Chapter 3

        Within six months Sam Everett had turned from a 4.5 GPA student all the way down to a 1.0 GPA student. He had no idea he was failing all of his classes and had no idea what was happening. He would rather not have cared either as long as Bridget loved him. Bridget was taking up all of Sam’s time free and otherwise and she was making him forget the things that were most important to him. But what was important to Sam at the moment was Bridget and everything she was even though they were nothing but flirting friends even now. Finally it was time for baseball tryouts to begin. Almost as soon as Sam walked onto the field he noticed that all of the other players were snickering at him. Just before he had the chance to throw a few warm-up pitches to the only player he could tolerate...the reserve catcher...the baseball coach walked up to him with his head down. " Everett I want to talk to you about something" the coach said. " Sure thing Coach" Sam said as he had followed the baseball coach to the locker room.

        As soon as Sam sat down in the swivel chair across from the coaches desk" What’s up Coach?" asked Sam. Suddenly the coach tossed Sam a progress report from the first half of the school year.

" Apparently your grades need to be up Everett" replied the coach as Sam looked over his grades. " Oh my. I'm failing every single class" said Sam with a shocked look on his face. " That’s exactly my reaction Sam. The Lord has given you a fine working brain and athletic talent...enough brain to match this talent that UCLA was looking into giving you a full ride academic scholarship---" said the coach before Sam spoke. " Whoa what???? WAS??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'WAS'????" asked Sam jumping out of his seat. " We just received this letter from UCLA this afternoon Sam denying your full ride scholarship due to failing grades. I'm sorry" the coach said handing Sam the letter. " No. This can’t be happening. I'm Sam Everett the brightest mind in all of Blueberry Hill High. I have made it to honors classes for all four years and----" Sam said as he had tears rolling down his face in frustration not sure of what happened before he was cut off. " Are failing all of these classes that you are honors for Sam. You need to start looking into other options even other than baseball because as of right now you are suspended from the Blueberry Hill High school baseball team due to lack of grades" the baseball coach had said. " You can’t do this to me. Isn’t there some kind of way that I can have some kind of an annulment or special rule or something? I've done well for three years and never had a problem with grades or anything. Please coach reconsider my suspension" Sam begged the coach. But the coach just shook his head. " I'm afraid there’s nothing i can do Sam. I've been looking into any way that you could make up the grades while remaining with the team all morning and have been calling around the league and they said that the only thing that I could do is to issue a warning to you and let you know to look into the future" replied the coach. " What future? I'm not going to UCLA. I'm not going to play college baseball. I'm not even going to get out of Blueberry Hill now because of a bad half of the year" Sam asked as he banged a fist on the desk so hard it knocked over a picture of the coaches family breaking the frame. " Oh my I’m so sorry" Sam said as he cried realizing what he did.

" Oh its quite alright. Anyway Sam community college is always an option. There are plenty of community colleges that would accept you even with the grades you are making now" said the coach. " Are there any that are affiliated with UCLA?" asked Sam. " Yes in fact one of them has offered to allow you to take a look at the campus over the summer" replied the baseball coach. " I still can’t believe these grades. Are you sure its not a forgery done by the student body to make me look bad and make my life a living hell?" asked Sam. " We did a double check with each and every teacher on your class schedule and they all assured us that it was no forgery Sam. Now here’s my question for you. How could you let your grades slip so far down as to lose every opportunity that you had? You had a future and it was looking bright. What in the world had happened?" asked the coach. " I don’t know coach. I guess I lost interest in school and everything that has to do with it" replied Sam. " It’s not just school either Sam. Your whole attitude has changed in the last 5 months,” the coach had said. " I don’t know what’s wrong with me Coach. I guess I’m just not myself lately" replied Sam as he began to wonder what was wrong with him. Suddenly the thing that meant the most to him the year before didn’t mean much to him now. The dreams and hopes that he’s had ever since he could remember were all gone.  " Well whatever it is if you ever need any help I'll do everything in my power for you" replied the coach as Sam walked out. Then he had gone home.

