The Connections
Chapter One: Before Hell
Nobody knew what was going to happen, neither dead nor living. Rosalia never knew her life would change after she passed through Sheila. Sheila never knew that the decision she made, would seal the fate of Rosalia. This is before hell.
Sheila

I am standing next to my little brother, Jordan, while he is waiting for his Teenage Health class to end. Tapped his shoulder, hoping he would turn. He didn’t turn. I wish he would. It has been four years, since Jordan has seen me. The last time he saw me, it was a sad sight. The last time he saw me, I was getting put into the ground.

I was murdered. By who? I cannot remember. I will find out, as soon as I see the person. Every person who was murdered has some sort of connection to their murderer. Every person’s connection is different. I will have a connection to the monster that ended my life.

Anyways, let’s get to the present. I am standing next my brother waiting with him. The bell finally rang. Jordan immediately heads out of the class and I followed. Jordan is fourteen years old, and in the ninth grade. Since he is in high school, he has to wear black pants. I’m saying this because Jordan’s school isn’t just a high school; it’s also a middle school, which is called MLK... The kids in middle school wear khaki pants.

As Jordan makes his way into the hall from the classroom, the class room opposite of his, which held middle school kids, came out. They came out cussing, saying how they want to switch from that class. I shook my head in dismay. Kids these days, I thought. Nobody notices me, as usual.

I was walking beside Jordan, down the hall to his next class. When kids pass by, they pass right through me. Every time someone passes through me it feels strange. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s like I drank something hot, and the heat starts to spread in my chest. That is how it feels every time someone passes through me.

Five people had just passed through me. Two of them were in high school, and the rest were in middle school. Another one is coming up behind me. It’s a middle school girl. She was looking down when she passed through me. I didn’t think anything would be different when she passed through me. All of a sudden, I feel this shock, like I stuck my finger in a light socket. The girl looks up, startled, as if she felt something too after she passed through me. She is a few steps ahead of Jordan and me. The girl looks back at Jordan first, for a moment, longer than necessary. This doesn’t surprise me.

Quick description of my brother. One feature that stands out the most is Jordan is a pretty tall boy. He is a good looking boy. Jordan has light brown, curly, hair, with light brown skin. His eyes are dark brown. Sometimes girls would look at him, then turn to their friends and start whispering excitedly.

Want to know what really surprises me? What really surprises me was when she turned her wide, dark brown, curious, childlike eyes to mine. The girl scrunched up her face, which looked confused. The girl looked like she wanted to ask herself, what am I seeing? The girl has long, dark brown hair, which is in a side ponytail. Her face is slightly round, and still coming out of childhood. Her skin is the color of caramel. Last, but not least, she is short.

The girl stares at me for what seemed like a long moment, then she turns away from me and, and looks around to see if anybody notices me. Nobody does.
Rosalia

I felt pain, pain in my throat, my chest and my stomach. I felt like I was getting cut and stabbed in those areas. I got these pains when I passed this tall, cute looking boy, who is in high school. I looked back to where he was, and stared at him for a moment, maybe longer than necessary, (I hope he didn’t notice me staring). My eyes then fell on her. A young looking woman that is following the high school boy. She is probably in her early twenties. This woman scares me. She scares me for two reasons.
Reason number one: the woman is wearing a white summer dress in October, in Denver, Colorado. The dress would make her stand out. The dress goes up to her knees, and it has spaghetti straps. The woman has light brown eyes, along with light brown skin and light brown hair. She has pretty face that people would love. She doesn’t have any pimples or zits. It looks smooth. Her nose is straight, sprinkled with freckles. The woman’s light brown eyes are almond shaped. Another thing, the chick has no shoes on.

Reason number two, people are walking through her like nothing. This is the major one of the two reasons. Some of the students are even looking right at her, yet they don’t stop to go around her. It’s crazy.

I swallowed my spit, and looked away from her. I am by the stairs now. I immediately head down the stairs at the end of the hall. I hoped the boy didn’t have a class down stairs, so the woman that’s following him doesn’t come too. I head to my locker. I put the combination in and opened it. As I was putting my stuff away, I am thinking about the woman in the white summer dress. I asked myself three questions. How am I able to see her? Why doesn’t anybody else see her? Why is she following the high school boy? Since I was too busy thinking, and putting my stuff away, I didn’t see my friends come up next to me.

