In the first week of school something happened at recess. I’m not sure exactly what day it was, but our group saw a butterfly outside. Now first, you should know who is in our group. It’s Lariah, Samantha, Cecilia, Jordan, Isabel, Brooke, Rowan, McKenna, and I. We were all outside by the basketball court at recess. We were just goofing around and being silly, you know? Doing 7th grade girl stuff. We were all drugged up on giddiness and anxious for the upcoming year.

That’s when Lariah spotted it. Lariah, who’s hazel eyes drank up all the beauties in the world that not many people noticed. The butterfly had pure white wings, a thin brown body, and flew ever so gracefully. We were all mesmerized by its beauty. That is, all of us except Cecilia. She hadn’t seen the butterfly and had unknowingly thrown her backpack upon it.

At that moment, we all screamed. All of us were trying to see what had happened to the butterfly. Then, in the midst of the chaos that we were, Lariah carefully picked the butterfly up by its wing and held it the palm of her hand. In her hand the butterfly tried to regain its strength to fly away. It would fly up a little bit, but sadly it always fell back down to the ground after a few seconds. It was permanently damaged. McKenna tried to kill it, but Lariah ran away with the poor creature to the safety of the grass.

There, Lariah gently laid it down on the ground, hoping it would find refuge in the lush grass. At least, that was what Lariah was thinking would happen. She couldn't have known McKenna was serious and intented to do more harm to the poor creature.

Because that’s when McKenna came. She was looking for the butterfly. From her expression, I could tell that finding the butterfly and killing it would be like a fun game. She was running around in the grass, continuously looking for the butterfly. Lariah was trying to lead her away from it, but in the end McKenna still found it. As I had predicted, when McKenna found the butterfly, she squished it with the bottom of her foot, laughing as she walked away. She saw it as no big deal, but the butterfly never had chance.

Now why am I telling you this? Why do I speak of this incident when it occurred three weeks ago? I tell you this story because today at recess our group saw a tadpole. As with the butterfly, we were all fascinated by the creature. Then, out of nowhere, a soccer ball landed upon it, sending it to that place beyond earth.

When that happened I couldn’t help thinking about the butterfly we had seen. That’s when I realized something mind-breaking. The butterfly and the tadpole, both represent innocence. As well as what happens to the innocent. The tadpole was lucky. It had a quick and painless death. Like when people take a death blow to the head or the heart. Quick, painless, and merciful even.

The butterfly had a different story. It wasn’t as lucky. It got hit and abused by a Player as part of a Game. Every time it tried to get up, its strength would fail and it would fall down again. When finally a chance at freedom had come, the Player, in this case McKenna, came and slaughtered it. As part of the game. The Player always views it as fun and games.

That’s how a lot of the young and innocent suffer in these modern times. They are simply apart of games. They are kidnapped from their homes and abused to the greatest pain. When they see a chance for escape from that hell hole, they try, but almost all of them don’t make it past the finish line. Then they are murdered and their bodies are left to rot, or worse. As part of a game.

People are cruel in this world.