story8196.xml

story8196.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-30

My French class had just ended so I started to head to my locker to get my books for second block. The day had already seemed to go by slow and boring. I got to my locker and then Dorrie, one of my good friends came to her locker, next to mine, with this surprised look. She looked at me with really big eyes ?Someone just blew up the world trade buildings!? I just looked at her like what are you talking about. I said OK and shut my locker and headed to my math class.
I didn?t really know what was going on or what she said that. So I figured if it was that big of a deal then I would hear more about it later. I was in a hurry to class so I was like whatever.
I got into math class and everyone was watching the news. Mr. Cook, my math teacher, kept telling everyone to be quiet so we could hear the news. On the TV was a big smoke cloud over the world trade buildings. I looked in the corner of the screen and it said LIVE NEW YORK CITY. I was still confused but as I watched they replayed pictures of the planes hitting the buildings. They informed me what happened. I was sitting there thinking was it an accident, was someone mad at us? It made no sense to me. People in my class were looking at the TV with this surprised and confused look.
So many questions were going through my head, how could we have let this happen, where was the security at? I started to not feel as safe as I thought I was. I mean you?d think we have control over everything here and then something so horrible happens. How could this have been over looked so badly, so many times that day? What was the future gonna be like? Safer, I hope.
Well after we saw the second plane hit we knew this was too impossible to be an accident. It was driving me crazy, people were asking question after question ?What?s going on Mr. Cook?.
?I don?t know but it?s bad.? Well everyone started to be a little more talkative near the middle of the class. My teacher didn?t make us do any work that day in class.
I looked around the room at everyone?s reactions and I noticed people?s worried faces, of course some were like whatever. I looked behind me at my ex- best friend, Kim. She was scared and worried the most. The class started to get loud so I went up to the TV and sat in front of it so I could watch, the buildings were falling at this point. Kim had come up there too. ?I couldn?t hear the TV.? She said.
?Oh neither could I, the class was too loud.? For a moment we just sat there and watched. She was just standing there quietly. ?You want to share the chair with me??
?Yeah, thanks.? So I scooted over, we made a comment every once and awhile then she started to cry. And so I told her it was gonna be OK. She put her arm around me and I did the same. ?It?s weird how a tragedy can bring everyone closer.? We both giggled, our fight had been resolved after about two months because something horrible happened.
Well the day did go on but it just couldn?t be the same. All my classes it was mentioned. My teachers kept the TV on in the background, and if anything new happened we got to watch it. It was so unpredictable what was gonna happen next. It made the day depressing for me.
I finished the day at school and went home, when my parents got home they were watching the TV the rest of the nigh. I decided I saw enough of the whole thing, all the planes crashing and the pentagon so I didn?t watch the news. I was on the phone with one of really good friends at the time and me and him were analyzing about the whole thing. Before I went to sleep that night I prayed that this would help people realize we could lose family and friends at any moment so we need to not have any regrets.
I think the thing that bothered me the most was how the people knew they were gonna die and they called the people that they loved before they died to talk to them one last time. To receive a call like that would have killed me. It?s so cool how close and patriotic America has grown over the past year.