Charlie

Stacey is on her feet first, before kneeling beside him. "Sammy," she says, shaking his shoulder in a frantic rush. "Are you okay? What happened? Can you talk?" Her voice goes from concerned to pure panic, and that's enough to get me moving. Noah's faster, shoving me away and crouching next to Stacey.

"A pen," He says, his eyes scanning Sammy's brick red face. "Sammy, Do you have a pen?" Sammy nods wildly, his hand clawing his throat. I grab my writing pen off of my desk and hand it to Noah, thinking he's about to do a crazy medical scenario before he just stares at me like I just grew five heads. "An epinephrine pen." He says, tearing open Sammy's backpack. "He's having an allergic reaction."

Addison stands and wraps her arms around her own body, clearly terrified and not saying a single word or making a sound. Stacey faces me, his face flushed. "I'm going to find a teacher and call 911. Stay with him, okay?" She grabs her phone out of Mr. Issacs drawer and runs out into the school hallway.

I kneel down next to Sammy, his eyes are bugging out of his head like a cartoon character, his lips are blue, and he's making terrible choking sounds. Noah dumps all of the contents of Sammy's backpack onto the cold ground and fumbles through the mess of books, folders, papers, and pencils. "Sammy, where do you keep it?" He asks, tearing open the small front compartment and yanking out two regular pens and a set of keys.

Sammy's way past talking, though. I put a sweaty palm over his shaking shoulder, like that will do any good. "You're okay, you're gonna be okay. We're gettin' help, I can hear my voice slowing down, thick like caramel." My accent always comes out hard when I'm stressed. I turn to Noah and ask, "You sure he's not chokin' on somethin'?" Maybe he needs the Heimlich maneuver, not a dumb pen.

Noah ignores me, tossing Sammy's emptied backpack aside. "Fuck!" He yells, slamming a fist into the floor. "Do you keep it on you, Sammy? Sammy!" Sammy's dull eyes roll back into his head as Noah digs around his pockets, finding nothing but a crumpled up tissue.

Sirens shriek in the distance as Mr. Issac and two other teachers burst inside alongside Stacey behind them on her phone. "We can't find his EpiPen." Noah says tensely, gesturing to the pile of Sammy's useless items.

Mr. Issac glances to Sammy in complete horror for a second before turning to me. "Charlie, the nurses office has EpiPens. They should be labeled in plain sight. Hurry!"

I run into the hallway, hearing footsteps behind me that fade as I quickly reach the stairwell and yank the door open swiftly. I take the stairs three at a time until I'm on the first floor and weave through a few struggling students until I reach the nurses office. The doors ajar, but nobody seems to be inside. My hearts beating out of my chest, and I think it's about to explode.

It's a cramped little space with the exam table up against the windows and a big gray storage cabinet looming over to my left. I scan the room like a robot as my eyes land on two whiteboxes with bold red lettering. One reads Emergency Defibrillator, the other box reads Emergency Epinephrine. I open the latch on the second one and pull it open with one quick motion.

There's nothing inside.

I open the other box. Which has a small plastic device with a drawing of a heart on top of it. I'm pretty sure that's not the EpiPen. I got through all of the cabinets, opening them and pulling everything out. Where are they?

"Charlie, did you find them? Mrs. Hollis, one of the teachers that came in with Mr. Issac, ignoring the boxes that littered the floor before she joins in trying to find it. "Charlie, go tell Mr. Isaac that we couldn;t find them yet. I'll keep looking." Mrs. Hollis assures me, wiping a drop of sweat off of her head.

I get to Mr. Issac's class and there are three paramedics dressed in dark blue uniforms, two pushing a long white stretched, one racing ahead to clear the small crowd that has gathered around the class. I wait until they're all inside and slip in behind them. Mr. Issac's slumped next to the chalkboard, hos green dress shirt untucked, "We couldn't find the pens" I told him.

He's shaking, as a paramedic stabs Sammy with a syringe and the other two lift him onto the stretcher. "God help that boy," He whispers, more to himself than to me I think.

Addison is standing off to the side by herself, tears rolling down her pale cheek. I walk over to her and put an arm around her shoulder as the paramedics bring Sammy's stretcher into the bare hallway. "Can you come along?" One of them asks Mr. Issac and he nod, leaving the room except for a few shell shocked teachers and the four of us who started detention with Sammy.

Barely twenty minutes have passed but it feels like hours.

"Is he okay?" Addison asks in a shaky voice. Stacey clasps her phone in between her palms like she's using it to pray. Noah stands with his hands shoved into his old jacket's pockets, staring at the wall.

"I'm gonna risk it and say no." He says quietly.