• We were reading the hot zone as silently as possible. The only noises were the slight scratch of pencil on paper while some people finished their tests and the sound of a page being turned. As I read the scene of a bloody chunk of flesh being looked at under a microscope I heard a slight whispering. My head slowly lifted to look up and around the room. I scanned back and forth twice before my eyes rested on my friend with his head on his desk, turned towards our teacher who was kneeling next to him. They whispered back and forth as I stared blankly. Others began looking up too as they heard words like "sick" and "nurses office". At this point most people figured he just felt sick and needed to go to the nurses office. As my teacher got up she told him to take the hall pass. Still my eyes along with two of my other friends' eyes followed him as he walked to the door.
    Now if you've ever been in our english room you'll know that there's a wall and what appears to be a very small hallway leading to the door. It almost seems like a closet that's connected to the english room. On the right wall is the telephone and the hallpass was on the desk behind me which was vacant. Both seats were close to the door. Now the minute you turn the corner to the small hallway that leads to the door that goes out, only the people on the other side of the room can see you. Seeing how everyone was deeply invovled with their book, they paid no attention.
    Only three people were watching him. K, H, and I all had our eyes on him. His face looked so pale for a moment that I was about to ask if I should go to the nurse with him but Mrs. R picked up on it and was asking our mentor to go with him. That's when I noticed a small unbalance. For just a second he looked like he had a hard time keeping his balance and dropped the hall pass. I inclined my neck to look behind the wall and into the small hallway like space to see him holding onto the wall before swaying again, this time grabbing onto the phone for support.
    In the next second several things happened. The phone fell off the hook, H, K, and I all stood up from our seats, our hearts stopping for a minute, N got up but Mrs. R told him to sit back down as she ran across the room, and finally Q hit the floor as he completely collapsed.
    For the next few minutes, though everyone else was talking as usual, Mrs. R called the nurse and explained the situation in as few words as possible before kneeling down next to him to question him. I listened intently through all the talking and confusion. He had had a fever earlier which only worsened during the day and he was reading a very disturbing part in the hot zone, not to mention he had a terrible earache and headache. Mrs. R continued to just speak to him, almost as if trying to keep him from loosing consciousness.
    The nurse came later and he was literally carried out of the room and we all set aside our books, no wanting to burden our minds with terrible thoughts of our friend. But one thing was and still is haunting me, K, and H. It was the blank look in his eyes that we saw for only a second before he collapsed. I know that look will give me nightmares for weeks. So blank, so lifeless, it was scary. We hope he'll be alright. No. We pray it.