On a cool, fall day in 2012, my friends, Lillie Sweet Strickland and Elizabeth Sellers, and I were almost kidnapped.

Or so we thought.

We had spent the night at Lillie Sweet’s house that Friday night, and on Saturday morning we decided to go on a walk and ride scooters around the neighborhood.

We geared up with our razor scooters and headed out in the neighborhood. Elizabeth played music from her phone, and we were having a blast, until we noticed something strange.

Elizabeth and I were on one side of the street, and Lillie Sweet was on the other. We were at a stop sign, listening to ”Good Vibrations’’ by The Funky Bunch. All of a sudden, a suspicious white car drove by. They stopped and stared at Lillie sweet, and then they drove away.

We thought it was really weird, and started to get scared. For some reason, we did not take into account they were probably stopping because there was a stop sign.

We brushed it off and kept walking and scootering. A few seconds later, the car drove by again. Now we were really scared. It passed by three more times after that.

Lillie Sweet tried to call her mom, but she did not answer the phone. Suddenly, the white SUV came flying down the hill toward us. This was a matter of life or death.

Elizabeth and I put down our Cokes and prepared to bolt. Lillie Sweet had one of the scooters, and was soaring downhill towards her house. There was one more scooter, but two more girls.

Without thinking, Elizabeth took the scooter and followed Lillie Sweet. Although I had a hurt knee, I limped down the hill as fast as I possibly could. I caught up with them at the bottom.

The car was approaching quickly, so we went to the house in the neighborhood we recognized first.

It was the home of Mrs. Theresa Ferrari. Mrs. Ferrari was a math teacher at Stratford. (She is now assistant principal of the upper school.)

Lillie Sweet was the first to arrive at her door, and she knocked quickly. Mrs. Ferrari opened the door as soon as she saw us. She was brushing her teeth. ( I remember her spitting in the bushes as she was talking to us.)

We told her the situation, and she told us we were smart for knocking on her door. We waited for the car to pass, and walked back over to Lillie Sweet’s house. We told her mom what happened to us, and Lillie Sweet got mad that she did not answer the phone.

When we went to tell her dad and uncle, they laughed at us and did not believe us. They thought we were just being immature and scared for no reason. We were mad that they did not believe us, but now we see how stupid we must have sounded.

Later, we found out the people in that car were looking to purchase a house for sale in the neighborhood. Now that I look back on that day, I realize that car was probably just lost, trying to find their way around.

They were harmless people and my friends and I were simply overreacting, and thinking of the worst. But, at at that moment, we were fearing for our lives.

In the future, we will probably forget details of the situation, and what exactly happened. But we will never forget the car’s mysterious license plate– MAY955.