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Sitting in a chair that wasn’t quite comfortable, Venti’s quietly scrolling through his phone, headphones about half blast as he waits for the rest of the choir students to file in. It’s the end of class, but he’s in the next one anyway, juggling two choirs for a full school year by this point. 18 years old and sitting pretty, ready to graduate this upcoming June, he heard someone probably watching a Purge meme on their school-issued laptop. But then he heard the director yell. He lifts one headphone away from his ear.
“EVERYONE GET IN MY OFFICE NOW!”
His eyes flick from the director to the digital clock and alarm the school had installed in every classroom and hallway, and his heart drops when he hears the blaring alarm. There’s a shooter in the building.
There’s a surprising lack of pushing and shoving, even as they all cram into the small choir robe room behind the choir director’s office as the director herself locks the door. Venti remembers coming back here the first time, the mild struggle of finding a robe short enough for him, but now the room felt much scarier. The lights have all been turned off and he heard people shuffling around, apologizing for bumping into each other and such. He carefully sits down as he heard his classmates do, thanking, well, himself that it was the smaller class of 12 people including the director, instead of his next choir which had about 40.
He curls up, pressed into the corner as best he can, Aether sitting down next to him. “You okay?” They ask quietly. Venti takes off his hat and scratches his head, “No… but, I-I’m keeping it together for now…” He says after a moment. He feels Aether’s hand on his shoulder and he flinches. “Sorry…” They whisper and pull away.
Seconds stretch into hours as they sit in silence, the choir director standing by the door of her office. He could hear Kaeya somewhere, quietly trying not to have a full-on panic attack, his wheezing and whimpering making it hard for Venti to keep calm himself. He can’t blame him though, this must be so familiar for him… Venti buries his face between his knees, unable to focus on anything.
There’s a couple squeaks of surprise when a light suddenly comes through the window of the door, and there’s a gentle tapping. Venti’s head snaps up and he looks at the person through the window and huffs. It’s the band director, the rooms were connected by another tiny room with all the music stuffed into hundreds of manilla envelopes. Students scoot out of the way as the door is slowly pushed open. “Does anyone want some water? I’ve got some in my room.” He says, the choir director poking her head back into the room. There’s a moment of silence before a couple kids raise their hands, including Venti. Might as well, right? The band director leaves again, coming back with three waters, one for each of the kids.
Venti quietly cracks his open and takes a sip. It’s room temperature, but it helps some. “If anyone wants their water cold, hand it over.” He hears Rosaria say, and he snorts quietly, “Awful kind of you, sister.” Venti says as he hands his water over. “Don’t get used to it.” She replies, and after a moment or two she hands back his water, much colder now.
He leans back against boxes of probably more robes, he’s never seen inside and doesn’t really want to look right now, quietly nursing his cold water. He closes his eyes, wondering how his other friends were doing. He could imagine Jean doing quite well in this situation, she seemed the type to keep a level head, poor Barbara is probably scared out of her mind though… if he could focus enough, he would be comforting those praying to him right about now, but he can’t gather his thoughts. He takes another sip of water.
The choir director steps back inside and he looks up, eyes slightly adjusted to the pitch blackness. “I’ve gotten an update, it’s safe to go into classrooms, but we should still keep doors locked and lights off… I’d honestly say it’d be better if we just stayed in here.” She explains, and there’s a small chorus of kids agreeing, Aether and Venti among them.
Venti swirls his water around in the bottle, just now realizing that it’s gone room temp again, and it’s about half empty. “I’ve developed a drinking problem…” He mutters to Aether, who snorts and whispers back, “Developed?” And the two try not to laugh too loudly. The bard sighs softly, closing his eyes, not that it made much of a difference, it’s practically like he’s shut his eyes anyway in here. He remembers something similar, but much more real happening just recently… maybe they were being over cautious because of it.
The director comes back in again and she sighs, “We’ll be releasing students now, you guys should meet up with your families and head home. Don’t bother going to your next period, they said it’s not needed.”
“I’m gonna turn on the light.” One of the other kids warns, and Venti covers his eyes before the light is flicked on. He slowly uncovers them, standing up and looking around. Rosaria has been comforting Kaeya, and she’s slowly helping him stand up while everyone else files out. Aether gently takes Venti’s hand and guides him out too.
In the main choir room, everyone gathers their stuff and immediately heads out, texting or calling parents and guardians to come get them ASAP. Venti’s phone buzzes and he takes it out to check. Jean’s texting him privately.
Jeanbean: I was texting mom the whole time, she said to meet out front. I’ve got Barbara with me. Are you okay?
Venti: I’m as okay as I can be
Jeanbean: Fair enough… I think you and I are the most put together right now.
Venti: Barbs isn’t?
Jeanbean: No, she’s pretty shook up. Like I said, I’ve got her right now, you just get out here as soon as you can. We’re by the school sign.
Venti: kk
Venti sighs, “Jean’s mom is on her way,” he looks at Aether, “you and Lumine gonna be okay?” He asks, not quite ready to leave his friend. Aether nods though, “You go find Jean and Barbara, I’ll text you later.” Venti nods and grabs his stuff, taking his stuffed dragon out of his backpack before heading out to the school’s sign.
He spots Jean and Barbara, who looks to be in rough shape, standing in front of the sign. Jean has her arm wrapped around her little sister, the poor freshman sniffling and whimpering still. Venti looks down the sidewalk a ways and sees Kaeya with Diluc, the redhead practically squeezing the life out of his slightly younger brother. It puts a small smile on Venti’s lips, knowing they could put their hatred aside in crisis. He hears a car slow to a stop in front of them and he walks over to it with Jean and Barbara.
“You can sit in the front.” Jean says as she and Barbara get in the back. He just shrugs and sits in the front passenger seat of his adoptive mother’s car. They buckle in and she drives off. “Are you three okay?” Frederica asks, looking at Jean and Barbara through the mirror. Jean sighs, rubbing Barbara’s back, “Yeah, I’m alright…” She put even less effort into that half lie than she usually does. Barbara doesn’t have the energy to scold Jean about lying, she just snuffles and clings to her big sister. Frederica looks at Venti out of the corner of her eye, “Venti?” She asks.
Venti had started zoning out, staring out the window. He clears his throat when he hears his name, “Ah, y-yeah, sorry…” He says, sighing, “Yeah... I’m fine…”
He forgot his hat in the robes room.