Roseburg Conservatory High School: The Next Day
The school was eerily quiet as Odessa climbed the stairs to the second floor where her first period music class was held. This hallway was normally filled with students who were yelling about the recent party that the cops busted, their last winning game or complaining about their significant other. But today, it was so quiet you could faintly hear the music coming from the quiet girl in the corner’s headphones. Everyone was whispering suspiciously and didn’t look up when Odessa walked by. Some groups leaned against lockers while others hid in the corners where perpendicular walls met.
As she turned the corner by the music hall, she was surprised to see that the door was closed and locked, the lights were off and all her classmates were standing outside the door looking extremely downtrodden. As she pushed her way through the crowd, she saw something that shook her to the very core; there on the ground right in front of the door, was the music club adviser. Dead. Odessa stepped away from the door, trying not to let herself sink into a panic attack but finding extreme difficulty regulating her breathing. She tossed her backpack against the opposite wall and ran to the bathroom. What was administration going to do about
THIS? A teacher dies on their premises and they just lock the door and turn the lights off? Maybe they didn’t know yet?
No. Odessa thought.
The janitorial staff were here every morning at 6 o’clock, sometimes even earlier than that! They must have been the ones who found him. Did they tell anyone? Flinging open the bathroom door, Odessa sank to the tiled ground in complete defeat and sadness. Music was the only thing she had and now it was gone. Her club advisory had been the only one who was determined to keep music alive in the school because no one else really cared. She couldn’t believe this and none of it made sense to her. How does someone just DIE right in their own classroom? Odessa decided she wasn’t going to attend her first couple classes. The teachers
WOULD come looking for her so she had to leave the bathroom soon. After her tears stopped flowing so heavily, she walked back out into the hallway quietly. The bell had already rung and everyone that once populated the hallways were now in their first period class; except the music students. She imagined they had all been called to one of the offices and were being explained the situation and what was going to be done about it. Swooping up her backpack, she decided to go out the back doors of the second floor and go down the stairs to her favorite tree. She planted herself on the bench underneath the weeping willow tree and dug her tape player out of her bag. As she reached to the bottom, she caught a glimpse of the strange notebook she had ruptured from the tree near her house the night before. There was something ominous about it and she zipped her backpack shut quickly, wanting to get rid of the feeling.