Hannah Owens

Creative Non-Fiction Essay

Advanced Composition 327W

Professor Weddington

December 6th, 2017

Does Life Ever Care to be Fair?

On February 10th, 2006, my life spiraled into a drastic change. I was just eight years old; I

was just an innocent little girl. I was not in any way prepared for what life had in store for me,

but at this point I had no choice but to get used to what was about to alter my life. I woke up

thinking it was just another day, without knowing in just a few hours I would be losing my very

best friend, forever.

Beep beep beep beep beep. My alarm clock rang at 7:25AM. I peeped my eyes open, and

quickly shut them again. I did not want to get up, because it was rainy, windy, and dreary

outside. I wanted to curl back up in bed, and fall back into a deep, relaxing sleep. But, I knew if I

did not go ahead and get up, then my Mom would be up the stairs in just a few minutes. Ugh. I

thought to myself, should I just play hooky today? Fake a fever, fake a tummy ache? No. It was

Friday, and that only meant one more day until the weekend. It also meant that my Dad was

coming home today. YAY. At the thought of this, I quickly threw my covers back and sprung

myself out of my bed. I totally forgot about the nasty weather outside, and brought my focus to

my Dad. He was my best friend, and we did absolutely everything together when he was home.

I was his only daughter and also the youngest of his kids, so we had that father-daughter bond

that was irreplaceable. I had not seen him in almost two weeks due to a work trip, and today he
was finally coming home! I scurried into the bathroom, trying to get away from the cold chilly

air that began to hit my body. I brushed my teeth, and splashed cool water on my face. Whew.

Cold water will wake someone up for sure. I tossed my hair back into a ponytail, and made my

way back in to my room and over to my dresser. My outfit, which just like every other day, was

laid across my dresser for me. (My mother had laid it there for my the night before, just like she

always does.) I climbed into my jeans, pulled my shirt over my head, and wrapped my cardigan

over my upper body. I pulled my socks up and over my feet, and then made my way down the

hall and down the stairs. I was ready to start my day.

My mom was in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for us kids like she did every single

morning before school. As I was walking into the kitchen, a familiar scent reached my nose.

Mmmm. I could smell my favorite breakfast, a plain bagel loaded with strawberry cream

cheese. It was waiting for me on the kitchen table, and my mouth began to water as I made my

way towards my plate. As I began to munch on my bagel, my two older brothers, Matthew and

Zachary, made their way downstairs as well. We all were eating through our breakfast, laughing

and joking already this early in the morning. We all three discussed how excited we were that

our Dad was coming home today, which put all three of us in a wonderful mood. Our family was

used to him being gone for long periods of time, because he was a Captain of two commercial

fishery boats. As we talked, laughed, and played, our time that morning flew by very quickly. It

was already 8:25, and that meant that we needed to make our way down to the bus stop. We

each got up out of our seats at the kitchen table and dropped our dishes off into the sink. We

went off on our own path through the house to grab our book bags and coats, and slid them on

to our backs. My mom was in the kitchen wiping down the counters and cleaning up, but she
came around the counter to hug and kiss each of us good-bye. She smiled and said, have a

great day, as all three of us began to rush out of the front door.

My siblings and I took off down the driveway, ignoring the fact that rain was still coming

down right beside of us. We were not running late, but just enjoying the morning, and enjoying

the fact that all of us were getting along for once. We finally made it to the bus stop, and we all

began to get chilly on this cold winter morning just standing waiting for the buses to come. My

brother Matthews bus came first. He got on his bus alone, because he was the only one in

middle school. My brother, Zachary, and I waved him good-bye, and shouted, we will see you

this afternoon as we watched his bus drive off down the road. Just a few minutes past, and

right down the street we could see our big, yellow bus #75 approaching us. We lined up with

the other children at our bus stop, one by one, waiting for the big, red stop sign on the bus to

come all the way out. When we walked on to the bus, we had to quickly find a seat, so that the

bus driver could start moving again. That day, my brother Zach and I decided to sit together. He

brought along his mp3 player, and he let me have a headphone as we listened to music

together. We listened to a few songs by his favorite band, Green Day, but we had a fairly short

bus ride. My house was only about 10 minutes away from the school, so our rides were always

short and simple. As we pulled up into the school, we waited for our bus driver to give us the

right signal to go ahead and unload ourselves. We usually got there pretty early, so we would

usually have to sit and hangout for a little bit. Zach and I sat there and talked and listened to

music for what seemed like eternity, until our bus driver finally gave us the notification that we

could go into the school and start our day. We entered the front door, and almost right away

had to go our separate ways. He needed to take a right, and head down the 5 th grade wing. And
I, needed to take a left, and go down to Mrs. Marshalls 3rd grade class. As I approached my

classroom door, Mrs. Marshall was standing outside the classroom to greet her students as

always. She has a friendly smile painted across her face, and said her usual, good morning,

Hannah. When I stepped over that line of the classroom door, I always mentally knew that my

school day had begun. I made my way to my classroom seat, and began to unload my book bag

and take out my homework. After I was done unloading, I swiftly walked over to the backpack

cubbies and dropped my backpack off. I patiently waited at my seat for the rest of my

classmates to arrive, and chatter quickly filled the room as they did. Soon enough, all you could

hear was the weekend plans of 23 third graders, and all of our excitement that it was finally

Friday. Suddenly, a loud beep came across the intercom.

