"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you're heading."

-Lao Tzu

I woke up to a loud thud from within our house. I could smell bacon and eggs cooking on the stove. Maybe mother had hit her head on the cabinets, again? I stretched as I got out of bed, not really worried. Brother and I shared a room since the house only had two rooms. He got the bottom bunk while I got the top. I can't tell you how many times I hit my head on the ceiling. Mostly, because I was half asleep and tried to stand up on my bed for some reason.

"Hey, mom!" I shouted from the doorway of the bedroom. "Was that thud you!?"

"Sorry!" Mother's sweet voice responded, worried. "Did I wake you?"

"No!" I lied. She'd get concerned and start worrying about her being so clumsy. She didn't say anything more so I figured she went back to cooking breakfast. I wonder if she knew I lied to her. If she did, she really didn't care.

I walked back into the bedroom and saw that my brother, Josh, was lying entangled in his bed sheets with his mouth wide open. I laughed silently at him. He looked so goofy. I figured it would be okay if I didn't wake him up. His alarm would go off, of course, if he remembered to reset it.

I grabbed some jeans, a long sleeved black shirt, and some blue socks. I changed into them and threw the shirt I had worn to bed in the laundry basket mom left for us to put dirty clothes in. I looked at the mirror that hung above my dresser. My medium auburn hair was almost as tangled as my brother in his sheets. I picked up my comb and began to brush through it. When I finished, I placed it on the dresser and put in my small earrings. Some of the girls had big loopy ones, but those looked sort of weird, in my opinion.

Josh was still sleeping so I decided to wake him up. He had to go to orchestra and probably needed to find last night's homework, anyway. I sat down on top of him and he stirred.

"Ack! Annie! Get off of me!" He said pushing me off. I laughed because his hair was up on all ends. He looked like a porcupine. "What's so funny?" He asked getting out of his bed. He only wore his boxers to bed.

"Nothing…" I said innocently and he just rolled his eyes and grabbed a red shirt from his dresser. I would've laughed if he had gone down stairs without noticing his hair, but he did. He tried to smooth it out with his hands and I left because it was boring watching him do this.

I ambled down the stairs as mother started setting the table. Yep, it was bacon and eggs. I could now smell burning bread that was likely in the toaster. I didn't say anything because she probably smelled it, too.

"I heard you laughing up there. What was so funny?" Mom asked as I sat down at a plate. She put a three extra pieces of bacon on my plate and put her finger to her mouth. Well, more for me.

"I woke Josh up by sitting on him and he looked like a porcupine." I replied before stuffing a bacon strip in my mouth. I heard the toaster pop and knew the toast was done being scorched.

"Be careful, then. He must have a pokey personality." Mom said sarcastically. Josh walked down the stairs and I stuffed two more bacon strips into my mouth. He saw this and looked at me, confused, before sitting down on the other side of the table. His hair still had a few small spikes in it, but, for the most part, it was smooth. He started munching down on his eggs. I chewed on another bacon strip. I really loved bacon.

"Eat too much bacon and you'll turn into it." Josh mumbled and pointed his fork with an egg white on it at me. I swallowed the bacon strip that was in my mouth before replying.

"Eat too many eggs and you'll turn into it." A slight growl erupted from his throat, but he kept chewing on his egg. Mother placed the toast on the table. She gave me two pieces of bread that weren't burnt and brother got two extremely burnt ones.

"Why does she get the toast that isn't burnt?" Brother said in annoyance while examining his buttered toasted. Mine was glazed with clover honey. I loved the sweetness of honey and Josh hated it.

"Because she actually does her work." Mom said smugly. Brother put his hands up and they practically spelled 'What.' I chuckled at him. He glared at me before taking a bite of his singed toast. Mother sat down and sipped her coffee. I put my eggs on Josh's plate and stole a strip of his bacon.

"Hey! Give that back!" Brother snatched at it, but I easily averted him. Mother didn't say anything because she knew Josh would say he didn't need any help. He snatched at it a second time and I moved to the left since he aimed for the right. "Come on. I'm hungry." Brother said with a pout.

"No and plus the average American gets approximately 45% of calories from fat and you have a good amount of that." I said the last part sarcastically, but it is true that roughly 45% of calories are from eating fat. I also had rhymed that for some reason.

"Augh…" Josh moaned. I snickered and nibbled on the bacon. He didn't like me giving even one percent about anything unless it's helping him do his homework. Believe it or not, I'm in high school and I'm going to turn thirteen on December 5th and at the end of May or early June, I'll have graduated while my brother still needs two more years more he graduates.

"Josh, don't you need to go to Orchestra?" Mother said then took a sip of her coffee. She hadn't touched her food for some reason. Maybe she was waiting for us to leave, but High School started at 8:15 and it was 7:24. Why would she want to wait 51 minutes for us to be at school to eat? I pushed it off and put my plate in the sink. Josh got up and put on his book bag before grabbing his Cello and heading out the door.

"I'm guessing you want me to leave, too?" I asked leaning against the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. Mother didn't say anything and starting cutting her eggs. Well, she's ignoring me. "I'll just be going then." I muttered and grabbed my backpack. I had already put my homework in it from last night.

I noticed Josh's homework was still on Dad's desk. Technically, it wasn't his anymore because he's in prison for murdering this man at a bar. Josh used it as his own desk and treated it like it was his pet. I grabbed his homework and put it in my backpack. I'd just give it to him at school.

"Have a good day at school." Mother said as I walked out the door, but she said that every day so I wasn't surprised. I walked up to Clara's house and knocked on the door. Glenn, her father, answered.