“Rosalia!” shouts Jennifer. I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to scream, because for a frightening second I thought the woman in the white dress was going to get me. How sad is that? Instead of screaming, I ended up hitting my head on the locker door, “Ouch!”

My friends laugh, “Sorry,” she says, even though she doesn’t mean it. I scowled at them.

My friends Jennifer, Amber, Kenneth Salazar, and Frankie are standing by my locker. Amber and Kenneth are holding hands while Jennifer and Frankie are looking flirting with each other. Too bad there isn’t another boy for me, oh well. Maybe it’s for the best.
“Rose, you know how I scared you?” Jennifer asks.
“Duh,” I replied.
“Well, yeah. When I did, you looked like you saw a ghost.”
“Really? You don’t say,” I said, and then I muttered to myself, “That’s an understatement.”
I finally closed my locker door. My friends and I headed to the cafeteria.
Sheila

I made a quick decision on whether or not I should follow the girl, or to just stick with my brother. I am pretty curious why she had managed to see me, when no one else can, not even my brother. I hesitated, not sure what would happen if I made contact to the girl. My curiosity got the best of me. I followed her, but kept my distance. We went down a flight of stairs. As if I were alive still, could feel my heart pounding from my nervousness.
She goes to her locker and opens it. Her locker is right next to the entrance of the cafeteria. I am across the hall from her. As I am waiting for her to finish putting her stuff in her locker, four other kids that are in middle school come up to her. Two of them are boys and the other two are girls. One of the girls, with reddish-brown hair comes up behind the girl.

“Rosalia!” she shouts.

Rosalia jumps and hits her head on the locker door. Poor girl. Now that I know her name, I can probably talk to her. Her name suits her and her look perfectly. Rosalia closes her locker door. Rosalia, and what looks like her friends, head into the cafeteria. I follow them. The cafeteria is pretty big. It has about a dozen, if not more, tables. There are probably three or four lines where you can get food. Rosalia and her friends go outside. I look to make sure she hasn’t seen me yet, and then I followed. They are walking fast, so I have to jog to keep up. They open the door, and I quickly go through the door. Let me tell you this; I can’t go through or open doors and I can’t go through walls. Just because I’m a ghost, doesn’t mean I can do that stuff. I bet now you are wondering this. How can people go through her, but she can’t go through walls or doors? To tell you the truth, I am not sure. If I knew, then I would explain the entire concept. They open the second door, and I follow. I realized how close I was to Rosalia and her friends. Her friend won’t see me, but I know she will. After they get a few feet ahead, I start to go after them.
We are crossing the basketball court and the school fields. Rosalia and her friends go all the way to the trees that are next to the street on the other side of the fields. As Rosalia’s back is facing me, I go around the tree quickly, so she won’t see me. I hid behind the tree that Rosalia had turned to lean against. One of the boys, who had braces and a Mohawk, was flirting with the girl who had reddish-brown hair. Then all of her friends grouped up and started talking. Rosalia just stayed next to the tree and listened. She looks at the tree that she is leaning against, and looks at its leaves. More than half the tree’s leaves are yellow. Some of the leaves are green, but they are transitioning to yellow. The yellow leaves reminded me of the yellow apples I ate when I was alive. I noticed that I had a great chance to speak with Rosalia. I decide that I am going to take that chance. I took a breath, knowing I can never take an actual breath again. Here I go, I thought.

“Hey Rosalia,” I whispered. I stepped out from behind the tree. Rosalia did one of those double looks. She looked at me first with a vacant expression, and then turned back towards her friends. All of a sudden, she whirled around with a dumbfounded expression. She threw a quick glance to her friends to see if they noticed me. Nope, they didn’t notice anything.

“Uh, hi. I promise I won’t say anything to anyone and want to you feel offended if I did anything. I didn’t mean to,” she trembled a little, “How do you know my name?”

I felt surprised by the first things she said, but then I thought I would be scared if a ghost that I went through in a hall, came outside and started speaking to me. “It’s okay,” I said, “I’m not going to hurt you, or haunt you or anything like that. I know your name because your friend with the reddish-brown hair shouted it to half the world.”

