You Only Live Once
Chapter 1: Waking Up
I leap out of bed, so excited for the field trip that our class is taking to the Art Museum today.  I love to draw and I hate to brag, but I am the best in my grade.  My name is Lindsay and I have orange eyes the color of a beautiful, peaceful sunset, Sorry got so carried away there.  I also have long, luscious strawberry blond hair.  My brother George has milk chocolate hair, as well as his eyes too.
  I quick shovel in a french toast waffle and yell down the hallway with my mouth full,  “Hu…..r..r...y….up…...i...n...th….er...e.”  That’s when I hear it, the sweet sound of my brother George puking his guts out.  I rush to the bathroom to see my poor, helpless baby brother hunched over the toilet shaking.  I rush to his side to comfort him, but that is when he lets it all loose.  When I hear and see that, I almost puke myself.  I quick call my mom to the bathroom, but when she does not answer me, I realize that she had to work late shift and would not be home till later.  I tell my brother that when he feels steady enough he should go to the couch and lie down with the bucket.  When he finally lies down, I bring him a cup with some water and a warm blanket to keep him from shivering.
I tell him that I have to stay home and watch out for him because he cannot take care of himself without anyone here to make sure that he is o.k.  He looks at me with the kind of look that you give somebody when they told you the stupidest joke that you would ever hear. 
Then he says to me, “You are really going to miss the opportunity to go to the one place that you have wanted to go since you were like in 4th grade.”  I look at him and say “I really do want to go but you need someone to look out for you and no one else is home.”  He then says to me “The bus will be here any minute.  You are going to walk out that door and stop being such a little ….. and go have fun on that field trip without me.
I look at him one last time and say to him, “The trip would be more fun with you along with me.”  This is when he gives me one big shove out the door making me almost tripping over our dog Albert.  I yell out to him “Try to have a good day.  I will be thinking of you.”
Chapter 2:  The Ride
As I walk onto the bus, I see my glum brother look out our windows in the front hall.   I could have sworn I saw a crystal clear tear run down the side of his cheek.  Then the bus doors close behind me, my brother no longer in my view.  As I walk down the aisle of the yellow bus with Rightway printed on the side, we hit what seems like a pothole and I go flying down the aisle of the bus until one of my friends catches me.  After I get seated, my best friend Isaac asks me why I look like I just ate a sour lemon.  I say to him, “It’s because of my brother.”  He rudely interrupts with “Oh yeah your brother didn’t get on with you.  Wow I didn’t even notice that until you said something.”  Then he shakes his head as if though he was in dismay for what he had just said.  I look at him and he just looks at me with the kind of innocent face like he doesn’t know what he did.  Then I say to him, “I WAS NOT FINISHED, YOU SO VERY RUDELY INTERRUPTED ME!”  To top that all off he looks at me and says, “Oh.”  He doesn’t even say he is sorry.  Ugh, that is just the kind of thing that can ruin a person’s day.
When we finally pull into the driveway of the school’s parking lot, everyone lets out a little yelp of joy that we are finally getting to go on the trip to the art museum.  Well almost everyone, except me.  I was the only one that was not happy we were at school.  I look at Isaac and his happy face turns into a pouty face and he crosses his arms as he looks deep into my soul and says, “Someone is a Little Miss Pouty Pants.”  As soon as he said that he knew that it was a mistake, because I clocked him a good one right in the jaw.  I could not help myself I was just so angry!  He whipped his head back around and said “Ow, that really hurt!  I didn’t do anything to you.”  That’s when I look at him and say “Oh you poor dear, you must have lost your memory when I punched you in the mouth.”  Yet he still gives me the look of confusion.  I got so angry, I swear my face got as red as a tomato.  I scream into his face “You interrupted me when I was talking!  Hello, pay attention here!”  He looks at me and says “Well, nevertheless, we should get off the bus.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”  He follows me off the yellow bus of torture to my ears, and we go give our bagged lunches to the people who had ridiculously big smiles on their faces.  So as soon as I went up to them, I gave them the biggest smile that I could possibly pull off.  When I did this I swear they almost died of laughter because they laughed so hard.  When I walk back to Isaac he asks me “What did you do to her to make her laugh that hard?  I thought that lady was supposed to be Miss Sourpuss.”  I look at him and do the exact same face and he dies of laughter as well.”
