At 3:45 p.m., Leigh Ann’s sedan pulled into Fairfax Middle School and parked in a handicap spot. Limping, she got out and walked around to the trunk and with great effort, she pulled out the ratty oversized wheelchair, unfolded it, and rolled her way to the entrance ramp.
“Hello, ma’am, who are you here to see?” The guard at the door wore a starchy brown uniform and a wide smile.
“Principal Skinner,” Leigh Ann said, rifling through the purse that sat on her lap. “My daughter may come here in the fall.”
“You know there’s an open house at the end of the school year.”
“I just recently relocated, so I had scheduled a meeting now.” Leigh Ann smiled.
“Okay, write your name down on the badge, and we’ll have you go through the security detector.”
Leigh Ann scribbled the name Carolyn on the name tag and stuck it to her chest, right above her pounding heart.
“Here, darling, let me help ya.” The security guard held out his hand, and as predicted, made it all too easy. He pulled her to her feet, and holding her breath, she hobbled through the metal detector without a beep.
Leigh Ann looked nervous, but she hoped the guard would chalk it up to being without her chair.
“Just a sec.” The guard gave her a wink and wheeled the chair around the scanner and helped her sit back down.
“Whew,” Leigh Ann said, adjusting her purse back in her lap. “Thank you so much. You’re too kind.”
The guard nodded and left Leigh Ann to wheel herself down the hallway toward the sounds of a classical symphony that drifted underneath the double doors of the gymnasium.
She stopped in the bathroom, and shedding her limp, wheeled into the handicap stall, disassembled the chair, and reassembled the M4 assault rifle she’d hidden inside it. In the seat of the wheelchair were eight extra magazines loaded with sixty rounds of blanks each. Seeing the ammunition, which looked so real, her heart spasmed and her face began to sweat. She sat down on the toilet seat, prayed that a mistake had not been made, and real bullets were not in the gun. She logged into Wickr, and sent a message: I’m in.