        As soon as Sam got home he had gotten a text message from Bridget on his phone. It read " meet me at the pizza place down the street from your house tonight (she knew where he lived) we're going to go on a date as boyfriend and girlfriend tonight" When Sam saw this he just about hit his head on the roof jumping so high excitedly. "WAHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he shouted in happiness as he danced around forgetting all of his troubles and forgetting all of his problems with grades. Finally he began getting ready for his date with Bridget, the girl of his dreams.

        It was now about 9pm that night and Bridget was at least a half hour late. Where could she be asked Sam to himself as he grabbed another slice of cold pizza. When he looked at his watch again he realized that she was an hour late. Maybe she got in some car troubles. Maybe she got sick on the way here. Maybe she just got so nervous that she couldn’t make it there tonight just based on the fact that she’s going on a date with a handsome guy like him. Suddenly Sam had laughed out loud at this thought. Me. A handsome guy that a girl would get nervous over dating;yeah right. Finally he noticed that a young waitress carrying a note to him. He knew her from his Spanish class the year before and she was one of the ones who he could see tolerating. Finally she walked up to him. " This note is for you,” she said as she handed Sam the note.

" Whose it from?" asked Sam. " Some girl named Bridgett" she replied. Suddenly Sam had sat down and began reading the note. Nothing could have prepared him for the words that were written on that paper however short it was. This is what it said:

" Sam

I thought you would have been a hell of a lot smarter than falling this hard for me from what they told me. haha. First of all I'm not a high school student. I'm actually a college student on vacation at Texas Tech....modeling major. Second of all I was never in love with you nerd. The student body had paid me off to pretend to 'love' you because they all knew about your grades and arrogance and how it translated onto the baseball team, so we decided to kill the monster right where the heart is. The grades. Finally last but not least you’re as hopeless in ever finding a date in this lifetime as you are at sounding sexually appealing. Do yourself a favor dude. Prepare a rope and tie it to your head and put it over a fan tonight because unless you like being single for the rest of your life you are NEVER going to be taken. You’re never going to be good enough for anyone and trust me on this dude. I would know. Not even good enough to be some fat lonely ugly chicks last resort like Natalie’s.  You’re a lost and fallen cause and now it is time for me to say farewell to you. Hope to see your name in the obituaries in the morning.

Bridgett"" No. NO NO NO NO THIS CANT BE HAPPENING NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Sam screamed at the top of his lungs as he threw a glass at the nearest window and watched it shatter. Then he just cried as he stood up and went to the only place that he knew he could. He knew he hat to go to Natalie’s

        As Sam was running at full speed in the streets at eleven thirty at night with the rain pouring down on him and thunder and lightning flashing in front of his eyes he continued to cry. He heard voices in his head. Voices laughing at him, voices mocking him, voices telling him that he’s hopeless and never going to be enough. Voices that pointed fingers as they laughed at his now poor grades when before he had a perfect 4.0 grade point average voices laughing at the top of their lungs for their victory against him. He continued to hear voices louder and louder and they continued to be painful until finally they became so unbearable he couldn’t run anymore. " No. Stop! That’s NOT TRUE! ITS ALL LIES" he shouted as he cowered in fear on the side of the road before finally just in time he saw Natalie driving her truck towards him. " Oh my God Sam. Are you okay?" she asked as she ran towards him, but by this time Sam was overcome with exhaustion and the voices he heard had given in. " Come on. Lets get you back home" she said as she picked him up in her arms and drove him back to her house.

        A few hours later Sam was awake and shivering, but Natalie was giving him hot chocolate and gave him a blanket and all was quiet until Sam finally spoke again at about two thirty that morning.  It was the first time he had spoken since hearing the voices and made Natalie jump from off her seat next to him on the bed. " They have to be punished"  Sam said. " What? What are you talking about?" Natalie asked.  " The act the student body did to me tonight is the last straw. They must be punished for their crime against a solitary high school student that had plans for college and took everything away from him,” replied Sam. " What do you plan to do? How are you going to do it?" Natalie asked as she began sipping another drop of cocoa.. " Explosives" replied Sam. All of a sudden Natalie dropped her mug on the ground thank goodness with all of the cocoa gone but still began choking, but it stopped after a second.

