Pa. Shooting Called A Cry For Help

March 9 -- The bullet wound in her shoulder is starting to heal, but for 13-year-old Kimberly Marchese, the emotional healing cannot begin until she knows why her schoolmate pulled the trigger.

"I just want to ask her why she did it, if I was the target or not," Marchese said today on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "I know she sometimes says stuff and then she'll regret it, and I think that's just what happened to her at the shooting."

Elizabeth Bush, 14, an eighth-grader, is accused of going into the crowded cafeteria at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High School and firing a gun on Wednesday. Marchese was hit once in the shoulder, though it is not clear whether the suspect was firing at her or whether the bullet ricocheted off a wall or the floor and hit her.

Police have said they believe that the shooting was a result of a feud between the two girls, but Marchese today added her voice to those of other students and school officials who have disputed the claim.

"I haven't talked to Elizabeth Bush for about a week or two," the 13-year-old said. "And there was no argument before the shooting whatsoever and she was not behind me when she shot me in the shoulder. I did not know she was there, and then she was about 15 or 20 feet to the right of me and that's when I saw her."

The shooting came two days after two people were killed and 13wounded in a high school shooting in Santee, Calif. A ninth-graderis under arrest in that case and is being charged as an adult.

Prosecutors in Williamsport have not decided whether to prosecute Bush as an adult, but Marchese's father says he believes that would be wrong. The retired firefighter said that carrying the weight of the shooting for the rest of her life is enough punishment, on top of whatever penalty she might face if convicted as a juvenile.

A Kind Heart

The suspect's parents told The Harrisburg Patriot-News that Elizabeth had been the victim of harassment at other schools she attended, and that though she was accepted at Bishop Neumann at first, recently the insults and teasing had started again.