Read Online Hate List by Jennifer Brown - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jennifer Brown
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then she looked down just slightly and her eyes grew big. She started to laugh, and so did Willa,
and I started to pull up onto my tiptoes to see what they were laughing at.
And then there was the noise.
It wasn’t so much a noise in my ears as it was in my brain. It sounded like the whole world was shutting down on me. I screamed.
I know I did because I felt my mouth open and my vocal cords vibrate, but I heard nothing. I shut my eyes and let out a total
scream and my arms instinctively flung themselves over my head and the only thought I had was
this is something bad, this is something bad, this is something bad
, which I’m pretty sure was my body going on autopilot. Lifesaving autopilot. It was more like a message from my brain to
my body—danger: run away!
I opened my eyes and reached out to grab Nick, but he had moved to the side and instead I found myself looking at Christy,
who had this totally shocked look on her face. Her mouth was open like she was going to say something, and her hands were
both clutching her stomach. They were covered with blood.
She wavered and then began to fall forward. I jumped out of the way and she hit the floor between me and Nick. I looked down
at her, feeling like I was in slow-motion, and saw that there was blood spreading across the back of her shirt as well and
there was a hole in the fabric right in the middle of the blood.
“Got her,” Nick said, looking down at her, too. He was holding a gun and his hand was shaking. “Got her,” he repeated. He
kind of laughed a little, this high-pitched laugh I still think was surprise more than anything. I have to believe it was
a surprised laugh. I have to believe he was as surprised by what he did as I was. That somewhere underneath the drugs and
the obsession with Jeremy was a Nick who, like me, thought it was all a joke, all a what-if.
And then everything snapped into real time. Kids were screaming and running, clogging the doorways and falling over one another.
Some were standing around looking amused like someone had just pulled off a good prank and they were sorry they’d missed it.
Mr. Kline was shoving kids out of the way, and Mrs. Flores was screaming commands at them.
Nick started to rush through the crowd, too, leaving me with Christy and all that blood. I turned my head and Willa and I
locked eyes.
“Oh my God!” somebody screamed. “Somebody! Help!”
I think it was me screaming, but even today I can’t be sure.
4
[F ROM THE G ARVIN C OUNTY S UN -T RIBUNE ,
M AY 3, 2008, R EPORTER A NGELA D ASH ]
Ginny Baker, 16—Baker, a straight-A honor roll student, was reportedly saying goodbye to friends before rushing to first
period when the first gunshot rang out. According to witnesses, Baker appeared to be a deliberate target, Levil bending to
shoot her as she crouched underneath a table.
“She was screaming ‘Help me, Meg!’ when he bent down and pointed the gun at her,” junior Meghan Norris said. “But I didn’t
really know what to do. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t even hear the first gunshot. And it all happened so fast.
All I knew was Mrs. Flores was yelling at us to get under the table and cover our heads, so we did. And I just happened to
dive under the same table as Ginny. And he got her. He didn’t say anything to her at all. Just leaned down, pointed the gun
in her face, shot her, and walked away. She was real quiet after he shot her. She wasn’t asking me to help her anymore, and
I thought she was dead. She looked dead.”
Baker’s mother could not be reached for comment. Her father, who lives in Florida, describes the incident as “the worst kind
of tragedy a parent could imagine.” He added that he will be moving back to the Midwest to help Baker through the extensive
plastic surgery that doctors say will be required to reconstruct her face.
“So did your mom go back to work today?” Stacey asked. We were in the lunch line,
and I started to pull up onto my tiptoes to see what they were laughing at.
And then there was the noise.
It wasn’t so much a noise in my ears as it was in my brain. It sounded like the whole world was shutting down on me. I screamed.
I know I did because I felt my mouth open and my vocal cords vibrate, but I heard nothing. I shut my eyes and let out a total
scream and my arms instinctively flung themselves over my head and the only thought I had was
this is something bad, this is something bad, this is something bad
, which I’m pretty sure was my body going on autopilot. Lifesaving autopilot. It was more like a message from my brain to
my body—danger: run away!
I opened my eyes and reached out to grab Nick, but he had moved to the side and instead I found myself looking at Christy,
who had this totally shocked look on her face. Her mouth was open like she was going to say something, and her hands were
both clutching her stomach. They were covered with blood.
She wavered and then began to fall forward. I jumped out of the way and she hit the floor between me and Nick. I looked down
at her, feeling like I was in slow-motion, and saw that there was blood spreading across the back of her shirt as well and
there was a hole in the fabric right in the middle of the blood.
“Got her,” Nick said, looking down at her, too. He was holding a gun and his hand was shaking. “Got her,” he repeated. He
kind of laughed a little, this high-pitched laugh I still think was surprise more than anything. I have to believe it was
a surprised laugh. I have to believe he was as surprised by what he did as I was. That somewhere underneath the drugs and
the obsession with Jeremy was a Nick who, like me, thought it was all a joke, all a what-if.
And then everything snapped into real time. Kids were screaming and running, clogging the doorways and falling over one another.
Some were standing around looking amused like someone had just pulled off a good prank and they were sorry they’d missed it.
Mr. Kline was shoving kids out of the way, and Mrs. Flores was screaming commands at them.
Nick started to rush through the crowd, too, leaving me with Christy and all that blood. I turned my head and Willa and I
locked eyes.
“Oh my God!” somebody screamed. “Somebody! Help!”
I think it was me screaming, but even today I can’t be sure.
4
[F ROM THE G ARVIN C OUNTY S UN -T RIBUNE ,
M AY 3, 2008, R EPORTER A NGELA D ASH ]
Ginny Baker, 16—Baker, a straight-A honor roll student, was reportedly saying goodbye to friends before rushing to first
period when the first gunshot rang out. According to witnesses, Baker appeared to be a deliberate target, Levil bending to
shoot her as she crouched underneath a table.
“She was screaming ‘Help me, Meg!’ when he bent down and pointed the gun at her,” junior Meghan Norris said. “But I didn’t
really know what to do. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t even hear the first gunshot. And it all happened so fast.
All I knew was Mrs. Flores was yelling at us to get under the table and cover our heads, so we did. And I just happened to
dive under the same table as Ginny. And he got her. He didn’t say anything to her at all. Just leaned down, pointed the gun
in her face, shot her, and walked away. She was real quiet after he shot her. She wasn’t asking me to help her anymore, and
I thought she was dead. She looked dead.”
Baker’s mother could not be reached for comment. Her father, who lives in Florida, describes the incident as “the worst kind
of tragedy a parent could imagine.” He added that he will be moving back to the Midwest to help Baker through the extensive
plastic surgery that doctors say will be required to reconstruct her face.
“So did your mom go back to work today?” Stacey asked. We were in the lunch line,
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