" WHAT??? EXPLOSIVES???????" Natalie asked with a shocked look still not realizing she broke the mug. " That’s right. Explosives" replied Sam. " Your not making any sense at all Sam. Explain yourself" Natalie said as she sat closer to Sam. " When I was in the eighth grade I did this experiment that these 6th graders did about 10 years ago in this town. They had built homemade explosives based on common household ingredients and set them off in a nearby field to test them out. I'm going to make the explosives and set them off in the gymnasium on Friday and lock all the windows and doors to make sure that everyone pays for what they have done to me. They will all die" Sam said with an evil light in his eyes. " Sam that’s a ridiculous idea. Do you know how much they would punish you when you get caught??" Natalie asked. " Not as much as I've been punished in the last twelve years” Sam said. " They'll give you the death penalty for sure Sam. This is suicide. You'll get the lethal injection in 10 to 15 years,” Natalie said. " Your forgetting that we have a federal court system where citizens are innocent until proven guilty Natalie" replied Sam. " How are you going to prove yourself innocent Sam?" asked Natalie. " Let me ask you a question first Natalie. If you were intellectual and wanted to make it to college would you be happy when you realized that you had enough intellect to make it there?" asked Sam. " I would be ecstatic. I have always wanted to make it to college" replied Natalie with a smile. Suddenly Sam knew exactly his defense as he smiled himself. " Now let me asked you something Natalie. Imagine that you had the perfect life all planned out for you. You were getting a perfect 4.0 grade point average and you were having colleges drooling all over you because of your athletic talent, including the college of your dreams. Imagine that school was the only thing you ever believed that you ever had that was good. Imagine that everyone in the world hated you because of this. Imagine that one day you go to classes and this really attractive guy one day arrived in one of your classes and he began loving you for who you were and nobody else had ever loved you for who you were before. Imagine that this guy distracted you so much that you had to pay attention to him with every waking moment. Imagine that he made you forget about everything that has ever been important to you and set everything that you have ever cared about aside. Imagine that you sacrifice everything just to get to know him and imagine that you think he loves you more than anything in the world----" Sam said as he took a pause to allow Natalie to sink all of this information in her mind. Suddenly Natalie smiled with glee as she imagined all of this that Sam had set up for her. " Yeah, that’s a nice mental image that you have their isn’t it?" Sam said with a satisfied smile himself. " Mhem" Natalie replied as she continued to smile dreamily.  Sam knew that now was the time to bring in the twist to tie in everything. " Now suddenly imagine one day you come to your classes and realize that your failing each and every one of them and you don’t know why. Imagine that the college of your dreams that you planned to go to that offered you a full ride academic scholarship took it away from you because your grades are slipping and you don’t know why. Imagine that you can no longer play sports because you were ruled athletically ineligible. Imagine that everything you've always dreamed about is gone and you don’t understand how it could ever be true. Imagine wanting to go on a date with this guy that you liked and you had thought liked you until that night. That night he tells you he was paid off to claim he loved you. Imagine that he told you your hopeless and should hang yourself that night. Imagine that he tells you your never going to be good enough for anyone and that he tells you that your better off dead then to ever find the man of your dreams and pretty much laughs at and mocks you. What do you do? What do you do Natalie?" Sam asked. " I GO ONTO THAT CAMPUS AND KILL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS MYSELF" shouted Natalie at the top of her lungs. Suddenly Sam snickered. " I rest my case your honor" Sam said. Suddenly Natalie begin to redden. " Okay so you convinced me of your innocence. Now how are you going to convince not only twelve jurors but also a judge?"  Natalie said sticking out her tongue.

 " Easy there. That’s IF they catch me first of all"  Sam said. " No that’s WHEN they catch you. You know you should consider representing yourself in trial if you go through with it" Natalie said. " Psh yeah right. That would look real good. It would be the entire state of Texas vs Murdering Madman Dork Sam Everett" Sam said with a slight smile.

