A second officer approached and I raised my hands instinctively. Jerking away from Officer Holt’s heavy hand.

At that same precise moment, the sound and feel of glass shattering, filled the classroom. The windows were broken. I saw it happening in mid-motion, almost slow-motion, but feeling it before it did in fast-forward.

I winced, waiting for the glass, the points, the sharp cuts and flecks. It never came. Instead, something else way more unexpected happened. Oh boy. Was I in for it. The floor started to rumble, the officer lost his footing, all the students started screaming, everyone was hanging onto their desks…and I was standing up perfectly straight in the middle of it. I couldn’t do anything else.

Why? The rumbling gave way to four large, earthen walls that pushed up through the floor. Up around me. Boxing me into a tiny cubicle. There wasn’t exactly room for me to stumble around. I pushed frantically at one wall, thinking I was going to be suffocated some how and completely missing the fact that those walls were protecting me from the very persistent officer. One wall wobbled a tiny bit. I pushed harder and it gave way beneath my fingertips. Freedom!

I bolted. I didn’t wait. I saw the classroom door and ran. As fast as I could, leaving the entire mess behind. I wish I’d been dreaming. I wish.

But dreams never end with hiding in the janitor’s closet.