We walk onto the bus to find that there was only one seat open in the entire bus, next to the kid who farts almost all the time.  I look at Isaac and say, “Could this day get any worse?”  He looks at me and says with a sad face, “I would not doubt if it does.”  When we sit down I say to Isaac “I hope this bus ride is short.  I can not take another minute with farting Fred.  He looks at me and said “Well, God can only hope.”  I just sit back, relax and prepare for the long bus ride that is to come.  Then as if out of nowhere we get hit by an asteroid!  Just kidding, but we did hit a huge bump that made me jump out of my seat. 
I think I am imagining things, but I can almost one hundred percent guarantee that there is a fire somewhere nearby, because I can smell smoke.  That’s when it happens someone always has to prove me right, I just can not be wrong for once, especially with a fire.
We pull up to a stop light and the burning blaze is now in clear view.  I tell the bus driver that she needs to pull over because there was an ambulance behind us, obviously going to the fire.  As we get closer, I can see that it is at least a seven car pile up in which two of them have exploded.  Hopefully without people in them!  Our bus driver then goes up to the freeway hoping that she can still get us there in time, because our tour starts in ten minutes.
Chapter 3: The Art Museum and Other Surprises
When we finally pull into the parking lot of the Art Museum, we all rush out of the bus to get in there as soon as possible.  Our tour started… and wow… we all look up in amazement as we have just entered the building and there is a beautiful stained glass ceiling, the most amazing piece of art right in the center of the building.  As our tour guide comes and introduces himself, I almost fall asleep.  Then the tour begins.  The first thing that we get to see is the “Mona Lisa”.  I have been dying to see it in person my whole life.  I look at it in awe.  In about ten minutes our teacher says, “If any of you are interested in going to see other pieces of amazing art, follow me.”  Everyone follows her except me.  I get one more good look at the most magnificent piece of art here.  Then Isaac comes up to me and is almost out of breath and screams at me “The tour guide is a murderer, he shot and killed Mrs. Elmen, and he is holding the other kids hostage. I just barely got away! That was one of the most scary things I have ever seen in my whole life!” 
I looks at him and say, “Then what was the scariest thing you have seen?”  “The scariest thing that I have ever seen is my mom in a bikini.  That is the worst thing you could ever possibly see.”  Then we are interrupted by the sound of a bullet being fired and it goes straight by us, I swear I could feel the wind of the bullet.
  I look at Isaac, my redheaded friend and we both bolt for the door.  When we got outside we could not believe what our eyes were displaying for us.  There was nothing left, the whole town was demolished!   There was not a building that was still standing.  Then out of nowhere, Isaac yanks me to the ground and says, “COVER YOUR EARS AND HEAD AND….” BOOM!!!  The art museum explodes with ashes flying everywhere.  Isaac just about pulls my arm out of its socket and drags me off the ground and says we need to move somewhere to find cover.  When we get to someone's ruined tornado bunker, I start to bawl my eyes out.  Isaac looks at me and says it is o.k and that we will be alright.  I look at him and barely get out, HOW…can….you….say…
things..will……..be….alright?  We were just attacked!”   He looks at me, wipes my tears away and then he holds my head in his warm gentle hands and says, “It’s o.k.  Everything will be alright.  I will make sure of it.”
I look into his kind eyes and it just seems so convincing that I believe him.  I lean over and he just pulls me closer.  The tender kiss could go on forever and ever, until we were rudely interrupted by a loud explosion that comes from right outside the bunker.  He looks at me and says “We need to move somewhere more secure, maybe back to what is left of our hometown.  I look at him with tears in my eyes and choke out “Yeah, let’s go.”  When we go out of the bunker, we rush to the left because we hear yelling from in front of us, which means there are people, and right now I barely even trust myself, much less other people…. 
