The day had started out like any other day, with Jamie Foster waking up to her bright orange alarm clock blaring out her favorite song, "Scream and Shout" by will. and Britney Spears. Jamie was just your average teenage girl. She was 15 years old, with teal eyes and light brown hair streaked with blonde. She had only a few close friends, but for her, they were enough. They would go everywhere and do everything together.

Jamie's parents, Nicholas and Ruby, had been killed, along with her seven year old brother Brian, in a car accident six years prior. Lisa, Jamie's grandmother, had her taken to live with her and Matthew, Lisa's husband, in Chelsea, London. After a couple months of adjusting, Jamie had gotten used to life there and had made a few friends.

When Jamie had finally woken up to the alarm clock, after pressing the snooze button several times, she, albeit rather slowly, got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and hair somewhat messily, she trudged back into her room to put her school uniform on. After she had finished putting on the green and yellow monstrosity, Jamie headed downstairs to the kitchen to make some breakfast. On that day she made her favorite, a bacon, egg, cheese, and banana sandwich. Succeeding her morning meal, Jamie hopped onto her bike and rode the three minute ride to her best friend Casey's house. Casey could only be described as beautiful. She had long, wavy black hair and big, deep blue eyes. Casey didn't have a single blemish on her and she had straight, pearly white teeth. She only wore the latest trends, was always asked to join the popular groups at school, and had all the boys, and even some of the girls, crushing on her. It was and amazement that she and Jamie were good friends.

After greeting each other outside of Casey's house, the two of them drove Casey's car, for she had already turned sixteen, to their school, Clove Glen High. After they pulled up to the old, crumbling building, they both make a break for their homeroom class with Mr. Marks because they were already late due to Jamie's inability to wake up. Mr. Marks was tall with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair. He was very skinny and always wore a belt to keep his pants from falling down, which had happened on more than one occasion. Mr. Marks, who was also known as "Mean Marks" by just about everyone in the school, teachers and students alike, was also the most hated person in the school. Even the bullies weren't hated as much as him. For example, if he asked you to get a sharp pencil to write an essay, he was also one of the writing teachers, much to everyone's disappointment, and you stood up to go sharpen your pencil or get one from the pencil jar, he would start yelling at you to sit back down. Then he would make you do detention with him for the next month. Also, if you asked to borrow something from him, like a pencil or an eraser, he would give you a choice. Either you give him your left shoe and not get it back for the rest of the day, or you would have detention with him for one week. If someone already had detention with Mr. Marks and they needed to borrow something, he would add an extra two weeks to their punishment.

That day, there was a message on the chalk board at the front of the room with an announcement that said that there was a surprise assembly for the entire school that would last the first three periods. Jamie and Casey looked at each other and smiled, sighing in relief. That meant that they didn't have writing class with "Mean Marks" that day. As soon as the other teenagers in the class noticed and read the message, excited whispers filled the room, all wondering what the unexpected assembly was for. Suddenly Mr. Marks was there, startling the teens that hadn't noticed him enter the classroom. He started yelling at them to be quiet, with quite a few expletives in his short tantrum. "Mean Marks" then took a deep breath to calm himself down and then yelled at the kids to get into a single file line so they could go to the auditorium.

After everyone had quickly scrambled into line, the two friends followed the rest of their class to the large room. Mr. Marks pointed to one of the rows and grunted, indicating that they should all sit down in the assigned row. Jamie and Casey had luckily gotten to sit at the seats closest to the isle because they preferred not to sit in between a bunch of sweaty teenage boys. They watched Principal Lamki and Vice Principal Ellenberger walk up to the center of the small black stage. They introduced the guest speaker, a Tom Kyprianou, which Jamie though was an odd last name. Tom was from the local animal shelter. He was there to tell the teens about what he does, he was one of the animal catchers, and how they can help support the shelter and the animals there. Mr. Kyprianou, as Principal Lamki insisted he be called despite Tom's various protesting, also brought in some of the animals. There was a pit bull named Rosa who was missing a leg from a dog fight. A tom cat named Jaws due to the fact he would try to bite anyone who came near him. The workers at the shelter had decided it would be in everyone's best interest if Jaws stayed in his cage throughout the presentation. Tom also explained how to catch the animals without getting injured. Jamie thought it was actually pretty interesting.

