Sudden News in Jersey City, New Jersey

Emmanuel Pierre gave his teenage daughter, Johanna, a wink that felt like they were pals or something. It did not apply on the basketball court in the park, though. Tall and lean with ebony hair, the girl hoped she could beat her dad from a tied score. She carefully examined the floor to see where she could shoot the ball while wiping the sweat from her mocha-skin forehead. Once she dribbled in reverse to make a hook shot, Johanna knew victory triumphed as the ball went in. Emmanuel realized her daughter could get an entire ride to college playing the sport. The hopeful father could write a sports article for Sports Illustrated about her future basketball star: Johanna Stefanie Pierre. They shook hands, drank their sports drinks, and packed their gear into the car. Their morning matches signified their long father-daughter bond since Johanna's dad taught her at a young age. Finally arriving home, the two were ready to rest in bed, enjoying the first day of Summer 2016.

The father and daughter went inside, taking off their sneakers by the stairs. As Johanna slowly trudged upstairs, Emmanuel met with Judith, his wife, in the kitchen.

"Babe," Johanna's dad whispered while holding her hand in the kitchen, "we are going to transfer Johanna to Regency Academic School?!"

"Yes," Judith replied, "we're both working now, Mr. Sports Reporter, and can afford it."

"What?!" the sixteen-year-old exclaimed in shock as she stumped her way back to her parents. "How did this happen? Are you serious about the preppy, RAS-ZLE Dazzle?! Don't I have a choice in this matter, daddy?!"

"Your mom wants you to continue her legacy at Regency Academic School, aka RAS; she and I managed to talk to the principal about it. He was impressed with your academics from Masonry High School, and we both want you to go there for the rest of your high school years!"

Johanna knew it would make her mom so proud yet wondered why it mattered so much. She went to Masonry High because it was a public high school, which meant free education. Whether it was free or not, she worried more about her daughter's safety than ever before.

Judith proclaimed, "Your dad and I worked very hard to get where we are today. At least, be grateful to us, especially me, being a police detective. It's not easy for a black woman to wear blue every day. Thank God, I was there when 'that event' happened!"

Not every public high school has a school shooting. Johanna thought deeply about that sad day. She was getting too ahead of himself without thinking it:

On April 1, 2016, at Masonry High, various students and teachers pulled minor pranks on each other. A few freshmen ate Oreos with toothpaste in it and spit them out. An English teacher raised a 'pop [culture] quiz' for the seniors to take. The golf team raised money in the cafeteria for their tournament trip in Bedford, Pennsylvania. As the bell rang for the fourth period, they hurried to their respective classrooms like a typical day. Johanna was in art class with her childhood friend, Antonio DeLuca.

She preached to her buddy while painting, "The substitute teacher rigged the Geometry test to make the system win, Ant!"

Antonio replied while combing his pompadour hair, "Jo, you're not playing Blackjack."

"I'm just saying it is RI-DICK-ULOUS!"

"Well, it was not my clever idea to sneak into a college party last night. I knew the sub would give us a surprise test on April Fool's Day!"

"I'm glad Carmen was so fly sneaking me out of there."

"Our friend always finds a way for us to get out of legal trouble."

"She avoids getting caught by her lawyer mom, Vanessa Lopez, Esq.; she's the 'vindicated' attorney she claims on her ads."

"That's true, Jo; I don't want to mess with her, in or out of the courtroom."

No one expected what came next: at 11 AM, a mysterious, malicious being arrived at Masonry High and started shooting with an automatic rifle. The fire alarm blasted loudly for all to hear. Some students and teachers ran for their lives. The school shooter happened to be in the same area where the two friends were. Shots echoed in the hallways, leaving Johanna and her classmates to hurry back to art class. The sound of gunfire intensified. She saw one of her classmates locking the door and realized her art teacher was not present. All the students in the class knew it was not a drill. They would never forget hearing the screams of many students and faculty members. Johanna cautiously peeked to see if the shooter was nearby. She saw the shooter roam into a computer lab to shoot the computer teacher. Her heart raced as the gunman, wearing everything in black, spotted her and marched towards the girl's classroom next.

Johanna softly panicked, "The shooter is coming! Hide!"

She and her classmates scrunched down under different tables, so the shooter did not see any of them. Two bullets pierced her classroom's walls as warning shots. Luckily, no one was injured. Under the art tables, the students greatly feared their last moments of life were approaching a quick end.

