You know that scene in a movie where the main character (usually a

male) gets an idea, and then the side character (usually female) thinks its a
terrible idea, but then they go out and do it and everything turns out fine?
Those movies are, for a lack of a better term, clich. In other words, you
always know whats going to happen. So then, if so many movies do this,
being clich, why do we still watch them? Its because of our desire to
experience. Even though we see horrible things happen in movies to
characters, you still think to yourself Gosh I wish that would happen to me.
It would be so much more interesting then whatever Im doing tomorrow.
We always look for that adventure, that experience. Which is why so much of
the news is bad, sure its terrible, but its more interesting than if a bunch of
great things happened. For example, which would keep your interest longer:
a plane crash with few survivors, or a new healthcare center opening? Admit
it, we are a society that strives to be interesting, different, unique. We always
think that there needs to be a balance to this world. Although most people
wont admit it, everyone knows that a world without evil is not a world worth
living in. On the flip side though, a world without good is not worth living in
either. This is why every good story always a good force and a bad force (no
pun intended).
Now you might be asking, Andrew, why did you tell me this? All of this
serious philosophical stuff doesnt seem to pertain to any story or life event
unlessdo you have something in mind? To that I say, You will see.
Humorous is it not? The way I bring you in just to ruin your hopes of learning

information? How I continually tease information until you cant stand it then
I give you bits and pieces just to satisfy you until you know everything? Its
very amusing how humans understand things
Umheh*ahem* sorry about that, got a little carried away. And no,
Im not actually like that, sort of. I have alternate personalities, sort of. Its
like different moods I get in mixed with certain desires of mineya anyway
Im getting myself way too deep in this. You probably want me to actually
start telling a story now dont you. Right. Okay, well it all sta-wait
There we go new paragraph for new topic. Anyway the story Im about
to tell involves a lot of blood, sweat, and tears; along with a lot of happiness,
anger, and sadness. So its safe to say that yes, its going to be a ride.
Mid-April, 2014; the night of my first prom. I was excited to say the
least. My date, who was my girlfriend at the time, was also getting ready for
the night, waiting for me to pick her up. My best friend, who was also in my
grade, was going with a date too, named Heaven (which is ironic because
well youll see). Kenny and I had the best idea for our prom entrance. Okay,
first I gotta back up. One of the big things for prom is how you enter in.
Although most people do it by car or truck, some get more creative. For
instance, the twins in my class, Abbie and Beth, came in with a huge
firetruck, that was a sight to see. Of course, because of this, many people
waited outside the school with cameras to take a picture of all the couples
and how they arrived.

Anyway back to the past, Kenny and I had the best idea. We were
going to come in classic Cinderella style. Thats right, by a horse and
carriage. Pretty amazing right? Well, it was. Especially when we went five
miles-per-hour across the entire townokay, so it actually wasnt that great
of a ride, but at the same time, the fact that we were picking up our dates
and arriving at prom with a horse and carriage kept us excited throughout
the ride. So anyway I meet up with Kenny along with the ride. We get in after
the initial pictures by his mom and decide that it would be best if our dates
sat across from us. Youve probably guessed that the ride can seat at least
four people, which it can. The carriage itself wasnt as magnificent as any
hopeful prom date wouldve wanted, but it was good enough that we still got
excited about it.
I can still remember how Nicole (my date) first reacted to hearing that
we were going to prom in a horse and carriage. Think overly excited preppy
girl finding out that she just won the lottery and youve got the right idea. If I
were to remember her exact words it would be close to, What? Are you
serious?! Andrew thats amazing oh my gosh! Haha Im so excited!
Kennys dates house was nearby, so she got in with us as we headed
off. Our first stop was to my dates house, Nicole. The ride there was slow, as
the carriage can only go so fast. We carried on some conversation, but none
lasted more than a minute. The rest of the time I stared out of the carriage,
just taking it all in. I thought to myself what any person would in my state,
This is actually happeningI cant believe it. And I smiled a soft smile, the

