I know we aren’t suppose to, the elders have told us time and again, that we shouldn’t even touch the altar to clean it, that we aren’t humble a...d subservient enough yet, that we have to wait until we’re in the forth or the fifth group. But I couldn’t disobey that voice, it was physically impossible to disobey. I fought the impulse to touch the white marble, to climb up on the big marble table, but my body just did it anyway. The marble was really cold against my legs, I sat on the altar and. Hey darlin', can you still roll? Me and the boys got some good shit here, but no one can hold the papers steady enough for it to do us any good. Whatta ya say baby?"Why, I couldn't believe that one of my music heroes would partake in the use of a controlled substance. He seemed to have corrupted the other musicians as well. I hurried away to ask Katie what she felt her parents would want us to do under the circumstances.I finally reached the main room just as the Predtones staggered on to the. . I'm in uniform cuz the squad is one girl short and homecoming weekstarts. We raise school spirits before classes and during recess.So it's Wednesday now and I'm used to the uniform and I am with the squad.We do toe-touch jumps together with cheerleaders when the alarm goes off.I mean it's an alarm and not a school bell. It's nothing really specialcuz we have several of them each year, alarms, I mean.Some teacher says it's a mass shooting.Another says it's a drill.The third says maybe it's. Once his clothes were on he left pretty fast. There wasn’t a lot of talk and no exchange of information. I remember feeling gross, disgusted, dirty and guilty about what I’d done, especially the swallowing part. I remember that I showered for like an hour afterwards but for some reason I didn’t brush my teeth, so the taste lingered in my mouth and on my lips. Even though it had an acrid peppery taste and had kind of burned my tongue I found myself maybe not savoring but continuing to.