“Wait Anna who’s all invited?” Zack asked.
“The whole table,” Anna yelled to the group. “Just don’t do anything stupid and get yourselves in trouble.  It was close to summer break. Exams were rolling around, but all any guy could think about was Anna’s party. Nine months of teachers and books and homework, first taste of summer sounded so sweet to anyone at the moment. Looking back on it however, none of them want to talk about what went down in those five hours. None of them were sober but me, and that was good in many ways but bad in a couple. Of course one of the good things was that I am still alive to tell the story that changed a lot of lives that night. It was a group of about sixteen guys. They all were friends and rarely fought with each other. If anyone messed with one, it was as if they were messing with all of them. Most of them played football and basketball, while some wrestled or played soccer. They were together in the morning before school, making fun of each other between class periods, taking a whole lunch table to themselves, and then together at practice. That’s just on the weekdays, on weekends they’re on the basketball court together. My name is Bo. I am one of the sixteen. I am usually the one that gets my friends out of trouble when they get themselves into a mess. I on the other hand never get in trouble. Most of the teachers like me, so I get away with most things. It would be nice if girls liked me as much as they did though, I’d take that trade.
It was Friday afternoon and Anna’s party was the following night. During the history lesson last period I was just staring at the clock waiting to get to soccer practice. Of course, I’m never thinking about history during history, but that was the topic of the day in my head. I haven’t done many of the things my friends have done. I’m known as the goodie goodie out of my group. I spend most of my time doing homework and working out while the rest go party and do things I honestly don’t want to know about. All honors is tough, but God has stressed to me that life goes on beyond the 8th grade, or even high school for that matter. I asked him one time why He was harder on me for doing things while my friends could do whatever, and He replied immediately,”This is the path you must take if you want the life you have been asking for.” Since then I haven’t really questioned it. A lot of my friends play soccer with me, Chris, Lee, Brian, Sam, Mike, Will, Matthew, Zack, and Mack. The others play Baseball or are doing off-season workouts. Practice went normal that day, everyone was tired and wanted to get home. My parents are really strict and annoying. I avoid them as much as I can. I walk from school to home and vice versa everyday. It’s really peaceful to look at all the trees blooming and the animals all around, especially in the morning, a good way to start the day. I got home to find my mom lying on the couch doing nothing as usual while my dad was pulling in from work. We eat dinner together every night. Mostly I described my day in ten seconds and explain what I would like to do that night and upcoming events, that is frequent because I like to get out of the house often. After dinner i rode my bike around my neighborhood and around campus. I like to meet up with my girlfriend Clare. She lives two houses down from me and I spend a lot of time with her on the weekends. I sit by her at lunch a couple time a week, but her friends are so annoying I can hardly stand it. She’s in the group guys would consider the “nerdy losers” of the grade. she is nothing like her friends though, at least around me. She’s shy around guys, but I’m also kinda shy when it comes to girls, so we relate to each other really well. It’s nice that we can see each other a lot, we both can’t stand being away from each other. We don’t fight too often, however women are usually always mad about something, so I’m always dealing with that part of course. “Hey Bo,” she said happily as I went into her driveway. “Hey,” I said back as I gave her a hug. I really didn’t feel like talking much that day. Clare never goes to parties, she always stays at home. She knows through the grapevine that I’m going to Anna’s tomorrow. I was hoping she wouldn’t feel left out. I never go to parties either, but I though since not many were going and I was one of the selected few that I would go. Hopefully I wouldn’t get myself into trouble. I would find out later that I was way wrong,but at the time I couldn’t predict the future. We biked a couple miles down to the Sonic close by. Clare’s a really tall skinny girl, but somehow she can eat so much food. I always tell her to get something and not just share mine, cuz we both end up being hungry and having to order more. Once the food came, we sat down and ate. That was when the conversation I didn't want to have began. I was hoping I would get away with not discussing it, but i was hoping for too much. “Bo, I heard you going to Anna’s tomorrow night, but I didn’t hear it from you. Instead I had to hear through gossip and my friends. Why didn’t you tell me you were gunna go?” “I was going to talk to you about it but I was nervous you were gunna be mad or something,” I managed to respond with. “Well do you like her or something? If it bugs you that you can’t go try to impress her then make yourself available.” Exactly why I didn’t want to talk about the party. “Clare, if I liked Anna I would be with her, there’s a reason why I am with you and no one else. If you really feel upset that I’m going then I won’t go, but you never said anything about it and it kinda concerns me that you don’t trust me over something small like this.” I promise we don’t fight that much. “Then why did you give her your sweatshirt today before math?” was her response. I knew that that was a bad idea and yet I did it anyway. I should really follow my instincts more. “She was cold, not really much more to it. If you have a problem then you go back home first I’ll give you a ten minute head start so we don’t see each other.”
“Ok...I guess I was...a little jealous over something small.”
