In February 2001, I was walking home from school when my friend Andy Williams suddenly said, “ I wanna pull a Columbine1.” He'd had a really bad day—a teacher had embarrassed him in front of the class—and I thought he was kidding. “All right, Andy,” I joked.
Like me, Andy was a ninth-grader at Santana High School, Calif. We hung out at the local park and got to be great friends. We both liked punk2 and heavy metal3, and we both played guitar. Andy was entertaining, but looking back, I can see he struggled with depression4. He'd moved to California from Maryland and was having a hard time fitting in because he wasn't tough like other kids in our neighborhood.
I forgot Andy's “Columbine” comment until two days later when a bunch of us were just hanging out. Andy suddenly said he wanted to take a gun and shoot people in the school. One girl made him promise he wouldn't. “OK, I promise,” Andy said, smiling. But several days later, he asked me and another friend if we wanted to get guns and do “it” with him. We were like, “No! Are you serious?” he said he was kidding.
On Monday, March 5, 2001, just before 9:30 A.M., a friend banged on my bedroom window and yelled, "Andy did it!" I got dressed and ran the three blocks to school. The campus was total chaos5: people running everywhere, police cars and ambulances6 with their lights flashing. Andy had taken his dad's 22-caliber revolver and randomly sprayed bullets in a bathroom and hallway7. Thirteen people had been injured and two others had been killed.
The police questioned me for eight hours. Word spread that Andy had told me about his plans and [that] I'd done nothing to stop him. The school district refused to let me come back to school, and it suddenly seemed like every student was out to kick my butt. People even called me at home to threaten me, because I just stayed home and slept all the time.
Nobody wants to be a rat, but you have to tell someone if one of your friends threatens violence. My best friend is in jail and two people lost their lives, and that will always hang over my head. In the weeks after, I started hanging out with a group of druggies8—I think as a way to escape what had happened and how I might have prevented it. Before long, I was arrested for drug possession9. The judge sentenced me to six months in a residential treatment center, where I am now. I honestly don't think any of this would have happened if not for the shooting.
I'll be here until February, and then I plan to finish school. I've also become a spokesperson for Pax, an organization that helps prevent gun violence. I don't want another school shooting to happen, and nobody should go through what I did. If I could do things over, I would have personally gone to Andy's house and told his father what was going on.
1． “I wanna pull a Columbine” 意指1999年发生在美国“Columbine high school”的校园枪杀事件，两个学生枪杀了好几个学生和老师。Andy说这话可不是什么好兆头。
2． punk n． 朋克（音乐的一种）
3． heavy metal重金属（音乐的一种）
4． depression n． 沮丧， 消沉
5． chaos n．混乱
6． ambulance n． 救护车
7． 此句意为 “安迪拿了他老爸的22毫米口径的左轮手枪在浴室和走廊里乱射一气。”revolver n． 连发左轮手枪randomly adv． 随便地， 未加计划地 spray [sprei] v． 扫射
8． druggie n． 吸毒者，瘾君子
9． possession n． 拥有，占有