text: [Themes: family friendly, drama]
  
  "Mr. Barragan!"
  
  Mr. Barragan turned around, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. Jill looked over at Rory with a confused look.
  
  "I need to... you know..." he gestured towards the door.
  
  Mr. Barragan sighed and said, "Fine. Go on, Rory. Come right back."
  
  Rory jumped up as Mr. Barragan turned back to the board. Jill glared at him, knowing he was up to something and clearly disappointed at being left out. He grabbed the hall pass and slipped out the door, not even glancing back at her. He moved quickly down the hall, past the bathroom doors, and out the side door of the school. He slipped around the brick wall to where he could see the soccer field. Now that he was outside, he could see a little more. He could see there was a person sitting in the bleachers at the soccer field. It looked like a kid, maybe a student, but he didn't recognize the person at all. Rory looked closer at the drone, and he realized it was larger than he had thought at first. And this drone had something long attached to the bottom of it.
  
  Rory walked out towards the fields to get a better look at the drone. As he did, the person noticed him and the drone turned towards him. It flew directly towards him rather quickly. As it approached, Rory realized that the long item looked like a gun of some kind. As he stopped to consider that, the drone fired at him! Bullets slammed into the brick wall as Rory dove to the ground. The drone flew past him like a plane and then turned upwards, clearly preparing for another pass.
  
  > Rory runs for the equipment shed to get under cover and searches for something to defend himself.
  Rory ran to the shed and yanked the door open. The old metal shed shook as he ran through the doorway and into the small building. There were gaps at the tops of the walls that let in light so he could see the interior. He didn't know if those were intentional or holes left by accident.
  
  As he stepped onto the packed dirt floor, he looked around at the walls. There were a number of different yard implements along the walls. There was a large lawn mower in the middle of the space. There were shovels, rakes, and other things with long handles that he could not recognize.
  
  He cringed and ducked as he heard bullets slicing through the roof of the building. There were pings as the bullets slammed into the metal of the tractor and ricocheted around the small space. Rory looked himself over and took a deep breath as he realized all the bullets had somehow managed to miss him. He could hear the whine of the blades of the drone, still flying around outside, but now he wasn't really sure which direction it had gone.
  
  There was a long tool with pointy spikes on the end. Rory wasn't sure what it was, but the handle was about six feet long and he might be able to hit the drone. But if the drone stayed high, he would never be able to reach it.
  
  > Rory grabs the pointy implement and heads outside to attack the drone.
  Rory jumped out the door to the equipment shed, stick held at the ready. He heard the drone making a turn and heading towards him again. He squatted down and then jumped up when the drone got close, swinging the stick at the drone. The drone quickly turned and gained altitude, flying away from Rory.
  
  The drone turned again and tried to attack Rory from behind. Once again, Rory turned, followed the drone with his stick, and then jumped, trying to knock the drone from the sky with his pointy stick. The drone easily avoided his swing and again gained altitude. The drone hovered there for a moment or two as Rory and the drone operator both realized they were at a standstill: Rory couldn't reach the drone, and the drone couldn't make a proper approach to attack Rory.
  
  After a pause, the drone turned, gained altitude, and flew away from Rory. Rory stepped out and around the end of the equipment shed to look across the sports fields. The drone operator was piloting the drone in to land on the field in front of him. He walked up to the drone and picked it up, placing it in a large suitcase of some kind. The drone operator closed the suitcase and picked it up. He started walking towards the parking lot.
  
  Rory called out, "Hey..." before he realized he didn't really know what to say. The drone operator paused, turned and looked at Rory, then waved and smiled. Then he turned and continued towards the parking lot.
  
  Rory wasn't really sure what to make of this drone operator, but he knew the operator was armed, so he really didn't think he should go towards him. By the time he could alert anyone at the school, the operator would be long gone. With no other options available, Rory put the stick back in the shed and headed back to math class.
  
  > Continue...
  Rory stepped quietly into math class and returned the hall pass to the hook on the wall. A couple students looked up at him, but most continued to listen to Mr. Barragan droning on about algebra. As he passed Tim, a good friend of his, Tim whispered, "I want to hear all about what you were just doing. And it better not be about something you did in the bathroom!"
  
  Rory smiled as he passed Jill and slipped into his seat as Mr. Barragan said, "If you are not able to finish all the odd problems on page 133 before class ends, you need to complete those for homework. I might collect those assignments tomorrow, so you better do them." Rory smiled because he knew what was going to be assigned, so he had completed all those problems.
  
  The bell rang and the sound of chairs sliding across the floor filled the room. Everyone headed for the door as Mr. Barragan continued, "I'm not kidding, I could collect those assignments any day. I'm the teacher, you kids better listen to me. This is math, people, pay attention!" Rory was the last one out of the room and he winked at Mr. Barragan as he headed into the hallway and towards his next class: Biology.