A piece from "For your consideration"

Here is a very short piece from my work in progress. The story follows a high school senior who is attempting to make up four years of lost opportunity with a series of outrageous activities that he hopes will earn him a "legendary" status. Meanwhile his drop-out best friend is helping him work on a graduation prank that will just as equally become "legendary" and if not anything else more "infamous". I hope you enjoy my little snippet. I should be done with my story by the coming month. -EH

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From "For your consideration"

Written by Efrain Hernandez

Leigh chased the footsteps ahead of him in pursuit of an escalating raucous. He swung his body around the corner and bolted up the stairwell, shadowing several other bodies who take three steps at a time. The noise pounded louder against his ears and consequentially excited him with every passing second. Bursting through the second floor doors, the group were immediately assimilated into a collision of crowding high school students. The noise was fantastic in the hallway. Leigh struggled to continue tailing but the shoulders crashing against his collar bone push him back out. He looked at where the crowd is going. Every single soul was buzzing with uproar and were pushing towards the cafeteria ahead. Seeing how the entrance was already beginning to stiffen with a blockade of backpacks and compacted bodies bottle-necking into the two door entrance, he wasted no time in pushing back into the crowd towards the stairwell again. He noticed a girl squeeze past the traffic holding a cupped hand over her forehead with a hot, wet face. He finally saw a dark red gash on her that was pooling blood between her fingers before climbing up another flight of stairs.

The third floor was quieter but heat from the activity below had traveled upwards filling this hallway with an uncomfortable musk. Leigh settled with another cafeteria entrance that led to the catwalk. He braced himself and entered an arena of chaos and uproar. Traveling across the catwalk he was able to see the cafeteria below and with it a grin stretched wildly across his face.

The cafeteria was being destroyed. A massive brawl of food and blood was ruining the newly polished floors and equally damaging the tables and chairs. Bodies struck each other and were sometimes equipped with trays and plates. Some students had managed to escape but others were unsuccessful in their attempt as they were thrown back into the fight by the oncoming audiences. The students who tried to get the closest seat tried their hardest not to get caught inwards. They all had the same dazzling and horrified faces. Fists smashed against heads and their knuckles were crackling white with every touch.

Leigh stood over the railing and watched, observing every moment in perfect detail. His eyes were ablaze with a thirst for more action since that was all that he had left.