Life

Part One : the incident

I'm only 15 years old but I am determined to make a difference somehow. Today is the first day of my ninth grade year at Easton high School or EMS. So far it's actually wonderful.

Because my best friend Rain is in all of my classes, she's an awesome ginger who listens to music I can't quite comprehend, but opposites attract I guess. I take a seat next to her and my other friend Eli. In a few minutes we're all situated and our home room teacher is giving a boring lecture about the importance of setting an example and being a role model, and of course I'm the only one in class animatedly listening.

Soon I move on to my other classes none of them seem to stand out particularly. Before I know it, it's time to leave. So I take the short cut through an overgrown baseball field and through Dave's yard to get to my dads house. My parents are divorced so I go here today, but my mom will pick me up when she gets off of work in a couple hours.

So after I talk with dad and finish my chores I listen to music.

It has always interested me, but right now I just listen and ponder on the lyrics. Which baffle me with their emotional and subtle meanings-

"Is it the face of a child?

Is it the thrill of danger?

Is it the kindness we see in the eyes of a stranger?"

-Love by Sugarland

As I let these words and melodies sink into my brain I become aware of a repetitiveness. So I pocket my iPod and rush down the narrow staircase to see what is happening.

I lock eyes with a masked man wielding a gun pointed at my father. In less than a minute I race upstairs with the man on my heels.

I burst into my fathers room and with record breaking timing retrieve his pistol and fire a crippling shot into the masked mans knee.

He shrieks with pain letting out a slur of profanities as I take his weapon and rush to my father. Downstairs my father is hurt, but it doesn't seem critical, just a few scrapes. But what horrifies me most is the look in his blue bloodshot eyes.