I Tried To Say No

I crash through the front door and throw myself onto the living room chair. “M-o-m,” I scream frantically!

My mom enters the room and sits down next to me, our old couch squeaking where she sits. Tears begin to pool in my eyes, and then they start streaming down my face. 

“Mom,” I whisper.

“Sarah! What's wrong?” My mom asks in a monotone voice. I look into her soft blue eyes.

“I can’t,” I shout.

I clamp my hands over my mouth and start to cry harder.

“Sarah!”

“I- I-,” I start to say, “I can’t.”

But I stop myself and continue despite my hesitation.

“I got off the school bus with Annie, the bus left and we were alone. We were walking down the street talking about how boring school was today, when all of a sudden somebody grabbed me from behind! I was thrown to the side of the street, my head hitting the gigantic oak tree. You know the one I’m talking about, right?”  I rub my head gingerly. She nods slowly, emotionless, like she should. 

“I looked up in a daze to see a gun pointed to my head.” I pause to rub the tears out of my eyes that are now starting to blind me. “And they took Annie! There were two men who were both wearing black ski hats with holes cut out for their eyes. The man that had the gun pointed to my head slowly backed up while his friend roughly dragged Annie along.” I sigh and a shutter runs through my body.

“I tried to say no! I tried to get up and run after them as fast as I could. I tried to scream. No, they couldn’t take Annie because she hadn’t done anything wrong. No, No, No, No! But all I could see was that gun. That shiny black gun that was pointed in my direction as the two men slowly backed down the street.” I take a huge breath.

“And I tried to say no.” I repeat again to my mom. “I watched them leave. I watched them get into a black car, and then…they were gone and so was Annie.”

My mom gets up off the couch and heads over to the opposite side of the room, where she proceeds to turn off the camera that is pointed towards me. When the camera is off, she turns towards me.

“That was amazing!”

“Really?” I ask rubbing my eyes. “Do you think I’ll get the part?”

She removes the camera from the tripod, and then takes the memory card out.

“Well, I just have to upload this, send it in, and then we wait for a response.” She smiles at me. “But I think you did a really great job this time.”