Room 235

 It was a special day. At least for Team Red 2 it was.

We had earned a team breakfast, and we were so excited.

My friends and I had it all planned out the day before.

We were going to sit in Mr. C’s class right up front by the only TV that was on.

The teachers had bought hot chocolate and donuts, bagels and muffins.

It was a whole 2 blocks with no classes. We had, as a team, worked so hard to save up for a team breakfast.

Just loads of time to hang out with my friends and talk about all the things teenage girls talk about.

It was a Tuesday, so we didn’t have plans for the weekend yet but I’m sure we could come up with something to talk about.

Two classrooms with a wall that split open in the middle to make one large classroom.

It was such a great way to start off our last year of middle school.

We knew being in front of the TV we could sway Mr. C to turn it on something good.

What we didn’t understand was why we had to watch some kind of action movie, especially so early in the morning. I’m pretty sure MTV was still playing morning music.

A plane had just crashed into this tall building. Who wants to watch a movie like that and how come those types of movies almost always take place in New York.

It looked so real too. Graphics were getting a lot better.

I asked Mr. C if he could change the movie to something else, less action.

He froze staring at the TV, not saying a word for what seemed like forever.

The TV was on mute but he still stood there, like he was watching the best part of the movie and didn’t want to miss it.

“Have you seen this movie before?” My friend asked him.

“This isn’t a movie; this is the news.” He answered back, and you could hear the worry in his voice. Something wasn’t right.

We all looked at each other so confused, what was he talking about, not a movie. We had just seen a plane crash into a very large building, no way that was real.

He then unmuted the TV.

That’s when we heard them say on the news, “We don’t believe this is a terrorist attack at the moment.”

I had never heard that word before. What was a terrorist?

I knew what a tourist was, we lived in a high tourist area. They were the people who didn’t know how to drive around our rotaries and made traffic horrible in the summer.

“Don’t worry, unless another plane crashes it’s not labeled as a terrorist attack.” Mr. C reassured us. “Whatever is going on is still not good, a lot of people are going to be hurt.”

Little did we know this was just the beginning of a terrible occurrence.

Hardly any time had passed as we all looked at the TV and watched as another plane crashed directly into the building next to the 1^st one.

The classroom went silent.

“Mr. C?”, A kid said towards the back of the room.

Ms. G came running into the class from her room across the hall, that was the only class we had that was not connected by the wall that could split.

“TURN OFF THE TV!”, She yelled.

Mr. C was in a daze, staring at the TV with a look of disbelief on his face. As soon as Mr. C snapped out of it, he turned off the TV.

“Okay, we need everyone to go back to their homeroom. You can bring your breakfast with you, but we need everyone in their homerooms, now.”

The usual noise made by a room filled with 13- and 14-year-old kids went oddly silent. We didn’t know if we should be scared or what. We all just got our stuff and went back to our homerooms, in silence.

Once we got to our homeroom we were filled with questions. My homeroom was Mr. C’s room, I was already sitting at my desk.

“What’s going on?”

“Where did those planes crash at?”

“Mr. C I’m scared!”

Mr. C looked like he had just as many questions as we did. He was just frozen for a moment until the other teachers came to his class door and they all went out into the hallway.

We all had questions.

Who knew the answers would change our lives forever.

Just then the principal came over the intercom.

“Can I have everyone’s attention. A few moments ago, something happened in New York City that has been brought to our attention. We do not have much information at the moment, but we will be informing all the teachers throughout the day. We ask that all teachers keep their television off and continue about their day as planned. Again, if anything of importance arises, we will notify the teachers. Thank you all for your patience and cooperation.”

Just then we heard planes fly over the school, and we all looked out the window. There were 3 military planes, and they were going fast.

After the announcement, Mr. C passed out blank papers to all of us.

“I want everyone to write down any questions they have, but I want us to do it in silence. No talking, just writing.”

So, we all sat there on September 11^th, 2001, in room 235 and wrote down our questions.

This was my own experience of September 11^th, 2001. I was a 13-year-old in 8^th grade. That is one day that I will forever have filled in my memories, as I’m sure many of us who experienced that day do. My thoughts and prayers forever go out to each and every family that was hurt by this senseless act of terror.