No, I'm sorry. Premeditated. As in meditated beforehand. As in thought out in advance. With the emphasis on THOUGHT OUT. We are talking about 12-year-old brains. I still wasn't entirely certain that the tarot and horoscopes weren't real when I was twelve. I certainly didn't understand the vast majority of the world. I mean, I like the judge's reasoning in terms of mental health and I think that's a valid perception of how to proceed. And I think you'd be a FOOL think that serious mental health issues aren't at the root of this, in compound with the fact that everyone is fucking stupid at twelve.

You know who plans a lot of murders? Six year old boys. Go talk to one. They don't mean it like these girls did, they don't act on it (in almost all instances). But a huge portion of play is killing and dying. And that's not a BAD thing. That's how kids cope with new knowledge, like that you can die and that life can end. Coming to terms with the reality of life and death outside of the abstract is an adult action, requiring an adult brain. That's why so many people tell their kids that fluffy is happy and safe on a farm somewhere.

I remember the first time I killed something, or watched something be killed. Insects, squirrels, a nest of bunnies my dogs mauled that I had to shoot with a .22 to end the suffering. Life and death are NOT concrete subjects, even at twelve. This is a child's murder over the boogieman. This is about children. And children kill. You, as a child, squashed insects. Or did worse (I won't elaborate, but I've heard many a story).

It was planned, sure. But premeditated? Thought out to its logical conclusions? That's absurd.