In the dim lighted city, it was nearing 6:50, almost closing time. All of the stores were beginning to shut down, people began to go back to their families, and leave their boring jobs. There was one gas station that stayed open till 8, the man who ran it was half asleep and didn't give a care in the world, that's what it looked like anyways. I thought this will be the perfect store the guy looks too fat to chase me or care. I swiftly grabbed 2% milk carton and ran out.
"HEY YOU GET BACK HERE!" The store worker said.
I ran down the street, passing multiple yards, I turned into the yard of the green house and jumped the fence, of course it was the only house with a dog in it. A burbon mastive jumped up and began to chase me. It felt like I was running forever. The dog began to gain on me, running as if it wasn’t domesticated, it was snarling and running like it was rabid.
"OHH CRAP" I said as the dog lunged at me with its jaw open. I swiftly leaped over the run-down fence as, the dog smashed into it and whimpered. All this for a carton of milk. I made it back to home, it was like a trap house, there was only electricity from 12pm to 4 pm, all other times the electricity was turned off. We made a deal with the neighbors that we would pay them if we could leech off their electricity for a few hours for $20 a month.
"I'm home mom!" I said.
"Oh good What do you have in your hand?" She stared at me inquisitively.
"I got a carton of milk from the Hallers." I said.
"How nice of them, they always seem to want to help us, when can you introduce me to them?" She said.
"Not anytime soon, but I'll try to set something up," I paused and then said, "They are a busy kind of people, they may not have time to meet you." I said.
"ok well that’s fine." Mom said.
"Ok, welp Im going to bed, goodnight." I said
"Goodnight. Mom said.
The next morning I woke up and began to get ready, I threw on my shirt and said "ready" I grabbed my backpack and ran into my garage. I picked up my bike and brought it though my house up to the front door.
"Bye mom!" I said.
"Bye Michael" my mom said.
I opened the door and walked my bike out.
1
"I don’t care if you love me I need this!" A man next door said.
"It doesn’t have to be this way Tom!" The woman said.
I was confused, it may have been his wife, but it could have been his girlfriend. I just ignored it and started to ride my bike. There was so much construction, machines would run but men would just hold them and not even use them. "union" I muttered.
"Hey kid, what'd you just say?" The man yelled.
I ignored him and kept riding, I was mad at the subject because they have been working on that bridge for 2 years and they're so close, if they just did a few more days of hard work they would get it done, but then again they work as a union, they get no work done.
"yeah that’s right kid keep on riding your bike." The man said again, I continued to ignore him and kept riding to school, I knew that if I engaged in conversation I would be late for school, I can't be tardy again or I get a Saturday detention and no-one wants that. I had finally made it to school, I parked my bike on the rack, tied it down and went to class.
"Ohh wow you're not late, how'd you manage that?" Roy said, he was the school menace, everyone ignored him, but he was very persistent.
"whatever man I don’t have to take that from you." I said.
"Ohh yeah? What you gonna do little man." He said.
I didn’t reply, because once again i knew that I couldn’t engage in this, so I just turned around and sat at my desk. The bell rung and the teacher ran into the classroom, papers flew from his brown suitcase.
"I'm here! I'm here." He said.
From this point I basically paid no attention to the class, or the rest of the classes for that matter, lunch was finally around the corner and class had just let out, I began to walk to the lunch room, I saw James, he has been acting really weird this week, maybe it was because of that bully but I really don’t know. He is wearing a different backpack today, it was bigger than his last one. I began to follow him and we sat down at the lunch table.
"Hey James, why the different bag?" I said.
"To reduce the trips to my locker, they are really annoying and I strongly dislike them, they make me late to class every time."
"Yeah that would make sense, ok." I said.
I got up and went into line to get my hot lunch, "special on pizza one dollar per slice" is what the
2
board read. The line was long, as usual, it took me 5 minutes to get to the end of the line, once
I got there I asked. "Hey can it get three slices of pizza?"
"sure thing, you sure you can eat all of that?" The lunch lady said.
"One slice is for my friend."
I grabbed the slice and gave her my account number and she charged me through that. I began to walk back to my table and while I was walking I said. "Hey James your boy got you some pizza."
"Hey that was very nice of you I appreciate the gesture." He said
James reached into his backpack and began to pull something out. My heart began to race, as if I knew this was going to happen, I watched him pull out a pistol, and as I saw it I knew I couldn’t just stand by and watch this happen, I pulled out my pocket knife from my pants and swiftly stabbed him in the stomach. I realized that I had messed up, big time. My thoughts were scrambled, I didn’t know what to do.
"What have I done?" I said. I dropped to the ground and stared at him.
"I am so sorry jam-" before I could finish my sentence I was grabbed by a police officer and thrown on the ground. He disarmed me, grabbed my wrists and cuffed them. I sat there with everyone's eyes on me, I didn’t know what to say. I sat there like a lifeless corpse with no movement, I was completely dumbfounded that I had done that. The police officer pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance. I just sat there and watched him, wondering what would happen to me. "It was self-defense, is what ran through my mind, over and over again, I could not think of anything else. There was chatter about what had just happened, some people didn’t see it and began to ask others what had happened.
"this is the most popularity I have had in all of my life." I said.
"This isn't the kind of publicity you were looking for kid." The officer said. I sat there just looking at James for the next five minutes until two men came into the room with a stretcher and put him on it. I watched them leave the room and the officer grabbed me by the wrists and pulled me out of the room and into the conference room.
"What are we doing in here?" I said.
3
"Sir do you know your rights?" The officer said.
"Yes, I know my rights, and that was an act of self-defense, he pulled a pistol out and he pointed it at me, so I panicked." I said, I didn’t know what else to say, I knew that eventually they would figure out that that wasn’t what happened.

