I dipped out the side door while the school resource officer was hurling his guts out. I'm guessing the DARE officer didn't see much action. I shuddered at the memory of Kevin's head coming apart as I power walked towards the parking lot. He'd been a darn good shot at least.

There were people swarming all over the lot. Apparently nobody was still in class and I could see teachers moving through the crowds trying to restore order. So much for the lock down drills. I had already decided I didn't want to be a part of whatever happened next so I put my head down and made my way over to the fence, trying to be unobtrusive.

Nobody was looking, so with a short hop I grabbed the top rail, kicked off the fence and rolled over the top. I hit the ground already jogging, and it sounded like somebody might have yelled something after me so I was careful to not look back and even increased my pace slightly.

I kept speeding up till I felt my pulse elevate then coasted along at what was probably only a 7 minute mile that I felt like I could keep up indefinitely.

I was in jeans and the bouncing of my gym bag was annoying, but it wasn't much different than the cardio work I did every morning.

My phone rang and I slowed down a little to check the caller ID as o pulled it from my pocket. I was expecting T to call wanting to rehash the shit show that went down in my cafeteria. I frowned and dropped into a walk when I saw that it was my Mom instead.

Why the hell would she try and call me at school? I smirked at a passing scar and amended that to as far as she knows I'm at school. I shrugged and answered the phone.

"Yellow, What's popping, parental unit?"

"Is that how you answer the phone?"

"With caller ID, yeah pretty much."

"Try again."

"What do you..." I stopped talking when I realized she'd hung up. Oh my God, what kind of damage did that woman have? The phone rang again.

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"Hello, Chris Jacobson speaking. How can I help you sir or ma'am?"

"Is that sass I hear in your voice young man?"

I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. "No sass, mom. What'd you need?"

"I got an autocall from your school about a lockdown. Is everything okay? Are you safe?"

My mind went into overdrive. Part of me wanted to spill everything, the trials, my powers, the cop icing Kevin. I was still technically a minor right, couldn't I just let my mom handle all of this? Even if I wanted to, that's not a conversation to have over the phone. She'd either have her preacher or guys in lab coats waiting for me when I got home if I tried to explain this without proof. Instead I took the easy way out and lied my ass off.

"I..uh...went off campus for lunch with T. By the time we got back the school was in lock down with all kinds of cop cars and stuff in the lot so I'm just headed back home. "

"You ditched school today, didn't you?"

"C'mon, mom. You can check my attendance online. I was in every class till lunch. I can't help it if some nut job went all Columbine."

I could hear voices in the background of her call and then mom came back on the line.

"I've got to go. We will talk about this at home when I get off, and Christopher, you better be there when I walk in the door. Love you bye."

She hung up on me, again, and I shoved the phone back into my pocket with maybe a little more force than necessary. Then I picked up speed, determined to get a last good run in in case I wound up grounded in the near future.

20 minutes later I made it to my neighborhood and dropped into a walk with my hands up on my head to cool down. There was a kid my little sister's age just riding in circles on his bicycle right at the edge of the housing project. He should definitely be in school right now, but he threw a head nod in my direction acknowledging that he'd seen me and I waived at him.

His boss was at the picnic table by the stairs. He held up a 40 to shade his vision as I walked up with the sun at my back.

"Hiya, Chris. You give up on school, decide to come work for me?"

"I'm old enough to be tried as an adult now. Think I've outgrown that job offer, Mr. Reyes."

He clutched at his heart with his free hand, before giggling and taking a slug of his drink with the other. "You wound me, boy. My community action program has room for all ages and all races. We can find room for anyone. The scholarship thing don't work out you know where to find me. "

"Appreciate the offer, Mr. Reyes."

I didn't, not really. There was no use starting trouble with the local drug dealer, I had enough on my plate as it was. I powered up three flights of stairs because I had a ton of work to do before my mom got off at 8.