I watched.
I don’t remember it being like the murders in movies.
We had parked at a Seven Eleven at around 11:30 at night. My dad got out and pumped gas, while my mom gave my brother Carl and I three dollars each to buy snacks in the store. We were on a cross country trip to visit my grandfather, who lived in a little villa in Fresno, California.
Carl was fifteen, and I was eight. I had just finished the third grade, while Carl had finished seventh. We sleepily walked through the store’s aisles, hoping to buy anything that would give us a big enough sugar rush so we could stay up extra late. I remember buying a Snickers bar, some gummy worms, and a cherry Slurpee before paying the worker.
The employee, an older middle aged man with graying hair, kept looking out the glass window to his right with a worried facial expression, but I didn’t notice it. All I wanted to do was rip open the candy I bought and chug everything down.
I waited for Carl to pay for his snacks: a bag of Cheetos, Pepsi, and Hot Tamales.
When he was done, we were about to walk out of the glass double doors when I heard the gun shots.
BANG, BANG, -a pause- BANG!!!
The gun man, dressed fully in black and holding a sniper rifle, had shot my dad twice, once through his thigh and the other through his chest. Then the man had opened the door to the passenger door, where my mom was sitting, and shot her once through the heart.
They both died instantly.
The last I saw of the gun man was of him running through some bushes behind the store, holding his rifle to his chest.
That was how my old life ended, and my new life began.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Tarrytown Prep, where we are loyal
Always looking to succeed,
We are fighters ‘til the end,
And we will always honor thee.”
The last verse of my school’s alma mater ran through my head, as all the students sat down on the hard bleachers and stared at the face of our ancient headmistress, Ms. Grayson. She had curly white hair that looked like a cotton ball, round, wire glasses and was a bit on the fat side. In fact, I would have to say the thing that comes to mind when I think of Ms. Grayson would have to be the word ‘ROUND’.
She tapped the microphone in front of her cautiously, before speaking. Then she took a big breath, and her raspy voice echoed throughout the gym.
“Welcome to Tarrytown Prep everyone! For those that are new, my name is Ms. Grayson and I’m your headmistress. Here at Tarrytown, we pride ourselves in our academic achievement and shaping our students to be future leaders in society…”
God, I thought, she always says her speeches like they’re something out of the school’s handbook. I twirled a piece of hair thoughtlessly; always an annoying habit of mine.
“….in four days, we will officially start classes, so you have until then to get settled in your dorm rooms and acquaint yourselves with your classmates. Remember, no boys in girls’ dormitories, and no girls in boys’ dormitories except during visiting hours between seven and eight. And even then, they are only allowed in lobbies.
Pshhh. The guys from Webster tunneled their way to the Williams dorm last year two weeks into school. I thought again, now playing with the hem on my t-shirt. I didn’t have many regular pairs of clothes besides the Tarrytown uniforms, so I always felt really uncomfortable in anything that wasn’t green and purple with gold embellishing.
Time had passed since my parents had gotten killed. I was a totally different person, who had to adapt to the harsh ways forced on me at boarding school. I said goodbye to the carefree person I was when I was eight, and seven years later, I was a fifteen year old workaholic. Instead of spending my days playing soccer with my non-existent friends, I did extra credit projects for my teachers and tutored other kids.
Besides my studying, I had no life.
I listened to the rest of Ms. Grayson’s speech without interest, staring blankly at the palms of my hands.
Hope you liked it, thanks for reading!!!
