After the Shooting

Chapter 6

"Good morning." My dad greets me.
He then walks over and kisses my forehead.
"Morning,' I yawn,' what are you watching?"
"The usual." He yawns.
By the usual, he means the early morning news. As I eat my cereal, I look up at the tv screen. On the bottom, in big bold letters it reads National School Walkout.
"School walkout? What's that?" I ask curiously.
"Well, we're about to find out." Says dad.
"In light of the recent school shootings, there will be a national walkout. Now, in this walkout, students will be encouraged to leave school to support their beliefs and lives lost. A few things to know: this walkout does not have to be for political reasons. You can simply walkout to show respect and honor the thirty two lives taken from this world with the recent Washington Heights massacre.
"Next thing to know: will students get in trouble for walking out? No word on it yet however, some schools may give detentions or suspend students. Final thing to know: when will this walkout happen? The walkout will happen March 17 at 9:00 am." Explains the reporter.
    I can't help myself but to smile. That's in four days from now.
   "You going do it?" He asks.
   "Yeah, it's time to change things." I smile.
   At school and online, the walkout is all the buzz. I'm walking with Ethan, Scarlett, and Minda.
   "People are so stupid." Scarlett says.
   "Why?" I ask.
   "The walkout? They think that's actually gonna change shit? Yeah, keep dreaming, sweetheart." She snickers.
   "What's the big deal? I mean, if you don't care, you don't have to walk out. It's not like anyone's forcing you to." Ethan replies.
    "Liberals these days,' Scarlett snorts,' ruining everything."
    That's something I forgot to mention about Scarlett, she's a hardcore conservative. According to her, liberals are always wrong. I mean, I've never been one to be political, but I can see the faultiness from both sides. Minda can see my fury and wants to change the topic.
"Let's talk about something else. Scarlett,' starts Minda,' how's Milky Way doing?"
"Oh, she's doing good. Just had the baby two days ago." Says Scarlett.
"Oh, that's so cute! What's it's name?" Asks Minda.
She looks over at me and then says it.
"It's actually a girl. Her name is Oreo." Scarlett says.
    That makes me pissed off. I'm a mixed race person and she knows that kind of shit offends me.
    "Let me guess,' I start,' it's a black and white cow?"
    Scarlett looks at me and gasps.
    "No, I wasn't trying to offend you!" She claims.
    Sure, she wasn't. This is also the same girl who had an old black cow named the n-word. With the hard r ending. She told me that her dad named the cow that. I understand that she didn't do that but she still found it hilarious from my understanding. Perfect timing. Ethan hits his class just as Minda, Scarlett, and I head for the gym.
    "I'm going to go." You can hear the awkwardness in his voice.
    Once in the gym, Minda seems to want to get away from Scarlett and I too. That's funny considering she's our problem solver. We must be really bad this morning.
     "I only named her that as a joke." She says.
     "Are we still talking about this?" I sigh.
     "Yeah because her name is only a joke and because she's black and white. I'm sorry if it was offensive to you but you know me better than that. I'd never be racist on purpose." She defends herself.
     Scarlett? She wouldn't try to purposely be racist. She'd just unintentionally be racist. I get it, we all make mistakes but that's one of her flaws.
     "So is that how you see me? Like your cow? Black and white? Does that make me an Oreo, too?" I ask.
     "You're being too dramatic about this." She sighs.
     Much like she's being too dramatic about this whole gun control debate, I guess. But I need to just let it go. Scarlett is right.
     "Are we good again?" She asks.
     "Just fine." I say.
Later that day, I stay wide awake in English class. Yet again, we are talking about gun control.
"Us teachers aren't idiots,' states Mrs. Carter,' we know what's going on. Even if you think we don't, we do."
Some kids in the class snicker. I would too but I'm more respectful than that.
"Where's this coming from?" Asks Lucy Montgomery.
She's like, best friends with Scarlett. They've been best friends ever since pre-school. It makes us kind of jealous sometimes but what can we do? Her and Scarlett are so similar, it only makes sense they'd be best friends. They're both country girls, however, Lucy is a little less country and a little more girly. She has long, always curled blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and very pale skin. She has a skinny body with meat no where. Normally, she wears trendy clothes but somehow manages to put her own southern spin on them. It usually catches on pretty well. She has a new boyfriend every week. A lot of girls tell her how much they want to have her body. But to Minda and I, she just looks too skinny, almost scarily anorexic looking. Much like Scarlett, she's also incredibly big-mouthed.
     "Like, this whole walkout thing, Miss Montgomery. We all know about it." She says.
     Shit. There goes our chance.
    "So what are you going to do, suspend us?" I ask.
Mrs. Carter smiles at me.
    "No, no, if you walkout tomorrow, I won't stop you. First of all, it's in your right. Second of all, someone's gotta stand up to gun violence." She says.
    I smile. Of course Mrs. Carter would let us walk out. She's always been one of the cooler teachers. Scarlett and I suddenly look at each other.
    "But no one's actually going to walk out. We're not buying into that crap." Scoffs Scarlett.
The classroom goes quite.
"It's not crap. It's showing respect for the victims. It's taking a stand against the law." I interject.
Scarlett glares at me. Mrs. Carter smiles at me. The bell rings.
"Alright, good job today, guys!" She exclaims.
As usual, I'm the last one to leave the class.
"I like this new you, Naomi." She smiles.
"Thanks,' I smile,' I like her too."
"I always knew you had it in you. I'm so happy that you're finally starting to embrace it." She smiles.
"Have a good day, Mrs. Carter." I smile.
On the bus that day, I sit next to Scarlett as usual.
"Are you really going to walk out?" She asks.
"I've been thinking about it, yeah." I reply.
"I don't think you should." Scarlett says.
"Why?" I ask.
"My folks wouldn't want me being friends with a felon." She says.
Felon? What does she mean?
"A felon? I don't think that's how it works, Scar." I snort.
"I know how ya'll normally are. I don't want you to be like that." Says Scarlett.
"Ya'll? What do you mean?" I ask.
"You know." She says.
No, I really don't. But I just let her continue to be stupid.