"Hello, Anna." He greeted and hugged me. I hugged back because he was like the dad I never had. Mother and him were friends since childhood and when our families started, our families became close friends.

"Is Clara still here?" I asked after he stopped hugging me. I didn't like getting hugged unless I did the action. It made me feel a bit uncomfortable. He shook his head.

"Sorry, but she spent the night over at Tiffany's." I never liked Tiffany. Tiffany was a 15 year old that is brattish even though she could be nice. She always wanted everything her way and always had to be in complete control. Maybe that's why we're enemies. I found it weird that Clara, who's 12, to be at Tiffany's house. I never knew that they had met. I met Tiffany when I first started High School.

"It's fine. I'll go over there instead." Wow. I was saying a lot of lies today. I would just go and sit on a swing in the park near the school and read one of David Rossi's books about crime. I really enjoyed crime and hoped to work as a police officer or detective one day. I might even be able to join the FBI and meet him one day.

Clara's dad closed the door as I walked off the porch and back onto the sidewalk. The houses around here weren't very big and many were apartments. Small houses were scattered here and there so it was rare to see one that wasn't Clara's or my house.

I walked down the sidewalk, watching every pedestrian that passed me. I knew a lot of crime happened in our city, plus there have been multiple serial killers here. The most famous one was the Quantico Killer. I can't even remember how many people that man killed.

When I reached the park, I walked over to a low swing and saw that it was all wet. I wouldn't want to be walking around all wet today. There was a tree I sat under once in a while, so I walked over to it and sat down on one of its roots. I pulled out the book 'Killer Profile' and open it to the first page. I skimmed over it, not reading it like I normally do which is like 1,500 words a minute, to pass the time.

"Well, look who's here." I heard a voice say a few feet away from me. I put the book down and saw that Daniel was standing there with his two friends, Louis and Cole. I put the book back in my backpack and stood up.

"Do you need something?" I asked, unhappily. They were trouble makers. I wouldn't care if I cursed ever single curse word at them because that's how bad they were. They started fights, got drunk, and probably smoked some illegal drugs.

"Do you need something you little twerp?" Cole responded and grinned wickedly at me. I wasn't scared of them. Why should I be? Yeah, they may be older and stronger than me, but I was smarter and faster.

"For you guys to leave." I replied. Daniel put his hand on my shoulder and I grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, kneeing him in the stomach. I also knew pressure points and some good fighting tactics.

"Oh… oh, now you're going to get it." Daniel almost yelled. He tried to sucker punch me, but I moved the opposite direction and punched his face. Cole and Louis were ratting him on. He held his face and I saw some blood bleed out between his fingers.

"That looks like it hurts. Do you need a tissue to dry up your tears?" I said dryly. He removed his hand from his face and I saw that I gave him a bloody nose. Blood dripped onto his shirt and he growled at me.

"I'll get you. Just you wait." He said before storming off towards the school. His friends looked at him then at me. Surprise written all over their faces, but they quickly followed him and I could see that they had started talking to him. He pushed one of them down to the ground when the guy tapped his shoulder. I believe it was Louis, but Cole and him looked alike. They both had dirty blonde hair and green eyes.

I picked up my stuff and walked towards school after they disappeared. Other kids were making their way towards school, too. Well, I wasn't late. I saw Tiffany talking to her friend, Amy. I didn't like or hate Amy. She was a good kid, but I really didn't relate to her. She was very shy, too, so I didn't know her very well. She only talked to Tiffany once in a while and today Tiffany was just blabbing on while Amy just listened.

I walked into the school building and a few kids were already walking around inside. I walked over to my locker and opened it. Most of the students had locks, but I didn't. I had nothing valuable unless a small mirror and jacket were valuable. I hung my backpack on a hook inside my locker and grabbed my math book and Josh's homework. I had to return it before class.

I went into the classroom and placed my math book on my desk before heading to Josh's homeroom, which was Ms. Smith's room. She taught Language. I went down the hall to the room and saw that she was the only one in there.

"Ms. Smith, have you seen my brother?" I asked and she looked up from the work she was grading. She was grading Daniel's. It had a D on it.

"Last I saw him was in the Library checking out some books. You should check there." She said pointing to the library. I was the room across from hers. I nodded in appreciate and she went back to grading.

I wandered around the Library and saw Josh was sitting at one of the Library's many tables reading a book. A lot of other kids were in here and I recognized a few. Emma, Amy, Sophie, Jamie, and Peter were reading and a few kids were in line to check them out.

"Josh." I said and he looked up from his book.

"Yes?" He asked and he didn't look too happy, but he was always like that. He probably figured I was going to prank him. "Do you need something?" I put his homework down on the desk.

"You left it on Dad's desk this morning. I figured you'd prob-" I was cut off by a loud bang and a pain shooting up my arm. I gave a screech of pain and saw that my arm was bleeding. I put my hand to it as another bang rang out. We must have been getting shot at my someone. I saw another kid get hit in the leg and kids started running and ducking everywhere. Josh grabbed me and pulled me under the table.

"Why are we being shot at!?" Josh yelled and more and more shots rang out. I could hear sirens of police cars and ambulances approaching. I put pressure on my arm in hopes to slow the bleeding.

"Do you think I'd tell you if I knew?" I replied bluntly, trying to hide my fear, but it still came out rattled. I saw a kid lying on the ground and wasn't moving. I closed my eyes and hoped it all just stop. The nightmare would just end. The last thing I heard were men shouting before it went black.

Hope you guys like this first chapter! If you are on Wattpad, you may or may not have noticed this same story is up there on an account also named Ebeegirl. Wattpad isn't working right for me so I'm writing over here now. If anyone of Wattpad would like to help me, it would be appreciated.

Ebee