When I woke up that freezing winter morning, I didn’t expect something traumatic to happen only hours later. It seemed like any other day. I woke up with only minutes to spare before I had to leave for school. I quickly shoveled cereal into my mouth and threw on whatever comfortable looking clothes I could find. I had just gotten my driver’s license that past week, and I was still a little anxious driving to and from school. This didn’t stop me from turning the radio all the way up and speeding straight there, though. School seemed to drag on until the third period, which was my year-long Art History class. The teacher was one of my favorites, and I had many friends in that class. Plus, we never actually did any work. One of my best friends, Kinley, was also in the class. As soon as I walked through the door, Kinley ran up to me.
“Hey, Aspen,” She bounced around on her toes, seeming very excited. “Would you want to hang out after school?”
I nodded my head in response, giving my obvious answer. Of course, I wanted to hang out with one of my best friends. I was so excited to hang out that I thought about it the rest of the day, all the way to last period. I didn’t think anything bad would happen to us, nor did I think it would be my fault. When school let out, Kinley was waiting at my car. I drove a green 1997 Honda Prelude. It wasn’t the prettiest car, but it got the job done. I had to use my key to open the passenger door for Kinley. We threw our backpacks in the back seat, turned the radio up loud, and sped out of the parking lot as fast as we could. This, of course, wasn’t exactly a daredevil speed, as our school parking lot had a speed limit of 15 MPH. We spent the rest of the day going to various stores around our town. We hit up the mall, our local thrift store, and even went to Target, just for fun. I had a part-time job at Dairy Queen, and I was no stranger to spending my hard-earned paychecks on useless trink...