Never Forget

Author's Note: As it gets closer to summer, alot of last summer's memories come to mind and this one comes up alot. My main goal in this creative piece was to include some dialogue. 

The sun was blazing hot; I could feel the sweat start to trickle down my neck. Fanning myself, I desperately try to cool down as he hands me a skateboard. I reached for a water bottle and took a huge sip. My throat felt like a glacier as I screwed the top back on. I had hoped that the whole skateboarding lessons had been a joke but as he walked towards me with a helmet in his hand, I could tell he wasn’t kidding.

His purple beanie didn’t hide the fact that his fiery red hair was sticking up all over the place. It made me smile as I strapped my helmet on. He demonstrated where my feet should be and when, how to balance and most importantly, how to stop. I tried to take it all in, but he made it look so easy. He saw my panicked expression and started to laugh.

“All you need to remember is how to not fall off,” he said with a wink.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever,” I replied as I hesitantly stepped onto the board.

I pushed off and before I realized it, I was sailing down the road at an uncontrollable speed. I noticed I was on route to crash into a stop sign but as my brain skimmed through what he had just explained, I couldn’t remember how to stop.

“TJ!” I scream, “I can’t stop!”

I tried to duck under the sign but that just made the fall worse. I flipped backwards and hit my face on the pole. All I could see was blurs of color as I fell to the ground. The last thing I saw before I blacked out, was TJ’s face laughing hysterically above me.

Now instead of his carefree smile, I was staring at his blank expression. His body was motionless and  it hurt to see him this way. No matter how hard I tried,  I couldn’t bring myself to look away. My eyes started to burn and my throat tightened as memories kept washing through me.  I wanted to remember him, but not like this. Warm tears started to fall as I realized that the happy laugh, cheesy grin; even the purple beanie were all gone. Gone forever.

The life that was just about to begin, wasn’t there to live anymore. The hopes and dreams, all shattered just like the glass. The future was ruined, just like his car. And my heart, was broken just like his ribs.

“All you needed to remember, was how to not fall off”, I whispered as I looked at him one last time. When I turned to walk away, my emotions finally caught up to me; I was consumed in gut wrenching sobs.

The Last Day

Author's Note: I just watched a movie about a lock down so for this creative piece, I decided to put myself in the shoes of someone living through one. I tried to imagine how scary it would be, how everyone else would feel, etc.

Food was flying everywhere and the whole class was laughing. Time had flown by so fast; it was hard to believe that it was the last day of school. The celebration was in full swing until the principal’s voice came onto the loud speaker. My teacher turned the music down and gasped as his voice echoed clear as a bell.

“We are going into lockdown mode.”

When the shock went away and my teacher’s face regained it’s color, she herded us like cattle into the back corner of the room. My stomach was doing somersaults as we all silently crawled under a table. I was really uncomfortable, but so scared that I didn’t dare to move.

We all flinched as the doorknob started to slowly turn. When it opened, all you could see was the darkened hallway. We all heard our teacher inhale deeply as his figure came into focus. The first thing I noticed was his eyes. They were blue; cold as ice. His gaze swept the room and when he landed on us, he started to smile. Too scared to look at him anymore, I quickly glanced in my teacher’s direction. Her face was ghostly white; I saw her hands trembling.

He crossed the room and sat down in a desk. The chair groaned its objection, but I could tell he didn’t care. The silence was broken by a loud ring as the phone awakened. When he stood up I could see the pistol glaring at me in it’s holster. Almost as if it were daring me to speak up. My best friend reached over and grabbed my hand. We made eye contact for barely a second, but I could still see my emotions reflected in her expression.

When he hung up, he quietly put the phone down and turned towards us. A smile slowly spread across his face as he reached for his gun. Twirling the gun, he started to pace. He turned his back to us and stared at the board for what felt like forever. Suddenly he turned around so fast that none of us had time to brace ourselves.

The gunshot echoed throughout the classroom and I instantly went numb. I started shaking and blinked back tears. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Then all of a sudden, a cop burst through the door and tackled our intruder. My teacher jumped up and pushed us until we were all running out the door and down the hallway.

I was still shaking when my mom jumped out of the car and ran towards me. I collapsed into her arms and started to cry. I couldn’t help it though, I was still so scared. I heard squeaking behind me and turned around to see a stretcher being wheeled into the ambulance behind me. My heart sunk when I saw the familiar shoe of my best friend sticking out the end of the blanket.