Larissa Vea

Period: 5

#EA44

3…2…1: Happy new year! A fresh start! What could possibly be worse than 2020-21?

2022. It was the second week of January. Thursday orning when I walked into my
kitchen and took out the eggs and a frying pan to make an egg sandwich. I then took my
breakfast and sat at the dining room table and turned on some music. I then heard my mom in the
other room on the phone. It sounded like she was concerned, and sounded different from the
other work calls that she usually took.. I thought nothing of it and continued to finish my
breakfast when suddenly the house went silent.
The music ended and I couldn’t hear my mom talking on the phone. A few moments later
my mom walks into the kitchen with a worried/scared look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I looked at her and asked.
“A shooting just happened.” she said in disarray
“Where at?!”I quickly responded
“West Valley, and it’s related to Hunter High school.”
My face immediately dropped and felt pale as snow, and my heart sank, but was beating faster
with each second that I thought of the situation. I had already predicted what she was going to
say next. As for one of my close family friends attends Hunter High School.
“Two dead and one in critical condition. And you know Fatboy (Ephraims nickname)?
He was one of the boys that were shot and is in critical condition.”
I immediately froze. “...An average of 52 American children & teens are killed or injured by gun
violence every day.” (EveryTownReasearch) So to hear that three teens were involved today, that
was roughly 6% of the average.
Yes, I had predicted that Ephraim was involved but when my mom actually said it aloud I
could not process the fact that it was real. A kid that I love so much and was so close to, had
been shot. I thought for a moment but all I could say was;
“Do we know who shot them?”
My mom quickly read aloud a message from her phone and said;
“The police say that there are four suspects.”
I couldn’t say much after my mom told me this as my thoughts and feelings were all over the
place.So what else did I do? I did what any other teenager would do, I immediately went to the
internet and searched “Hunter High Shooting.” There were only two resources that popped up so
I clicked on the first one titled “Two killed, one injured in shooting on sidewalk near Hunter
High School” By KUTV where I read;
“The shooting happened just west of Hunter High School. The school was placed on a
precautionary lockdown until about 1 p.m. as multiple police officers responded to the area.”
 All I could think about was Ephraim and how this wasn’t what the new year was
supposed to be.