Page 8

I think about all the ways we’ve been trained to protect ourselves, but what could you do, really, in the face of tectonic plates older than time, let loose by the forces of the earth, the crust moving and releasing tension it’s been building up for decades?

I grab the spindly metal legs in an attempt to keep the chair over me. Jenn next to me is already in meditation mode, exhaling slowly. She reaches out and I grab her hand, squeezing it tightly. Erica takes my other hand as she’s curled around her saxophone, and the three of us brace ourselves.

The bell is still ringing, a high screeching sound that would otherwise be normal other than our classroom quavering mercilessly.

Then it’s over. The bell rings for another second, but it feels anything but normal.

Ms. Collette stands up shakily. “Is—is everyone okay?”

Scattered mumblings echo across the room, and everyone starts pulling out their phones, texting frantically.

“Don’t—don’t move, there might be aftershocks. Stay—stay where you are,” Ms. Collette says breathlessly.

“Do you think this means we can go home for the rest of the day?” Thomas asks hopefully.

“Probably not,” Erica says, patting him gently.

Jenn already has Caltech’s earthquake-monitoring page up on her phone. “The epicenter is out in Echo Park.”

Ah, no wonder it felt so intense, we were only a few miles away.

She peers closely at her phone and then looks up. “It was a 4.2, and I believe the school policy is…”

The loudspeaker crackles with our principal’s cheery voice.

“Hello, San Pablo! A bit of excitement this morning with the earthquake and an opportunity to practice our safety drills! If anyone is injured, please head to the nurse’s office immediately.

We will have an extra ten-minute grace period to allow you to make your way safely to your second period.

Our regular schedule will proceed as usual. ”

Thomas groans.

I pat him on the shoulder. “See you at lunch for extra practice, dude.”

Putting away instruments is a little more hectic than usual as Ms. Collette wants to know if anything is damaged, but we make it through. I’m grateful for the extra time to get to our next class so I can run a few errands, and I also have an idea on how to fix the van situation for Key Club.

Jenn’s already put away my music and gotten my backpack ready.

“You’re the best,” I say gratefully.

“Of course I am,” Jennifer says, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same as we head for the door and toward English.

Erica waves at us and disappears into the crowd.

Everyone is chatting about the earthquake, but it doesn’t seem to have fazed anyone much.

It’s not like I haven’t experienced anything like this before, but it’s never happened at school.

The faces blur in the hallway; I say hi to Stephen from student council and remind him of the joint fundraiser we’re doing at the end of the month, and Carla from debate asks me if I’ve got the research articles printed.

“Here you go,” I say, handing her a stack of papers. I’d printed them in the yearbook room early this morning.

“Thanks!” Carla beams at me and Jenn. “Also, great job at the match yesterday, Jenn!”

“Oh, thank you,” she says graciously, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’ll see you at tennis practice later!”

On the way to English we run into Yesenia from Key Club, and I launch into my new plan. If a few seniors can drive, we can make the numbers work, I just need to make sure a bunch of extra paperwork gets done.

It’s stressful, but I’m in my element, texting people quickly and confirming drivers.

Still no text from Kat, though.

By lunch, I’m exhausted, having run across campus twice to catch the seniors I need to talk to, but the Key Club meeting goes great and everyone is even more excited for the cleanup event.

I scramble to the band room to help Thomas, my stomach growling.

Luckily Erica showed up with an extra burrito, otherwise those granola bars would have made a sad, sad lunch.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I mumble, stuffing the last bite in my mouth. Quick, cheesy relief.

“You can finish picking your stats for the latest level-up in our campaign so you can actually play in tomorrow’s session,” Erica says with a mischievous grin.

“I thought we were waiting for Jenn to pick hers!” I grumble.

Jennifer pulls a crisp new character sheet out of her binder and hands it to Erica. “All done. You’re the last one.”

“But choosing new spells is a huge undertaking, I can’t just pick them at random, I have to give it thought and consideration because it could change the whole trajectory of the game!” I shake my head. “I haven’t really had time to sit down with the handbook and—”

Erica rolls her eyes and fishes out a familiar-looking sheet in my handwriting. “You know what spells you want. You don’t need to take a bazillion years doing extra research. Come on.”

I roll my eyes. “Fine. Haste and Lightning Bolt.”

Jenn squeals. “I can’t wait to play tomorrow!”

“Me too.” I check my phone, still no text.

Jenn tilts her head, a musing smile on her face. “You know, it’s really great you went out and got this date.”

“It was an accident. I didn’t, like, plan to ask her out,” I say.

Erica nods. “I don’t think you’ve ever gone on a date ever. You turned down both Donna Quách and Trisha Veracruz last year.”

“Shut up, I’m not—I just—I really didn’t have time to date last year,” I say, stumbling.

Junior year was the year to make or break college applications, and I really couldn’t afford a distraction when I needed to make excellent grades and score high on exams and campaign for student body president.

Plus, dating is hard. It’s not like I’m Jenn, who pretty much has been attached at the hip to her boyfriend, Aiden, since freshman year.

He’s in his first year of college now, but it doesn’t stop them from being nauseatingly cute together, texting or video calling all the time.

I remember talking to Trisha when I was watching Jennifer’s tennis championship game last year, and to this day I cannot tell you what we talked about. It must have made an impression on her because she asked me out, but I didn’t feel any connection at all.

Maybe you can’t make any connections because you’re so obsessed with your Plan.

I ignore the annoying internal voice. “Come on, let’s get to English.”