Some of you may already know about Rachel's challenge, but for those who don't I put a link on the bottom.

Rachel Scott was a teenager from Columbine High School. She was smart, kind, and very caring. She wrote this essay, called "My Ethics, My Codes of Life," found here: [link]
She also had a journal where she wrote poems and had her own lessons in the book. She explained how we can create a "Chain Reaction" by seeing the good in others; by not judging them by their attitude the first time you see them.
She always said she was going to change the world. She always told people she was going to be an impact on the world.
When she was 13, she traced her hands on the back of her dresser and inside them she wrote:

"These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will some day touch millions of people's hearts."

And, she most certainly did.

1999. It was April 20th, and two boys started a shoot-down.
She was the first person killed.
That day she decided to have lunch with her friend outside, and that's when it all happened.
The two boys had planted a bomb in the library, but fortunately it didn't go off. There was panic and so much havoc in the school, people running and pushing and shoving.
The teacher screamed at the students to get under the chairs repeatedly.

Rachel's brother's friend, Isaiah, was a black boy who was killed as well.
He died a terrible death, by receiving harsh racial comments and taunts from the gunmen.
His last words before he died by getting shot with a shotgun was "Mom--where is my Mom?"

Rachel's brother was at the peak of his death too, he was cornered under a table, until a noise distracted the boys and they forgot about the brother by then.

When it all ended, parents arrived at the school and students ran out and fell into their arms crying, as their parents were filled with joy that their children were alive.
Unfortunately, some parents' children never came out.

13 people died.

6 weeks later, Darrel Scott, Rachel's father, received a call from a man 1,000 miles away. A stranger.
He told him that he was not crazy, nor psychotic, but he had a vision of Rachel's beautiful eyes crying, and her tears fell to the ground.
On the ground something was sprouting; something was growing.
The stranger had asked Darrel if this had to do with anything.
Darrel's reply was no.

There was silence no the phone for awhile, as the stranger was thinking.
He left Darrel with his name and phone number, and if anything came to him the stranger asked for Darrel to please call him and let him know.

When the two hung up, Darrel put the phone number away, assuming he would never call the man again.

Later that day, he had received another phone call from the school. He was asked to pick up Rachel's backpack that she had left when she was killed. Darrel went up to the school and picked it up.
When he got home, he started to clear everything out and removed the books.

As any parent would do, Darrel wanted to see the last thing Rachel had wrote before she passed away. He turned to the very last page, and on the page were eyes, crying. The tears were falling onto the ground and a rose was sprouting from it, and under the rose there were drops of blood.

There were 13 tear drops.
13 people died during the shooting.

Darrel was on the floor, breathless and shocked.
Rachel also had a sad poem inside too,
which was odd because Rachel was always happy.
It was a death poem.

It talked about how her death wouldn't be suicide, but she called it:
Homicide.

And that's exactly what happened to her.
Rachel also used to always say she would never die of old age. She always said she was going to die young.

The back of her journal said in big, large letters:
"I WONT BE LABELED AS AVERAGE"
A bullet that had gone through her, also went through her backpack and hit the book--leaving a bullet mark right next to the words, as if leaving an explanation point to her sentence.