Naia's POV

It was no surprise that when Monday came, there weren't many people who showed up to school. It was understandable that many were shaken from what happened.

Even though Matt and Gabby made it clear that I could skip school and go with them to the firehouse for the day, I decided not to. Since so many people were away, none of the teachers taught anything new. In History, Mrs. Smith just told us to do whatever we wanted which was strange since I never thought I would ever hear those words come out of her mouth. Though, it did seem normal when she became the only teacher to assign us homework that day.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Nate said to me as we walked out of the school after a boring day.

I nodded, "Yeah, tell everyone I said hi."

Nate promised he would and we exchanged our good-byes before we parted ways. While I walked my usual path to the firehouse, I wondered if anybody else at my school was also at Millennium Park Saturday like Nate and I were. It was definitely possible.

When I got to the firehouse, I knew the moment I walked in that everyone was on a call because of how silent it the firehouse was. Hanging up my jacket, I plopped down at the table and pulled out my homework like I usually would. I tried to do some of it but the eerie silence was starting to creep me out so I turned on the T.V. so I there would be some background sound.

"A makeshift memorial has been set up at Millennium Park to honour the victims of Saturday's shooting," The news reporter said, catching my attention. I looked up from my history textbook to see that the pictures of those who lost their lives had been taped to a fence and in front of that fence, there were lit candles, the flames looking as if they were dancing.

It looked like people had already stopped by, leaving flowers and balloons. The news then cut back to the news reporter who started talking more about the makeshift memorial. While she talked, they showed all nineteen people who were killed during the shooting. I carefully studied all of them, trying to figure out which one was the man I had found dead while trying to help the injured people.

I felt my stomach drop when my eyes settled on the picture of a little boy who was around the age of six. An innocent little boy had his life taken away from him in a split second. I felt my stomach drop even further when I saw that his older sister was also one of the nineteen victims killed during the shooting. She was probably around ten or eleven.

Forcing myself to look away, I returned my attention back at my homework and with trembling hands, flipped through my history textbook, skimming the paragraphs.

By the time I finished the simple question sheet to go with the reading for history, everyone had returned from the call and thankfully, the new reporter had moved on to talk about the weather for this week.

"How was school?" Gabby asked after she planted a quick kiss on the top of my head.

I nodded, "Good. There weren't many students so it was kind of an easy day."

"Oh yeah?" Gabby walked over to the counter to pour herself a glass of water.

I nodded again but wasn't sure what to say so I kept my mouth shut and resumed doing homework.

"What are you doing over there?" Shay asked me, peering over at my strange setup. I had my history textbook propped halfway up on my math textbook and the one-page question sheet was on one of the pages the textbook was open on and I had a lined piece of paper in front of me with all the answers for the question sheet.

"History," I replied just as I slammed the textbook shut, "Well, not anymore."

Shay laughed a little and she watched me shove all of my history stuff back into my backpack along with everything else I didn't need right now...which was everything.

"Are you hungry?" Matt asked me from the kitchen where he was grabbing his own snack.

"No," I shook my head, "Not yet anyway. Maybe later."

Matt and Gabby shared a look that I couldn't quite read so I just ignored it while I got up to get some water. As I poured myself a glass of water, I started absentmindedly talking.

"They set up a makeshift memorial at Millennium Park," I watched as the water steadily fell into the glass, "There's a bunch of flowers and candles."

"That's nice," Gabby said and I nodded in agreement.

I set the jug of water back down and drank from the glass before setting that down as well.

"A boy and girl were killed. Brother and sister," I stared sadly down my glass of water, "The sister was ten or eleven, the brother was around six."

"It's awful isn't it," Matt sighed and I finished off the water in the glass.

I nodded, "Why would someone do that?"

"I don't know," Gabby replied quietly.

"Were they angry at someone at Millennium Park? Is that why they started shooting?" I asked, even though I knew neither Gabby and Matt would know the answer to that question.

Matt shrugged, "Maybe."

The image of the brother and the sister were hauntingly stuck in my head. They were so young, it wasn't fair. None of this was fair, to be honest. Innocent lives being taken away.

All this thinking was making me tired so I trudged over to the couch and flopped down.

Ambo 23, man in distress at 59 Ashland Road

Even though the alarm was loud, it didn't prevent me from closing my eyes and drifting off.

Thinking needs more credit for how tiring it can get.