My home town lost 42 people that day. I was also in high school at the time. We found out early that the first tower had been hit and our teacher turned on the TV in the classroom. Some of the kids in class had parents who worked in the WTC. One of my friends in class with me had a father who worked in the second tower hit. I had a cell phone so the teacher let us step outside so he could call his dad. His father reassured him his tower had not been hit and that he was fine. He was going to stay put since they still thought it was a terrible accident and did not want to add to the chaos. Suddenly the line cut off and we heard screams from the classroom the second tower had been hit. His face glazed over and he handed me my phone and just sat down on the ground. He was completely catatonic. Eventually the principle who was going around making all the teachers shut off their tvs came and called for security to pick him up and bring him down to the office. The hallway and office were packed with kids whos parents worked in the WTC or close by and were freaking out trying to get it touch with them. As word got around of the full scope of that day everyone just started leaving school. Security tried to stop us at first but everyone just told them to fuck off and kept walking. The entire scene was absolutely surreal and it honestly felt like the world was ending. The next week was a nightmare of kids waiting to hear if their parents had made it out. No one knew what to expect at the time and thought as the firemen went through the rubble there would be hundreds of survivors. I still remember all the nurses sitting outside emergency rooms nearby waiting for survivors who would never come.