Once the door's window shattered from his shot, the shooter put his arm through to get the doorknob. Judith Pierre and her colleague, Hector Corrado, shot their target down to the ground as he entered. She handcuffed the wounded shooter and stood him up aggressively to the chalkboard. A police officer escorted Johanna's classmates to safety, yet she stayed behind.

The gunman deeply snarled at Judith, "I know who you are, lady. I hear your kid breathing, just outside this room."

The female detective quickly replied, "Why don't I take off that black mask of yours and see for myself!"

The shooter growled and attempted to bite her, striking a chord between both detectives as his evil chuckle roamed the empty classroom. The mask was not removable because he sealed it onto his face. Johanna would never forget his terrifying laugh.

"Hey!" Detective Corrado exclaimed, "We read you your rights! I would be mindful if I were you."

"Well, sonny, you should be the one mindful! Screw you, punk! Time to die!"

The shooter magically got out of his handcuffs and head-butted Judith down. Without hesitation, Detective Corrado shot the shooter down as he was about to run outside the classroom. Johanna was in shock as she saw him face down. She stepped further to see a bullet hole on his back. Once a police officer arrived to escort the girl, Judith joined them to get out of the school.

"Ma," Worried Johanna asked, "is the shooter dead?"

"Everything's going to be okay," Johanna's mother comforted her child while walking, "I promise you're safe with me, sweetie."

"I don't want anything bad happening to you! I'd rather see Detective 'Rotten' get hurt than my mom!"

"Johanna, that shooter could have killed you today! You're my first child! Who would your little sister, Noelani, look up to if you're gone? I'm sure everyone will be swarming like crazy, in and out of town, about you and everyone else in Masonry High."

"I hope Antonio and Carmen are okay."

"Let's go check."

Johanna nodded as she and her mother joined the rest of the surviving faculty members and students. Pure shell shock was on the faces of Antonio and Carmen when they found their friend and her mom. Antonio's stepfather, Paul DeLuca, and Carmen's mother ran towards the group and hugged their child tightly. Surviving a near-death experience was the luckiest accomplishment the three endured, but days after, it became apparent that the shooter took six lives. Johanna could never forget the computer teacher that died across from his classroom. The painful aftermath was something she thought she could get over quickly, yet she was wrong.

As days passed, she and many of her peers showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Carmen did not want to collect her backpack after investigators officially released various belongings. She and her family did not come out of their home for some time. Her mother managed to reduce the number of reporters coming to her home. Distinguishing between trauma and grief was a struggle for Antonio. The two mentally morphed as a giant beast in his head. He became more sensitive and experienced many panic attacks. Johanna's patience grew weary. She was unfocused and aggressive towards some people, incredibly worrying her parents. They must hear her emotional needs immediately. Emmanuel and Judith agreed to seek counseling for Johanna; the parents of Antonio and Carmen followed for their child as well. They all went to intensive therapy three or more times a week, hoping some recovery happened. For a while, the parents of the three went back and forth, trying to decide whether they wanted their children to go back to Masonry High School for their junior year. Their fears of almost losing their children made them choose the problematic option to transfer them to Regency Academic School.

Johanna had a better sense of why her parents decided for her to transfer despite her suddenness. She only wished they did not give up easily on Masonry High School. Judith pulled out a fancy brochure to show to her daughter, who was still in disbelief. It showed a variety of happy students at the private school with a bland description of the institution.

She reassured her, "You will not be the only one transferring, Johanna. Your friends, Antonio and Carmen, will be joining as well! Their parents also agree that a year or two without Masonry would be a nice relief. I'm sure the three of you will like it."

Emmanuel added, "Just think about it, pumpkin: you and your friends would have a fresh start with a little stress and cooler things to do. They have plenty of counselors if you need someone to lend an ear for you. It looked pretty neat when I visited RAS with mom. So, what do you think?"

Johanna believed her parents brainwashed the parents of her friends. How could I even bring up my thoughts or opinions, especially in a complicated situation like this, she thought again. The girl got up from the kitchen table with her Bluetooth headphones and impulsively ran to the side door to go outside. She needed to sort out these changes before suffocating.

"Johanna, wait!" Emmanuel shouted before slamming the door.

While running, the frustrated girl called Antonio from her cell phone with her Bluetooth and greeted sarcastically, "Hello, welcome to our new school, RAS, aka RAS-ZLE DAZZLE! Would you like sprinkles on top of your transcripts?"

