Maxine 'Maxi' George: Britain- England
"What time is it?" Maxi said to herself, wiping the sleep from her eyes. She lifted her head from he pillow and stared blankly at her alarm clock.
"Oh my God, 8:15! School starts in thirty-five minutes. I have to shower, have breakfast, dress, get my books ready…
Mrs. George poked her head into her daughter's room, "Honey, calm down, it's still holidays. I turned your alarm off."
Maxi flopped her head back down on to her pillow, grinning wildly. No school, hour upon hour of free time…but nothing to do with it, Maxi thought to herself, he smile quickly disappearing.
"Maxi, honey, will you run to the shop and pick up some stuff for the lasagne I'm making for Robert tonight?"
Robert, Maxi's mother's boyfriend, he was okay in Maxi's opinion, a definite improvement on her own dad anyway. He was serving time for armed robbery, Maxi hadn't seen him for eight years now and Maxi had just turned seventeen.
"Sure mum, give me the list and cash and I'll get going," she yelled down the stairs while pulling a striped jacket over her head
"Thanks hun, I can always count on you, you're a good girl."
"Umm, yeah, thanks mum," Maxi said monotoned, "Mum where's the money and the list?"
"On my coffee table, there's only a few things I need, it shouldn't come to much but I've given you a twenty pound note, get something nice for yourself love."
Her mum always tried to buy her off, Maxi was used to it now though.
Maxi slipped on her shoes and was off like a flash, at her front door and round the corner.
She carried on her pace until she came to her local corner shop; they really did stock pretty much everything nowadays.
She walked in, greeted Seb, the boy at the counter, grabbed a shopping basket and set off through the isles slowly filling up her basket as she went. Once she had checked off the shopping list and made sure there was nothing she wanted she headed to the counter and continued her flirting with Seb.
"So come here often?" Seb asked jokingly.
"Oh, ha-ha, clever, just as clever as yesterday, when you asked me the exact same question," she retorted.
"Hmmm, anyway…is this all?" Seb questioned.
"Yeah that's abou…oh my God, Seb, that man, by the milk. He has a gun!" Maxi whispered.
"Where? Shit, he does too!" Seb shouted without realisation.
The man with the gun, realising he'd been sussed, whipped the nine millimetre calibre gun from his belt, aiming it directly at Maxi and Seb.
"This will sound cliché…but money, in the bag, NOW!" the armed man screamed.
Maxi was terrified, as were Seb and the man ducked down by the confectionary.
"Maybe you should do what he says Seb…"Maxi said.
"Maybe you should shut it girl!" snapped the man with the gun.
The man knelt by the confectionary seemed to gain a sudden surge of courage and leapt for the mugger, a shot went off and the man fell, dead, blood pouring from the gun wound on his neck.
Maxi screamed in shock, tears flooding her eyes. She took a step forward to get a closer look, but the armed man was still jumpy and took a second shot, the time at Maxi.
Maxi screamed again, holding up her hands and fearing the worst, but other than the piercing sound of the gun shot…nothing, she slowly opened her eyes and saw the bullet stopped midair. Both Seb and the mugger looked on in disbelief. Maxi put out her hand and felt something, like an invisible wall, that the bullet was lodged in.
Maxi lowered her hands and the barrier vanished, the bullet fell and the mugger ran. What had just happened, did I do that? Maxi thought.