There Was a Way Out, But I Didn't Know

It's time to get locked into a school building.

My old school was made up of a cluster of buildings. And a hut. There was the main building, the sports hall, the science block, the drama block, and the art block.

The drama block and the art block have misleading names. The 'Drama' block housed drama, textiles, cookery, and an IT room. The Art block housed art, woodwork/graphics, and some rooms for RE/Citizenship. And the upstairs area where two of three of the RE rooms were was also where my form room was.

Here is a little map of the area.

That main area became a place to go when you got in quite a bit early, as I and Alice were both prone to do. And over time other people would come and go there as well.

Near the beginning, the teachers, or some of them, seemed very keen to lock us out of the area, in the freezing cold outside. Others were more likely to say "Hello" rather than "Get out."

But it soon became habit to check the other door, which wasn't very consistently locked or unlocked. This door was also a good check-place after a lunch break as the front door would often be locked over lunch.

One time, I decided to go upstairs rather than stay down below. This was also common for me. I could perch there and it would be relatively quiet. I could still hear if people were talking downstairs, and I could also see through a large window at all of the people below.

So this one day, I hear voices downstairs. Not uncommon. I see Alice leave the building. This also wasn't uncommon. Okay, so I did have a suspicion or two. But I disregarded any suspicion and carried on with looking out of the window.

It was only when I saw people looking at me and crowding around the area that I moved. I snatched up my bag and rushed down the stairs seriously hoping that it wasn't.

It was.

The door was locked. And my measly muscles couldn't open it. Panic set in.

Somebody mentioned the other way.

I rushed off to the other way.

But that was locked too.

I went back to the main way, and stood there. My mind was a mess of panic, more panic, even more panic, and the thought of fire.

That is how I got locked into a school building. And the ending was so dull that I'm not going to bother talking about it.

Let's just say that the teachers need to access their classrooms sometimes.