into his casual clothes, a plain white t, a pair of worn out jeans, and a pair of sneakers, Duncan put on his bulky leather jacket, a beanie, and prepared to go outside. When the door to the outside wouldn't open, Duncan put his prodigious strength to use and painstakingly pushed the door open, which in hindsight was a bad idea. Gazing out into the blizzard, Duncan decided that there was no way he was going to walk home in that shit storm. Pulling the door closed, Duncan went in another direction.

With a heavy sigh Duncan thought, "Well this sucks, Stuck in this damn school for god knows how long." Duncan didn't even bother checking his phone, there was no way his parents would be able to get here even if they wanted to. However his train of thought was broken when he heard some people talking and decided to head in that direction, finding a girl and.... actually he wasn't sure if the other was a girl or not. Anyway, if he was going to stay the night here might as well get some company.

"It's been about thirty minutes since school let out, how come I had to wake you up for such an event?" Alice asked with curiosity. She could see the light bags under their eyes.

"I don't know about you, Esther, but I'm not just going to sit around waiting for some teacher to find me and ruin all the fun. I suggest you better get moving too before they find both of us and stick us in the auditorium and tell us everything is going to be alright."

Alice turned and started to run in a random direction, hoping she'd stumble upon something amazing and not a random teacher.

"See ya later, Esther!" She called over her shoulder.

August had been running around the school for almost an hour or two, trying to find the objects needed to get his extra credit for Photography Club. He sighed before he was on his last object to capture.

Take a photo of a stray backpack

"The fuck? Who came up with this? That doesn't even make much sense." He said. He sighed before walking upstairs to his locker. Once he got there, he opened it, pulled his backpack out, and took a picture of it. 'Hey, teacher doesn't know, teacher doesn't care', was his way of thinking right there. He sighed before putting his backpack back in his locker, since he wasn't thinking straight, and he looked out the window. He saw lots of white.

"Wait, what?" He asked nobody in particular. He didn't notice the snow when he was walking up. Probably because he was pretty much blind at that moment. He was guessing that everyone else in school already left, as there usually would be some more people here. And much more noise. He assumed some people were still here from detention, but otherwise, there was not many people left.

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!

“Thanks for waking me I guess?” Esther said, although was rather glad Alice had or she would have woken up more confused than she were now. At least they now had an idea of what was going on, but wasn’t sure if this situation was as serious as it could be. Just hope other trapped students don’t become head hunters. Esther thought, noticing Alice had run off, and Esther gave a small wave goodbye.

They weren’t too tired at the moment and figured if they wanted to do something that wasn’t allowed during school hours, this would be the time. Then again, that would be a lot of work. Maybe it’s time to search for food. Isn’t that what you do when you get stranded or something? I’m hungry, whatever. Esther turned toward the direction of the cafeteria, but noticed another student, some really tall mountain of a student, especially compared to Esther.

“Sup, noticed we’re trapped too?”

At first, Harper was disappointed she had been ditched just because a little snow. When she was younger, she remembered tons of storms that started off as flurries and it ended up just being flurries. Sure, her friend probably assumed the worst just because of those stupid warnings, but sometimes the weather service got it wrong. Unfortunately for Harper, though - she didn't have a ride home until her oldest brother could swing by and pick her up. That wouldn't be for a few hours, but then again she didn't have other plans. With the play coming up, the staging still needed work so she had decided to head into the auditorium's back stage and do at least a bit of painting.

Her phone resided in her backpack, left to wait for her on a chair in the front row of the auditorium; anything worth stealing she had left in her locker, or had in a pocket, so she wasn't worried about not having it nearby. Ear buds sat in her ears to give her some background music. Even if the battery ran out, she had a charger in her locker and knew where most of the outlets were in the stage area and several of the class rooms. Usually, she would be listening to her techno playlist, but today she felt like singing. If she couldn't run lines, then she figured she might as well work on her vocals. The playlist of musicals she already knew by heart played on shuffle. Even though she sang softly, in the otherwise quiet of the backstage, her voice carried.

It wasn't until she stood to take a look at her paint job that she realized how long she had been working. Her back protested and knees cramped from the crouched posture she had taken to do detailing along the bottom of the set piece. Wiping her brow and stretching lightly, she let out a sigh and looked at her Ipod to switch playlists. Her brows rose and mouth gaped a little. "Well no wonder why I'm achy." Two and a half hours of detailing work could put a kink in anyone's back, clearly if her's was. It was obviously time for her to check her phone for any calls or messages from Victor.

The music clicked off, and she pulled the ear buds out of her ears. Wrapping the device up in the wire, she cut around the curtain and trotted down the steps leading off the stage. She hadn't even realized anyone else was in the auditorium, mostly because she hadn't even been thinking there would be. It took her two seconds to replace her Ipod with her smartphone. Turning it on and entering the code, she saw a notice pop up of multiple missed messages. Her lips pursed to the side slightly as she looked through them.

Three messages from her father - suggesting she take the bus home, then requesting her to find a ride, and the last one telling her that he hoped she was somewhere safe for the night. "Safe for the night," she questioned softly to herself. Her brows furrowed. What was that supposed to mean? She flipped open her phone and typed out a message. When it sent, she immediately got the 'message could not be sent' alert. She had service everywhere in the school, so that could only be one thing - no cell towers. "Son of a - " She stopped short of actually swearing with a sigh.

Jorge had been listening and singing softly to a few songs now, and hadn't even once opened his eyes. There was just no need. No one had walked into the auditorium, obviously, because they would have surely tried to get his attention. Jorge shuddered at the thought. He sighed softly as the song he was listening to came to an end, and waited for the next one to start. But, as soon as there was a pause in between songs, Jorge heard a voice.

Immediately, his eyes shoot open and he sat upright. He pulled out his headphones and began scanning the auditorium. Sure enough, his gaze fell upon a short girl in the front, by the stage. There were others stranded here, as well, but then that meant he had a bigger chance of having to talk to somebody; something he would rather pass on. Jorge cursed silently and stood up. He had to move quickly and quietly if he didn't want to be seen. Taking a deep breath, he began to shuffle quietly towards the exit, keeping his eyes on the girl the whole time.

So far, so good, he thought to himself. Just a little bit more to go, and I can find somewhere else to hide. This school seems big enough to hide in without being seen.

About three-quarters of the way to the door, his headphones got caught on the armrest of his chair. They were yanked off, and, because Jorge had forgotten to turn his iPod off, dubstep blared from it, and echoed throughout the auditorium. Jorge scrambled to turn off the device, but by the time he was able to, there was no doubt the girl would have seen him. The boy froze, turned his head to look at the girl for a moment, then briskly walked to and out of the exit.