It was the night before Halloween and it was a full moon back in 2011. There was a little fog just to cover the grass of the park across the street. Eugene - one of my closest friends - was throwing a spooky forest in his backyard. A spooky forest is when people dress up in costumes and hide behind trees in the forest and then when a person walks by we jump out and scare them. This back in 2011 so I was 13 years old and so was Eugene. His backyard is against a forest so at night it was very scary. Recently there was news that coyotes were in the same woods so that scared the s*** out of me. Everytime I go into the woods today I still think I’m going to get attacked by one of those beasts. So after the spooky forest was over, me and my friends were going to go play ghosts in the graveyard. I still remember all of their names to this day. Their names were Eugene, Ryan, Jio, Charlie, Austin, and Dashille. We played that for a long time and had a lot of fun I remember. Then one of my friends had an idea that would cause me to make a decision that would change my life forever.

Charlie suggested that we take a styrofoam ball and throw it at a car passing by. Thinking about this now shows me how f***ing dumb I was earlier in life. The plan was to throw it from behind a big dumpster, run through the backyard in the forest, go into Eugene’s backyard, and finally run in Eugene’s side door and be safe in his basement.
That didn’t happen at all.

What really happened was, complete f***ing confusion, chaos, and embarrassment. There was a car coming from the right side of the street and we panicked. Nothing was going as planned already. We weren’t on the right side of the dumpster and we didn’t even run into the forest as planned. We ran into the park. When the car was close enough Charlie threw the ball.

The ball hit and it sounded like a f***ing brick.

We scattered in different places. Me and Ryan went straight to the dark park because we knew the people in the car would be pissed off. I ran so fast, so full of adrenaline that I could’ve ran a marathon. I ran so f***ing fast that I wasn’t even thinking just running. Me and Ryan stopped running when we go to about the other side of the park. We decided to go back and check out what had happen. Ryan - who was not very cautious going back- lead the way. I was hesitant on going back to where we threw the call three f***ing minutes before. When we got close we could see two figures but no car. We thought it was Eugene and Dashiell because they were both short. They ended up being the owners of the car we just f***ing hit.

Come here they said.

Me and Ryan both walked over and the b**** started screaming at us and how she is both gonna press charges and how we are going to jail blah blah blah. She was also there with her son who was a senior who went Maine South. She decided to call the cops i forget why but I know there wasn’t any damage to the car. While on the phone with the cops, Ryan went over to me and whispered, On three we run ok? I was hesitant at first. I had no idea where to run. Then out of no where he started counting. 1. 2. 3.

On 3 I made the decision to run.

I f***ing went for it. I started sprinting and Ryan next to me. The lady yelled GET THEM! The senior started chasing after us and Ryan and I both knew we could outrun him but something clicked in my brain. Stop. Stop running. So I stopped. I stopped running while Ryan sprinted away in the distance. Not to much time passed till the senior came up behind me and walked me back to the lady. I was ready to accept the punishment. To my surprise this lady had a heart and a big one at that. When I got back the senior told her that I stopped on my own. She then decided to tell me that she was going to tell the cops that it wasn’t my fault and to let me go. I was relieved.

The police came - it was a nice lady - we both laughed as we waited for my mom who was not happy but she got over it as soon as she heard I wasn’t in trouble. I called Eugene short after and told him everything. Then my mom dropped us off and his house and we went into the safety of his basement for the rest of the night.