Goooooood Friday Morning, Bulldogs. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. It was

the morning announcements, so all the chatter in the room came to a hush, and the whole class

rose to repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, and to listen to Mrs. Dixies (our school secretary)

announcements. After our morning announcements, Mrs. Marshall explained our main learning

objective for the day: multiplication tables. We had been working on these for a while, but each

person was on a race to get through the 12s. The catch was that you had to pass each level

before you went on to the next. (EX: You must pass your 1s of multiplication tables before

you move on to your 2s.) Once the whole class had this completed, and had passed every

single test from the 1s to the 12s, then we got to have our very own ice-cream party! I was

set on doing whatever it took to get through the 12s, and was so close to being there. She

began to walk around the room handing out our practice worksheets, and we all sat quietly

working on them. Usually my class was a little more on the talkative side, but when we knew
we had a prize like this to work for, then classwork became our main priority. We quickly rolled

through these practice worksheets, so then Mrs. Marshall let us play multiplication games in

groups at our table. We were all so focused and became so determined to have our minds

process this information. She gave us a lot of free time to work together that day, and then she

sat at the front of the room and got our attention. It was time to pick up and clean up our

games, and prepare ourselves for the next multiplication quiz. Ugh. These always made me

nervous. She stared to pass these out individually, based on which student was on which level.

Once we were all sitting at our desk with a worksheet in front of us flipped over, she would let

us begin. We had three minutes to complete all of the multiplication tables on our worksheet,

and flip it back over. Mrs. Marshall stood at the front of the room, and began to chant, on your

mark, get set, GO! All of a sudden you heard papers flip over and smack the desks, and saw

pencils dart across every single quiz. Every single one of us was ready to be quizzed on these

multiplication tables, and determined to pass. For what seemed like the shortest three minutes

of our lives, we each rushed through this quiz. When Mrs. Marshalls timer buzzed, all pencils

went down and all eyes went to the front of the room. I had a feeling that everyone did well.

Mrs. Marshall started coming around the room to collect everyones quizzes, when all of a

sudden a loud buzz went across the intercom again. This was weird, there were not any more

morning announcements. I heard Mrs. Dixies voice, and it said, Can I please have Hannah

Owens to the office to go home, thank you. I suddenly got a weird feeling in the pit of my

stomach, because I was not supposed to go home early today. I didnt have a dentist

appointment, or a doctors appointment. Why was I leaving? Oh well. I walked over to grab my
book bag, and began to pack it back up. I said good-bye to my class, and good-bye to Mrs.

Marshall, and walked back out of her classroom door.

I began to skip back down the hallway, and made my way back to the front office. As I

turned the corner, I saw my brother sitting in the office as well. I walked through the office

door, and he turned and looked at me with a face full of confusion. I started to shrug at him,

and told him that I had no idea why we were going home. I heard him ask Mrs. Dixie if she

knew, and she just gave him a short response of, no, honey and dropped the subject. She was

usually very friendly, but maybe she was just having a rough day. We both shrugged it off, and

began to talk and play thumb war on the office floor. I suddenly stopped the game when I

remembered that I had Smoothie Edition: Skittles in my back pack, and quickly got them out.

We put those on the floor with us, shared them, and went back to our thumb war games. It

seemed as if we were sitting on that office floor forever, which was also another thing that

made the situation weird. We lived so close by, so where was our Mom? After a few more

minutes, I saw the main office door open and my Mom and older brother, Matthew, walk

through. Oh no. Both of them had red faces, and Matthew was crying. My stomach began to

drop, and I began to get a feeling that something really was wrong. My brother, Zach, and I

quickly grabbed our book bags and stood up. I looked at him, and looked back and my Mom

and Matthew. I had no idea what to say, and I could tell that neither did Zach. Suddenly, my

Mom broke the silence with a quick thank-you to the secretaries, and reached out for Zachs

and my hand. She guided us out of the office, and outside towards the car. Zach looked up at

my Mom and asked what was wrong. Matthew began to bust out in tears again, and she told us

that she would tell us in the car. You could tell that she was fighting back tears herself, and at
this moment I wished I was back in Mrs. Marshalls class. Whatever it was, I did not think that I

was ready to know.

Zach and I climbed into the car, but now Matthew was crying so hard that he could

barely move. My Mom was helping him, and began to lose her fight to hold back the tears. I

was still so confused, but I began to think to myself that I didnt want to know what happened.

My life had been so perfect that morning, and I was not ready for a part of it to be taken away.

Sometimes life makes decisions that you are not ready to deal with, because life just is not fair.

My mom began to turn her head back to look at me and Zach, and I began to hold my breath to

brace myself for what was about to come out of her mouth. A million things were running

through her head, but she couldnt find the right words to tell her children that their father had

passed away. My Dad was getting off of his ship to come home that morning after his crew had

already left, and he had a massive heart attack on the dock. It was minutes before anyone saw

him, so it was minutes before anyone could dial 911. The ambulance finally came, and the

doctors did everything that they could, but it was not enough to save my dads life. She wanted

to spare us the detail, and she struggled to get many words out herself. She finally said the

words, Your father passed away this morning, but it didnt feel real. It couldnt be real. I sat

there in silence, as I felt like a million pounds just fell on top of me. Zach reached for my hand,

and I saw his face turn bright red and his eyes fill up with tears just like my Moms and

Matthews. I sat there for a minute watching everyone around me, until my brain finally

registered what my mom had said. As we were driving away from Botetourt Elementary, I felt

tears roll down my own face. That normal day that I thought I was experiencing took a drastic

turn, because my dad was not coming home that afternoon. I squeezed my brothers hand a
little tighter, and closed my eyes as tight as I could. I hoped and prayed that my alarm would

soon go off, and that this would all just be a horrific dream. But, I opened back up my eyes and

everything was still a real-life nightmare. I never thought that I would have to live life without

my dad, my best-friend, but now I had to quickly learn how.