Chapter 9

The explorers got back in the van, Megan taking the front passenger seat this time. The van went through a residential area. Most of the houses were structurally compromised in some way; holes in the roof on many, a missing wall here, one house totally collapsed there. Billy had Megan hand him the SD card labeled “4” and put card 3 in the glove box, with the two other used cards. After a drive of about five minutes, the explorers arrived at a two-story high school which said, “C N A ZYD A IG SC O”. The school was medium-sized, probably 500 or 600 students.

“Central Izydorczak High School.” said Billy.

“This is where I went to high school, class of ’82.” said Melissa.

“You don’t have to keep reminding us that you’re old.” said Dirk.

Megan decided to stay outside, given the condition of the school. The overall architecture of the school looked 1970s. The school had tan tile walls on the first floor and silver siding on the second floor. All the windows were shattered.

“This place seriously looks like Candu High School in Uranium City, Canada.” said Billy.

The explorers walked through a broken tempered glass front door. Inside the school’s front hallway, the floors felt stable, but a mush of fallen ceiling tiles covered the floor. The red paint on the cinder-block walls was peeling and faded. The interior smelled of mold.

Inside the front office, a dirty sign-in sheet still said March 27, 1987 and the last person to sign in to the school – a boy named Patrick, at 12:29 pm. Elsewhere in the office was a logbook that said, “Detention”.

“Hmmm, wonder what Harry Jones did to get the last-ever detention at this school?” asked David.

After a short time in the office, the explorers went into Room 103 – a classroom. Much of the plaster had peeled from the walls, revealing the cinder blocks underneath, but the desks were still arranged neatly in five rows of six. There was a map of the United States that had fallen off the wall on the right side of the room laying on the floor. The subject matter on the blackboard revealed that on March 27, 1987, Mr. Donaldson’s 11^th grade history class was learning about the Teapot Dome scandal, and that their homework was questions 7-12 on page 226.

“Well, if you ever have to take a test on the Teapot Dome scandal… here’s some notes from 1987.” said Billy, filming the blackboard.

The teacher’s desk had an Apple II computer, a gradebook, and a teacher’s edition textbook on it. Billy was most interested in the gradebook; David and Dirk looked at the textbook, a blue book that said, “American History”. It was laid out much like a modern textbook, but had no color photographs, and the maps were out of date, showing the Soviet Union. Of course, they had to look at what the doomed assignment had been.

Question 7 had been, “What were some of the legislative changes that resulted from the Teapot Dome Scandal?”

“I forgot all about the Teapot Dome scandal.” said David.

“I remember hearing about it on the Simpsons.” said Billy.

“I wonder how many of the students even finished that assignment. I always did my weekend homework on Sunday night.” said Billy.

“Sometimes, I did it on Monday morning, in my other classes.” said Melissa.

The explorers went down the hall, past a few more history classes, and found a chemistry lab.

 “This was Mrs. Conley’s class. I never was one for science growing up, but she always found a way to make it interesting. She taught junior level chemistry and was one of the people who inspired me to teach.” said Melissa.

The blackboard had a detailed drawing of an alkane, an alkene, and an alkyne structure. The board said, “Remember the Alley rule like the vowels. alkAne = 1, alkEne = 2, alkYne = 3.” Under “Homework” on the board, it said “ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND”.

“Mrs. Conley always used mnemonics and little tricks to help you memorize stuff.” said Melissa.

A big periodic table, printed on cardboard, probably 4 feet tall by 6 feet wide, still clung to the wall; it only had up to element 109, with elements 104-109 having temporary names. The periodic table had a 1981 copyright date.

Desks were arranged in much the same manner as in the history room, but on the left side of the room, there were lab counters, with wooden shelves inside the counters and gas hookups for Bunsen burners. Inside the shelves were all the trappings of a chemistry experiment: test tubes, pipettes, beakers, and the Bunsen burners. Billy and David looked inside one set of shelves, while Melissa and Dirk looked at another set.

“Did anyone ever get hurt doing a chemistry experiment?” asked Dirk.

“Not that I can recall.” said Melissa.

“What was your favorite class in school?” asked Billy.

“Probably newspaper class. I always enjoyed getting out in the community and interviewing people.” said Melissa.

“I’d love to see that classroom.” said Billy.

“Alright, next class.” said Melissa.

The teacher’s desk was the last thing the explorers looked at in the room. It had another Apple II computer and a gradebook, with a pile of papers and an EZ Grader next to it. Billy moved a fallen ceiling tile to see the gradebook. Most of the grades looked good – lots of B’s, with quite a few A’s and C’s and few failing grades.

“I guess only the smart kids took chemistry.” said Billy.