smile you get from knowing youve done the right thing and are okay with
not telling anyone.
When we finally got to Nicoles house she was already standing
outside, her mom taking pictures with her. I can still remember what she
looked like. Her hair was in a really fancy bun/braid that probably took an
hour just by itself if not more, she had a green long dress with some small
frills on the chest making her look all the more beautiful. Now Nicole is not
an unattractive woman, shes a small person (in all ways but one) but is still
really good looking.
Once everybody is gathered up, we naturally get more pictures taken
of us by our parents. One that was nice, one that was cool, you get the idea.
We all got back in the carriage and headed on our way to the high school,
where the initial prom was being held. The time it took from when we first
time we saw the high school to actually pulling up was long in itself. But like
most of the ride, we entertained ourselves with conversation (mostly about
how excited we were) and just staring out at the high school, ready to make
our grand entrance. We continued to be excited until we got up to the front.
Except even then we were excited, but more so than ever before. Naturally
Kenny and I got out first and helped our respective dates out by our hand,
with cameras almost swarming us from various people. We enter the building
and get our picture taken more (this time for an actual photo we get later). It
was almost humorously long before we finally entered the dance area. When

we did though, there were lights, a disco ball, and many people dancing to
some country love song.
The dance went by exactly how anyone would expect it to. Nicole and I
danced to multiple songs, anything from slow country songs to line dances
(the Cupid shuffle is still my favorite), to the weirdest requests. Within ten
minutes of dancing I had to take off my overcoat because it was getting way
too hot in that. There were drinks outside that I grabbed every once in a
while to rest myself from all of the dancing. When I went to go sit at a table I
noticed Kenny sitting there, alone. I asked him why he wasnt dancing, he
waved me off as if saying Im not really into dancing. I realized that Heaven
wasnt around, neither was Nicole but I didnt mind much. I asked him where
heaven went, he shrugged and told me he hadnt seen her for most of the
night. I was kind of shocked at that, she was his date after all, but after
thinking about it I realized something. Heaven was really just an
afterthought, as in Kenny really asked her out not even a couple weeks ago.
So it wasnt exactly special for either of them. For the next few minutes I
tried cheering Kenny up and encouraging him to dance, but each time I
offered, he refused. Eventually I gave up and went looking for Nicole. I found
her outside in the student hall area. Im not actually sure what it was called,
but it was the place where people went to rest, away from the loud music.
She was on the phone with someone, probably her mother or something.
After she hung up, we talked for a bit about various things from the dance to
whatever thing she was going through. Nicole, summed up in one phrase,

was a drama queen. Let me rephrase that. She was the drama queen. So it
was natural for her to be complaining about something. I naturally listened to
her rant until she was done, and we headed back into the cafeteria where
the dance was held. When we got there, the next song started playing. It was
a country song called God gave me you. We decided to dance together. I
put my hands around her waist as she put hers around my neck. I still
remember the first time we danced. I had never slow danced before, so I
didnt know how. At first I tried to grab her hands and waist (as that was the
way my grandmother had taught me), but she shook her head. She grabbed
my hands and put them behind her waist and then put hers around my neck.
It was the first time I slow-danced and Ill never forget it. As we danced to
the country love song I told Nicole, You know, this song is true. We held
each other in our arms as we swayed back and forth to the song, thinking
about how lucky I was to be dancing with someone I loved.
The dance was, to say the least, enjoyable. There were ups and downs
(mostly ups), but when all was said and done, the dance was over and it was
midnight. Which meant only one thingit was time for the after-prom party!
Held in the local activity center, the after-prom party (afterprom for short)
was meant for one thing and one thing only, to have fun.
When you get to afterprom, you get some fake money that you can
spend to get prizes. The money itself was a blue rectangular shaped piece of
paper with the schools logo on it. You can also earn more money by doing
activities such as playing blackjack, shooting hoops, racing in a bouncy

