9/11 story

Chapter 1

As a young girl, I often times tried on my mothers ring and pretended I lived in a castle, it was really just a small room in a apartment in downtown Chicago. I thought of my life as a fairy tale, everything was happy go lucky. Then, my father lost his job. Times were tough and there was a time from when I was 6 to 10 where we were kicked out of apartments because we couldn’t make the bills.  Then, around my eleventh birthday my father came in with a big smile. My mother and my sister Anna were gone getting groceries and was supposed to come back soon. He came in and picked me up, then he took me over by the TV and sat me down on the couch. “Guess what?” He said, his tone bursting with secrets. “I don’t know, what?” I said, playing along.  “I got a job in the empire state building, as a secretary!” I was so surprised I didn’t know what to say. I looked around at our drab apartment and saw home, places were we had sat in our sagging couches and played monopoly. Then I saw New York, a place bursting with opportunity. A new apartment, maybe even a big room! I started laughing and crying at the same time, too overwhelmed to think of anything else. My mother and Anna came in and found us in the living room. Dad spilled the news and ever since that day I cannot remember mom or Anna smiling bigger. The move was easy; most of my friends ignored me and just said they were my friend. And the apartment was full of grumpy old people that didn’t have enough retirement to have a house. We were successfully moved out a month ago. As we stood on the curb, I looked up at my dad and said, “Things are going to change, right daddy?”

       “Yes, things are going to change.” He gave me a kiss and a pat on the forehead. We said our final goodbyes and hailed a cab. We reached the airport and boarded our airplane. All of our stuff was going to come in a week or so. The plane ride was not too long, but I still slept most of the way. We arrived in New York at 8:00 on August 18, 2001.  I stepped off the plane hand-in-hand with my father. I felt as though I was on top of the world.

Chapter two

We headed to our apartment on the outskirts of town, we had bought it with furniture. I had a big room, but Anna and I still had to sleep on the floor because my sheets hadn’t arrived yet. I looked over at my parents and thought of all of the turmoil leading up to it. Dad has a degree in Anthropology, but he still couldn’t find work. But now, this, New York City. The big apple. I looked forward to starting school, I might be new, but now, I could actually wear something nice. Anna was excited too, we had always been the pretty ones.  Anna was in the 7^th grade.

       We moved during the weekend so I started school on Monday. The school bus pulled up to a medium size elementary school with kids milling around. I stayed on the bus until I was alone, then I slowly walked off towards the school. A girl came over to me and said with a sniffled voice, “Those girls over there are guarding the bathroom and I gotta go bad!” I knew I looked older than the fifth grade and had even been told that I looked thirteen. I walked over to the girls and said, “What’s going on here?” The girls seemed unruffled by my appearance and a girl named Sandra coolly replied, “Well, the only way we are going to survive elementary school is if we pick some money off of these losers, what are you going to do about it?” I moved towards her until our faces were nearly touching, a group of kids had gathered around us by now chanting “Fight! Fight!” I backed up and then thought of a idea how to get through this, I put up my fists and then  stopped, I pulled off my ring I had won from a boxing tournament and handed it to the crying girl, “What’s that from?” she asked, “The boxing tournament I won back in Chicago, no biggy.” Sandra paled at this, even though she was as tall as me and easily as strong.  Just then the bell rang and everyone made a break for the school. I found my self surrounded by kids, all of them telling me their names at once. I had quickly become the school hero. I walked into my class encircled with my friends. My teachers name was Mrs. Prox, by recess I had met two girls. Rachel Wallace and Lisa Colling. It turned out they were my age, and in a few of my classes. The day passed without problems until P.E. I went into the gym and groaned when I saw who were there, Sandra and her clique. When they spotted me , Sandra got everybody into a group and giggling and looking over at me. I gulped and wondered what they could do to me. They headed over to the P.E. teacher and started talking to him. I wasn’t close enough to hear what they were talking about, so I moved in. Just as I got close enough to hear, they parted and Mr. Vandol said, “Alright kids, we are going to play, dodgeball.”

Chapter three

Dodgeball? I couldn’t stand the game. But I couldn’t let Sandra and her clones see that they had succeeded. I wished I could be with Anna, she had a lot more courage than me. I set myself on the line, tweet! As I sprinted off, I quickly discovered that I was much faster than most of my team. Lisa and Rachel were by my side in an instant, they started talking all at once. “Did you see Sandra?”

“I don’t think she like you what do you think?” “She may be annoying, but she is pretty!”

“I absolutely love Kelly’s shoes, what did you think?”

