It was a foggy day in may when the helicopters began to land. The loud sound of their blades bouncing around in my head. I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes from the harsh light and fall asleep. I was so so tired. I just wanted to sleep. But something in my gut told me not to. Something told me something was wrong. I wasn't sure exactly what was wrong but I knew something really bad was happening. White suddenly filled my vision and I realized it was a shirt, on a man. He was yelling. I couldn't make out what he was saying over the ringing in my head but it he looked really worried as his eyes darted from me, well, my abdomen, and then to whoever was getting out of the helicopter. I was in and out of consciousness for the next few hours but when I woke up I was in a hospital bed surrounded by my family. My brothers Michael and Sam were sitting next to each other on a small bench with red eyes and my mother was sitting in a chair with her head in her hands. Her shoulders shook softly as if she was crying. When MIchael looked at me and realized I was awake I had suddenly been tackled to the hospital bed and crushed in tearful hugs. Looking back on it now I couldn't help but smile and chuckle softly. They had treated me like glass for three months after that. It was just a small skiing accident but I had nearly died of hypothermia and blood loss from a broken leg. "What are you laughing about," Michael poked me in the ribs from where he sat next to me. We were all in the car driving to Santa Carla to live with our grandpa. "Just remembering something funny," I said jabbing him back. The car ride wasn't bad at all. We passed a sign on the way that said 'welcome to santa carla' but on the back Michael pointed out that it said 'murder capitol of the world' in big red spray painted letters. When we finally pulled up to the house we all got out of the car and walked forward to see grandpa lying on the porch looking dead. "Dad?" mom asked kneeling next to him. "He looks dead," Michael said.
"If he's dead can we go back to phoenix?" asked Sammy. I snorted and pulled my duffle bag higher on my shoulder brushing past my brothers and flicking their ears. "He's not dead dimwits," "You wanna say that to my face?" Michael joked walking after me. "I just did!"
"It's on now! Let's get her Sammy!" I squealed and ran inside after mom and grandpa and up the stairs to the rooms, laughing loudly as they chased me. I quickly turned into the room at the very end of the hall and slammed the door behind me, laughing loudly as I collapsed on the bed and the door burst open behind me and Michael and Sammy came in and fell on the bed beside me.
"This is so my room, " I said throwing my bag on the floor. Michael laughed and Sammy pushed my to the side, nearly off the bed. I laughed and pushed him back and he fell onto Michael who laughed and gave us a menacing look. "HAHAHA! Run Sammy!" I grabbed his hand and took off as Michael made a grab for us. Sammy laughed and we ran out of the room back towards the stairs, he ran down them and I hopped the railing, landing next to him as we ran through the house. "Mom! Help us!" Sammy yelled laughing as we ran past her as she carried a box into the room and MIchael chased after us. "Later, hey no running in the house kids!" We ignored the last part and ran to a set of doors but when Sammy opened them we froze. Inside was tables covered in dead animals. "Ewwww talk about Texas Chainsaw Massacre," MIchael said catching up. I laughed and leaned my head back on his shoulder. "We got rules here!" Grandpa said suddenly walking into our line of vision. "I was out here last summer, I remember! I'll go unpack," I said grinning leaving my brothers giving me 'help me' eyes as I ran back up the stairs. "Triska! What did I say about running?" Mom called up the stairs as I skipped to my room. "Yes mom!" I called before closing the door behind me. I smiled as I looked around my new room. It was the same one I usually stayed in whenever I visited grandpa. It was a the second largest room to grandpa's, the master, and had it's own bathroom. There was a large window a couple feet away from a huge tree and it had another window in the bathroom by the shower. There was a large king bed on one side and a dresser on the other. The first thing I did was put my clothes away. Most of it black with some reds and a few other fun colors. Next I hung up my countless music posters and records. Then I put all of my books and sketchbooks on the shelf and put whatever art supplies that didn't fit on the old trunk that held my shoes. Happy with how my room looked I changed my outfit from paint splattered ripped jeans to a different pair of high waisted black skinny jeans with a few rips from skateboarding accidents. Then I changed into a Guns N' Roses crop top. I looked in the small mirror and checked my plain silver vertical labret piercing and ran and hand through my bright blue-green hair grinning glancing at the makeup bag on my dresser before shaking my head and pulling on a pair of black chucks before running out of my room and grinning as I bumped into MIchael. "Race you to the bike!" I said grinning as he laughed behind me and we both took off. I jumped the railing again and Mikey was right behind me as we