“That, and a good teacher really helps matters too.” said Melissa.

Melissa then led the explorers down the hall to a stairwell at the rear of the building. Once they got to the top of the stairs, Melissa looked at the main hallway on the second floor. It was in worse condition than the first floor, with most of the paint missing from the walls and a few small holes in the roof. Insulation showed through in a few places. Moss grew from the floor in a few spots, and there was a small hole, less than a square foot, visible on the right side of the hall about 30 feet away.

“Follow me. Floors are a little sketchy.” said Melissa.

The rest of the explorers followed Melissa in a single-file line through the hall as she tested the floors before putting her full weight on them. Dirk scanned his EMP meter, but it was empty, yet again. One locker was open, on the right side of the hall about 10 feet from the hole in the floor.

“Can we see the locker?” asked David. As Melissa carefully walked toward it, she stepped on a soft patch of floor. She stepped back, sidestepped the patch, and got to the locker, number 423, asking the explorers to look at it one at a time. The binders and other ephemera attracted the most attention.

The locker clearly belonged to a teenage girl. There was a faded, peeling River Phoenix photo on the inside of the locker door. The black Trapper Keeper inside the locker held assignments, tests, and various doodlings; although the Trapper Keeper itself was dirty, the items inside were in pristine condition. Two pencils still had their sharp points. An Algebra II test looked like it had been done yesterday, the feminine pencil script still clear, though the date said March 26, 1987.  The grade on it was a 97. A biology test had a 94 on it, and several more assignments had A’s on them. Only a music test, dated March 4, 1987, had a mediocre grade – a 74. Melissa made sure the explorers didn’t take anything from the binder and put it back in an orderly manner.

“All that studying, that good score, gone to waste. What happened to the grades of people who had to evacuate?” asked Billy.

“As I understand it, they just gave everyone a passing grade for the current year in all of their classes and let them go to the next grade. There would have been no way to get the school records until long after the students graduated, with the constant threat of being blown up by a volcano. So, if you were in 10^th grade at the time of the volcano, you just went to 11^th grade in September of ’87. College was a real mess, certain universities agreed to take certain majors, some students had to take tests to be able to clep out of classes they’d already taken, but what they usually did is just say you didn’t have to take certain classes depending on what grade level you were in. Of course, this varied from major to major and university to university. On top of all that, all the ex-Izzy students got free tuition for a couple years.” said Melissa.  

“I don’t remember much, I was in kindergarten when the volcano hit, so not much schoolwork left behind to speak of. I just started first grade the next year, like Melissa said.” said David.

“Lucky *******”. said Dirk.

After looking at the locker, the explorers kept following Melissa. Near the end of the hallway, they turned left into a room, about the size of a normal classroom, with exterior windows. At the head of the room, away from the windows, were two photocopiers. Half of the blackboard had fallen where the wall covering had totally rotted away, revealing insulation and bare cinder blocks. On one side of the room, there was a row of desks, with four Macintosh computers and a printer. There was a large circular table in the middle of the room and filing cabinets on the other side. The filing cabinets had been labeled, but some of the labels had come off; the remaining labels had ranges of 3 years on them, like 1958-1960 and 1973-1975. One of the filing cabinets had fallen over, and papers had spilled out. Luckily, the floors in this room were still stable, though Melissa still tested them all out before calling the rest of the explorers in.

The room had transformed into more of an indoor terrarium than a classroom. Moss and small plants covered the entire floor and parts of the desks, photocopiers, and computers. A 6-inch tall flower grew out of the rotting papers that had fell out of the filing cabinet.

David and Billy looked at the papers that had fallen from the filing cabinet. A fragment of paper said May 6, 1943. An ad on the same page said, “BUY WAR SAVINGS BONDS”. One of the flower’s roots coiled itself around an article about gasoline rationing.

“That’s just sad. This is World War II historical memorabilia.” said David.

“So much we have to save in this town.” said Billy.

After looking through what they could of the WWII-era newspapers, Billy and David looked over and saw Melissa looking at the newest newspaper in the room, with a print date of March 26, 1987. Dirk was standing nearby, disinterested.

“What years did you work on this paper?” asked Billy.

“1979 to 1982. Sophomore through senior year, I was editor in chief senior year.” answered Melissa. Billy carefully opened the 1979-1981 cabinet, picking up the first paper in there, the December 3, 1981 issue. For a high school newspaper, it was a serious piece of work, with 8 pages. It looked more like a local newspaper.

On the dateline it said, “Editor Melissa M. Mingo”.

“Wow, your initials have always been Mmm. That’s awesome.” said Billy.

“A guy in high school actually called me Mmm.” said Melissa.