Rosalia turns toward me, “Oh. I guess it’s okay if I ask you these couple of questions. Um, how can I like, you know, see you? And how can nobody else can walk through you without noticing?” she studies me with a deep curiosity.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “That is why I came and followed you.”

“Okay,” she said.

It is easy to talk to Rosalia. Is it because she is the only living person that has seen me and is talking to me, and not freaking out? If Rosalia is freaking out, then she isn’t showing it.

“Why were following that boy?” A pinkish tinge came across Rosalia face, mainly her cheeks. She was staring at the ground. I raised my eyebrows, thinking that she likes my brother.

“His name is Jordan. He is my little brother.”
“Oh.”

We fell silent after that for a few minutes. I glanced at Rosalia. Her face was screwed up in concentration. I look to the ground and studied the little ants crawling on the greenish-yellow blades of grass.

All of a sudden she says this out of the blue, “What if, I have a connection with you or your murderer,” Rosalia suggests.

“How would you have a connection with me or my murderer? You are not related to me, I know that for sure.”

“I’m not talking about the related-to-your-family-type of connection. It’s more like I have something to do with this situation connection,” she explained. She pulled out her cell phone and checked what time it was, “It’s time for me to go inside,” she hesitated, “And maybe we can talk later?”
“Yeah, that would be good,” I said, still thinking about what she had thought.

Rosalia started walking without another word back across the fields to the school, leaving me to ponder the possibility that she thought about.
Rosalia

I go to my locker feeling light headed. I had just got done having a conversation with the young woman named Sheila. When she came out from behind the tree I was leaning against, I felt all the blood drain from my face. Except for the moment, when I asked her why she was following that boy, I felt myself blush. The conversation with Sheila was one of the weirdest things that had ever happened to me. Especially after the suggestion I made.

After I told my friends bye, I went my locker to get my stuff for my next class. While I was getting my stuff, I had started thinking about the suggestion. I’m stuck with another question now. How do I have a connection with this situation? I head back up the stairs, thinking of possible answers. I head down a crowded hall. It was more crowded than usual. I didn’t think too much of it. I know that I was thinking real hard. I knew this because I didn’t pay attention to the voices in the middle of the hall. I didn’t pay attention that the volumes of the voices were increasing. It was an argument. That argument was going to turn into a fight. I didn’t know any of this, because I was too deep in thought.

“I’m telling you, man. I don’t want to fight,” I hear a voice that you can tell is still a young teen. It’s a little bit deep, but not enough to sound like a full grown man.

“I wasn’t asking if you wanted to, or not,” I hear an even deeper voice, one that does sound like a full grown man. I hear whispers. Of course I didn’t pay attention to them.

All of a sudden, I felt something hard hit the back of my head. I stumbled forward, dropping my stuff in the process, before I fell on my stomach. I blinked a few times, and pushed myself until I was on my back. Everything was becoming blurry, and is blotched with black spots. I felt a warm wetness spread at the back of my head, through my hair, and it slowly dripped down my neck. Lovely, I thought, I am bleeding. I must have a slow reactions, because the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain. I never felt pain like this before, because I am a pretty careful person. My hearing was going out too.

“You idiot!” one of the voices shouted, “I told you I didn’t want to fight, now look what you have done.”
I heard another voice; it was a smooth, male voice, “Nobody touches her, Mr. Adams, call nine-one-one!”
I couldn’t see the person. I realized that my eyes were closed; my brain decided that pain was too much so I passed out. I was in blackness, for what seemed like hours. The next thing in knew, I felt the softness and warmth of a blanket. I opened my eyes, then blinked a few times to get rid of the fogginess left from being knocked out. My surroundings were unfamiliar, at first. The smell hit me. It smelled of the hospital soap, and hand sanitizer. I was in the hospital. My head hurt, like crazy. I can recall the sharp pain that I felt at the back of my skull. Now it is a little more of a dull pain. I was going to feel the back of my head, when I heard a voice say, “Don’t.” A hand caught mind.

I turned slowly to see who had spoken. It was him. The cute boy in high school, Sheila’s little brother, Jordan. I hope I wasn’t blushing.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to see if you were all right,” he replied, “And to apologize for you getting hurt.”

“Why are you apologizing? Are you the one that hit me with something?” I questioned, “Also, I don’t really know you.”