house obstacle course, or my favorite, playing boxing in a bouncy house with

huge gloves. Thats right: boxing, in a bouncy house, with huge gloves.
Naturally that was one of the first things I did. I faced off against Kenny and
(being the skinny person he was) crushed him. I didnt exactly apologize to
him for knocking the daylights out of him, mostly because I was too busy
trying out all of the food they served. They only had three main foods areas:
pizza, random snacks and drinks, and a make-your-own-waffle bar. You heard
me right, a place where you could make your own waffle with whipped
cream, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, M&Ms, and so many other
toppings. My mother, wanting to help out in some way for my first prom, was
the one who came up with the idea and ran it all night. There was also a
photo booth with a bunch of props that the three of us had to do.
You may be thinking, Three of you? But I thought there was four of
you. Well you are right, there was four of us. Remember when I said Kenny
hadnt seen Heaven? Turns out she completely ditched us. Now, in her
defense, she didnt exactly like prom in the first place, so going with Kenny
because he asked both made him happy and sad. Happy because he had a
date to go with, and sad because she left, leaving him alone. At that point,
the group went from two couples to three friends. Nicole and I had our
together time during the dance, and since having more would just leave
Kenny as a third wheel (more like a spare for a bycicle), we decided that it
was best to have just the three of us hang out as friends.

The rest of afterprom, which went until 3:00 AM, went by amazingly. As
I stated before, we did the photo booth, which was great. We all gathered
props and posed for five different pictures. They printed them off for us to
take home, which was thoughtful of them. That way we could remember this
night years from thenI still have those pictures. You would be surprised
how many memories, thoughts, and emotions come to mind when I see
those pictures
At one point I tried the fluffy boxing again (thats what I called it). I
went up against a guy named Richard. Now let me just say, this guy was
training for the military, but I thought for sure I was stronger than he was.
Well, lets just say I underestimated him, by a mile. Remember how I crushed
Kenny? Looks like I got a taste of my own medicine. I got pummeled so
badly, that I was literally sweating blood. Okay, thats a little dramatic.
Although I did pop a few blood vessels in my temple making it look like I was
sweating blood, it wasnt nearly that bad. I was frustrated yes, but I was still
having fun, so I laughed it off. Near the end of afterprom, in order to get as
much money to spend on prizes, I played blackjack for a while. I was doing
impressively well. So by the end of the night I had gotten enough money to
get all the prizes I wanted. One of the prizes I got was a trendy plastic cup
with a lid and straw. I decided to give that to Nicole, because, you know, we
were a couple and stuff. I mean one of the first presents I got her was a ring
that said Hakunna Matata on it so it could remind her of me. Either way
she loved and thanked me.

Because most people couldnt carry out all the stuff they won in one
trip, the staff gave everybody a bag to carry it all in, which was nice.
It was 3:20 and we were one of the last people to leave the activity
center. Carrying our bags, I unlocked my car, which was driven there by my
parents during the night. We put all of our bags in the trunk of my car along
with my backpack which I had forgotten to take out for the night. Before we
got in we noticed a problem, who was going to drive? Youd think that it
would be me, but my level of a drivers license didnt permit me driving
people under the age of 18, or so I thought at the time. Nicole was younger
than me or Kenny, so she wasnt driving. Luckily, Kenny had the right level of
a drivers license (even if he was younger than me). So we had him drive. We
were planning to drop off Nicole first so she sat in the passenger seat. Which
left me to sit in the back. My car was a red four seat (or five seat technically)
car with two doors. So that meant I had to crawl over the passenger seat to
get in. I decided to sit in the seat behind Kenny because of some reason. I
realized I also had left my laptop in the car, but I didnt care too much about
it so I just told Nicole to put it by her feet.
Finally after getting in, we took off. We went down a couple roads, took
a couple turns, and a couple more, and a couple more. At one point we all
realized, we didnt want this night to end! With all the adrenaline rushing
through us (or probably a sugar rush), we couldnt say goodbye to such a
great night just yet. Since we couldnt just go to another town, we decided to
just drive around for a while longer. So we talked about various things like