The paper had several articles listed on a column on the front page; they included study tips for finals, places to go over Christmas break, a sports schedule, and a write-up about the school arcade. The front page had an article about the school’s football team, the Red Devils, going to the post-season after winning a game 35-28 against East Izydorczak High School the past Saturday, November 28.

“Go Red Devils!” said Billy. Melissa repeated the cheer as she came over to look at the paper with Billy.

“Go Peles!” said David, referring to his elementary school, Samberg Mountain Elementary School.

At the bottom of the page was a reminder, “Wear your seat belts. Do it for those who love you.”

“A seat belt saved my mom’s life.” said Billy.

“I remember you telling us about that. Glad she’s okay.” said Melissa.

Getting to the arcade article, Billy was mesmerized by a large color picture of the arcade, which had black walls with space motifs. Pac-Man, Centipede and Turbo were visible in the photo, Turbo described as having just arrived Tuesday [December 1].

“I bet this was a lot of fun to write.” said Billy.

“It was. I had to play all the games; they gave me about 10 bucks in quarters to do that.” said Melissa.

“I have to see the arcade.” said Billy.

“They took it out a couple years before the volcano. It stopped being profitable.” said Melissa.

“Rats.” said Billy.

Billy kicked a mat of moss away, revealing a patch of the room’s original red carpet, still in good condition.

There wasn’t much left to the room, so Billy and David went over to see the last newspaper ever printed at the school. At the top of the page, it said, “Soccer Season Starts March 31”.

“I guess they didn’t have a soccer season.” said David.

As the explorers left the room, Melissa’s left foot slipped on a patch of moss, suddenly sliding forward about a foot. Her right leg lifted off the ground, and her body tilted precariously forward as she flailed her arms attempting to regain her balance. Billy and David began to run toward Melissa, but just before they got there, she managed to regain her balance.

“Wow. Good recovery.” said Billy.

Melissa led the explorers down the hall and into a large room with dozens of circular tables and hundreds of chairs around them. There was some moss and mold in the room, but not nearly to the extent that was in the newspaper room. The ceiling was heavily decayed and discolored but had no visible holes. None of the tables and chairs seemed to have fallen into any holes, but the floor was covered in debris and suspect in the area. Melissa told the explorers to stay near the edges of the room.

The explorers went through an archway into the food serving line. The menu on the wall was for the week following the volcano, March 30 to April 3, 1987, and was for burritos or meatloaf Monday, sushi or cheeseburgers Tuesday, cheeseburgers or pizza Wednesday, breakfast or grilled chicken Thursday, and a hot dog bar or salad bar Friday.

“Looks like they had good food at this school.” said Dirk.

“Too bad none of this ever got made. I wonder if they’d ever had sushi before?” asked Billy.

“They had it a couple times when I was there, I remember it would have been during my junior year that they first offered it, I think it was the day after the Super Bowl in 1981. It was nothing fancy, just fish wrapped in rice, like a low-end roll you’d get today. It was 2 dollars; regular lunch was a buck. I did a news story about it; they ran out the first day about halfway through the lunch periods and offered it again a couple days later for the later lunch periods.” said Melissa.

“The day after the Super Bowl that year would have been January 26, 1981. They offered sushi a couple times when I was in high school, a few students tried it, it sold decently but not especially well. This was 2013-2014 or so, so it wasn’t the novelty it was in the early ‘80s.” said Billy.

“I’m not a big fan of sushi.” said David.

“I’ll eat sushi all day. It’s one of those foods people love or hate.” said Billy.

The serving line itself was very dirty and moldy; ironically, the cafeteria’s health grade of 99 was clearly visible. In the distance, a hole in the roof shined a light onto a large freezer, which flies buzzed around. The stench of the food was noticeable even 30 feet away.

The explorers walked through the line like they would have if they were students, getting to the cash register at the end. The black cash registers had an LED display, looking like a large ‘80s calculator.

After looking at the cafeteria, Melissa led the explorers back downstairs, where they decided to look at the gym and then leave. There wasn’t much to the gym: it was a large room, two stories high, in similar condition to the cafeteria. There had been a few pennants on the walls, but they had all fallen over the years. In one area, a piece of metal hung down precariously from the roof. The wood floor of the gym was warped and buckled. The rusting basketball hoops, surprisingly, hadn’t fallen, despite a small hole in the roof near one of the hoops.

Billy carefully walked onto the wooden bleachers. The bleachers moved unsettlingly beneath his feet. He quickly left the bleachers for more solid ground and got a wide shot of the gym. The explorers then left the gym and walked out of the school for their next exploration.

On the way out, David saw a sign that stated that the school was built in 1976.

“This school was built in ’76.” said David.

“Wow, same year my high school was built!” said Billy.