Chapter 8: Do Not Murder

If you have a friend you always want to believe they are doing the right thing. It was always that way with me and Seth. I knew him from Kindergarten; we were best friends during and after school. I even remember the time he stood up for me against some really big kids, kids who were beating me pretty bad.

Seth was my hero. And now I don’t know what to do.

I dropped by to see him because for the last few months he hasn’t been returning my calls. We have different teachers now, which has changed things because we don’t see each other all the time anymore. Anyway, I went by his house and he wasn’t home so I went to the garage where we always used to hang out.

I know where he hides the key and after he didn’t answer the special knock I went in.

It was weird. The room was filled with maps of the school and I realized he was playing some kind of war game.  Only it didn’t look like a game anymore when I found this book and saw that he was going to shoot teachers and students and, down on another page, me.

Seth is a really good writer and I figure he’s probably just fooling around, making stuff up but I’m not sure. I’ve heard about stuff like this and maybe he’s on some drug that’s messing him up.

I don’t think I want to tell on him but I sure don’t want to let him kill people but I’m afraid.  There was one thing he wrote about me that was so crazy, about how I had betrayed him. I don’t know why he’s thinking that way. I really don’t.

What should I do?

• Call the police immediately and have them investigate.
• Tell my teacher.
• Find Seth right away and have a long talk with him and find out what’s going on.
• Tell my mother and father.
• Go back when he’s not there and take all that stuff away and dump it.
• Let it go. It’s probably no big deal.

What would you do?

Download a copy of this lesson plan: