Wind blew through my hair, as the rain pounded down onto the Coronado Streets. I have always loved the rain, but tonight my opinion would change. The rain would cause a tragedy. I ran inside to cheer for the basketball team. I did not want to come to this game; I wanted to go and hang out with my friends out in the rain. At least I was having a sleepover at my friend Katie and Lily’s house though. I had been looking forward to it the whole week. I grabbed my pompoms and trudged to the sidelines of the slippery court.

The game slowly passed and once I thought it was over, I saw that it was only halftime. I grabbed a drink of water when I see one of my teammates, Sabrina, start freaking out. I overheard what she was telling her boyfriend.

“Oh my god!” Sabrina said staring down at her phone, “This is bad. I have to go!”


She ran out of the gym leaving us all super confused. She wasn’t allowed to cheer because she was sick or hurt or something so it wasn’t like she was just ditching a game. I didn’t think much about it. After the third quarter, I went and checked my phone. I noticed that Katie was calling me. Hmmm, that’s weird she knows I am at a game, I thought to myself as I declined the call. What I didn’t know… is that I should have answered that call.

After my game, I checked my phone again. I had two missed calls from my friend Madison, who was also sleeping over, and a message from Katie. The message said: Hey Marie sorry the sleepover is canceled. I don’t want to talk about it. I will explain later. I was super upset and just figured that they had gotten trouble with their mom. I walked outside to my car.

“Hey mom,” I said jumping into the front seat.

“Hi sweetie are you ready to go to Katie and Lily’s?” she asked starting to drive.

“Oh yeah about that,” I said in a sad voice, “It got canceled.”

“Oh,” my mom said confused, “Why is that?”
“I don’t really know. I am guessing their mom got mad at them for something small again,” I said smiling.


You see… Katie lives with Lily’s family. She isn’t related to them, but she just stays with them. Susan is Lily’s mom and always gets mad at Katie and Lily for little things. She is very dramatic but everyone loves her anyway.

“Let’s go to dinner then,” my mom said turning onto Orange Avenue.

“Sure,” I said looking down at my phone again.


I tried calling Katie but she wouldn’t answer. I also called Lily too and no response. I called Madison after that thinking she would answer, but her phone was off. Hmm weird, I thought. We drove past Panera when it hit me. I looked out my window and saw police cars everywhere… Everywhere close to Katie and Lily’s house. My heart stopped for a second, but I really wasn’t worrying.

“Mom…” I said pointing out the window at the scene.


My mom’s facial expression turned happy to worried in a split second.

“Oh I hope everyone is ok,” she said, “You’re friends aren’t responding your calls? This doesn’t really look to good.”


I tried calling all of my friends again and still no response. Then I remembered it always floods over in that area. That is probably what it is, I thought. But my mom kept telling me that it could be something worse and I just had a bad feeling deep down inside. I just leaned back into the seat of my van. Suddenly my phone started vibrating. It was Madison.

“Hi!” I said in an upbeat tone, “Why did the sleepover get canceled?”

“Hey! Ok… So Katie, Lily, Heather, and Gracie were walking to Panera and we were crossing the street. This car came and then it plowed right into Lily and Heather. They are at the hospital.”


I stopped breathing. Literally. I held my breath. Then I just started crying. I screamed and the tears just started rolling down my cheeks. Heather and Lily. No, no, no! They were both friends and Lily was basically like my sister. Then… For that minute, I thought she was dead. I thought Lily was dead. Because by the sound of Madison’s voice I just… I thought she was dead. And thinking your best friend is dead for just a split second… is the worst feeling in the world.

“Oh my god!” I said sobbing into the phone, “Are they ok? What is going on? This can’t be happening.”

“They got taken to the hospital and when they left they were both conscious, but I haven’t heard anything,” Madison said into the phone.


I just kept crying and crying and couldn’t hold it back. I just kept visioning the car hitting my two friends… You would never think something like this could happen.

“What exactly happened?

“Yeah so the car hit them and Heather went flying into the air and landed on her leg. Lily went down onto the ground and then…. Then the car ran over her back.”


I couldn’t take it. A car rolled over her back? Are you serious? What kind of an idiot was this person? I needed to get off the phone. I could not think about this I had to go see Lily and Heather. And then I remembered… That is exactly why Sabrina ran out of the gym hysteric. Her sister Heather got hit by the car. I should have asked her what happened… I was having fun at cheer while they got hit by a car! I said bye to Madison and my mom drove me home. We were all in complete shock. I decided not to go to the hospital to see them, because I wanted to give them space. I don’t think I have cried that much in my life… I cried for 3 hours straight and I am not exaggerating.

After many hours of waiting, we still had no word from Lily, Heather, Katie, or any of their families. Finally, Katie texted me back. She said: Hi. So Heather just sprained her ankle and bruised up her legs and arms. We still don’t know about Lily, she might be paralyzed. I started crying even more. She may not be able to ever walk again, I thought. She wouldn’t be able to do things like us anymore. Then an hour later, I got word that Lily just bruised every bone in her back. She also got a huge hole in her stomach.

I remember the day that I went to go see Lily. She had gotten back from the hospital that night before and I showed up to her door carrying flowers and magazines and food. I didn’t really know what to expect, but to my surprise she looked just like normal Lily. She couldn’t really walk and if you barely touched her it hurt her. I stayed at her house for 6 hours that day… 10 A.M. until 4 P.M. When I grabbed lunch and crossed the street where she got hit, I was just waiting to here that screech of the car tires scraping across the asphalt. I was just waiting to hear girls screams through the rain.

This accident was definitely a tragedy, but looking back now I think of it as a life lesson too. I definitely am more careful when I cross the street and am more careful when I am riding my bike. This result could have gone totally different and maybe if it did, I wouldn’t still have my best friend here today.