PROJECT: 1998

PROJECT: 1998 is a work of fiction inspired by a particularly tragic real event. This book in no way seeks to glorify, romanticize, or normalize school shootings, their perpetrators, or their motives. The events and characters depicted in this story belong to a work of fiction and should not be interpreted as a faithful reconstruction of reality. This story was written around one question: what if someone had had the opportunity to prevent a tragedy before it happened? But no amount of fiction can change what actually happened. IN MEMORY This work is dedicated to the thirteen people who lost their lives in the Columbine High School m******e on April 20, 1999: Rachel Joy Scott Daniel Rohrbough Dave Sanders Kyle Velasquez Cassie Bernall Isaiah Shoels John Tomlin Lauren Townsend Kelly Fleming Daniel Mauser Steven Curnow Matthew Kechter Corey DePooter They were students, a teacher, children, friends, brothers, sisters, and family members. Each had a personality, loved ones, plans, and a future of their own. This book does not attempt to rewrite their true story. In the alternate realities presented in PROJECT: 1998, their survival is fiction. In our reality, their absence is real. To their memory. To their families. To the survivors. To all those whose lives have been turned upside down by this tragedy. May they be remembered not for the way they died, but for the lives they lived.