BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I roll over and turn the alarm off, the time is 8:02. "Ughh" I grumble and roll back over. Im staring up at the ceiling. "I wonder if I can skip school today" I say out loud. I'm starting to doze off again when I suddenly hear a door slam, quick rapid footsteps following soon after. "JASON!! CMON! GET UP! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" I laugh, my little sister Hailey is always in a rush. "CMON JASON!!" I sit up and scratch my head. "Im up!" I yell at her. Hailey is my younger sister, she's a short, blond haired, blue eyed girl. She does Gymnastics, is a perfect straight A student, and ALWAYS has to get to where she's going at least five minutes early. I quickly get up and head over to the bathroom. Hailey's already in there scrubbing her teeth as fast as she can. She's wearing her school uniform, a plaid skirt with a white shirt, and green vest, her hair is done up in a ponytail and her tie is neatly done up and ready to go. "DONE!" she shouts as she throws her toothbrush in the cup and races out of the bathroom. I smile to myself as I walk in and look in the mirror. I'm about 6ft 2in and weigh about 208 pounds, I have brown
messy hair that comes down to just above my eyes, my eyes are a dark shade of brown, and unlike my sister who has pure white elf skin, I have a light tan colored skin. I look a lot like my dad. I quickly use the restroom and brush my teeth. I then head back to my room, my room and the bathroom are straight across the hall from each other, It's pretty convenient. My sisters room on the other hand is down the hall to the right with my moms room across the hall from her. I start looking through my drawers for some clothes to throw on. I find some and throw them on the bed. I picked out some grey sweatpants and a white shirt. I start undressing, throwing my pajamas in my laundry basket. I throw on my pants and shirt. After feeling satisfied with my choice I then put on a nice light grey jacket with some black stripes on the arms, throw on my tan colored sneakers and grab a blue hat. I then leave my room and turn left heading down stairs, and walk into the kitchen. Haileys already sitting at the counter stuffing pancakes into her mouth. "Morning Jason!" My mother calls as she sees me enter the room. "Morning" I say sleepily.
"Would you like some pancakes darling? We also have some eggs and bacon if you'd like" Mom says with a grin. "Sure" I reply and sit down at the counter next to Hailey. My mother looks a lot like Hailey, she has blue eyes and blonde hair that she lets hang loose and flow around her shoulders. My mom's wearing a white shirt and her blue pants she has to wear for her job. She's a nurse at a local hospital. I start looking around the kitchen. Moms standing over at the stove cooking some eggs. To the right of the stove is the sink, it still has some left over dishes from last night. Next to the sink is the dishwasher, still full of clean dishes waiting to be put back in the cabinets. Above the dishwasher are some shelves, they have seasonings and cooking oils all ordered and perfectly in place. Next to the shelves is the knife rack, all of the knives hanging there were made by my dad. Mom doesn't use them much, They're too precious to her for some menial work like cooking she claims. On the other side of the stove at the end of the counter is the fridge. On top of the fridge is where mom keeps the first aid kit. Hailey and I are sitting at a little island, it's a counter in the middle of the kitchen and behind us is the pantry, with the trashcan next to the door. My mom turns around and hands me a plate with my breakfast on it. My breakfast consists of 4 layers of pancakes with syrup on them, some eggs on the side and a few pieces of bacon. Then she handed me a glass full of orange juice. "Here you go Darling" she says, "Thank you mom" I say before digging in. I see Mom look at her watch, "Shoot, I'm late" she says grabbing
her jacket and heading towards the door. "Jason, can you please drop Hailey off at school today?" Before I can even reply she slams the door shut and we can hear her start the car and drive off. Hailey looks a little sad and I know why. Mom's been needed at the hospital a lot and we haven't been able to see her very often. The reason the hospital has been so busy is because of the recent gang activity in our town. It didn't use to be like this, all the violence and the gang wars. Our town used to be a really nice place. You never had to worry about your kids walking to school in the morning, or have to worry about your spouse at work, or even wonder if you'd never see your family again. It used to be like that, I wish it still was. A few years ago when this violence first started we were skeptical. We had lived here for years and never heard anything about the violence of the outside world. Well, I guess thats not true. We did hear it, we just chose to ignore it. We ignored the warnings and stories of the violence going around town, we thought, "There's no way, It won't happen to us!" we were wrong. It was 2 years ago when we woke up to reality. It was night and we were all sitting in the living room at the time. We heard the crash come from the kitchen, my dad told me to take my mom and sister to hide. Despite our protests, we could hear the men enter in through the window. I took my mom and my sister and ran to the storage closet. My dad had hid around the corner from the kitchen, he had pulled out his pocket knife ready to attack the intruders. I moved boxes out of the way so my mom and sister could climb in to the back of the closet. I looked back to my dad, he looked at me and gave me a reassuring smile and nodded for me to hide in the closet. I closed the door and put the boxes back in front of the door. I remember hugging my sister as she whimpered and tears were running down her face. My mom had found an old baseball bat which she held tightly. We sat there listening as the footsteps started getting closer. Then they stopped, we didn't know what happened. Hailey and I looked at our mom, she was about to say something when we heard yelling, then gunshots. Mom quickly covered us and hushed us so we would stay quiet. We then heard someone gasping loudly. We were shaking as we didnt know what was going on in the living room. We heard some heavy footsteps. I took the bat from mom and aimed it at the door, ready to strike who ever opened it. No one ever did. We then heard some rummaging throughout the house and going out the front door. We waited for what felt like forever before I finally decided to look. I wasn't ready for it. To see him, my dad. Laying there lifeless, his pocket knife nowhere to be seen. "Jason, Jason, JASON!" I snapped back to reality. It was Hailey, she's staring at me. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" I look at the clock, its 7:46, she's got 14 minutes till school starts. I stuff what's left of my pancakes in my mouth and grab my backpack "f-uet's (Let's) f-o (Go)" I say to Hailey as we start walking towards the door. She laughs at me and runs out the door to my truck. I close the door behind us and lock it. Haileys already at the passenger side of my truck, hand on the handle waiting to get in. I unlock the truck and we both get in. I back out of our driveway and start heading down the street towards Hailey's school. Our neighborhood is a nice little area with bright colored houses and green lawns, it looks like it's straight out of a movie. It seems so perfect but feels so dark. You would never suspect that this neighborhood was just a cover up for the horrible deeds done in the night. It's sickening to think of what could be happening here when no one is looking. We finally arive at Hailey's school. It takes about 5 minutes to go from our house to her school. She quickly grabs her bag and slams the door shut right behind her, running as fast as she can to get to the school. "THANK YOU JASON!" She yells at me as she bolts through the doors. She still has around 8 minutes till school starts and she's running to get to class like shes 8 minutes late! Other kids at her school are still hanging out at the front of her school not even worried that they might be late. I chuckle to myself at realizing how much of a weirdo she is. I pull out of her school and start heading to mine. My school is about 10 minutes from hers and starts at 8:10 unlike hers that starts at 8. As I pull off onto the road I pass by her school's sign. 'Welcome to Spring Hill Academy' It's a nice school for special kids and by special I mean the super smart kids. Straight A student type school. I could never get into a school like that. I always had bad grades since 7th grade, not because I don't understand the subjects or anything. I just don't pay attention. Honestly, I couldn't care less about what grades I get. The only reason I even try to get somewhat decent grades is so I can stay on the football team.