»Halftime«

Again I found myself pushing through a thick crowd of people, Audrie walking ahead and Karmen pulling me in tow. I think she thinks that I would get lost here without her. That may have been true sometime ago, but not now. We stood in a long line of the concession stand, thinking about what to get.

"Wha-" Audrie started.

"I'll have sour gummy worms and a Dr. Pepper, and before you argue, yes I'm gonna pay you back later, and no you can't talk me out of it" I interrupted.

They stared at me for a blink, then Karmen said,

"Izzy, you're scary sometimes, you know that right?"

"Honey, please" I whipped into a poor Raven-Symone accent, "Y'all should know by now that my sixth sense is telepathy!"

They snorted.

"Oh Izz, what are we gonna do with you?" Karmen said with a facepalm.

"Nothing, or you would've done it to me a loooong time ago" I snapped playfully back. Man, my wit was on fire tonight!

They smiled, and looked back at the menu.

"Imma gonna go to the bathroom guys, k?" I said.

"No" Audrie said punctuality.

I stared, then stood in place, taking her seriously. She giggled and said,

"I'm kidding, go ya doof"

I walked off, a little embarrassed that I took her sarcastic word seriously once again, but nonetheless happy to relieve myself. I walked stiffly to the port-a-potties and was surprised in the back of my mind when I noticed no one was using them. They must really stink.

I walked into one and flipped the lock shut, then did my business. Thankfully there was toilet paper and hand sanitizer in the one I picked. I zipped up my dark skinny jeans and flipped the lock again, pushing the door open-

Bang.

I knew that noise. Gunshot. And it was close. Very close. Like less-than-a-hundred-yards-away close. I had to think fast. My heart pounded, but my head was clear. Stay inside, or go outside? Both. I closed the door and listened quietly to the commotion outside. No more gunshots, but an overwhelming quantity of screams, cries, and rough death threats. Hmmmmm. Death threats. There was more than one assailant. Good to know.

The heart-wrenching noises and monumental amounts of cussing faded over several minutes until they were still in earshot, but a safe distance away. As I slipped out, I wondered why they didn't check the stalls. Then I remembered I was the only one over here, and when the gunshots fired off I had flicked the lock open, turning the little outside red "occupied" sign on the potty to the green "empty" sign. Lucky me.

I snuck around behind the potty, and sat there for a moment, catching my breath. No, I'm not THAT outta shape, jeez. Just check back with me when your high school football game gets interrupted by gunshots and some sons of butt-munches, k?

Peeking from the side, I had a view of most of the field, and I could see the bleachers from the side, giving me a good view of the occupants. Or lack thereof. All the people had been pushed onto the field, sitting on the ground, surrounded by people in black holding guns. I evaluated their ammunition. Mostly pistols, maybe two semi-autos and one shotgun. Judging by their builds, the bad guys were, well, mostly guys, except for three pretty buff girls. All full grown.

What was I gonna do? I was safe, I could get help, I had my phone, all I needed to do was dial 911. But my best friends were in there, and I had a gut feeling that if the cops showed up, people's heads would start getting blown off. Sad, yes, but true? Also yes. I knew how their minds worked. No, I wasn't an ex-gang member or anything, to heck with that. I just knew how people's minds worked. Call it my specialty.

I needed a plan to save these people. I needed a plan to get my friends back. I smiled and thought,

"Easy"