“No. It was a boy named Anthony that was mad at me for some reason,” he answered, “You happened to walk by when he was going to hit me with his skateboard that he carried. Instead, you got hit. You lost a lot of blood; you had to come here to get about fifty stitches. A new teacher came to help you, while he was getting a tour of our school.”

The whole time he was talking, explaining what was happening, I looked at the linoleum floor.

All of a sudden we heard a knock come from a massive door that was a few feet in front of my bed. I jumped. A man stepped in. My mouth nearly dropped. He was good looking man, he looked a little young. He had golden curls, with tanned skin. His eyes were hazel, with a dark blue rimmed around them. He was also very tall. The man smiled a kind smile, and it nearly made pass out again. His teeth were a dazzling white. He didn’t smile one of those fake smiles on the movies; this one was a genuine smile. I looked at Jordan to ask him if he was the doctor, but he was looking at the man funny. Jordan’s jaw hardened and his eyes narrowed in irritation. I don’t know why though.

“Hello,” he said his voice smooth, “My name is Alexander Columbine, but you will have to call me in Mr. Columbine,” He was the man I heard back at the school. I guess he was the teacher that helped out.

“Hi, I’m Rosalia,” I introduced myself.

“Yes, I know. I happened to be getting a tour at MLK, and I happen to be near the fight that was about to take place, when you got hit with the skateboard. I am going to be the new art teacher, for eighth grade.”
“Oh, cool. I’m in eighth grade. What happened to Ms. Bear?” Ms. Bear had not shown up for class for about three weeks now.
He stiffened for a second, and his eyes narrowed. He looked like he had to think about something for a second. Mr. Columbine then put on a grim face. He turned his gaze to Jordan.

“I’m going to tell you two kids something, but you better not tell anybody, understand?” we both nodded, “Ms. Bear, she is, uh,” he cleared his throat, “Ms. Bear is dead.”
Silence filled the room. My mouth had went from sticky and wet, to just plain dry, My eyes started to fill up with hot, burning tears. I blinked rapidly; to try to make them go away, “She can’t be dead!” my voice broke. I barely managed to hold my tears back, which still burned. All of a sudden a throbbing pain came up behind my eye balls. It was a headache. I shut my eyes. I didn’t want to say anything else, and then I will start to cry. I don’t know how long I kept my eyes closed, but my headache slowly went away, along with the dull pain at the back of my head. Next thing I know, I’m asleep.

The Murderer

I sit in my car, thinking how lucky and excited I am. I’m lucky for the wonderful skills I have developed as I got older. For example, I definitely got social skills, and I represent stealth. I’m excited about a girl. She is my new crush. When I first saw her, I thought I was in heaven, only for a second. I was in the hall way, when some little idiot boy decided to start a fight and ended up hitting her. I wanted to hurt him, but decided he wasn’t worth my time. She was taken to the hospital, and had to get some stitches. I couldn’t visit her afterwards, because I wasn’t a friend or family member. I still managed to see her.
This is where my social skills come in. I flirted with the nurses, who were young, beautiful and single. Since they were younger than me, they naïve nurses. After I flirted with them, I put them through a guilt trip. I said I wanted to see my friend’s daughter to see if she was okay. They hesitated, and then let me passed the locked doors. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to try harder to get in, but luck was on my side.

I managed to get passed the doctors and other nurses. That was my stealth mode. I snuck into room two-thirteen, and turned on the light and shut the door. I stood there and watched her, amazed. I found out my crushes name, which is Rosalia. Her hair has a nice healthy glow, and her skin glowed with youth. I wanted to go hold her hand, but I was afraid for her to wake up. Even if she had painkillers she still might wake up. I watched her for ten more minutes. I head out to the front desk and thanked the nurses and went out to my car.
As soon I got passed the automatic doors, I laughed. That was so easy. The only thing is I can’t get here now. I love my little brown-skinned girl. At the end of the school year, there will be a surprise for her.

