I bolted out of bed as fast as the speed of light to the annoying “Beep, Beep, Beep” of my alarm clock. I smashed my black painted finger nails over the off switch and then sat in peaceful silence. I was considering going back to sleep but didn’t when I thought about my mother and her obnoxious yelling, so I got out of bed and started getting ready for school. My room was a mess, but I liked it that way. All of my drawings and clothes from the night before were spread out on the floor. The TV still flickered on with the Half-Life game I was playing last night, still running with the main character in the game dying over and over with me not there to finish its mission. I love to play video games more than anything; it’s really an obsession. I got dressed into my black skinny jeans and threw on my gray and black hoodie. I put on my black Converse and went to style my hair. I brushed my lengthy, ebony hair with purple highlights and covered my left eye with my long and s*** hair.


I went downstairs with my backpack and grabbed an apple from a bowl on the counter. My mom was nagging me as usual, but I mostly blocked out everything she said as I ate my apple. “Kailey, where were you last night? Did you do all your homework? You have some explaining to do, missy!” my mother continued yelling at me, waving her finger around like she was conducting an orchestra. I ignored her questions and threw the remains of the apple in the trash. I picked up my black guitar with one hand and went out the door to catch the bus. I felt bad that I hadn’t said anything to Mom all morning, so I told her while not looking at her, “Bye Mom, I love you.”


I hopped on the yellow bus that brought me to my destination of Woodstock Academy. My friends Kyle and Chris both had a seat saved for me at the back of the bus. Kyle and Chris gave me a welcome in sync, “Hey Kailey.” I gave them a happy smile and spoke, “Hello, fellows. You miss me?” Kyle tested me with a friendly, “Not really.” I always liked being around Chris and Kyle. They were a funny pair. Chris was a big kid, about 6 or 7 feet tall. He was kind and funny and always spoke in a deep voice. He could kill a man if he ever wanted to, but Chris would never hurt a fly. I’d still try not to piss him off, just in case. Kyle, on the other hand, was very thin and looked short in comparison to Chris’s towering figure. Kyle was about the same height as me. Both boys had long black hair and were like the best of brothers. They weren’t really related, of course, but they could have fooled me. On the bus ride to school, I played my guitar while Kyle and Chris joked and laughed, demanding song requests as though I were a DJ.


At school, Kyle walked me to my classes and opened doors for me like a gentleman. He can be nice when he isn’t joking around with Chris. I secretly liked Kyle, but I wasn’t going to risk messing up our friendship to tell him that. I loved to stare into his bright blue eyes, but I could never look too long without embarrassing myself. “I’ll see you around, Kailey,” Kyle said. “Bye Kyle,” I told him. I went to foods class where today we made muffins. My ability to focus was sporadic, and Kyle dominated my thoughts all day.

The day went by slowly, but I felt better when I saw Kyle at lunch. I was playing my guitar on
the bench as Kyle talked to me about this awesome story he was making in Creative Writing class. It was something about a man who lost his whole family during WW2, and then it turns out he was some kind of clone in the end. The day seemed to me to be very beautiful, even though it was late winter and the sky was a foggy gray; I attributed my optimism to my secret love, Kyle, although no amount of hopefulness could cover the fact that it was freezing. It was so icy that I could see my breath. Kyle noticed I was cold when my rhythm while playing my guitar became off beat because of my frozen, pale hands. He took his black jacket off and draped it around my shoulders. I blushed slightly at the sweet gesture. “You can give that back to me later. You need it much more than I,” he said in a soft, adorable voice.


He walked me back to class. I still wore his coat, which I made no attempt to remove. As Kyle and I strode on, I made a bold move and held his hand. He looked at me with love in his pretty blue eyes. As cold as that day was, my heart had never been so warm before in my entire life. Chris came around the corner with a funny expression on his face and said in a comical manner, “Awww, that’s sweet. Wait here, I’ll go get my camera,” Chris joked and made me and Kyle uncomfortable. Everyone in the lunch room was staring at us. Chris seemed overjoyed by the fact that we were holding hands. Kyle and I then broke out in laughter over the awkwardness.


