Chapter Text
“Okay ladies! Very nice work today! Class dismissed!” Says Mrs. Kelly, Julie and Flynn’s dance teacher.
“Oh thank god.” Flynn says, turning to Julie as they walk into the locker room to get changed. “Girl I am starving! I am so ready for lunch!” Julie laughs and shakes her head at her best friend as they change out of their dance clothes and back into their regular clothes.
“Well then maybe you should’ve had something more than a soda for breakfast this morning.” Julie says, giving Flynn a knowing look. Flynn just shrugs.
“I didn’t have time for anything else this morning. You know I need my beauty sleep Jules.” She says as she closes her gym locker. Together the two of them head for the hall.
“Hey you go ahead to the cafeteria, I’ll meet up with you in a bit.” Julie says to Flynn. “I have a melody I need to get out of my head and down on paper, but I want to hear it on the piano first. I’m pretty sure the music room is empty this period.” This time it’s Flynn’s turn to give Julie a knowing look.
“Fine, but I’m gonna come join you once I grab my lunch, someone needs to make sure you eat too and don’t spend the entire period at the piano.” She says nudging Julie playfully. “Ugh, why did I have to opt to buy school lunch today?” She adds, wrinkling her nose. “I seriously hope it’s not mystery meat today.” Julie laughs.
“Okay go.” She says giving Flynn a playful shove towards the cafeteria. “Otherwise you’ll spend most of lunch stuck in the lunch line. I’ll see you in a few.” Flynn laughs and heads off to the cafeteria.
Julie then turns and heads to the music room which she is pleased to find is, in fact, empty. She pulls her song book out of her backpack, flipping it open to a blank page as she heads for the piano. She drops her backpack on the floor and slides onto the bench, already humming the melody that’s been floating around in her mind all day.
She’s only been at it for a few minutes when all of a sudden there is a rumble and the room begins to shake, the instruments around the room creating a cacophony of noise. Overhead the light fixtures start to swing wildly, creaking and flickering. With a start Julie realizes what’s happening. An earthquake.
For a moment Julie freezes in fear. Despite having lived in California her whole life, she’s never actually experienced a major earthquake before. She certainly never expected the first time it happened would be while she was at school and completely alone.
But after a moment of paralyzing fear, a concerning creak from the flickering light fixture above her head spurs her into action. The earthquake safety protocol her parents drilled into her and Carlos from a young age comes flooding back to her. Drop, cover, hold on.
Blowing out a breath Julie pushes back from the piano and drops to the floor on her hands and knees, plaster dust from the ceiling raining down around her. She quickly surveys the room and comes to the realization that her best chance of cover is under the piano, so she crawls unsteadily across the shaking floor until she is underneath it, huddling down, covering her head and neck with one arm and holding tightly to the leg of the piano with the other.
She stays like that as the room shakes and creaks around her. The windows along the back wall shatter, sending shards of glass everywhere, a few hitting Julie’s exposed arms, leaving nicks and cuts in their wake. Julie hisses in pain, her heart racing as she starts to realize just how bad of an earthquake this really is.
That’s when things go from bad to worse. With a screeching, groaning crack, the light fixture from above the piano comes tumbling down, bringing a chunk of ceiling down with it, right on top of the piano, crushing it. Julie lets out a cry. The last thing she feels is a blinding pain in her back and then her world goes dark.