The Shooting (Completed)

Chapter 1

The smell of burned oatmeal on the stove was filling the house, but I had only one thought in my mind. Today I am going back to school. I haven't been there since I was 12 years old. It has been a long three years. Thank god Sofia is finally at age to start kindergarten.

"Kenny, the oatmeal." She yelled in her high pitch squealing voice, pointing with her small finger to big old silver pot on the stove. I ran to what's left of our breakfast and turned off the stove.

"Sorry Sofie." I got our ladle and gave her a burned oatmeal. My cousin Sofia Lenovo is the youngest of our family. Freshly five and about to start kindergarten. She was definitely a cutie. She had blonde curly hair that framed her face and beautiful gray eyes, with fair skin taking after her mother, my aunt.

"Hey Kenny, have you seen my shirt?" My brother Ethan Lenovo, came in shirtless with black sweatpants. He had brown eyes, and brown curly hair with olive skin, taking after our mother.

"You have a dozen of them, which one?" I said while washing the dishes.

"The one I always wear." My brother said in an angry tone.

"Be more specific." I rolled my eyes and shouted angrily.

"My blue Adidas shirt with the word 'Adidas' in grey." He came over serving himself a bowl of oatmeal.

"I think it's in the girl's room. I still didn't fold the laundry yet." I rushed to get ready myself.

"Get to it women!" He shouted as I went to the girl's room.

"Do your own laundry next time." I said in an angry voice as I threw the shirt in his face.

"Breakfast! Come on every one, time for breakfast!" All of my cousins came in to the kitchen. Stone, Jacob, Michael, Miles, and Rosano. My little sister Riley came in last.

"Let's eat!" My cousin Jacob came in first. He was a huge eater. I passed him his lunch of a cheese and ham sandwich with carrot sticks. He took the paper bag and his bowl of oatmeal. Jacob was a more annoying one, but he is really funny. He has extremely dark brown spikey hair and brown eyes. He has tan skin and a tall big body. He always gives me good advice and is there when I need him.

"Would you stop that!" There in the hallway I saw Jacob's two other triplet brothers. Stone and Michael. My mom said that her brother fainted when he heard they were having three babies at once. He was in shock for the whole day. Mike was yelling at Stone for pulling his hair. These two always bugged each other since they were in the womb.

"I will if you will!" Michael was also pulling Stone's hair.

"Would you two stop it and eat breakfast?" Jacob came up and smacked both boys on the heads. Those two could be identical twins if it weren't for Jacob. They both had jet black hair and blue green eyes with tan skin. We all came together at the table with our bowls of half burned oatmeal.

"We need to tell her." Ethan spoke up when everyone went quiet. Boy, I have been dreading this day since Sophie turned five. I stood up from the table and kneeled on one knee in front of the youngest of all of us.

"Sofia. Would you like to hear a story?" She nodded her head slowly. She was a little freaked out that I was being so serious. I picked her up in my arms and brought her to the couch. Sitting her down on my lap. All of my cousins and siblings came over and sat with us one the couch. Some people sat down on the couch others just sat on the side.

"About three years ago, we were having a family reunion. You see, it wasn't always just us. Not all of us actually lived together. Me, Ethan and Riley lived together with our parents. You, Rosano, and Miles lives with your parents. And Jacob, Stone, and Michael lived with their parents." Sofia was beginning to look confused.

"What are parents?" She asked so innocently.

"Parents are people who are a lot older than you, and who take care of you."

"Are you my parent?" I chuckled at the thought of her silly question.

"No. I'm your cousin. That's it." She nodded and I continued the story. "Anyway, a family reunion is a party where you meet up with your whole family. During the party a man and a woman came to our party and." I wiped a tear from my face and looked at my cousin Rosano. He was only a year younger than me. He is my best friend. Since I don't have any friends outside our family. He had brown hair with blue eyes and caramel skin. He understood me when I looked at him with teary eyes. He jumped into the story.

"The man shot all the men, and the girl shot all the women. Luckily our grandmother hid us all in a crawl space when she saw them coming in. When she hid us she told us very important instructions." He could say no more. His tears ran down his face and into our couch. Jacob continued for Rosano.

"She told that first, we all stay together. No going off on our own. We're in this together."

"Second." Stone began to speak. "We need to change our names and move into this apartment. We also need to go to Hudson Elementary school, and Bay North Secondary school."

"Third." Went on Michael. "We cannot trust any strangers. Not a man or women. Only each other."

"What happened to our grandmother." I looked down and began to cry. Our Nonna was my favourite person in the whole world. I inhaled a deep breath and exhaled a deeper one.

"She was shot when she came out of the crawl space and mislead the shooters to where we were. She said that we were in the kitchen." Sofia looked down after we finished with the horrible events that took place the night of June 6, 2006.

"Why do I need to know this?" Sofia's face was in her hands crying.

"Because today you start school, and you need to know your fake name and our rules." I lifted her chin up to look at me. Her eyes were filled with tears.

"Are you joking?" She said while holding on to that last little bit of hope.

"I wish I was." I said. Tears came down all of our cheeks. My sister Riley now cleared her throat. My sister was known as the most outgoing of us all. She had long natural red ringlets for hair, and green brown eyes, and a light tan color skin.

"Yes. We miss our parents. Yes, we miss our old life. Yes, we miss not needing to always feel scared. But we cannot hang on to our past. We must move forward, or we just keep standing still." My sister was a great speaker. Before the incident, she said that she wanted to be a public and motivational speaker. She would make a fortune as one. We all nodded to what we said. I looked down to my small cousin who was still sitting on my lap. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and asked us our fake names. I smiled knowing that she would be just fine.

"Your name is Fleur Gallo." I began, pointing to her. "I am Ally Gallo. Jacob is Coby, Stone is Caleb, Michael is Rafael, Ethan is Milos, Riley is Kirstna, Miles is Daniel, and Rosano is Sam."

"Those are really dumb names." Stated Sofia. Everyone chuckled knowing it was true.

"I know, but they are nothing like our names. So it works. Now come on, let's go eat breakfast and then go to school."