Only a few days left of school. 3 more days after today and this horrible year full of deaths and drama will be over! The summer of 2010 was on the horizon and the sweet freedom of summer was already the craving of all that roamed the halls! But when I got to school on Monday, the ones who roamed the halls, that craved summer, all felt heartache and sorrow more than joy and happiness.

It all started that Friday, 3 more school days left until summer vacation. I was picked up from school by my mom and her friend. We were going out on his boat, tubing, and having some pre-summer fun before the real fun came! I was having the most fun I had since I was snowboarding! It was the best part of this day!

My day was already bad before this all happened. My science teacher called me a guy when I’m pretty sure I’m and girl and the drama at school just got worse as the day dragged on. All on my mind was summer! But then I started thinking of Elena. Elena was one of my best friend Ciara’s best friend. She was two years older and looked a lot like Ciara. Elena died back in October. It hurt the school and I thought it couldn’t get worse. It did.

Later in the year around April, Cody killed him self over his grades. He was a year younger than us. And in the summer before school started, Jamison died too. He was digging a hole in his back yard and it collapsed in on him. He was a year older than me! The year was what they called, “The worse year our school has ever had.” And Guess what! The year got even worse.

On that Friday, after I was off the boat, I got a text from my friend Zack. It said did you hear what happened to Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk was a high school math teacher and he would go through the halls saying “Good Moring Children” and on the first of every month “Rabbit Rabbit”. He was voted the best teacher ever!

When I got that text my body froze. All I could think about was the worse possible thing that could ever happen, another death at my school. As I got the second text from Zack, my body was shaking and in fear. I opened my phone and look at the words written on the screen, “He was driving a tractor and the tractor flipped on him. He’s dead.”

I was at a hotel and I told my mom. Zack was still texting even though all I could say in the texts was I couldn’t believe him! He kept telling me that it was true and that I should go on Facebook and check. So I walked to the car to get the laptop with my mom and my brother. I held the laptop close to my chest as we walked to the front desk to see if I needed a password. When I got back to the room I logged onto Facebook and closed my eyes when I read the first status that popped onto my screen. It was about Mr. Polk and so were all the others on the screen. He was dead. I was frozen and in shock. The best teacher was dead and school was going to be the hardest place on Monday.

It was! My high school was the hardest place that day! Kids were silent and instead of walking by themselves, they walked in groups through out the school. Kids cried, wore ties and bright colors in honor of him, and talked about him as much as they could. It was truly the worst year we ever had.

As I wrote this, my body still was going through shock. Also tonight is Mr. Polk’s funeral. He was an awesome guy. Only 36 and he will be missed by his students and family. I never had the chance to have him as a teacher because I’m only 13, but from what I hear, he was an awesome dad, teacher, friend, husband, coach, and so much more. In Billy Joel’s song, Only the Good Die Young, Mr. Polk was the good one he was talking about. He will be missed forever and ever. And now the summer we craved is here but we wouldn’t have carved it if we didn’t know that Mr. Polk’s sprit was with us! You never know who is next because they could be gone in 3…2…1…