Just then, the happy, soaring feeling was shot down by Dennis Higgins. He was my ex; he cheated on me and broke my heart last year. Kyle was there to comfort me when I was very depressed over the betrayal. My ex was bigger than Kyle and had very large muscles that could have overpowered the both of us. I could see Dennis killing Kyle with one punch, and there he was, stopped in front of us with his arms crossed and looking angry as heck. Kyle looked scared to death; I could feel his hand shaking in mine.


Suddenly, Chris changed moods, from happy to pissed. Chris pulled up his sleeves and ran towards the soon-to-be fight with a red face of fury. The ground shook with each of his enormous steps. A nearby freshman had to grip the vending machine to keep his balance. Chris “Roared” with wild violence and pushed Dennis back to the wall. Dennis was no longer a threat, and he was scared, wanting to be set free. “Please do-don’t hur-t me. I want no trouble.” His voice stuttered and shook with fear. Chris let him go and Dennis ran down the hall, pushing freshman out of his way as he went. “Wow, way to go Chris!” Kyle said. “Well, I didn’t like that kid anyway,” Chris said to Kyle, all out of breath. “Thank you, Chris,” I said to my friend. “It was nothing. Now you two should get back to class; you’re late. I’ll see you on the bus.” Kyle brought me back to class and said good bye; even though it wouldn’t be for long, my heart just hurt to hear him say that.


At the end of the day, when the final bell rang, Kyle was holding my hand. It had gotten much colder in the time we’d been apart. On the bus I sat next to Kyle and played my acoustic guitar. Kyle and Chris didn’t talk much, now that I was showing Kyle my love for him. It was really quiet and there weren’t many jokes. When the bus got to my house, Kyle helped me up and gave me a hug. He whispered in my ear as he hugged me, “I love you, Kailey.” “I love you too, Kyle,” I whispered back. I walked off the bus with my school pack on my back and my black guitar in my right hand. I could feel his icy, light blue eyes on me as I walked away from the one I love.

I smiled and waved as the bus drove by. I took a deep breath and thought, “I’ve never been this happy in my whole life.” I walked to my front door slowly as I thought about the great day I had.


When I entered my home, I could see my mom making dinner in the kitchen. I put my guitar down by the door and placed my bag on the table. My mother took her head out of the cookbook she was immersed in and looked at me, surprised. “Where did you get the jacket, Kailey?” she asked. “****!” I yelled out loud. “Hey, I don’t like that language, young lady,” Mother said. “Sorry, Mom. The jacket is Kyle’s. He let me use it because I was cold. I kind of forgot to give it back to him,” I told her. “It’s okay Kailey. Dinner will be ready in a little while. I’ll call you down when I’m finished,” my mother said as I walked upstairs to my room. “Okay, thanks Mom,” was the last thing I said to my mom before I closed the door.


The messy room was just as I left it, or so I thought. The Xbox was still on, with smoke coming out the back which made an awful cooked metal smell. The video game Half-Life still played like when I left it this morning, only something was different. The game had moved to a different location. I know my mother couldn’t have gotten past the part that I got stuck on last night. My mom couldn’t even beat me at Classic Pong if her life depended on it. Then suddenly I realized the room in the game was an exact copy of my bed room. I did not believe what I was seeing; I rubbed my eyes, trying to clear my vision. Just then, I found myself frozen helplessly in place kneeling in front of the TV. I saw, in the distance of my virtual bed room, myself keeling by the TV. Then, unexpectedly, I started to see very scary, violent images of people dying and screaming in tears of blood and gore. I saw myself murdering my mother. My mind grew dizzy and sick from this hypnotizing event. I began to drool and have a seizure. My head shook my brain from side to side wildly, and I blacked out.