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ST. LOUIS — Claudia Breuer, 16, of St. Louis, was in English class in the basement of Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, when she said the school’s principal opened the door and said not to leave the room. The vice principal reiterated the order over the intercom.

Collegiate is connected to Central Visual and Performing Arts High School; their buildings form a square. They share the gym, cafeteria and courtyard in the middle.

Claudia and her classmate, Marley Kivindyo, 15, of St. Louis, said many were thinking it was some sort of surprise drill.

That quickly changed when a school official warned, using a code name, that an intruder was in the building and the school was in lockdown. The girls, their teacher and more than 20 of their classmates did what they practice — they sat along a wall in corner and turned off the lights. Some tried to hide in a cabinet.

Kids were screaming and crying. Their teacher tried to quiet them. Everyone was texting their parents. Claudia texted her parents: “we r on lockdown. love u guys.� It was 9:13 a.m.

A minute later, the girls said, they heard a gunshot.

“It sounded kind of close, like from the courtyard,� Marley said. “It didn’t come from inside Collegiate. It was like, outside the window.�

They sat across from a wall of windows that overlooked the interior courtyard, which made them feel exposed.

“I was just worried about the windows,� Claudia said. “I just kept watching the windows.�

“Someone could just walk up and see us all,� Marley said.

The comforting sound of sirens quickly descended on them.

“Like a bunch, coming,� Claudia said.

Another rounds of shots, they said maybe three or four, came about 10 minutes after the first. The bell rang to signal the end of their first class at 9:26 a.m.

Another 10 minutes later, they estimate, they heard police in the hallway. Their vice principal told them over the intercom that they can leave when police come to their doors. The teacher unlocked the door, and they poured out of the room. Officers directed kids to exit.

“Everyone just started running,� Claudia said.

As they were near the school exit onto Kemper Avenue, they ran past a motionless body on the floor in a pool of blood, she said.

“At the end of the hallway, we saw a girl, like shot, on the ground, with blood, and two police were guarding her.�

Officers directed students and staff to the Courtesy Diner parking lot across the street. From there, the students and teachers were told to head to a nearby Schnucks.

At the grocery store lot, parents and kids were frantically searching for each other. the girls’ parents soon made it there.

Amy Breuer, 49, of St. Louis, said she had just arrived to work at nearby St. Louis University when she got the first text message from her daughter.

“I was terrified,� Breuer said. “When I knew it was a shooting, I was dizzy. I realized pretty quickly, ‘I’m going there.’�

She knew her daughter was trying to be strong and guarded in her texts to them, at one point even saying it was a drill in hopes of keeping her dad from trying to run into the school to rescue her.

“I’m just pissed that that’s where we are, that my sophomore is trying to encourage me that everything is going to be OK when she is at school,� Breuer said. “I was equal parts terrified about how far this person was getting in or where this person even was; and then also, just so pissed� that politicians continue to fight about gun safety measures.

Their school has metal detectors, bag checks, security guards and locked doors — “and this still happened,� she said.

Mark Breuer, 52, reunited with their daughter first. He had made it to the school, only to be stopped at the perimeter of the campus.

“ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ won’t let you go in because obviously it’s still active, but you know your daughter is still inside,â€� Mark Breuer said, his voice trembling.

He found her as she and her classmates were walking to Schnucks, grateful to hold her in his arms.

Back at home, the girls shared their disbelief. Despite the frequency of school shootings, they never expected it to happen to them.

Marley said, “It’s so weird that it’s us.