Chapter 4: The Visit Back
When we arrive at what we think is left of the town, we go straight to my house first, because I wanted to see if George made it through the attack.  I rush through the remains of our house to my brother’s room to find….  I could not believe what I was seeing, the remains of my brother, sitting on his bed right where I left him this morning.  If only I would have known that those were going to be the last words that I spoke to him,  Then as if on perfect timing, Isaac walks in right when I start to cry.  I turn to him and start to cry my eyes out on his shoulder, and he wraps his arms around me and starts to cry as well.  I ask him why he is crying and he answers with, “I don’t like seeing you be so sad that it sometimes makes me sad as well.”  I awww with enthusiasm because I really like him and this is a good sign that he cares about me.  When we walk out of my old house that has been torn to shreds, we get shot at and one of the bullets pierces my left leg.  I screech out in pain so loudly that it could have shattered glass.  Then we see the person come into view and I see who it is and I get really excited yet I get really worried because he is the guy I like, and he must of survived which to me is so impressive.
When Arthur gets up to me he says “hey sorry about your leg did not know you guys were on my side.”When I look up into his eyes to say that it is o.k, suddenly relieving all the pain in my leg.  I try to say something anything to him, but nothing comes out, just my dazed stare right at him.  Isaac looks at me with disgust and says, “Typical”, yup that is all he says just “TYPICAL” and then walks away.  So as if out of instinct I get up and hobble after him so I can ask why he said that to me.  When I walk up to him the first thing he does is hug me, which surprises me because I thought that he was angry at me.  When our hug is finished he looks at me and whispers in the quietest little mouse like voice, “You know that I am in LOVE with you, and that it would make me extremely jealous when you stared at him like that obviously showing that you like him, or have liked him and still have feelings for him.
After he is done with his little accusations I look at him and also whisper, “Yes I do like him and have feelings for him, but I also love you considering what we went through at the bunker, remember.”  He smiles at me and says “Yes I remember.”  I look at him and say “Good, so there is not any jealousy that is going to be happening right.”  He looks at me and says, “Well I..” and that is when I cut him off and started to walk away.  As soon  as I start to walk away he says, “WAIT, no I was just kidding, it was a joke, come on Lindsay.”  After that little spiel I think he gives up because he walks away from me with tears in his eyes, now I kind of feel bad though because I overreact to everything, even when they are not being serious.  I look at him and then I catch myself tearing up, because he is all I have left, everyone else that I cared about was killed!
Dear Diary,
Today is the date of August 18, 2043
While I was out and going today I realized that we have been out here trying to live and survive for over a month.  To me this is a scary thought because I haven’t talked to Isaac in almost a week and a half.  The reason being because when we had that fight he thought that I was being serious, so now he does not want anything to do with me unless he knows that I was just kidding.  So anyways things that have happened lately with Arthur and I are not going as well as I would have hoped, so maybe I should just give up on him and go back to the person who really does love me, Isaac.  Well I guess I am going to go and ask him if he can forgive me and if he would be willing to be by my side forever.
Wish me luck,
Lindsay Rose
Dear Journal,
It is now August 24, 2043
and I am starting to freak out because Lindsay asked me to forgive her which which I did, but get this she decided that she should ask me to be with her forever.  Out of surprise I said yes which made me like the happiest person in the whole entire universe.  Now when today came around I saw her snuggling next to Arthur which frankly really pissed me off.  When she woke up and saw that she was next to him though she got this face that made me so happy until she kissed him on the Lips, yup you heard on the freaking lips, I could not even believe my eyes.  When she looked up and saw me her eyes got so big they just about popped out, but I could not help but cry.  I ran away from there and now I have been hiding ever since then, away from her.
well I will try to keep you posted,
       Isaac Johnson.
When I finish writing my journal I look over at Lindsay I can tell that she has been crying because her eyes are bloodshot and they are all glossy looking.  I walk over to her and ask what is wrong, and she looks at me and says, “What do you think, you obviously hate me for what you saw this morning, and I am surprised that you are even talking to me now, I am such a bad person!”  I kneel down to her level and give a gentle warm kiss on her cheek.  I tell her “You are not a bad person, people make mistakes all the time, it is just what you do about the situation that really counts.”  She looks at me with her glossy puppy eyes, and I look her and say, “Yeah and to tell you the truth I haven’t been the most understanding person either.”  She looks at me leans in and gently kisses me on my lips.  I lean into the kiss as if it were our last, and that is when Arthur decides it is a good time to talk to us right in the middle of our kiss!  Arthur looks at us with his cold black eyes and says, “I hate to interrupt and be such a debbie downer, but um we to get moving because there are people headed straight for us!  As we look over each other’s shoulders we can now see the people that are headed right for us.  We quickly pack the few things that we brought with us and we head out.  Once we get to a new settlement we look at each other with a sigh of relief.