Rosalia

Thank goodness it was Friday, when I got hit on the head. I had the rest of the weekend to rest. I thought that was awesome. Now it is Monday, and I have to go back to school. I didn’t expect anything to be different, man was I wrong.
Speaking of man, for some reason I dreamed about Mr. Columbine. I don’t remember what I dreamed, I just know that I heard his voice, but sounded different, like he was the happiest man alive, but I wasn’t happy that he sounded like the happiest man alive. I pushed the weird dream aside for now. Monday was the worst day of my life. Everybody was talking about Friday and, they were asking me if I was alright. It got annoying. At the end of the day I was tired and I got another headache.
The only good thing that happened to me that day was that I talked to Sheila, and got to know her. It was a little awkward still, but for the most part the conversation was good. I was waiting for my bus, sitting on the bench, when Jordan came up and sat down next to me. “Hello.”
“Hello,” I replied,
“Did you have a rough day?”
“Yes, I did.”
After the greeting, I got to know more about Jordan too. I thought that was awesome. Not much happened after that. The week went by in a blur, and so did the next three months. As I got to know Sheila, I have become one of the best things that have happened in her after life. That one day changed our lives forever. Sheila has told me all about her family and how she and Jordan would play, “Jordan and I would get each other in a head lock. We would also wrestle until one of us got tired and said Uncle. They were such good times. That was before I met my husband.”
“You had a husband?” I asked.
“Yes. He was the sweetest man I ever met. The only person that wasn’t too fond of him was my brother.”
“Why didn’t he like your husband much?”
“I don’t know,” she fell silent, it looked like she was thinking hard, “You know what, I don’t remember what he looks like, or what he sounded like or anything,” Sheila sighed.
“That’s sad. Sorry you can’t remember him well,” that was all I can say
We started to talk about other things after that. When I would talk to Jordan, he never mentioned he had Sheila as a sister, or that he had a sister. I only talked to Sheila during lunch, when my friends were too busy notice me talking to a person they can’t see. Sheila and I still haven’t come up with a good answer for how I was related to this situation. I was thinking we should give up that idea.
It is January 31st, a Monday and I have are class today, with Mr. Columbine. I had finished my class work and I decided to free draw. Mr. Columbine came around looking at people’s work, and then he dropped off a note on my binder. He walked away. I opened it and this is what it said:

Raquel,

I would just like to let you know, that you are one of the best students I have ever had. You are a very smart girl and you are very talented. I know I can never replace Ms. Bear, but promise you I will be just as good of a teacher. Thank you for being such a good student.








Sincerely, Mr. Columbine


How nice, I thought… I was outside by myself; I don’t know where my friends are and it is cold. I can see my breath come out in huge puffs of steam. The air bit at my nose, my cheeks and anywhere else on my body that is exposed. I can’t believe that the school made us comes out in the cold. At the same time, all the people that are out here are huddled in groups like the Emperor Penguins from the movie the March of the Penguins. A little while later I see Sheila walk across the fields, in her white summer dress. Her facial expression is a little funny. Not funny in a ha-ha sort of way. I mean the type of funny where something is wrong. She came up by our tree, the one with that used to have yellow leaves, but they fell off because it was winter. Now it is bare.
“Hello,” I said.
“Hi, I got something to tell you,” she told me. Sheila sounded real serious.
“What is it?” I asked.
She hesitated, “Well, all of a sudden I started to get this tingly feeling. I think it has to do with my murderer.”

My eyes widened in astonishment, “How long have you had this tingly feeling?”
“It began around three months ago, right after you got hit with the skateboard.”
“You didn’t tell me?” the murderer can be close by and hurt other people, girls in particular. Sheila didn’t respond.

Since she stayed quiet, I was thinking that I probably did or said something. The silence lasted about several minutes. I figured out something to say finally, but when I turned to speak she wasn’t there. I spun a full circle, but I didn’t see her. I looked around the tree, but I didn’t see anywhere either. The bell rang. I got to go inside for my next class. I took a deep breath, because for some reason I felt like this was going to be the last time I was going to feel good.

Sheila
The last time, I talked to Rosalia was three days ago. Now it is Thursday. For some reason, I feel worse than I did before. Maybe I shouldn’t have told Rosalia what I was feeling. I don’t know why, but I’m staying away from Rosalia. The longer I think about the tingling feeling, the stronger it gets. The tingling feels like I had sat on one of those message chairs. I feel that tingling all over my body. After I met Rosalia, I haven’t followed Jordan as much as I used to. Now I just wonder aimlessly, wondering the reason why I feel this tingles, is because my murderer is near. If does have to do with my murderer, then I have to find out what he looks like, before it is too late.
At the end of the school day, when everyone leaves, I stick around. I stay all night; I have been doing that for about three months now, since I started to feel tingly. I can’t sleep. What I do at night is read. Before one of the teachers in the building lock his or her door, I would slip inside. When there are no living people around, I can lift solid objects. After the night would finish and it is six o’clock in the morning, then I will be able to exit the classroom, because the teacher would always come at six on the dot. I look outside, I see the sun barely about to set, (the classroom I’m in now has windows). It feels like it is going to be a long night.

