It was a normal day, and I walked home from school, ate a snack, did my homework, and waited for my parents to come home. I live in a small fishing village. My mom works at the grocery store, and my dad goes out on boats to catch schools of fish for big companies who sell the fish. My mom comes home around 3pm and my dad comes around 3:45pm. I was eating some chips and watching the TV because there was a big storm rolling through, and I couldn't go on my usual bike ride. Right then a lightning strike hit near my neighborhood and shook the house. The light flickered, then the power went out. It knocked over a picture of me and my parents, I was a year younger in that photo. I was 13 and I had my thick, light brown hair curled and I was wearing my blue sleeveless dress so you could see the tan I got from the summer. I have hazel eyes and freckles on my tan face, and I get a lot of complements on my freckles. My name is Lynsie, and I am 14.

It was still pouring rain, and I was soaking wet. I realized I was by my best friend Stella's house, so I went and knocked on her door. All our houses are pretty much the same, except hers. Her dad added a room on both sides of their house, and her mom decorated it with lots of plants around the place. Stella is very pretty, with curly, dirty blond hair and a round face, with very long eyelashes. Her parents weren't home yet either, and I told her what happened and how my mom was in a car accident. “Oh, I'm so sorry Lynsie, come inside, you look freezing cold.” I went inside her house, and she asked me why I had run all the way over to her house. I was crying hard by then. I could barely talk, “I didn't want to see my dad crying, so I just left. I can't believe my mom is dead, she can’t be dead right? Shes not dead.” My best friend Stella hugged me, and said she was sorry again. “You can stay for as long as you want, ok?” Stella said. I asked her, “Do you want to go on a walk? I need some fresh air.” She agreed we should go since it was barely raining then, and we left.  

Me and Stella decided to go on the walking path that was behind her house. It was muddy outside, and there were a lot of roots reaching out over the pathway, which made it a little difficult not to trip. I started crying again, because who wouldn't when they just found out their mom was in a car crash? Stella started the conversation, saying “Does your dad know you left?” I didn’t want her to tell me I should go home since my dad did not want me to leave, so I lied and said, “Yea, he was crying and also needed some alone time, so he was okay with it.” I hope she thinks that is true. We had been walking for about 10 minutes when it started raining hard again, and stella looked like she wanted to go back home. I told her, “If you want to go back, you can, but I'm going to keep walking because I'm not ready to face my dad yet.” “No, I wouldn't leave you after what just happened to you.” my best friend answered. I could hear lightning strikes getting closer to us as we walked, but I didn't care.

We were 20 minutes into our walk now, and not me or Stella were talking. I wonder if my dad went out to look for me, or if he was still crying at the kitchen table. I wonder how life is going to be without mom now. I started crying again just thinking about it. I tried to stop crying, then I would think about mom, and I would start crying again. Stella would hug me every time I started crying and try to talk me through it so I would stop.

 It’s been about forty minutes of us walking now, and I cried so much I couldn't cry any more. We were walking on a part of path that had many roots, and I kept catching my foot on them. It was still raining and there was a lot of lightning and thunder. The path was next to a pond, and it was really flooded, and I was slipping and tripping on roots. We were walking closer to the pond, and I wasn't paying attention to Stella, then I heard her yelp, and I looked to see her fall and hit her head. She blacked out and I went down to try and wake her up.

“Stella! Stella, wake up! Are you ok?!” I shook her awake. “Why did I pass out?” She said when she woke up. Stella tried to get up and immediately fell back down because her ankle collapsed under her. “Are you ok?!  did you roll your foot on a root?” I asked her. “I tripped on the root and my ankle twisted.” she told me. She started crying, and I tried to comfort her. My best friend finally looked down at her ankle and saw how swollen and bruised it was. There was also a lump sticking out the side of her foot. I said, “You need to get to the hospital, and I would call my dad, but I forgot my phone at home. Did you bring yours?” “That was the one thing I forgot to grab when I walked out.” she responded. Stella had a concerned look on her face, and I was questioning how far we walked and how long it would take to get home since she couldn't walk on her foot anymore. I decided we should get going home, so I offered my hand and shoulder for her to get up and lean on. She sat up, and I pulled her up. She whimpered a little, but once she was leaning on me with her foot in the air, she was ok.

We started going back slowly, since she was hopping on one foot and couldn't walk fast. It was still pouring rain, so we made sure to be careful so none of us tripped. She leaned on me the whole time we were on the path. I hoped we weren't too far away from home, and we could make it back quickly.

 We only walked for maybe 10 minutes down the path, and as we rounded a corner, we saw there was a huge tree blocking our path. I helped Stella get settled leaning against a tree, and we stopped to take a break and think how we were going to get past. How is this all fair? I wish none of this had happened. I can’t even remember the last thing I said to my mom, I hope it was something nice. I started crying again. “How are we going to get around this?” Stella asked me, breaking the silence. “Ummm, maybe we could see if we could go around it? I’m sorry Stella this is all my fault any of this happened, we should have just stayed at the house.” I feel so bad for all of this. I checked to see if we could make it around, but the trees and bushes were too thick to go in, especially since stella couldn't walk on her ankle.  

“Ok, you guys stay put, I'm going to get help. The police were looking for you and I will call an ambulance for you Stella. I'm so sorry this happened, are you okay Stella?” Stella’s dad asked her. “Yeah, I think I will be all right for now, but I can't move my foot, and it hurts really bad. Be quick, okay?” Stella responded. “Okay I will be back in a minute.” Stellas dad said, then he left. He better get back sooner than that, I'm hungry, wet, and Stella’s ankle is not looking good.  

Stella's dad came back, and behind him were 2 police, 2 people from the ambulance with a stretcher, and my dad. “Dad! I'm so sorry I ran out! I didn't like seeing you crying, and I still can't believe mom was in a car crash.” I started crying again, and so did my dad.  “It's ok baby, I'm so sorry you have to go through this all, and I will do my best to help you through it with me. Now let's get you out of there so we can go home."