What I've Done

Part 1

I, Steven Anita Smith, shot my very best friend. By now I'm sure you're asking yourself, 'what!? Steve, you shot your best friend, how could you?' Let me rewind to the beginning so you have a better understanding to how this all happened. It all started when my dad was late for dinner.

"Mom?" I asked her. We were all at the table ready for dinner, waiting for Dad. "Where's Dad?"

"He'll be here." Mom told me. "He had to stay at work."

"For what?"

"Oh, something about background checks on guns. He just called; he'll be here any minute." Roger reached for a dinner roll; Hayley slapped it away.

"OW!" He cried. He looked at her, nursing his hand. "Hayley, what the heck was that for?"

"Wait for Dad." He replied.

"But Hayley, that can take hours! I know Francine said that he'll be here any minute, but something might happen before then! He might die in a car crash or Bullock could pull a gun out and shoot him. All of these years he could've faked his niceness, gaining Stan's trust and waited for the right moment to make his move or Stan might've got stuck in a surprise tornado. You don't know anything Hayley; anything can happen at any place and at any time. I may die because you said I couldn't have one dinner roll because you said 'wait for dad' who might never came home, and it'll be all your fault! Is that what you want Hayley? Well, I'm not waiting, I'm going to have that darn dinner roll!" Dad then came into the room.

"I'm here!" He announced. "And I'm ready to eat!" He then went over and kissed Mom. Hayley smiled at Roger.

"I don't think that's going to be the case." Dad sat in his chair and we all started to eat.

"So dad!" I said to him. "What was this about 'background checks'?

"Oh, well, some people from the government came to check on all of our guns and made sure we're all responsible to operate any kind of firearm."

"I'm glad they'll doing that." Hayley put in. "Guns can be really dangerous and deadly if you're not careful. In fact, I don't think we should have any guns at all. They can hurt people; physically and emotionally. Without guns or fear of them, the world would be a much better place"

"We need guns Hayley. Guns can protect us from animal attacks and crazy and bad people. Plus we need them to hunt for food."

"But something has to be done about gun laws before any one else gets seriously hurt or worse, die." She then choked her next words through her tears, obviously remembering losing Jeff. "It hurts when you lose a loved one Dad, it really does." Roger looked at her.

"Jeff wasn't shot, Hayley." He told her. "He was..." My sister shot an angry glare at him.

"It still hurts!" She shouted.

"I agree with you, Hayley." Dad said. "but it's in the Constitution; we need the right to bare arms. Now, I agree, owning a gun comes with great responsibility. You just can't shoot anyone for no good reason, like I also agree on people with serious mental problems or something else where they can't think straight, shouldn't have guns at all."

"And reading or hearing about murder always makes me have tears in my eyes." Mom said, sniffing back tears. "It just makes me sad just thinking about it."

"It just goes to show you that anything can happen at any time and any place."

"That's what I just told Hayley." Roger said. "Anything can happen!"

We ate in silence after that.

"Remember Dad," I told him the next morning after breakfast. Klaus was on the counter in his bowl. "You're taking me and my friends to the movies and then you're picking us up at the bowling alley."

"What?" Dad asked. "When did I agree to this?"

"Two weeks ago." Dad looked puzzled.

"I did?" I nodded. "You did." He pounded the table in frustration.

"Ugh! Why aren't you old enough to drive yourselves?"

"Because you and mom gave birth to me fourteen years ago, if you guys did it two years earlier; we wouldn't be having this discussion, now would we? And my friends are about the same age as I am. So in conclusion, that is why we can't drive."

"He got you there, Dad." Hayley told him.

"But why me? Why not Francine, Hayley or even Roger?"

"Hey!" Klaus snapped. "Am I chopped liver? Why not me? I know it's obvious considering that I have fins instead of hands and that I don't have an American driver's license, but still! It's nice to be recognized."

"He might not want to ask me." Roger said, ignoring him. "I'm about to have my morning wine and I plan to drink it until I'm drunk.

"And I got work to do around the house," Mom put in. "So unless you want to do it, I'll be happy to do it."

Dad sighed, defeated.

"No, I'll do it." Dad said. He looked at me. "Get in the van." I bounded out of the kitchen, eager to meet my friends.

"No R-rated movies!" Mom called after me.

"Don't worry!" I assured her. "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone is PG-13."

I ran out of the door and in Dad's SUV. As soon as I buckled my seat belt, Dad came. Once Dad was in, we drove off.

"Okay kids," Dad announced to us, dropping as off at the movie theater. "I'll pick you up at the bowling alley at seven."

"Dad!" I said to him. "Please, we're not kids; we're teens."