The next day, the teacher unlocks the door, as usual. I go all the way to the back of the building, and wait for someone to come in and open the door. About thirty minutes after six, the assistant principal finally opens the door. I go out, so I can wait for Jordan. All last night the tingly feeling began to go away. Now, all of a sudden the feeling came back, stronger than ever. My teeth started to chatter from the strong vibration. My murderer must be close by. I’m at the back of the building, and I feel the vibration get stronger if I head toward the parking lot. Forward I went.
I felt the pull of coming from a silver hybrid, in the middle of the parking lot. I walked to the car, each step felt strange, like I am walking on a whole bunch of phones, which are of course vibrating. As I get closer to the car, I see the silhouette of a tall man. I am a couple meters away. I hesitated, before I continued walking.

I walk up beside him, and looked up at his face. I gasped. A whole bunch of memories flooded through me, in an instant, making my head spin. I stumbled and I had to lean against the car. Now I know who my murderer is… It’s my husband, and he works at the school.

Rosalia’s Friends

None of Rosalia’s friends could believe it. How could Rosalia do that to them? They all thought. Rosalia had been one of their best friends. They all thought Rosalia had said some messed up things about them. They weren’t just the things that people said like, calling someone fat. It was much worse. Rosalia had said some personal stuff like how Jennifer’s dad was in prison for the rest of his life, for something that he didn’t do. Rosalia told people that Frankie was an orphan, he didn’t have a mom. She said Amber had suicidal problems. Lastly, she told people that Kenneth Salazar had problems with his parents. His mother had drug problems. His father had cheated on his mother multiple times, without her knowing, and he still does cheat on his mother. Never had they thought that someone else had spread the truth about them.
Jordan

I was having one of the best days of my life. I had gotten my final report card for the school year and I got straight A’s. How awesome is that? I talked to Rosalia, and the conversation was interesting. We talked about the race to be president, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. We talked about the pros and cons of the two presidents. Rosalia went for Obama and I went for Mitt Romney. After Rosalia got hit on the head I felt real bad, because that could’ve been prevented. After I got to know her though, she was real forgiving about getting hit in the head by Anthony. Since I got to know her, I developed feelings for her. She became my new crush.

After the conversation, I wanted to ask her out. When I was about to ask her, my mom pulls up in the car.
“Jordan, get in the car we have to go your little cousin’s fifth grade graduation,” she called. Shoot, I can’t ask her out.
“See you tomorrow,” I told her and took off jogging running to the car.

The fifth grade graduation lasted up to eight o’clock, and then we had an after celebration. That lasted for a while too. As soon as the celebration was over I went to bed. Tomorrow would be the worst day of my life.

I walked to MLK; it is only a block from my house. Nervous and excited, that I am going to ask Rosalia out. All of a sudden, a friend of mine, but not a good friend of mine, came up next to me.
“Hey,” he said, “Don’t ask Rosalia out.”
I stopped walking; I forgot I told him that, “Why?”
“She is going out with another boy,” he replied.
My heart sank, “How do you know? And who is he?”
“His name is Kenneth Salazar.”
Rosalia

Three, more months had passed and I haven’t seen or spoken to Rosalia, which is bad for me, really bad. During the last month and a half of school everything went from good to bad.

