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MAGGIE WAS ALTERNATING between giggling at the sight of pompous Jaquess sliding to the floor and fuming about Danny who should have been there to stop her barrage of insults as she walked to her car. It’s really all Danny’s fault. I wonder what the blowback on this little event will be. Oh well it’s Friday, maybe it will all be forgotten over the weekend. Oh crap, the biochemistry exams, they are still in my desk.
Maggie spun around and headed to her office around the back way to avoid any witnesses to her latest little explosion. As she entered her office, mentally rehearsing a speech about all the freedoms we so enjoy here in these great United States, one being free speech, she spotted a rail-thin figure lurking behind her desk. As a big believer that the best defense is a strong offense, Maggie ran toward the crouching figure, shouting, “What the hell do you think you’re doing in my office?”
The individual squawked a few times, staggered and then fell backward onto Maggie’s office chair. If the chair hadn’t been right behind this person, they would’ve crashed to the floor. Maggie prodded this strange person with her foot, and when there was no response except for a small whimper, turned on her desk lamp.
“Trainwreck! Damn it you scared the hell out of me. What are you doing in my office?”
“101 notes, lost. Do you have the book, with quiz answers? Please.”
Maggie was used to Trainwreck’s abbreviated speech when he was around her. She sighed, deeply counted to ten, counted to ten again and pulled her desk drawer out with such force that the contents jumped up and out of the drawer. Tranwrach attempted to help Maggie pick up the papers and assorted office supplies, but Maggie pushed him aside, causing him to land in a heap on the floor. Maggie found the answer key he needed and handed it to him. While on the floor, Tranwrach saw that Maggie never seemed to lose things like he did and had all the answer sheets for all the classes in order, as well as a healthy supply of office supplies including folders and binders. He spied some colorful graphs on some paperwork that had slithered under Maggie’s desk and became transfixed by them, but was soon being shooed out of her office.
After Maggie had ejected Tranwrach from her office, she locked it and attempted to sneak out to her car without running into one of her colleagues. Just when she thought she was in the clear, a huffing Dennis Raymond, head of the chemistry department, accosted her.
“Maggie, Maggie, Maggie,” he puffed.
“What, what, what?” Maggie answered somewhat snottily.
“Have you checked the news? Have you called Danny or Kevin or have they called you?”
A cold rock of fear dropped into Maggie’s stomach. The anger she felt toward Danny immediately turned into panic. “What do you mean? What’s happening?”
She nearly tore Dennis’s phone out of his hand as he turned it toward her to show her the news. The front of the Lexi Corp. building, was on the screen, and the scroll at the bottom read that at least one gunman was inside Lexi Corp. with an unknown number of hostages and there was a heavy police presence at this time.
Maggie ran toward her Jeep with Dennis’s phone in her hand with Dennis shouting behind her, “I don’t think they’ll let you near there. Hey, wait, my phone!”
As Maggie drove past Dennis, his phone came flying out the driver’s side window and a faint “Sorry!” followed.