"Well, I'm not going to say 'okay teens,' that sounds weird."

"He has a point there, Steve." Snot said to me.

"Okay, bye Dad." I told him.

"Have fun, kids!" Dad said. He drove off.

"Bye-bye, Steve's dad!" Berry waved after the disembarking SUV.

"Okay," I spoke to my friends. "We have seven and a half hours without parent supervision."

"Just like school almost!" Berry interrupted. "Except without teachers, faculty or the principal!"

"Steve," Snot said. "When you say 'without parent supervision', it sounds like we are going to not to do what we told our parents and do illegal stuff instead like blow up a building, get ridiculously drunk and sell marijuana."

"It does sound like it, but no. We're doing what we said we'd do." Toshi then said something in Japanese, which of course, we couldn't understand. ("Good! Because my mom would have my head if that happened.")

After we paid for our tickets, we went in to where the movie was playing and sat through a bunch of commercials until it began.

"Wasn't there a shooting in a movie theater last year?" I asked, after I told my friends what I thought about the movie. We were outside, walking to the bowling alley, which was conveniently in walking distance.

"Yeah," Snot answered. "I think it was during The Dark Knight Rises. Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that yesterday at dinner, my family was discussing gun control."

"Oh, yeah. It's a real problem these days."

"Yeah, my sister is totally against guns, and Dad says guns are good for hunting and shooting bad guys for good reasons and stuff. He says owning a gun is great responsibility."

"He's right you know, Steve. That guy who shot the gun was completely crazy in the head."

"Yeah, I know."

We then reached the counter and told the clerk our shoe sizes.

After three games, we went outside to wait for Dad. While we waited for him, something caught my eye.

There were four teenagers down the hill in a small alley. Three of them all looked about sixteen and one looked about our age. I couldn't hear what they were saying but one of them pulled something black out. I couldn't tell what it was at first but when I looked at it some more, my eyes grew huge. It was a gun!

"Hey!" I said. "That guy has a gun!" I was about to run to them when Snot pulled my arm. I looked at him.

"Steve," He started, his voice firm. "We shouldn't approach them. It's dangerous; we should just call the police and tell them about it. They'll handle it better then us."

"The police may be too late. We got to do something before it's too late."

"Right, by calling the police!"

"Fine, you call the police. I'll go try to stop them." I looked at Berry and Toshi. "Come on guys!" Toshi and Berry shrugged then they ran after me down the hill as Snot called the police on his cell phone. The closer we were, the better I could understand them.

"D-Dominic," I heard the young teenager stammer. "Y-you better put that away b-before someone gets hurt."

"Don't be such a wuss, Cody." The boy named Dominic said to him. "I won't set it off."

"D-doesn't matter. You could set it off by accident."

"Look Cody, if my father didn't trust me, he wouldn't give it to me!"

"Please Dominic, just put it away."

"I will, but first, just look at it longer."

"I-I don't think that's a good idea."

"Oh Cody. Here, you can hold it." He offered it to Cody who didn't dare to take it from him. Dominic went closer and Cody just inched backwards. Dominic sneered at his friend.

"JUST TAKE IT CODY!" I couldn't take it anymore.

"HEY!" I shouted. They all looked at me. "Knock it off! Do what he says and put it away before something happens."

"And who are you?" He wanted to know. I stood up straight and put my hands on my sides like a hero.

"Just a kid doing what's right before it's too late." He went towards me and offered me the gun.

"You hold it then." I shook my head.

"No, I better not."

"Come on then; you know you want to."

"No I don't!" He went closer to me and I ran. He chased me. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Not until you hold the gun."

"NOOOOOOO!"

"WHOO-HOO!" Berry cheered. "You GO Steve!" I then saw Snot run down the hill and ran towards us.

"I called the police." He informed us. "They'll be here soon." Dominic then looked at him puzzled.

"You called the police; why?"

"Because you don't know what you are getting into."

"I was just showing my friends the gun my father gave me; I wasn't doing anything wrong."

"It is wrong if it accidently goes off and hurts or kills someone. Guns are not things to play around with."

"Don't you think I know that?! I'm not an idiot. I know guns are dangerous. I just want to show it off to my friends!"

"I don't think you should. Now put the gun away before…"

"YOU'RE GETTING ON MY NERVES KID!" Snot was about to say something when…BANG! The gun fired. I looked wide- eyed at my friend who collapsed on the ground, blood on his chin and spilling out from his body. Toshi, Berry and I gasped.

"SNOT, NOOOOOO!" I cried out. I then looked down and grew wide-eyed again. I was holding the gun and my fingers were on the trigger.