First thing that happens after a month and a half after I had last talked to Sheila, was that I lost all of my friends. It is one of the worst things that have happened to me. We didn’t get mad at each other, oh no. They got mad me for some reason. I don’t know why though. When I first found out that all of my friends were mad at me, I tried to talk to them, ask them what I did wrong. They won’t answer me. They would either pretend I wasn’t there, or they would be rude to me. My friend Amber, I tried to talk to her during our math class, the only thing that Amber said, was that I know what I did, and then she just ignored me after that. I soon gave up trying to talk to them two weeks ago.
Second awful thing that happened to me was that Jordan stopped talking to me. I don’t know why he stopped talking to me either. This really hurt me, because I liked him much more than a friend. I tried to talk to him, but he would give me the cold shoulder. Sometimes we would pass by each other in the hall way, and I would look at him. When I looked at him, he would look at me with a hurt expression. I wondered what I did wrong to him too. My heart did feel heavy with the loss of my friends and my crush.
The third worst thing that had happened to me was with my teachers. My heart nearly shattered from that. For some strange reason, I would get in trouble by at least one teacher, at least once a day. It was up to the point where stopped trying to raise my hand to answer a question in class, and where I did not talk to anyone in or out of the classrooms. I almost stopped doing my work too, but I wanted to pass the eighth grade, so I just kept on going.
Last, but certainly not the least, my family. I ended up getting grounded for the phone calls my mom got for me getting in trouble too much. Every time I tried to explain to my mom that I didn’t do anything wrong, she would just tell me that I don’t need to lie about it, and that she is disappointed in me. All of my family is disappointed in me, my aunts, uncles, and my cousins who are older than me. I would also get in trouble by my mom because I would end up hitting my brothers. I hit them because they would hit me first. Since I was grounded, my mom and family wouldn’t listen to me. I just stopped talking at home too.
I just wanted to no longer exist. I just wanted to get away from this life. Tomorrow is eighth grade graduation, tomorrow is May 1st. It is the last day of school for me. I wanted to get away from this life. I didn’t think I was going to get away tomorrow. I certainly didn’t think I was going away like this.

Sheila

I had stayed away from Rosalia from the rest of the year. After I saw the memories, I somehow became bitter. I was bitter that the monster had killed me, his wife. I have the last memory of him, of him killing me. He had stabbed me. Before I died I saw the satisfactory he got of finishing off. My monster of a husband was covered in blood, my blood. He walked away after I closed my eyes. I guess I am bitter because he is still alive. I am bitter because everyone else got to live except for me.

I decided that I wasn’t going to tell Rosalia who my murderer is, and where he is. It is May 1st. It is the eighth grade graduation. My murderer is going to be there, along with the hundreds of people there. The people won’t suspect a thing, or notice him.

The Murderer

The day has finally come, for Rosalia’s big surprise. It is the end of the school year, and she is going to graduate from the eighth grade.
It is funny how no one suspects that I made Rosalia’s life miserable. I disguised myself, and met up with one Jordan’s friends. I paid him one thousand dollars, to do my bidding. I told him to spread rumors about Rosalia’s friends. I had spied on them, so I know what true rumors to spread. I also told him to tell his friend Jordan that Rosalia is going out with someone else. He agreed. I also paid one of the assistant principals to tell Rosalia’s teachers that she needs to be watched because she has done some terrible things. I paid him, two thousand dollars.

Now that the deeds are done, all I need to do is be patient for the night to be over.

Rosalia

Tonight I am getting ready for graduation, but I didn’t feel happy about it at all. I couldn’t tell if which is going to be better, going to school still, or staying home. I finished getting ready, just wearing a simple black and blue dress.

I left for the school, already wishing for the night to be over. It is seven o’clock five minutes before the ceremony starts. I get out of the van.
“We’ll meet you inside, okay?” my mom told me, as she dropped me off at the front entrance of the school.

I didn’t respond. I just shut the door and walked into the building. I was walking into the school auditorium, when I ran into Mr. Columbine.

“Sorry, sir,” I grumbled, glancing at him. Mr. Columbine looked great tonight. He has a tux on. It suited him perfectly.

“Its okay, Rosalia,” he answers, “Hope you have a good ceremony. I got to get my surprise for you ready. You look really beautiful,” he winked then walked away.

I was a little curious what surprise he had for me. Something strange happened to me. I feel like this has happened to me before. I walk in the auditorium just in time for the ceremony to start. The ceremony went by in a blur. Even when I was my turn, I didn’t know what they said, or if anybody clapped for me. I didn’t notice if anybody gave a dirty look for something, that I am sure I don’t know about. All I know is that I felt this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel as if something bad is going to happen to me.

