What would you do?

BY MONIQUE GUTERRES DOS SANTOS

In books, films, and newspapers, scary situations come up, such as robberies and kidnappings, and violence in general. I used to wonder sometimes, "If something like that happened to me, what would my reaction be?"

Then one day this past September, my mom gave me, my brother, Joao, and my sister, Bruna, a ride to school. On the way, my mom saw a good friend on the side of the road and stopped the car to say hello to her. When she stopped, Bruna, Joao, and I got out and started to walk the rest of the way to school. We had walked this route many times.

When we were almost there, four young guys came in our direction. The youngest looked like he was about 10 and the oldest about 17. They looked like a lot of other boys in my school, but they weren't too well dressed. But that's not what caught my attention. They began whispering to each other, and I knew right away they were going to try to rob us. When they were directly in front of us, the oldest one told my brother to give him his cellphone. He said that if he didn't, he would shoot him.