• I walked out of my house at 7:30am. Brooke was waiting outside. I jumped in her car and we drove to school not saying a word. About 5 minuets away from the school I realized there was a mark on Brooke's face. I wouldn't really see because it was still kind of dark and I wasn't wearing my glasses. "OMG Brooke what happened" I said kind of shocked."Smith hit me again." Smith is Brooke’s boyfriend. "He didn't mean to" she said starting to cry. " He just lost his temper,” she stated. "And I deserved it, too!" she said almost swerving off of the road.Brooke was not the best driver but I had trusted her at that point. "you didn't deserve it, smith is a jerk and you deserve better." I said to her. She slammed on the brake one because she almost ran a red light and two "YOU DON'T KNOW HIM LIKE I DO!" she yelled at me. When the light became green she sped through it.
    When we got to school she got out slammed the door and locked the car. Then just walked away not saying a word to me. We hadn’t talked for days after that. We didn't sit with each other at lunch, hang out after school or ask each other to be partners for an assignment. It's like we didn’t even know each other.
    Finally 2 weeks after the fight she called me crying. Smith really lost it that time, when Brooke’s dad was home. Brooke was upstairs with smith when Brooke’s dad walked in from work. Brooke told smith he had to go home because her dad had got home and he wasn’t supposed to be there. He flipped and hit her and Brookes dad came running up the stairs smith and himself got into a fist fight and he told smith he would never ever be able to se his daughter again. Brooke said she was coming over I told her no I would come get her it wasn't safe for her to drive and maybe smith could be waiting somewhere for her. She insisted she drove to me house, I told her no and hung up the phone.
    It took me forever to find my keys and ask my parents. It was 15 minuets after I got off the phone with Brooke when I pulled out of my driveway. I had just backed out when and ambulance and a police car passed me. I pulled to the side of the road and let them past since they needed to get somewhere important. I kept driving and I could still see the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles in front of me. There had to be something close so I started to slow down. As I got closer there was a red compacted car smashed on the side of the rail road tracks maybe a 1/2 a mile from my house. As I grew closer I could read the license plate. GH7 59R6 I had read that somewhere before? I got closer and closer to the accident. There was someone on a stretcher covered with a tarp all you could see was long blond hair hanging below it. The same long blonde hair that belongs to my best friend.
    I slammed on the brakes got out of the car and ran as fast as I could to the closes police officer to find out what had happened.
    "SIR, SIR what happened here?” I asked.
    "Sorry miss, this is a crime scene I can't tell you anything or let you pass." he responded.
    "Trust me you can the girl on the stretcher is my best friend. Her name is Brooke Melanie Walton. She is a junior at Blake High. Tell me everything,” I said starting to cry.
    "Were checking out the car but we think her car stalled on the train tracks. A train was coming and the conductor couldn't stop. I’m sorry miss. You friend didn't make it,” he said pulling off his hat.
    I stood there blank. Nothing I could say or do. Just stood there. I dropped to my knees. Crying my eyes out.
    I had cried for 20 minuets strait until I heard "take her to the lab to test for drugs or alcohol."
    I got up and ran to the ambulance. "WAIT!" I screamed as they shut the doors and drove off into the black of night. I couldn't run fast enough. I didn't even get to say good-bye. I got in my car and drove home. No emotion left in my body.
    When I got home. I ran upstairs to my room no word to either of my parents. I packed my bags walked out of my house and drove to the middle of nowhere. I must had drove for three days when I finally stopped at a gas station and asked for a map. I was heading west. To California the place Brooke and me always wanted to go. I stopped in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Nevada before I had even gotten to California. I stayed in a hotel for 3 nights in California. I had pulled my bank account back in Nevada. 1 million dollars, my parents had saved over the past 16 years. I looked for a job every day and an apartment.
    I had finally found a job. It played good. $16 an hour and I had found an apartment to. Refurnished and it had a bed room a bathroom a kitchen and a living room. It was quite big for an apartment and it was $300 month. I moved in right away. I changed my last name to Parkinson and I finished my last 2 years of high school at Devon High’s met a guy named Alex, Alex Hines. I am now 21, married to Alex and my name is Jenny Hines. I have a baby girl on the way and a stepson named Michael, who was Alex’s son. We live in that same apartment since I moved here. And I always remember Brooke because every year on Brooke’s birthday we fly to Chicago and visit Brooke’s dad and hear about all Brooke’s stories. Smith was long gone out of Chicago. It wasn’t till later we figured out why Brooke was mad about smith having to leave. The real reason was she was pregnant with smith's baby.