"Very funny," Antonio replied on the other line, "my mom cannot wait for me to follow the footsteps of my older cousins in RAS. Does she not realize that I am the black sheep of her family?"

"I always thought Roseamie was the rebel since she's the artist. Her art exhibit at the art gallery downtown is pretty cool. Why does she only show watercolor paintings?"

"You know what I mean, Johanna! How can I compete with a judge like Kenneth, an artist like Roseamie, or even a nurse like Daisy?"

Johanna knew her friend's anxieties had worsened since the shooting in Masonry High. Despite going to therapy with his friends, Antonio experienced prolonged nightmares. She had to be more careful on what to say next with him. He was not the same friend that could tell whether someone was joking or not.

Johanna slowed down on Cambridge Avenue to catch her breath and advised her anxious friend, "Ant, you and I have been through something severe, and hopefully, it will be our last until we are older like our parents' age. I will most certainly not allow anyone else to see what I saw that day take over my life. I will honor the ones we lost and live to the fullest as you and Carmen will. We are alive today and will make the best out of what we have. The world will never stop turning no matter what the next huge event comes our way. Besides, how—"

Suddenly, Carmen crashed into Johanna with her bicycle. She did not expect her most reliable friend to run her over as agony swam all over them. Glad she was not hit by a car, Johanna thought in pain. Carmen was extremely grateful that she landed on top of her and could not stop apologizing.

Lying on the ground, the heroic girl asked, "Can you please get off of me, chica?! At least, you wore the pink helmet I gave you for your quinceañera!"

"Well," Carmen replied, "at least, I use it, and it came in handy. Dos Dulce de Leches would be nice to have right now!"

The two teens slowly got up with scrapes and bruises. On the bright side, the two were near Antonio's house. Johanna held onto Carmen, and they slowly walked with the broken bicycle to Antonio's home at the end of the street. Her guilt blew in Johanna's direction.

She attempted to assure her, "We experienced worse things than this."

"Yeah," she replied while trying to lighten up the mood, "I heard our new school has high security. That's good, right?"

"Our parents did not have to bail us out of Masonry, you know?!"

"Hey, they're just doing what's best for us, dummy."

"I am not a dummy, Carmen!"

"My mom is trying her best not to lose me like how I lose my dad. Do you remember why my mom and I came to Jersey City five years ago?!'

"You were trying to get away from the hurricanes, right?"

Carmen smacked the back of Johanna's head as they passed the construction of new houses on the way. They could hear the summer traffic on Central Avenue with chatters of people exploring the many small businesses. Various exotic scents made their stomachs full. They knew their town became a mini New York City.

She took a deep breath and continued, "Besides that, my mom wanted my little cousin Eduardo and I to have a new start after my dad died in Miami."

Johanna's guilt swam inside, and she empathized with her, "I am sorry, Carmen. I did not mean to forget. Eduardo is technically your mom's nephew and 'adopted' younger brother, right?"

"Yes... and what's your next question?"

"How did your dad die?"

Carmen hesitated to answer her. She did not know if revealing the whole truth was necessary or not. Wrestling two traumatic events, it was better for her to talk about her father's death than the recent school shooting. She turned to face her friend, slightly at ease.

"Well," she proceeded, "he died in a 'random' hit-and-run. It was pretty bad… we will just leave it at that for now. I'm just grateful he's not alive to see his daughter almost get killed in a school shooting; it's not like Miami, you know. We were fortunate that day, huh?"

"Yep, I'm just glad my ma and Detective Corrado stopped that guy in the nick of time. Despite their differences, they do work well together. You know he has a thing for your ma, right?"

"That's gross, Johanna; he's not my mom's type! Besides, she said that she would never find a man like my dad, a natural-born healer. But seriously, we all escaped death."

"Yeah, I thought I was going to die that day when the shooter spotted me."

Carmen tightly embraced Johanna, both briefly crying on the sidewalk. The two had to let it out, even if it was in public. Holding in their pain would have suffocated them more. The girls softly wiped away their tears with a handkerchief Carmen found in her shorts. She thanked her for breaking down with her, and the two continued to walk.

Once they got to their friends' place, Antonio helped an injured Johanna inside. Carmen laid her broken bicycle inside the foyer. Daisy Garcia, black hair and olive skin like Antonio, entered from the backyard to see her young cousin and Carmen settle in the living room. Johanna sat in the kitchen, waiting for her nursing service. She called Antonio's mom, Reyna, about the bike collision and grabbed the first aid kit from the top cupboard. Antonio was fortunate to have his older cousin present. Daisy did not see any sprains or broken bones while aiding Johanna. Usually, Antonio would see the two arguing about the little things; it was his first time to see no calamity between them. What a miracle, he thought.