Chapter 5: The Attack
We wake up to the sound of gunfire and then I hear a piercing scream that can only be made by Lindsay.  I look around but she is nowhere near the camp and then I see her running towards us, with her “friends” that she decided she would bring along.  She yells “RUN TAKE THE STUFF JUST RUN!!!”  I quick gather our things and kick arthur so he will get his butt up and move.  Just as we have everything Lindsay is hot on our tails and we look at each other drop the stuff and run for our lives.  When lindsay catches up to us she says, “We do not have much time we need to create a diversion so that we can escape.  Arthur speaks up first and says, “I think Lindsay and I should take a right up at the fork in the road and you should take a left Isaac.”   Isaac tries to object to the idea but I look at him and say, “Please Isaac it will just be a short time.”  I look at her with worried eyes and says “fine let’s do it.”  When we get to the fork in the road we do just as planned and Isaac takes a left and we take a right.  Arthur and I have a head start against the others because we have the higher ground.  We quick search for something to defend ourselves with and my eyes are drawn to a huge boulder.  We push the boulder to the edge wait for them to get close then PUSH!  The boulder goes flying down the hill and hits the Patrol Officers and knocks them off the cliff with the boulder.
Chapter 6: A horrible situation
When we turn to see how Isaac is holding up we turn just in time to see him get shot in the stomach three times, then he goes to his knees and then the officers go up to him and kick him over like a pile of trash.  I was just about to scream when Arthur puts his hand over my mouth and say to me “We have to be quiet otherwise they will come and they will kill all of us.”  I yank his hand off of my mouth and say, “How are you not sad about Isaac just getting murdered right in front of our faces.”
Dear .journal,
I have just been shot in the stomach three times and I don’t think that I will make it.  Lindsay if you are reading this I love you, you are the light of the world to me, if I did not have you my life would be filled with darkness.  To really tell you how I feel about you I wrote you a poem, well you know what to do next alright here it goes.
“You and I are the best team of all.  You are my best friend and the love of my life, my heart, my soul, the one I want to be with each and every day.  You are the one I want to cheer me on through life even though it has come to an end, Your arms are the ones I want to comfort and support me.  I love how when you and I work together we can do anything.  Love Isaac Eric Johnson, your lover.”
When we get around the guards and we get to Isaac he is just barely alive.  He looks at me and says two things the first one, Look in my pocket for the note which he just barely wheezes out and the other thing he says to me is that he loves me and he is glad he gets to spend his last seconds on Earth looking at my beautiful face.  Then he takes one more deep breath in and then lets it out with the words “I love you Lindsay Rose.” As Isaac slowly closes his eyes now showing me for sure that he is dead I start to mumble out tiny little squeaks that does not even sound like crying.  Then Arthur wraps me in his arm and kisses me on my head just like Isaac used to do, and in some ways that comforts me because I stop crying and instead I go straight to my back up whimpering.  Then Arthur and I stand up together and walk away from Isaac’s dead body to find somewhere that we can just relax for a while and restart this entire town’s population.
Chapter 7: To think about the Future:
We finally find a place that we can rest for a while when it starts to get dark out.  Arthur looks at me and then he says “I have always loved you”, and then he starts to kiss me starting with me neck then moving his tender lips up my neck to my cheeks and then to my lips, and eventually we are laying on the cold moist grass in each other’s arms wondering if life will ever be the same, if it will ever be “BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS.”  Then I look up into the sky to see the most magnificent sunset that you would ever see, and it reminds me of Isaac because we used to always go out and watch the sunset until it was dark out and then we would just lay on our blanket in the cold night and count the stars.  I look up into the sky tonight and see thousands of stars, but one of them stands out to me, not even the brightest one just the one I think Isaac and I would have liked the most and I say to Arthur “That one is Isaac.”  He looks at me and says “How do you know?”  I say “Because I just know.”  He looks at me and then kisses me and says “We should probably get some sleep.”  I look at him lean into his warm and tender body and sigh and say, “Yeah let’s get some sleep.”  We both look at each other and say, “Goodnight”, and then we close our eyes and we are soon fast asleep
  ….To Be Continued