how great the night was, how high school had been so far, certain hobbies
we did, what mischievous things Kenny started doing with his friends. One
thing you have to know about Kenny, he likes to lie a lot. The thing is, he
does it so often that I cant determine whether hes lying or not most of the
time. So when he talks about the time he raced his friend down a dirt road
and won, I waved it off like it was just another day in his life. I had heard
crazier things from him. Like how he survived in a nearby forest for a couple
of days, or how he trains regularly with a sociopathic friend of ours named
Andre in sword-fighting; or even how somewhere in the local forest, theres a
small temple thats filled with demons that not even he can control, and
inside is the heart of Andres former master. I am not even joking about that
last one. These are the kinds of things I hear on a regular basis from my
crazy friends. Going off of talking about the race he won, Kenny suggested
this, Hey, you guys want to see how fast I can go down a dirt road with this
thing?
What?! I replied in utter disbelief.
Ya, Kenny said following up his offer, Id just take it down to the
same road I raced on, rev it up and be done.
After listening to Kenny suggesting his full idea, Nicole piped in. Okay,
lets do it. Realizing how much I said to not do this, she continued, But lets
not go oversay90.

90?! I said nearly shouting, I couldnt believe this was even being
suggested let alone accepted. I continued to tell them that this was a bad
idea, they continued to convince me that wed be fine. After much arguing, I
finally agreed, Finejustjust do it. I said with my head low. I knew this
was a bad idea and I just wanted them to get it over with.
Now, pause for a minute and realize the following. First, we were three
high school students staying up hours past what we would normally be
asleep by. Second, my best friend, who claims to be a legal psychopath (if
thats even a thing to be legally psycho), was driving my car. Third, my first
girlfriend, who was emotionally unstable, was sitting in the passenger seat of
my car. All this is true, and we were about to go down a dirt road at over 90
miles per hour. Now I had been in a vehicle that had gone on a dirt road at
that speed once before, I was scared, but I survived. So maybe
subconsciously I didnt think anything was going to go wrong, and thus went
along with the crazy idea. But just in case something did, I quickly prayed
saying God, dont kill usplease.
We pulled up to the suggested dirt road and Kenny slammed on the
accelerator. My mind immediately went blank. I didnt speak a word, I didnt
think a word. All I did was stare out the front windshield and kept an eye on
the speedometer. It slowly turned clockwise as I felt my back being pressed
against the back of my seat. It was dark out so I only saw what was about 10
feet in front of us. Then we went airborne.

Pause for a moment, Id like to explain what just happened. If youve

ever driven on a dirt road then you may know what Im talking about.
Sometimes when the construction of a dirt road happens, the two
perpendicular roads for an intersection might be at different heights. To
make up for this, they choose the higher of the two to be the height of the
intersection. The downside to doing this is when someone, say a group of
teenagers just coming out of prom, decides to go a little too fast on one
particular way, the car will basically ramp of the incline, making them go
wellairborne.
We landed at a slight angle to the left, which wouldnt be too bad if we
had been traveling at about a fourth of our speed. We started to lose control,
Kenny naturally turned the other way while braking. He overcorrected, so he
had to turn the other way, and overcorrected again. Nicole shouted, Were
gonna crash! And we did, but not in the way youd expect. If we had been
going 50, maybe even 60, we wouldve stopped at the ditch. But we were
going over 90. So we went airborneagain. As I learned later, we flipped
once while airborne, landed, and rolled twice more, and then luckily,
miraculously, landed right side up. All I remembered was trying to move with
the car as to not hurt myself too much, and lots of dirt flying in through the
previously closed windows.
When everything settled, we all said in unison Is everyone okay?
Which was difficult for me to say since the wind was knocked out of me. As
we all got out, I noticed that my laptop was beside me, still in its case,

probably busted. I got out, but only to notice two things: one, Kenny was
leaning on the car crying; two, Nicole was a few feet away crying in her
hands. I learned later that Kenny thought we were dead and thought that he
had killed us. Now, being the boyfriend I was, I went over to Nicole and tried
to comfort her. After a few moments I hear Kenny calling out, Hey guys, I
think I hear something leaking. That scared all of us, we thought the car
was going to explode, so we ran to the dirt road. It took a good 15 seconds to
run there, jut to put in perspective just how far we rolled. After we got to the
road, the next logical thing to do was to walk back to town, which was a good
half mile off. I decided to call my mom, because I really didnt know what
else to do. Kenny, thinking more logically, called 911.
*riiiiing*.*riiiiing**click* hello?
Mom?
She heard Nicole crying close by, Buddy, what happened?
WeMommom we crashed.
what? Wh-is everyone ok? Where are you?
Everyones fine, were south of that store at the end of town.
okayokay Ill be there. Just keep walking. Do you have someone
calling 911?
ya, kennys doing that right now.
Okayokay Ill be there as soon as I can. *click*

