The short yellow school bus slowed to a stop at the park as I pulled the heavy backpack onto my shoulders and stood up. I thanked the bus driver and stepped off the school bus. As I walked across the street and waited for my sister and some other kids in our neighborhood to join me, I couldn’t help but notice the small group of teenagers yelling something across the park at us. I wondered who they were and what they were doing just wandering around a children’s park but I knew that whatever they were doing they were up to no good.
The strange teenagers escaped my mind as the four of us started the short walk home but I still had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. Glancing around me I noticed a small, white, beat up car slowly pulling up behind us with music blasting out of the stereo. The car pulled up beside us with the passenger side window rolled down.

My heart started beating wildly and adrenaline started coursing through my veins as someone leaned out the window and in a jeering voice yelled, “Hey kids! Stay in school! Don’t do drugs!” Hands trembling, I reached for my phone in my purse and was about to start dialing 911 when the car speed off past us, down the hill and disappeared out of sight. The other people with me talked about the strangers the rest of the walk home but I couldn’t think straight. Every time I heard a noise I looked to see where it was coming from and I couldn’t help but constantly turn around to make sure no one was following us. The rest of the short walk home seemed to take forever and I didn’t feel comfortable until I was inside my house behind locked doors. I decided a hot shower would relax me so I ran up the stairs to my room, quickly undressed, and jumped into the shower. As the hot water poured down on my head I realized I was probably just being paranoid and stupid.


***4 months later***


It was windy and 50°F outside as we hurried home from the bus stop. Even though I had a thick sweatshirt on I was still freezing. I was lost in my thought about how much I hated this frigid weather and how I couldn’t wait for the 100°F summers I was used to here in Alabama, when loud music brought me back to my senses. I looked to see where the noise was coming from and I froze in my tracks as a dark purple van pulled up beside us. “This can’t be happening again!” I frantically thought to myself. I snatched my phone from my purse as someone yelled out the window “Hey girlies!” and the van speed of down the hill as I dialed 911.

“911. What’s your emergency?” a cool female voice asked. “They won’t be bothering us again anytime soon,” I thought as I started filling the emergency personnel in on the whole story.