After the ceremony, there were food and refreshments. I didn’t feel like eating, so I decided that I was going to walk around in the hall way a for a little bit. I told my mom that I was going to use the bathroom. I slipped out of the auditorium, and went into the hall. It was a couple degrees cooler, than the auditorium. Maybe it was because it was crowded in there. Out in the hall was Mr. Columbine. He looked a little tense. As soon as he saw me, he smiled his beautiful white smile.

“Hey your surprise is waiting for you out in my car,” he said.
I felt that there was something wrong, “I should go tell my mom.”

“I already told her,” told me, “Come, it would be real quick, I promise.”

I hesitated; unsure if I should go even, if my mom knows, but then I decided that it won’t hurt to get something good for once in three months. I followed him half way around the school and across the school fields. I followed him to him to his silver hybrid that was parked by the tree that used to be bare. Now it has grown back its leaves. They are a dark green. After this year, this tree became my favorite tree. I touched with my fingertips and felt the rough bark. I walked up to the back door of the car. He opened the back door and stepped aside to let me see what he got me. He got me a huge plush teddy bear. I smiled, for the first time in what seemed like forever.

“Go ahead, get it. It is all yours,” he told me.

“Thank you,” I grabbed it and hugged it, feeling a little lighter. It feels like a little weight has been lifted off my shoulders. That feeling wasn’t going to last long.

“I got you one more thing,” gestured inside the car, “Why didn’t you go and get.”
All of a sudden something came to me. I had seen this before, this situation. I got in the car to the other side to see what else he got me. Then, it hit me. I had déjà vu. My déjà vu isn’t over yet. I turned to face Mr. Columbine, right when he pulled out his gun. It was a twenty-two caliber, I heard a soft click come from the gun, and I knew what that meant. He was going to shoot me if I do something stupid like yell for help. I knew that something wrong was going to a happen. I was frozen with fear. No wonder why he wanted to take me out here. There is little light, and it is away from any crowded area.

“I wanted get you the first time I laid my eyes on you. I had to wait. You were always surrounded by people you love and that are mad at you for anything. Now, everybody, is mad at you somehow, and it is the end of the school year,” he paused and smiled. His smile looked evil now, “I don’t want to get caught out here, so stay still.
He pulled some duct tape out and started to wrap it around my ankles, and then around my wrists. I still couldn’t move. I was still paralyzed with fear. He was about to put tape over my mouth when I said, “Wait,” I had thought about Sheila and how she said that she think the killer was near us. I also thought about Jordan and the way he looked at Mr. Columbine as if he knew him, yet he didn’t like him.
“Were you married to Sheila and then killed her?” I asked.

Mr. Columbine froze, his eyes narrowed, and he looked murderous, “How do you know about Sheila?” he questioned. He grabbed the gun; I knew he was going to kill me if I didn’t tell him.

“I see her sometimes in a white summer dress, you had stabbed her in the chest, throat and stomach,” I answered. His jaw dropped.

“I’m definitely taking you now, you know too much,” he put tape over my mouth before I can say anything else. I was expecting him to call me a liar and then kill me. Nope, he was going to knock me out, and make me go t sleep for that night.

Before he hit me on the head with his gun I looked up at my favorite tree thinking how much I’m going to miss it. Then I look up at the stars that are shining bright. The stars are going to know what happened tonight, and no one else is going to know. The blow came and everything went black.
Epilogue:

Rosalia’s mom had called the police; her daughter has been gone for three hours. The party held in the auditorium ended two and half hours ago. They couldn’t make a missing child report yet, because it hasn’t been more than six hours. Rosalia’s mom and the rest of her family were crying and wondering where Rosalia can be?

Jordan had gone to the party after the ceremony, to talk to Kenneth Salazar, “Are you going out with Rosalia?”

“No, I have a girlfriend named Amber. I wouldn’t go out with two girls, I’m not like that,” he answered.
Jordan felt happier again, knowing that Rosalia wasn’t with anybody else at all. He tried looking for her after that, but couldn’t find her, so he decided to go home. Sheila, Jordan’s deceased older sister had followed him home, for the few the first time in a few months.
Jennifer, Frankie, Amber, and Kenneth Salazar were celebrating together. They had found earlier that night, that someone else had told the rumors, not Rosalia. They were all glad that she didn’t do that. They all went home planning to call Rosalia tomorrow. None of them knew what happened to Rosalia either.
Rosalia is gone.