They took me to the office and sat me down, I thought to myself, why did I do that, what is wrong with me?
"Do you know what you did?" The principal said.
"Yeah, I do, I know my rights, and this was self-defense!" I said.
Well were reviewing the footage and we'll see what really happened Michael." He said.
Ok well do that, I'm not scared, I know the truth.
The cop grabbed my arm and took me out of the room, we walked down the hall. It felt like the walk of shame, every eye in the school was on me, I just kept my head down and continued to walk.
"What a freak" "I knew he would be the one to kill someone" "I always knew something was up with that kid." It was the same 3 things over and over again, everyone kept repeating it. I wanted to scream at them, I had this anger bellowing in my chest, I just wanted to lunge at them and start wailing on these people, but I knew I couldn’t. We finally got out of the building and the man opened the car door and said. "Get in." So, I did. He got in the driver's seat, "You really screwed up this time kid." He said.
"No, I didn’t it was self-defense." I said.
"C'mon we both know that 'aint true." I stayed silent from there on out, this guy could read me like e book, he knew all about me from just one look. I looked out the window and saw an ambulance and a swat van waiting outside the school, everyone was walking outside the school and sitting on the walls as their stuff was being searched. To think, I did all of this, I caused this. We pulled out of the school, cops were negating the traffic in the middle of the road, I guess people were stopping to see what had happened, why there was a swat van and an ambulance in the school parking lot. The rest of the car ride was silent until we reached the precinct, precinct 32. He walked me out of the car and up to this cage, he said "You'll be staying here for a while, you can get a phone call if you’d like."
"Yes, I would like to call my mom." I said.
He brought me to a telephone and said "you have 5 minutes, so make It quick."
I picked up the phone and dialed her number. "Hey mom its Michael."
4
"MICHAEL! I heard about the school what happened?" She said
"My friend had a gun and he tried to kill me."
"WHAT?"
"Well not really my friend, look I'm at precinct 32 can you come and pick me up?"
"Ohh no you're not going anywhere." The cop said.
Well isn't that nice." I said.
That’s the end of the call."
"Come ove-" The cop hung the phone up before I could finish my sentence, I should've called my dad, I knew my mom wouldn’t have gotten anything done besides freak out.
"Alright buddy it's time to go to your cell, you'll stay there for a few hours... or days." The police officer said.
"Well isn't that great." I said.
A few hours had passed, people walked passed my cell and looked, a few words were said to me, "What did you do to get in there kid?" "Arent you a little young to be in a cell?" But it didn’t really matter what they said, I knew I was going to jail. I shouldn't've done that in the first place. The precinct was grey red and black, it really looked like a prison, if you had dressed all of these people up in orange jumpsuits you wouldn’t know it was police station. I wonder if it will be a bail or if I'm actually going to jail. A few more hours had passed, and my mom showed up with an officer standing next to her. The first words she said were
"Michael are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm ok mom I've just been sitting here for the past few hours."
"They have the video footage kid, turns out it wasn’t self-defense, you saw the kid reach in his bag and you immediately jumped on him." The officer said.
"HE HAD A GUN!"
"Yes, but you committed murder, that is punishable by 2 years in county juvey"
"2 Years!?" My mom said.

