NARRATIVE PIECE
I was walking to school, as usual, on a rainy Wednesday morning. All was normal, and all was fine. I got to school 4 minutes after the bell had rung, as usual, and rocked up to class late, as usual. When I did enter English, only Hailey was sitting there, which was weird. Usually Mikkayla would be there too. “Hailey, where’s Mikkayla?” I asked.
“I’m not sure; I think she said she had horse riding today.” Hailey replied casually. That seemed perfectly normal. She’s taken days of school before if her horse had a problem or needed attention. So Hailey and I didn’t think anything of it.
At recess, when we caught up with Keleigh and Selena, we got food at the canteen and sat on the oval, another normal day at school. We were laughing at something Keleigh has said when all our names were called over the loudspeaker. We were walking over to the office, curious, when Keleigh said, “Omg imagine if it was Mikkayla and she had been killed by the horse or something hahahah!” It was a joke, and we all laughed because we were in that crazy mood. And again, we thought nothing of it. We got to the office and Mrs Heele, our Junior School Coordinator was standing there waiting for us. “Hello girls. I need you to come with me.” She turned and started walking off towards Junior School. At this point I was kind of freaking out. I didn’t know if we were in trouble or really what was happening, and Mrs Heele was normally more specific. I looked over at the girls, and you could tell they were all just as confused as I was.
When we got to Junior School I could see Police through the window. “Crap guys, why is the Police here!?” said Hailey.
“Um, I’m actually freaking out.” Selena said.
“What the heck…” Keleigh added. I was too shocked to say anything, this couldn’t be good. The red door of Junior School was standing in front of me and opening it seemed like the hardest thing in the world. I knew I could be over reacting, it could be nothing. But it could be something bad and I was thinking of the worst. So when I opened that door, yes my hands were shaking and my breathing was ragged. Yes, I was starting to sweat and freak out. I was really, really scared. “Um, Keleigh open the door.” I said, I just physically couldn’t do it. “I’ll do it.” Said Mrs Heele, and upon closer inspection of her face, she looked as if she had been crying. She looked as if she didn’t want to open the door either. The look on her face scared me the most. That confirmed that something bad had happened. I felt my knees buckle a little, and it did take a lot of effort to walk through the door.
When we were in the room, Keleigh burst out, “What’s happening? Just tell us straight out what’s happened.” She was freaking out too, I could tell. We all clung onto each other for support. The two policemen, one man and one women, looked at us sympathetically as they removed their hats. “Oh god…” I whispered. I knew what it meant when they removed their hats.
“Have a seat girls.” said the man. He looked about 30, tall and physically strong. He seemed like a good guy. “I’m so sorry girls. I’m aware you’re all good friends with Mikkayla Kenned?” We all just stared dumbly at him. We knew she was either dead or hurt. Either way, we were all feeling our whole world come crashing down. “What’s happened? What’s happened to her? Where is she?” Hailey burst out.
“I’m so, so sorry girls. Mikkayla’s passed away.” These were the last words I really remember hearing clearly. My whole body seemed to seize up, my breathing stopped completely and my mind couldn’t comprehend a life without her. She was one of my best friends. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I couldn’t believe it. I think I screamed. I don’t even know.
“How?” Keleigh managed to ask. And as soon as she said it, it made me wonder. I hadn’t even thought about that. How had it happened?
“She took her own life. Her mother found her body this morning when she was getting ready for work, Mikkayla was