We continued walking to the store. At one point Nicole started crying

about how it was all her fault. Kenny and I both interjected saying it was our
fault. We got into an argument about this for a while until we all agreed that
we all had a part in this and we all should be blamed. Thats when Nicole
noticed our injuries for the first time, its also when I learned of our injuries
for the first time. She pointed at my right hand and I saw that the whole left
side was covered in blood. It didnt hurt so I didnt think it was bad. Then she
looked at Kenny, Oh my god Kenny your face! I tried to look but I couldnt
see what she was screaming about because he had his hood on. I remember
him saying something about a headache but I didnt think it was bleeding.
Eventually everybody got there to help us. All of our parents, the
police, the ambulance, everybody. I dont remember much of what exactly
happened. I know Kenny talked to his parents, Nicole to hers, and my mom
to me. I specifically remember one moment before the ambulance got there
when Nicole was crying and was really emotionally unstable. I remember
going up to her and holding her, stroking her head repeating to her that it
was going to be okay.
After a while, we all got into the ER. Kenny was taken to a separate
room than Nicole and I. When the doctor came in he started asking us a few
questions. Like how did we feel, any broken bones. He also asked if the
airbags activated and if we were all wearing seatbelts, I answered yes to
both of these. He also asked if we had drank too much pink lemonade that
night, which I laughed at. A little while later, I noticed one of the adults of the

afterprom walk by the room. I turned to him and said, Bet ya didnt think
youd see me again tonight huh? I tried to say it jokingly to lighten the
mood, but when I looked closer, I saw that he had tears in his eyes.
After getting checked over by the doctors, they said we could go home.
I decided to see how Kenny was doing, he was going to be staying there for a
couple more hours, he was also in the room next to us. I walked in and saw
him laying in a chair with a cotton bandage on his head.
Hey.
hey
How ya feelin?
eh, my head still hurts, but Im ok.
I nod, wellthats good.
heysorry about the car
Its ok. Ill find another car.

Wellyou get better k? Ill see ya around.

yasee ya.
In the next few days, I rested. Normally Kenny, Nicole and I would be
going to school, we didnt. We were all needing rest after that night. We did

all hang out one day to talk about it, but all we did was play Monopoly and
eat Sonic.
Even after all of that, even years after. I am still scared of going fast on
dirt roads. I can easily imagine the scenario again, playing through my mind,
and I can easily get enveloped in the memory. But all of this, its not the
craziest part. The aftermath of the accident, if you could call it that, is one of
the most mind-blowing things Ive ever seen.
Here are the facts. First, the car was completely totaled, the drivers
side was almost completely caved in, and the front left wheel was turned at a
90 degree angle. Second, we all came away with injuries: I was left with a
small scar on my right hand and the knowledge of responsibility toward
others, Nicole was left emotionally scarred, and Kenny was left with a scar on
the left side of his face that required three stitches and the knowledge of
responsibility toward others. The three of us realized that day that we really
do have an effect on people depending on what we say. Three, and this
might be the craziest one: despite how devastating the crash was, none of
the items that were in the car were damaged in any way. My laptop that was
in the car I am currently using to type this up, all of the prizes we won that
night were hardly even moved in the trunk, not even touched. It was as if
God was watching over us. If theres one thing Ive learned from all of this,
its that your words affect so much more than what people hear. It affects
what they do, how they know you, and in some cases, can save or ruin their
lives.

I was going to go on about how I felt about the whole situation and a
bunch of other really deep stuff, but that would mean you having to sit here
for another 5 to 7 pages of that. With that being said, Im not sure how to
end this. I guess Ill just say this: when God throws something at you that will
change your life forever, pay attention to it, you may learn something you
never knew. You may get a scar, but that scar is a memory too.