After Daisy bandaged the recovering teen, she met up with Antonio and Carmen in the living room. She joined them with a polished letter in her pocket. The three anticipated something big was on that paper.

Antonio asked his older cousin, "Where's my mom?"

"She will be home with Uncle Paul soon," Daisy answered as she sat by the piano.

Sitting next to Johanna and opposite Antonio, Carmen commented, "Now, he's Tío Pablo?! Well, that's unexpected."

"It took me a few months, kid. Cousin Kenny and Rosie are on different pages. Isn't that right, Tonio?"

Antonio, lying on the sofa, changed the topic, "Do we have to go to this new school? What's so special about it?"

"Let's try to be open, kiddo. It's a new experience."

Johanna jumped in, "I agree with my friend here. Why go to this preppy school?"

"Did your parents tell you about the summer retreat next week?"

Wait, she thought, was that what ma and daddy were going to mention next before I abruptly left?

Daisy took out the letter and read to Antonio, Carmen, and Johanna, "Dear students, welcome to Regency Academic School! You all had impeccable portfolios that qualified you for a special summer retreat for the incoming year as juniors. The institution annually holds this event for ten days in the summer to see which students could place in the Elite Honors class at the school."

Johanna interrupted, "How is this fancy school 'impressed' by us: Carmen, the all-around student; Antonio, the over-cautious wiz; and I am just... the future doctor that saves the soon-to-be-former president and plays one-on-one with him on the court? I think M.D. looks so fly on me, right?"

Daisy explained further, "Basically, the school thinks you can challenge yourselves better than your soon-to-be old high school. This particular Honors class is only for those that are blood-related to alum. Think of it as an 'extreme' National Honor Society. For all of you, your moms attended Regency Academic School, including Antonio's stepfather and the biological one, also known as–"

"BE NICE!" Reyna and Paul shouted once they entered and set Italian cookies on the coffee table for everyone to eat.

Daisy continued saying the summer retreat examined qualifying candidates in teams on how they handle real-life situations. She told her younger cousin and his friends that they were going on a unique summer vacation provided by RAS. Her short explanation bemused the three teens. It could be a positive experience for them despite still experiencing the outcome of the shooting. Johanna didn't remember her parents asking her permission to participate in this summer getaway. It sounded incredible yet daunting, she guessed, we were going to experience the unknown of RAS's purgatory.

Antonio questioned Daisy, "Is it really a summer vacation or summer school for those ten wretched days?"

"Do I really need to repeat myself?" she talked back to her cousin. "Besides, I will be coming along as your Alum Guardian."

"Is it because you're about to be thirty, and my parents are too old to supervise?"

"SHUT UP!" Johanna and Carmen yelled at him.

Johanna knew Antonio's older cousin would smack the back of her thoughtless cousin's head without hesitation or guilt. The pain was Antonio's karma. Mr. DeLuca asked Daisy to help her Aunt Reyna in the kitchen so she could avoid her younger cousin's annoying antics.

Mr. DeLuca continued reading the letter, "Incoming transfers are automatically grouped in three, which is a relief for you, Antonio. I remember you refusing to join with other people besides Johanna or Carmen."

"Are you serious, Paul?!" exclaimed Antonio in disbelief. "You gals think he's wrong, right?"

Johanna and Carmen did not want to risk their lives in revealing the truth. They knew their friend was a bit needy in the past. It was still a remaining trait of his.

Reyna cried out from the kitchen, "It took a long time for you to let me go for daycare, sweetie! You were scared of the world in the beginning!"

Antonio's friends could not resist laughing at Mrs. DeLuca's comment. He urged them to stop. His mom gave three long checklists to her husband to pass out to Antonio's friends.

He continued, "These are the items you will need for the retreat. We strongly suggest you start packing now. You will all see it is a trip of a lifetime."

The checklist looked like they were going to boot camp: sleeping bag, pillow, two weeks of seasonal clothing, lighters/matches, repair kit, first aids, food, water, etc. Johanna and her friends looked at each other and thought how the retreat would be a nice getaway yet intimidating at the same time. They hoped it would take some tension away from the recent school shooting.

Antonio expressed sarcastically, "Oh, summer retreat, here we come!"