The Call

It all started on January fourteenth, 2011. The TV was blasting loud, the way I always like it. Nothing good was on though, so I turned it off. "Mom, I'm going over to Jay's house."

"Okay honey."

I stepped outside, strapped on my helmet and rode over to his house. I knocked on the door. He opened it part way. "Hi Jay. Can I come in?" He opened it all the way and let me in. We played his Xbox for a while. After that we went biking. When we went back inside we heard a ding.

"Jay, dinner's ready."

"Eric," Jay started, "Can you stay over for dinner?"

"Let me ask my mom first."

So I called my mom and asked her. She said I could. I went over to the dinner table and looked around. I didn't see his dad anywhere. I decided not to ask where he was. When Jay and I finished eating we just talked to each other in the living room.

"Where is your dad?"

"I don't know. All I know is that Mom and Dad had a big argument last night. Dad left and never came back. He called and said he wanted a divorce, and Mom said 'Fine'."

I couldn't believe it. They were the happiest family I knew.

"So who will you live with?"

"My dad. That means I-I have to move." He started crying and he ran upstairs to his room. I knock on his bedroom door but he said to go away. After knocking a few more times I decided to leave. Before I got outside I saw the weatherman on TV talking about an impressive storm heading towards my town. I took a glance outside. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Weird I thought to myself. I got back on my bike and rode home. The sky was still blue when I heard a rumble of thunder. "I'd better get home fast." So I was right at my driveway when a bolt of sizzling lightning struck inches away from my foot. "Yow!" I ran into my house and bumped into my mom. "Thank goodness you're all right. There's a severe thunderstorm warning." The wind was blowing really hard. The sky was flashing with lightning. Silence was broken with roars of thunder. By the time I went to bed the storm was calming down. Suddenly, I heard a huge snap. I looked out my window and saw an enormous branch falling towards my room. I tried to get out of the room before it crashed through the window, but a shard of glass flew right at me and lodged into my back.

"Ouch!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My mom ran into my room and gasped.

"What happened?"

"Glass from window… hit back." I collapsed.

When I woke up I was in a hospital bed.

"You're a lucky young man. The glass just missed your lung." The nurse said. I didn't feel lucky. I felt like jumping off a bridge to end the sheer pain. Eventually, I felt good enough to go home. I had missed thirteen days of school. I knew I probably had a bunch of homework at home waiting for me.

Once I got home I had to work on eight science essays, five math worksheets, and an English paper.

After six hours of torture the next day, I was finally back home, still sore. I was sitting around watching TV debating whether or not I should I work on my homework. I have a little while before bedtime.

"Eric, is your homework finished?" Mom asked. "Not quite." I replied. Better get started. All I have is math, my worst subject. Ratios, diameter, area? And all this algebra? Eighth grade is murder. Oh well, might as well try my best.

"Finished," I said aloud one hour later. Time for bed.

I woke up the next morning and it was raining. I tried to turn on my lamp but the power must have been out. My little brother, Jack, was dancing around chanting, "No school. No school." My mom was outside talking to the neighbors about the sudden outage. It really wasn't raining hard enough to knock out the power. "Weird" I thought. My cat, Colonel, was under the table like he was afraid of something. I crouched down to pet him. He let out a loud hiss. That was odd because he was usually fairly gentle.

Just then the power came back on. Jack went outside to tell Mom. Right when she came in the phone started to ring. My mom spent about twenty minutes talking. She looked concerned. Finally she hung up.

"Eric, that was the president. He says that you have to meet him at once."

The president?

"Did he say why?"

"No. He just said that you and four other kids have been chosen to go to Washington."