“You do that a lot,” I replied jokingly. Although in my head I wasn’t joking. She gets jealous over everything. Like seriously, calm down. We rode back peacefully to her house as if the conversation did not take place. We plumped down on a couch and watched a chick flick that she wanted to watch like we do pretty much every Friday night. After the awful movie that tested my sanity, her dad, who would shoot me if he had the chance, told me to unwrap my arms for her, told her to get off from on top me, and told me to go home. Why he made such a big deal out of everything I honestly don’t know. He treats cuddling in a living room like being locked alone in bedroom. It’s much better than coming to my house though, we tried that one time, there’s a reason it was only one time. I went home and texted Clare in my bed until I fell asleep. I slept in the next morning until about two in the afternoon. I wasn’t meeting up with they guys until about five, and the party wasn’t until eleven. I should’ve listened to the rule drilled in my head that nothing good happens after eleven. I now have an example to tell my kids when they want to go party why that rule is there. I didn’t get out until four in the morning, which felt like hours when I was trapped in the building in fear of my life.  I walked to the gym at school and shot basketball for two hours. The gym was my happy place along with the weight room. It was where a lot of my best memories were made, and my stress was taken out upon. I lifted weights for about thirty minutes and then went home to shower. I threw on my lucky outfit of shirt shorts and slides and my ride came to my front door at five. My friend Jack had an older brother that was dating Anna’s older sister. He took me and Jack, and some of my friends Conner, Braden, Blake, Darius, and Gavin. We all crammed into a jeep and headed for the party about an hour away. We were stopping for dinner first to kill time before we were supposed to be there. Little did I know that some of my friends would not be coming back with me, and not because they found another ride, but because they were dead. We stopped at the famous sports bar 23 founded by the famous Michael Jordan. We stayed there for about four hours talking about our week and acting like idiots like we usually do at restaurants. Sometimes I feel like if my parents found out the way I do sometimes act that they would disown me. The other car full of the rest of my friends pulled into the parking lot so that we could drive down together. The way down to wherever we were going was quite peaceful until about ten minutes before we got there. Randomly my friends decided to stand up in the jeep and launch water balloons at cars flying down the interstate. So that I didn’t look like the only one not being fun, I stood up with them and laughed along as they hit cars and watching them swerve into ditches causing major injuries or even death. That was the beginning of the most horrible night of my life. It even passed the night I ate dinner for the first time with my in-laws. The police of course came after us, but were unable to get to our jeeps to arrest us. Clare texted me in the middle of the water balloon bombing. I sat down in the car to respond to her. A glass window in the car next to us shattered and the pieces flew all over my friend Braden’s arms. He was were my arms would have been had I not sat down. I realize now that that night a guardian angel was with me performing miracles to get me out of the death trap. We pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a club. We all rushed in like little kids in an amusement park that just opened. “I heard Anna brought Hope and Lucy!” Braden yelled.
“Ragen and Charlie too,” Conner yelled after. “Can’t forget Emily!” Jack yelled in return as we all ran in. Hot girl after hot girl was named as we ran excited to see what was inside. Looking back, I can’t believe I ran into what happened. When we got in it was all fun. Drinks everywhere, girls on top of tables, smashed bottles, no parents around, the bass in the music so high the walls vibrated, I was caught in the moment. I didn’t know who half the girls there, but I didn’t really care. Some of the first part is a blur and hard to describe in detail. I believe someone mixed in things into my drink to make me that way. About two hours in I got a text from Clare asking how it was. We were only two hours in at one in the morning. I realized that she wouldn’t be proud or happy if she found out about what was going on. I just said it went well but kinda sat around while the rest of my friends were going crazy. I immediately shot up a prayer asking God to get me and my friends home safe. Just as I said amen seven gunman stormed into the club and sprayed around the room. Blood was splattering all over the walls and screams of terror were all around. My friends couldn’t completely understand what was going on. I got as much of them as I could into another room to regroup. Unfortunately Braden, Zack, and Conner were killed right from the beginning. There were thirteen of us left. Mack and Matthew were coming back mentally and we began to form a plan on how to get out. Before we could act, Chris, Lee and Brian charged in effort to save us all. I don’t think they realized what was going on, I think it was a blur to them. It's painful to watch a young man die, even more when it is one of your best friends, and I had just witnessed six within two minutes. I decided that even if I don’t get out, I will get the rest out. Our two jeep drivers had managed to get safely in and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I grabbed Sam and Blake and tried to run them out while Matthew ran at the gunmen. Matthew’s distraction was good enough for me to get my two friends from one corner of the club to the one exit to the jeeps and for me to grab a couple of my friends dead bodies, and his as well, for it took his life in the distraction. Mack and I now had to get Darius, Gavin, Mike, and Will, who were all vomiting whatever the put into their bodies, safely to the jeeps. The dead and alive of the rest were in the jeeps waiting. Mack grabbed Darius and Gavin and I grabbed Mike and Will and we all charged. Mack got a gun and was able to shoot down five of the men before he was shot in the temple and bled to death, and I was able to get one but there was still one shooting at us. I grabbed Mack and got the rest to the jeeps. Will was shot dead but landed on top of Mack’s body. I was able to get Mike, Darius, and Gavin out of the club along with everybody else’s body into the jeeps that night. In a way I felt better that I was able to get the bodies. I had something to say goodbye to, something to bury at the funeral. The girls somehow got out before any of them were killed, some were wounded but not severely. It was four thirty in the morning. Although I didn’t remember details, I was somehow stuck in that club saving people for three hours. When we got home, I broke the news to the rest of my friends’ parents. There is an old saying only the good die young. My friends were great people, and they had succeeded academically. The few that survived that night went on to win many awards for how outstanding they were. It was so sad that such bright young men were taken down because of their..... I was suddenly awakened by my father shaking me in the bed. He had been trying to wake me up for five minutes apparently. I wasn’t gonna be ready in time for Mack to pick me up to go to Anna’s party. My phone rang and I saw it was Zack,
“Dude are you coming to Anna’s pool party today?”
“Yeah I’m coming with Mack.” It was a short phone call. By the time I had my trunks on Mack was at the door. As I got in I was telling him, “Dude I had the craziest dream last night it was so weird.” “What happened?” Mack asked.I replied, “Well.......”