November 12th, 2014. A day I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It was Wednesday. I went to school and then home. You may think it was just a normal week day. Something happened that night. Exactly at 10.30 pm my host dad rushed to his police car and went away. Then, a text message arrived: “A seventeen year old boy was killed in Haywood County. He got shot. His name was Darius Flagg . When I heard that name, the phone dropped from my hand. I could not believe it was my maths classmate, the boy who first talked to me on my first day at school during the maths lesson , the boy who always greeted me in the hallway every single day, the boy who used to sit in front of me during maths sessions , the boy who always smiled. No, not that Darius. Then I picked up the phone from the floor and while I was reading the message again , I understood it was actually him. I hadn’t been upset by other murders, this was actually the sixth murder since I arrived . But this time it was different ! Even though I didn’t know Darius very well, I considered him as one of my friends and he was only 17. He was a great person, very smart, funny and a good rapper. I’ll always remember when he started singing in class driving our teacher crazy . Now the class wasn’t the same, the hallway wasn’t the same without him. I couldn’t believe I wouldnt’t see that smile again. That wasn’t the way I wanted to tell him bye. I wished I was in a dream . But actually it was a real nightmare. I was thinking about his family, all his friends, that desk in front of me empty. I tried holding back my tears , tried to be strong but the day after, I woke up thinking of him and when I went to school we stood up for a moment of silence, and all his friends were crying and that was the moment I realized I wouldn’t see him again. The best experience of my life includes also the worst day of my life till now.
Matilda Robin (4B) – Correspondent from United States