What’s Happening?

 

This morning every thing was going good.  I got up having a feeling that I was going to be the best army man in the world.  I mean, I have the hardest heart that no one can break, no feelings, like a baseball.  I’m going to kill all the men that get in my way.  So me and the rest of the men are riding out into the battle field and these men are going down.  There was a guy sitting by me talking about his family, he was small man, very kind and would not hurt a fly.  Too bad he was forced here to fight.  Why do I care, I don’t even know him, but look at me now.  I am laying here with bullets in my ribs, severe bleeding, why am I dying for him?  I feel like … my life is over.  I see lights in my eyes and I’m hearing noises.  It’s over, he’s gone.

James Smith, Riverside Middle School

 
What’s Happening?

Logan’s flying through the air like a brand new football.  Then a sound that sounds of a person falling on concrete.  I can remember it well, it is passing through my head again and again.  I think it was worst on me to see that not even his mother who was standing right next to me feels as me.  The only reason is that I myself killed me.  Because we were partners in crime.  We used to kill people all the time.  I never cared – none of those deaths were different, all shot with the same gun by the same person.  It’s not different because he and I were friends.  It’s different because not one person was hurt, not only him, he and his family on the street.  Screams of terror from every direction.  And the way he died was different.  It was fast, too fast to think, too fast to breathe, everything freezes.

“Lil Press,” Riverside Middle School