raced to the garage where mom and Sammy were waiting. I gave a cry of triumph as I reached the bike first and gave a cheshire grin to Mikey who ran up behind me and laughing in defeat. "Shotgun! I called passing the bike and hopping the door into the car. Mom laughed as Sammy and Michael climbed into the back seat. We sang along badly to Motley Crue on the way to the boardwalk. When we got there mom said she was going to go find a job and handed Sammy ten dollars in case he wanted anything . Mikey and I had our own money. The three of us headed to what seemed to be the biggest event, live music. We stood in the middle of the crowd near the bonfire as a very sweaty guy played the saxophone. It wasn't that bad. Sammy nudged my shoulder and nodded his head towards Michael and when I looked over I snorted. He was staring at some pretty girl standing on one of the risers. "I'm gonna go find a music store or something," I said patting Michael on the shoulder and poking Sammy's head, laughing as he waved my hand off in annoyance. Squeezing my way through the crowd I made my way down the boardwalk, looking for something interesting when I felt something on my leg and looked down to see a little boy clutching at my leg. "Hey, what's wrong?" I asked kneeling down to his level. "I can't find my mommy!" he cried. "Awww, that's okay, I'll help you find your mommy. Let's go see if she's in one of these stores okay?" I asked patting his back. He nodded and held his arms out so I picked him up and balanced him on my hip as I walked into the clothes store and walked around before moving onto the next store. Three storer later we still hadn't found his mom but we found mine. She was just outside a video store and she looked surprised when she saw me. "Triska? Who's that?" she asked as we approached her. "Terry, he lost his mommy." I said readjusting him on my hip as he rested his head on my shoulder. "Oh, honey. Let's go see if anyone has seen her." she said leading me into the video store where she walked towards the counter, manned by a tall man with big glasses. "Hi, excuse me. This little boy's lost and we were wondering-" "Oh Terry! There you are! I was so worried!" A woman suddenly came into the store and I set Terry down as he ran to his mother. "Thank you so much! I was so worried!" she said picking him up. I waved her off with a smile. "It was nothing, bye Terry," I waved and he waved back over his mother's shoulder as they left the shop. "Mom I'm going to go see if I can find a carburettor for my bike, " she nodded. "Be safe hunny!" I nodded and walked out of the store and turned to my left, walking along the boardwalk and glancing in shop every now and again. Music played loudly over the speakers and the constant chatter of people and arcade games was loud and acted as a sort of white noise as I walked over to the railing, looking out over the beach. There were a ton of people amidst a couple bonfires but not many of them were in the water because it was so dark. I grinned and inhaled, closing my eyes as the scent of the ocean filled my lungs. That was the reason I always came and visited grandpa every other summer while the boys stayed with mom and dad. The ocean. Grandpa had taught me how to drive so I could come into town myself as he didn't like it very much and he had even bought me a surfboard when I turned sixteen. I grinned at the memories as I opened my eyes. Turning around I began to walk back in the direction I came. It really was getting late and MIchael and Sammy were probably getting into some kind of trouble right about now. Turning around another food stand I saw a group of relatively approachable looking guys on bikes. There were about four of them. The smallest one who was nearest me had curly blonde hair and a very bright very awesome patch jacket, he was messing around with and shoving another blonde one who looked straight out of a twisted sister poster. Slightly in front of them was another guy with long dark hair and darker skin as well, maybe native american? He was really tall and stoic looking. The last guy looked like the leader and seemed to have a permanent smirk plastered across his face. He had platinum blonde hair that was almost white and looked kind of intimidating but more interesting really. A girl was walking in their direction with a little boy but what caught my attention was the two people who walked up behind them. "Michael, Sam" I walked past the group of guys and girl and over to my brother who I raised an eyebrow at. "Hey Triska, I found a comic book store! Let's go tomorrow," Sammy said grabbing my hand. "Yeah, I need to find a bike store too, I need a carburator." I said grinning at him. Michael was still watching the girl as she got on the back of the leader one's bike and it looked like him and smirky were having a staring competition. "Come on, she stiffed ya," Sammy said grinning as we walked away from Michael laughing. The roar of bikes behind us grew quieter as they drove away and Michael sighed as he followed behind us. "Awww, come on Mikey, not like it was love at first sight," I said grinning and patting his back. Sammy snorted and ran up behind us barreling into Michael who laughed and started to chase him in the direction of the car. "Hey wait up!" I ran after them.