School let out at 2:18 and I would get off the bus at 3:10 the earliest. I was home for only twenty minutes before my friend called me. I held the phone to my ear without saying a word.

“Meet us at the tennis court.” My friend demanded. She hung up before I could even say anything. I walked up the stairs and casually walked to my room and changed out of my school clothes. No one was home so I simply left a note indicating where I was and that I had my phone. I wrote quickly, “Went out. I’ll be back later.”
There is a tennis court the park close to my house. My friends and I will usually go there to just hang out or skateboard because of the smooth, flat slate surface. I guess they had another idea in mind. My one friend had previously bought a lighter before arriving. That past Sunday, one of our friends from another school had taught her how to properly light a lighter.

“Let’s have a bonfire!” My friend, Alex, proclaimed. I assumed we were going back to her house or mine because we had fire pits in the backyard. I started walking towards the exit when I noticed they weren’t following.

“Where do you expect us to have a bonfire if we’re not having it in the fire pit?” I stated. Our group was definitely not what it seemed to be. Our personalities were no where near similar. Most people would think that we would constantly argue due to the varying personalities but we fought very rarely.

“Right here! In the center of the tennis court! It would be cool to have one now!” Alex cheered with excitement. I looked around. Houses were across the street and there were dry pine needles surrounding the end of the tennis court.

“We can’t do that here! It’s a destruction of public property. Do you realize how much trouble we could get in?” I shouted. I was always the realistic one. The one who set the boundaries and the one who had a realization as to when something bad could come of an act one of us made.

“We’re fine! No one is around and who cares!” Sarah, the most quite one in the group, chimed. I walked to the fence and just stood there on my phone.

“EMILY! Aren’t you going to help?” Someone shouted.

“Of course not. I’m not getting involved.” I shouted back. I sat down and just watched the dry leaves turn into red and orange flames giving off scorching heat. The leaves soon turned to black ash lying upon the green court.
“BIGGER! BIGGER!” They shouted. They gathered more and more leaves to the point where there was a mound of leaves sitting in the center of the fenced off area. By then, at least two cars had passed and a little group of girls strolled by. I was still sitting on the wobbling skateboard.

The fire ate the leaves as a lion would eat its prey. The flames grew higher and higher, eventually starting to die down but not before we heard the sirens. The screeching sound indicating we have been caught. Alex, Sarah, and Angela looked at each other and their faces turned white.

“We can still run. Put out the fire.” One of them finally said. Angela quickly started smashing out the flames with a brown plastic bat found in the corner of the court. They dashed out the exit and I quickly paced myself. They sprinted into my dads’ house and bolted up the stairs screaming for dear life. After that it seemed like everything happened so fast. The police came to my house and asked questions. The pyromaniac of the group found it funny. After that day, we were grounded for two weeks, had to do community service, and serve six months of probation stating that if we get a juvenile complaint, that individual will have to appear in court. None of us have spoken to each other since that day at the courts.