Yes ma'am 2 years." He said.
5
Two whole years I'm going to miss so much stuff, I will probably have to homeschool the rest of high school, this is bad. I will have to plead guilty, there is nothing I can do. A few days had passed, and it was time for my trial. I went into the room and pled guilty, it was a two-year sentence as the man had said. I know I'm not mentally prepared to go to prison, but there is just nothing that I can do now.

It has been a few days, I pled guilty and got sentenced for two years in juvenile detention center. I have one last call with my mother before I have to go.
"Alright I'm ready to make my call." I said.
"Follow me kid."
He led me to the phone, I just sat there and stared at the phone, i didn’t know what do. I stood frozen for a few seconds before the man said.
"Hey kid, are you gonna make the call or what?"
"No, I'm not, when am I going to get going?"
"Let's get you back to your cage boy."
He walked me all the way back to the cage, and he even opened and closed the door, they treated me like a baby. I guess it makes sense, I have lost my right to walk alone, you never can tell what will happen in the human mind. The bed sheets have been stripped since I had last been here, it's only been a few minutes. I looked back to see the officer with a smug look on his face, he slammed the door shut. I sat down on the cold metal bed frame, staring out the window. An ocean, the most beautiful thing in this world. Blue surface going on for hundreds of miles, just open ocean. Seagulls flying around the bay looking for fish, ships pulling in and out. If only I could get on one of those, I could travel to another country and start a new life. But that can't happen any time soon. I looked back up at the clock and saw that it was almost time, almost time for my new life, a life in prison. I stood up and waited at the bars of my cage, waiting for the man to say the words. Sure enough he came and said. "Let's go kid, its time." He pulled open the cage, and took my hands and cuffed them together.
We walked down the hallway, I looked at all the cops, sitting at their desks slowly sipping their coffee, he opened the doors, I walked out, blinded by the bright sun, with a hand on my shoulder guiding me to the bus. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light, I walked up onto the blue prison bus, the kind of people here were far from what I looked like. They were rugged and tough, me, not so much. I slowly walked down the aisle keeping my hands pushed to my sides, I felt a hand plant itself on my chest.
6

"Hey kid." The boy said.
"Hmm?" I said.
"What is someone like you doing on a bus like this?"
"I bet he's a school shooter." Another boy said.
"Hey man don’t mess around like that, that stuff isn't a joke." Another boy said.
"Yeah well I was stopping one." I said.
They boy looked at me and took his hand off of my chest, I began to walk again. I sat alone, a few more people came on the buss before we took off. I watched as the gates opened to the precinct, they closed after us, that was it, my future has now been destroyed. I watched as the cars moved past the slow blue bus, the driver with her eyes half opened. We didn’t travel far, maybe 30 minutes, then we pulled off the highway onto exit A13, a very rundown road, with trees on both sides. The bus came to an abrupt stop, I got up and looked out the window.
"Where are we?" I said.
"This isn't the prison." Another boy said.
A blur began to form in the sky,
"What the hell is that?" I said.
"Some sort of shuttle." A boy said.
"Is this the governm-" The glass shattered, and the shuttle started to shoot at us, people started to drop I ducked down and hid beneath the chair, a laser beamed through the seat and hit me. I was out cold.

I awoke in a metallic box, there was a bed with grey clothes on it. There was some sort of nightstand welded into the floor. It was a very small space, there was a door with bars at eye level. I peered out but all I saw was a hallway with more doors just like mine.
"Hey! Hey you!" I said. The man peered back at me. He had this smug look on his face, I was very confused.
"What's that look for?! I know you can hear me!"
"Stop talking." A man in the cell acros