Chapter 1

Scum Town

My name is Sierra and I’m sixteen. I live with my mom and two brothers. My dad died when I was five. I can still see him lying in the coffin. I’m petrified of death now. When my Grandpa died six months ago, I just couldn’t go to his funeral. Mom was a little mad at me. But, I think she understood. After all, she didn’t force me to go in and see Grandpa’s dead body. I sat outside of the Funeral Parlor the whole time. Grams’ not doing well now. Mom’s afraid that she can’t take care of herself now that Grandpa’s gone.

So, today we moved from New Jersey to a scummy little town in Pennsylvania. Montgomery, ugh what kind of name is that? More like Mont-scummery. It’s this little town on the top of a mountain and it’s really scummy. The whole town consists of a library, a Weis grocery store, the police department, a beer distributor, convenience store, and a campground. The town is so small and most of the houses on Main Street are so old that it looks light a ghost town.

The convenience store is called “Uni-Mart” and it’s about the size of my new bedroom. I can walk from one end of the store to the other in like 2.5 seconds. This place is really lame. The only good thing about living here is that my Grandma lives just two houses away. Oh ya, and the campground.

Riverside campground has an area for tents and RV’s. It’s got outside fire pits , a playground, and a Laundromat. When you first come up to the campground there are these really cute wooden cabins that look like the doll house my Great Grandfather made for me when I was a little girl. There’s also a pool, ping-pong table, horse shoes, badminton net, and a batting cage. Oh ya, there’s a bar on the campground too. Not that I’ll be going there for a few more years. All this is located along the banks of the muddy waters of the Susquehanna River.

Anyway, Gram is eighty-six and in poor health. I know that seems kinda old. My gram had my mom when she was 35 and my mom followed suit and had me when she was 35. Between me and my friends, I’ve always had the oldest mom. It’s not so bad really. I mean she’s not really strict and she does some pretty cool things now and then. But, she can’t go on long nature hikes with me. She’ll go for a short walk and that’s it. If I ever have kids, I’d want to have them a little bit younger. Maybe when I’m 28. But, definitely before I’m 30. I want to go to college and have a career before I have kids though. But, I don’t want to be so old that I can’t even play with my kids.

I miss New Jersey already, and my friends at my old school. The only thing that I won’t miss about living there is the trailer where we lived. That thing was such a fire hazard. Every time we tried to use the microwave, the power went off in the whole place. My mom found subsidized housing really close to Gram. Subsidized means that the amount of rent you pay is decided by how much income you have.
Now, we have a pretty big 4 bedroom house with two bathrooms! My mom let me have first pick of the bedrooms. I chose the upstairs bedroom at the end of the hall on the left. It’s the biggest bedroom in the whole place and it has a huge walk-in closet. Just think of all the clothes I can pile in there. Being a sixteen year old girl with two younger brothers, my own bedroom is a must. Oh, and I’m claiming the upstairs bathroom for myself. My brothers can share the downstairs one with my mom.

Tomorrow will be my first day at my new school. I’m not very happy about that. I hate not knowing anyone. I feel so alone and lost. I really wish that my friends were here now.
Well…time to get my clothes together for my first day of school. Please pray for me. lol


Chapter 2

1st Day of School

Okay, so my very first day at my new school officially sucked! First of all, I woke up late because my stupid alarm never went off. Secondly, it takes me at least an hour to get ready. Hey, I’m a sixteen year old girl with long hair, style to be reckoned with, and I look like hell if I don’t straighten my hair. My mom was rushing me and wouldn’t let me straighten my hair. I asked my mom if I could just stay home because it was Friday. Of course, she said no. So, needless to say, I got to school late sporting a head full of frizz. Ugh, what a nightmare for my first day. I don’t see why I have to start a new school on a Friday!

I went right to the office and had to explain that I was new and why I was late. That didn’t go over well. The principal gave me a lecture on first impressions and school etiquette. The whole time he was lecturing me the pervert was looking at my chest. I was in such a rush to get out of there that I forgot to ask where my first class was. I had no clue where I was going. I spent 10 minutes searching for my first class. When I finally walked in the room everyone stared at me. God, I hate being the new kid. To top it off, the teacher made me stand up and introduce myself. I just wanted to crawl under a rock and die. Thank God she gave me a seat in the back of the class.

Lunchtime was even worse. When I walked into the cafeteria there were like a million faces staring back at me. I could see a bunch of them whispering to each other, pointing, and laughing at me. As I searched the room, I found one table near the right side of the cafeteria by the doors. Great, at least I’d have a quick escape.

