December 1st, 2006
Dear Diary,
Happy Death-Day Mom. I just can't believe it's been one year since the traumatizing death of my mother, Florence Fishtooth. It was a very hard topic on a ten-year-old. Dad was left on the edge, as well. He's really loosing life recently. This past year he's been trying to date other women, but a socially awkward 38-year-old man was a hard man to choose upon. The hardest it was on was on my 10 ½-year-old brother, Milo. Yep, he was defiantly a mamma's boy. I couldn't even stand to tell him it. I mean, he was nine. 4th grade was not our best year. Well, it was at the beginning of the year. But Dad took me out of school and took me to the hospital. We didn't tell Milo until later that day. But when we did, Milo didn't leave his room at all. The whole day. Luckily, something happened this year in 5th grade I'm awful proud of.
Through the rest of 4th grade, I was shy. I was a man of a few words and had rarely anything to say. When people asked me about myself, I never knew what to say, because I have somehow lost my purpose and hopes. But when 5th grade rolled around, I started out the same way. It was only 3 months ago 5th grade started at Freshwater Elementary, and I stayed a loner. It was not until September 24th that Ms. Griffith announced a new student. Since it was a girl, they boys in class muttered things like 'Great, what we needed, more girls'. But we were sadly mistaken. In came Bea Goldfishburg, and I must say she's an angel. Her voice like silk, her hair as red as a strawberry, sculpted into a single ponytail. But I'm a boy and she's a girl, I'm supposed to despise girls. That's the whole 'Cooties' situation and discrimination between boys and girls. But now I'm having these feelings at such a young age?
Yeah, it's pretty mushy to use this gift for a love poetry book. Yes, this diary is a gift. For an early Fishmas present, my grandma gave me this while she was in the tanks. And I'm so certain that I'll keep writing in this for a long time. Heck, this thing has over 1,000 pages. Maybe in the future, this will be a great reference source for me. If future Oscar is reading this, you may be in a rough time now. High school, college, careers, love. But just know this: you've been through this sort of thing before and you've survived. No matter how hard it could get, your pals Milo and Bea will always be there. And you're Oscar, nothing can stop you. Just admit to your problems and you'll live on very powerful.
Sincerely,
Oscar Fishtooth, age 11.