“I know right? They are just to die for!” They said the last part in unison, then I had enough. I was not in the mood to talk about my enemies fashion taste. At my old school, I could do athletics well, and I was proud of it.

Ugh! I hate the drama at this school. When at last dodgeball was over, I didn’t get out once, I headed to the gym to take a nice long shower. Only to discover, that they were all ‘saved’, but one. I stepped in, but not before noticing that Sandra was watching me. I stepped in and quickly figured out why no one had taken it. Icy cold water fell down on me and I could feel my head and then my body get numb. None the less, I showered and got dressed, ignoring everyones gawking glances. Of course, no one dared speak up because I was the new one and Sandra apparently had control over this school. Surprisingly, the ice shower felt good, because after sweating through your last class, it felt rather nice. I headed out to my bike and relaxed. I would get off at the middle school and then Anna and I would head out to our house. The middle school was only about 5 blocks away, and I didn’t feel like riding on such a windy day. None the less I rode up to the middle school and I hopped off and waited. Several people came out and gave me weird looks. I was searching for Anna when out of nowhere a hand tapped my shoulder I nearly jumped out of my skin.

Chapter 4

I turned and saw a boy who was a little taller than me, with charcoal black hair and striking green eyes. I said, “Yes?” He gave a slight smile and said, “Hi, uh aren’t you Erica?” I gave him a confused look and asked, “Yeah, how did you know?”

“My little brother told me all about you, isn’t this your first day?” I started to answer him but right then Anna and her friend walked up and Anna’s friend said, “Hey Cole, were you looking for me and found my opposite?” I stared and her and wished that looks could kill. He smiled and said, “Nah, I was just board. See you later E!” Anna, looked at her friend, “Nat, you blew him off! I told you we should have let Erica handle it herself. I looked approvingly at my sister. “Come on sis, let’s get out of here.” We grabbed our bikes and started the mile long trek back to our house. It was pretty level ground most of the way home so we talked about our days. I told her about how Sandra had some weird thing about me. “I know the feeling! Are you fairly popular?”

“Sorta, people just think I am neat because I stood up to Sandra.” I changed the subject. “Who was that kid, Cole?”

“Only the cutest guy in the seventh grade! Sorry about Asia, she likes a lot of guys and thinks she in the eighth grade.”

“That’s her name? Asia?” Anna nodded and we peddled faster home talking about our day. “Hey,” Anna asked, “I think that mom and dad might let us head into the city, do you want to ask?” I smiled and nodded. My sister and I were the best friends. My mom said yes and came with us. We had to get some school clothes so we headed in to the downtown area. This put a slight damper on our spirits, but then mom said we could get one treat apiece, we consented. As we strolled through the busy bustling city I wondered why we hadn’t moved before. The smell of hot dogs and popcorn of street filling ones nose, the people going to and fro on the streets too busy to notice anyone. I looked up at the building towering above me like an angry parent. Then I saw the homeless people on the sidewalks and wondered if it really was that great. I was interrupted by my thoughts by Anna, “Do you like this shirt?”

“Uhh, yeah sure. When are we going to go?”

“I don’t know, mom is trying to find the best deals. It could be hours.” We groaned and looked over at mom, scouring the clearance rack as usual. “Hey!” the voice sounded vaguely familiar so I turned around and there was Sandra.

“So, what you pulled at school was pretty good, pretending you liked the shower and everything, classic. So, do you want to be part of the guerillas?” to which I replied with a sweet smile, “I don’t think you need to get your family involved with this!” She glared pure daggers back at me and said, “No, g-u-e-rillas. It is a group at school, just come to room 608 at 7:30 tomorrow.” Then she and her little group just up and walked away.

Chapter 5

At seven fifteen I came to a halt in front of the school. I headed inside and started looking for room 608. Somehow I figured that this was a bad idea. I reached the door and peered in and moaned. Running around the room was a bunch of kindergarteners and the instant they saw me. They grabbed my legs so I couldn’t move without hurting someone. I heard a click and looked up. Sandra and her gang were standing there with a camera. It was then that I realized that I had been duped. Just then the Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Yean started pulling all of the little terrors off of me and started apologizing profusely. “Don’t worry about it!” I said over and over. But Ms. Yean knew how cruel elementary and middle school could be. I only said that the worst that they could do was put a picture of me in the paper with loser written across me!

This ended up being was they nearly did! The next morning, sure enough there was my picture in the paper, only it said: New student loves little children. I knew they we trying to make me look like a goody-two shoes. I just accepted it and took the teasing as it came in rude and cruel.