As the assembly was coming to an end, something no one had expected happened. The windows in the room shattered all at once. Some of the people had screamed at the unexpected event. But then, it got even worse than Jamie had expected. She sat, watching in horror, as armed men, dressed all in black, came storming into the auditorium.

All Jamie could think was, I'm going to die. They're going to kill us and we're all going to die. The little evil part of her brain (c'mon, you know you all have one) thought, Well, I hope they kill Mr. Marks. That would be doing the world a favor. As Jamie was thinking this, one of the intruders, who looked to be very regal, although no one could see what he looked like, and leader-like due to the way he held himself, walked up to the front stage, where Tom Kyprianou and the principal were cowering in fright. As he was walking up the steps to the large platform, he slipped of the balaclava he was wearing, but the other men, who were also wearing them, kept theirs on. Perhaps their employers wanted to keep their identities a secret. Or maybe it was just because they didn't want to catch a cold. Or maybe because they were all so ugly that one look at their faces could paralyze you. No one really knew. Anyone could've seen that he was in charge just by the way his face looked.

When he reached the center of the stage, he stopped for a moment to look around. There was Tom, who standing a couple feet away from him, looking like he just peed his pants, which he did, considering the small pile of liquid on the floor underneath him and the fact that his pants were wet near his, *ahem*, family jewels. There was the principal and vice principal, both looking like they were about to have a panic attack and about ready to faint. Although the principal was mostly thinking about all the paperwork that would come out of what was happening. He was actually thinking something along the lines of, Damn it! Why did this have to happen! There's gonna be loads of that shit they call paperwork. They should rename it to Piles of Torturous Paper from Hell. Shit, think of how much of that crap I'll need to do if someone gets hurt. Oh god, if someone sues me I'll go bankrupt! If that happens, I'll need a lawyer that can bullshit even the jury that I should be able to keep my cash. Those dirty rotten bastards.

The teachers, who were standing and sitting at the edge of the auditorium to make sure the kiddies stayed in line, all had their eyes opened wide and their jaws practically reaching the floor. How are we going to make sure the poor, sweet, innocent teens won't get hurt? Or worse, die, was going through most of their minds. The rest of them were either thinking like Jamie, and everyone else, *cough* Mr. Marks *cough*, was thinking something along the lines of what Principal Lamki was thinking inside that greedy little mind of his. After observing the people in the room, the man-with-no-name, as Jamie decided to call him, started to talk.

"My name is Charybdis. I am one of the leaders of an organization called Chimera. We have informed you government," he spat out the word for reasons unknown to Jamie, "of our requests-". Here, Principal Lamki interrupted the man-with-no-name, which Jamie was still calling him because she was pretty sure that wasn't his real name. But you never know, after all, Kim and Kanye West named their kid North, so, anything is possible.

"What are your requests," Principal Lamki, rather rudely, interrupted. Jamie thought that was one of the worst things that Lamki ever said, (right up there with personally insulting the school board in front of everyone at an assembly hosted by the school board. She was surprised that he wasn't fired). The school had speculated why he was still their principal, ending with a range of ideas including that he bribed them with money, or that he blackmailed. During Jamie's thoughts, Charybdis had turned to glare directly at Principal Lamki, who flinched at the hard gaze.

"First of all, what gives you the reason to interrupt me," he said. Jamie had now noticed that he had a slight German accent, which was so faint that she had almost missed it. "Second of all, I was just getting to what our request was, before I was so rudely interrupted. And lastly, for your rudeness and due to the fact that you have no use to us, men, you know what to do." After this was said, about five of the people, whom she assumed to be mostly men due to their body shape, turned towards president Lamki, and each fired three rounds into his chest, evidently killing him. Most of the girls, including Jamie, and most of the boys, along with some of the teachers, screamed at the sound of the gunshots and at the sight of Principal Lamki's lifeless body falling to the ground, his mouth open in a silent scream.