As I walked through the abandoned halls I smelled despair and unhappiness. I knew that this was my only five minutes I had to myself as I had escaped from lunch. I needed some time to myself; I was always smothered by a giant herd of upperclassmen as I walked from class to class. I took a step directly underneath one of the lights in the ceiling and felt like I was in some kind of mental hospital. The way the flickering lights shone down on the hard glossy floor and even the way us students were treated seemed to reflect a creepy horror film. The sound of the bell pierced through the silence like a razor blade cutting deep. My heart sank. My five minutes were over. Ghostly students trudged out of the classrooms and filed into two traffic lanes.

“Jen!” I whipped my head to the left, “Jen, wait up.”

“Oh hi Carlos…” I said as Carlos caught his breath.

“I need you to do the second part of our science lab, I know I said I would do it but I have a lot of homework tonight and I was just wondering if…”

“No Carlos, I’ve helped you too many times before and you’ve never repaid me.”

“Fine, I guess you can find yourself a new lab partner.”

I had finally found Carlos to be my lab partner after a week of embarrassing myself searching for one. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to be the girl that needed the teacher to be her partner so I cleared my throat and yelled back to Carlos, who was already half way down the hall.

“Wait! Carlos, I’ll do the second part of the lab. Just give me the packet next period in math.”

He turned to me and nodded his head approvingly. I felt like I was cheating myself and I could feel the guilt circling over me the rest of the day. It also made me mad how Carlos seemed to know he could guilt me into doing the homework for him. I kept walking straight although the late bell rang because I didn’t realize it did. Suddenly it was only me in the stale air of the hallway. It didn’t hit me that I should have been running to my next class, so I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My face was pale, my shirt was wrinkled; I never looked the way I wanted to. As I was looking in the mirror, the most obnoxious sound sprung out of nowhere. It was the fire alarm. I froze standing in the cold, dark bathroom. I could hear the footsteps of all the classrooms rushing out the doors. I slowly exited the bathroom and filed in with a group. I didn’t know where my class was, nor did I care.