I sat with my back to everyone and tried to eat my chicken parmesan sandwich. The sandwich tasted like cardboard and smelled like puke. It was really disgusting! I decided that I wasn’t really that hungry anyway. So, instead I just drank my Gatorade and texted my friends from my old school in Jersey.
While I was texting Jenny, my bestie, I heard a big ruckus coming from the opposite side of the cafeteria. I turned to see what the commotion was and the answer bounced right off my forehead in the form of a roll. God, what next? Everybody laughed at my expense. I left my tray on the table and ran out the door. I spent the rest of the lunch period in the bathroom crying.

When I got home, I tossed my book bag on the floor and brushed past my mom toward the computer to chat with my friends. Mom asked me how my first day went and all I could say was, “it sucked!” She came over and gave me a big hug. I love my mom! She’s a pretty cool mom. She always knows what to say or do. I spent the next 2 hours complaining to Jenny and Tara about how terrible my first day was and then went upstairs to do my homework. Thank God it’s Friday!
By 5:00 mom called me and my brothers downstairs for dinner. She made chicken soup and biscuits for dinner. YUM! My brothers, Austin and Christian, said they didn’t like it. That’s not unusual for them. They’ll eat something one day and love it and the next time mom makes it they don’t like it. All they want to eat is junk food. They’re not smart enough to know what’s good for ‘em. I loved it! I ate two big bowls of soup and three biscuits!
Our normal routine at the dinner table is to talk about how our day went. Mom thinks that it’s good for a family to do that. I usually don’t mind. But, I just wanted to forget the whole day. I didn’t offer up too much info. My brothers did most of the talking. Christian made tons of friends, of course. Austin was too busy being hyper and getting sent to the office to make any friends. Austin has ADHD. He’s always bouncing off the walls and annoying me.
After dinner, I helped mom clean up the table and wash dishes. Christian went outside to play with his new-found friends and Austin went up to his room to play his video games. When mom and I had the dishes done, she asked me to bring some soup over to Gram. Gram hasn’t been feeling well lately. I think she’s got a cold.


Chapter 3

Cricket

I’ve missed my Gram. I wasn’t able to see her that much when we lived in New Jersey. Now that we live only two houses away, I can visit her more often. The last time that I saw her was 6 months ago when she needed a ride to the airport to pick up her new service bird. When Grandpa died, she didn’t have anyone to help her get her medication or call 9-1-1 if she needed help. She’d heard about this parrot society that trained parrots to be service birds so, she called them. Ya, strange I know. I had never heard of anything like it before. I’ve heard of service dogs but, never a service bird. It makes a lot of sense though. These birds live a lot longer than dogs do. It would save people a lot of money buying one service bird for life rather than six or seven service dogs throughout their lifetime. A service animal usually costs about $5,000. Well, that’s what Gram paid for her bird anyway. She used the money that Grandpa left her when he died.

Mom and I came up to Pa for a week so that we could help Gram and her bird get settled. On the way home from the airport, her new bird was chirping like a cricket. The whole ride took about three hours. So, needless to say, we heard a cricket for the whole three hours. When we got back to Grams’ house we found out why. There was a cricket inside the cage with the bird. So, Gram named her Cricket.

Cricket was so sweet. She would perch on my arm and “give kisses.” She’d reach up to my face and touch her beak to my lips. Then she would make this kissing sound. I immediately fell in love with her. She’s great with my Gram too. Cricket was trained to get Grams’ medicine when she asked for it.

Gram demonstrated this for us. She would say, “Cricket, get my red medicine.” And Cricket would walk across the floor, climb up the chair, and onto the table. Then she would pick out the correct medicine and bring it back to Gram. Each of Grams medicines had a different colored sticker on them. Red was her heart medication, blue was her depression/anxiety medication, and green was for any antibiotics that she might be taking. It’s the coolest thing that I’ve ever seen.

Anyway, I went over to Grams last night and brought her soup. She’s feeling “a little under the weather” she said. She’s only got a cold but I still worry about her. I got to spend time with Cricket too! I can’t really play with her because she’s a service animal. I helped Gram clean up the house. It doesn’t get really messy with only Gram and Cricket there. But, Cricket does make a bit of a mess when she’s out of her cage. If she is perched on the chair and Gram forgets to put a piece of newspaper on the floor then there’s a huge poo mess. Most of the time Cricket walks back to her cage if she has to poo. She’s such a smart bird.

Crickets’ newest phrase is, “this is Jeopardy.” She watches the game show with Gram every night. When the show first starts and Cricket hears the theme music she automatically says, “this… is… Jeopardy” and then she laughs. The first time she said it it made Gram laugh. So, Cricket laughs every time she says the phrase now.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 15.12.2009

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