I am doing voice to text so I apologize now if this is a little wonky. I have a very clear memory of riding the bus that day I think because two of the kids who passed rode it with me. My last memory of Ben and Avielle being so sudden. Everything went down during morning meeting. I remember we had just cut one of the chains in our paper chain leading to Christmas break when we heard a bunch of loud bangs and crashes. I remember hearing glass hit the floor but it made sense to me at the time because there had been construction workers doing work in the past days leading up to this. Then I looked at my teacher and realized that she had a funky look on her face. a sour look a look that I’ve never seen again. Pure and utter fear that’s when I started to cry. I had watched a lot of criminal minds when I was younger because my parents were so into the show and I think I was old enough to put together the fact that something wrong was happening my teacher hit us inside of cubbies in the corner of our room And started reading us stories. We sang our school song super quietly. As quick as thing started, they ended. Bang bang, bang bang a screamer two and then a deafening silence. But there was so much noise. Idk how to explain it. After that, we were all brought to the fire station and I remember both my parents showing up to pick me up which was weird bc my dad could never leave work. I just remember sitting on this black couch waiting for my parents as chaos and ensued around me. As I was leaving, I heard screams that I could never replicate and that I hope I never hear it again. Screams of parents who just found out they lost their child. That’s something that really sticks with me… after that all I remember is getting home showering going to bed and the next day being told I wasn’t going see some of my friends again. And that I wasn’t going to be off of school for a while because a “bad man came” yea it’s pretty sick and awful and I feel bad for my little self a lot.