" Hey you have my acquittal" Natalie said as Sam yawned. " You'd better get some sleep ' murdering madman'. You had a long day today" Natalie said as Sam laid back. " Yeah. Your probably right" Sam said as he closed his eyes and fell asleep on the floor after the mug was cleaned up. " Hey Sam" Natalie said just before both of them went to sleep. " Yeah Natalie" Sam said opening his eyes. " If you’re convicted and given the death penalty would you allow me to be your visitor every week?" she asked. Suddenly Sam thought for a moment. " I don’t know if I would allow any visitors Natalie.  When this plan is complete people will think of me as a monster that murdered and had a demonic heart. Who was naturally born evil and these kids were just being teenagers and having some harmless fun,” replied Sam. " I would visit you every week and make sure your doing good" replied Natalie. " Thank you for being here for me Natalie. I appreciate having such a wonderful friend like you" Sam said as he went to sleep. That was all that was done on that long eventful day.

        Over the next couple of days Sam and Natalie had done preparations for the massacre planned out by Sam. He knew that he had to do this because he had to take revenge against every single one of them. He knew he had to do this because he knew he had to take revenge against every single one of his tormenters. Nobody cared anyway. His parents ceased to stop caring that there was a third member of the house about two months before. The student body had silent snickers on their faces ever since that night because they all knew what happened to Sam. Everyone knew that Sam was duped and this was a huge joke on him played by the entire student body. Sam just knew that everyone was in on it. Finally it was the night before the assembly and Natalie and Sam were sitting on top of the roof of the gym after having wired each and every one of the explosives and testing their voice activation which was to be activated by Sam’s voice. As both Sam and Natalie were lying on the roof and watching the stars in the sky. " So you’re really going to go through with it?" Natalie asked breaking the silence. " I have to Natalie. I don’t have a choice,” Sam said. " Of course you do. We could diffuse all of the bombs and you could walk away the better man,” replied Natalie. " No. It’s not that simple Natalie. I knew you'd never understand" Sam said sadly. " Understand what Sam? That you feel like you have to become a mass murdering monster just because these kids are playing with your mind?  That you feel like you should do this because you have to now work a little harder at making it to UCLA? That you feel like the whole world is toppling down on you because the world allowed it to? That---" Natalie asked before Sam cut her off.

" NOBODY GIVES A RATS TAIL ABOUT WHAT I DO WITH MYSELF NATALIE!!!!!!!!!!!!! My parent’s don’t care. My extended family doesn’t care, the student body doesn’t care. Hell Natalie God doesn’t care what I do with myself. I've been doing research on individuals who are in school and have little or none caring for them and a high percentage of these individuals wind up coming in and out of prison through life. They wind up going down the wrong paths and wind up doing things they eventually regret. They wind up unloved and always uncared for no matter what they do with their life. That’s going to end up being me Natalie. I'm going to end up being one of those people who is uncared for and one of those people who is going to wind up with emotional problems all because none cared. At least if I went to prison for murder I have a better chance of not being able to commit other crimes and who knows maybe even other murders,” replied Sam.  " But your not just some statistic though Sam. Your Sam Everett...the valedictorian of Blue Berry Hill high school. Your smart, classic, funny, loving, caring, emotional, sweet, very cute with a smile on your face, and you have the ability to relate to others well. Also God doesn’t hate you. He loves you. He loves all of us like the ultimate parent would. He understands what you’re going through no matter what you do in life because His son had to go through 10 times and even 100 times what you’re going through. Threes one more thing I never understand when you say that none cares Sam. What about me? Don’t you think i care about you even just a little?" asked Natalie as she began crying. " Its okay Natalie. By tomorrow morning everything will be just as it should be" Sam said embracing Natalie. " No. By tomorrow morning you'll be on your way to a state penitentiary awaiting to die" replied Natalie. " Its okay though Natalie. At least it will stop me from committing future crimes" Sam said as they had both yawned. " And i think its time for us to start preparing for tomorrow morning by getting some good sleep tonight. Its probably the last good sleep that I’ll ever have" Sam said as he started climb off the roof and so did Natalie. Then they had both went back to Natalie’s for what would have been Sam’s last night as a free man if he got convicted