February 12, 1995

I was soon enrolled to Gallagher Elementary with new classes and new teachers. This school seemed a bit larger than my last school, with more sections and hall ways. The classes I took were math, P.E., and science, and luckily, they had a special ed class which was my home room.

I was a real shy and quiet kid when I was new at Gallagher Elementary. I would often not talk at all, as I was around new kids who didn't understand me, and I didn't wanna risk getting laughed at by my class mates when I stuttered. Thankfully, the few teachers I DID talk to the most were always so patient with me. I didn't feel my stutter bother me when I talked to them. Then one day, I told Mrs. Carson, my home room teacher about it all, and she agreed to help. She gave me a speech device so I could type in what I wanna say, and the device would speak for me. And it worked like a charm! Just as long as I sat at the front of the class.

June 6th, 1995

Lots of things happened during my last couple of months in 1st grade.. I turned 7, made a few new friends in home room, and I even got a few good grades! Though math was still a challenging subject for me, so I'd go to Mr. Graham's class during lunch for tutoring until the end of the year. To top it all off, my speech device got me through the rest of the school year almost perfectly! Upon exiting the building, I was handed a year book on the final day of school, and I enjoyed looking at all the photos as I rode home.

Once I was home, I jumped into my mom's arms, super excited that summer break was finally here. Once my Dad and Roscoe got home from work, we ordered a pizza and watched TV. I, eh, must have had four slices of pizza and countless chicken wings that night, cuz once I got laid on my mattress, I instantly fell into a food coma.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of the movers van and boxes being placed onto the floor.. just great. But atleast I was getting all of my books and stuffed animals back, so it wasn't as bad as last time, I guess. When they came upstairs to put the boxes in my parents' room and my room, I quickly hid in the big closet across from my bed, curling into a fetal position and rocking back and forth to try and calm myself down. I peeked through the slats of my new closet doors. The moving people talked and chuckled amongst themselves so casually. Sometimes they spoke to each other in a different language. I wondered what they were saying..? That thought was cut short when I realized one of them was approaching the closet. Just as the door opened, I yelped and bolted out of the room before hugging my dad's leg. He and a couple of the workers chuckled as dad patted my head, while I simply squeezed his leg and looked up at them, trembling in fear. "They ain't gonna hurt ya, sweetie. Can you say hello?" Dad said with a light-hearted tone, to which I held my hand up, slowly waving and giving a nervous smile. The workers waved back, and I giggled anxiously. "See, they're nice people! And you got all your favorite stuff back! We'll open your boxes once they're done, ok? I nodded happily to this.

My brothers could tell I was still a little frazzled. So Keaton took a couple hours to spend some time with me, just the two of us. He took me out to lunch at The Rusty Burger, where we talked a little about recent times, and the events of last year. "Look, I'm very sorry about how our old dad treated you.. I wish I could've done more to make it stop," he began at one point. "Just know that nothing he's ever said to you or Javier is true, nor is it worth our time. What matters is that you are sweet, loveable, and incredibly tough for someone your age. And as your big brother," he continued, "It's my job to protect you. I mean, Mom and Dad's, too, but you're my little sister. If anyone gives you trouble, you come to me, and I'll be there like your knight in shining armor. 'Kay?" He smiled. I nodded and smiled back. "Great! Now let's finish our lunch and we'll go to the malt shop for dessert. Then we could go to the mall and walk around." I clapped my hands excitedly as he said this as I absolutely LOVED soft serve ice cream and going for walks.

We arrived home at 6pm once the movers had left and furniture was put together, AND just as dinner was being prepared - dad's smoked salmon and sticky rice from mom's rice cooker. I felt myself getting hungry again, it smelled absolutely delightful! I've always been a fan of sea food. We all sat at the dinner table once dinner was being put on plates. I looked down at the plate in front of me; down at the bright orange, tender, glistening cuts of fish, and beside it a scoop of sticky white rice. I instantly chowed down, quickly eating forkfuls of the delicious meat and rice before my dad stopped me. "Haha, slow down there! Yer food ain't goin' nowhere-" I blush and giggle from embarrassment, "s-sorry!~ it's really g-g-good though." dad nodded and gave one of his smirks before he resumed eating. Nathan thought it was pretty funny to see me scarf down my food, clapping his little hands and giggling. I simply smiled at him then went back to the rest of my food.

June 29th, 1995

Today was a particularly warm day, around 79 degrees Fahrenheit. We all opted to go to an indoor pool for a swim after mom went and bought us all bathing suits and goggles. Once we got there, we paid the workers at the front of the building, and one of them instructed me to take off my helmet before entering the pool. I was a bit worried about my brain injury, but I did wanna cool off, so hesitantly, I removed my helmet and looked up at the man. "Don't worry, sweetie, you can put it back on when you leave," he said to me. I nodded lightly before I followed everyone else to the lockers. We changed into our swim suits and put our belongings into a locker, then we got into the showers and soaked ourselves for a few seconds. Then it was time for fun!

My brothers made sure I felt comfortable with my helmet off. I really appreciated that. We played a few rounds of Marco Polo, and then we talked about our favorite ocean animals during our snack break. Keaton said his favorite is the octopus, because they're really, really smart, and have three hearts; one to pump blood throughout the body, and two to pump blood through the gills where they take in oxygen. I couldn't help but be totally enamored when he talked about it. I was a sponge for knowledge about animals! And remember when I said I liked animal shows? Well, sometimes I also liked pretending to be animals. I'd wave to my parents, who were with Nathan at the baby pool. When I got their attention, I'd clap my hands and bark like a sea lion before doing somersaults under the water, much to them and Nathan's amusement.

A while later, we dried off and collected our belongings. Dad offered to take us to lunch at The Rusty Burger and get milk shakes for dessert, and instantly we said yes. Since we were all in our bathing suits and still drying, we went into the drive-thru to order our grub. I ordered my regular: a double burger with medium fries, Dr. Pepper and a strawberry milk shake. My stomach growled as I smelled the food being placed into the middle seats of the car, and I pouted when mom said to wait until we got home, as she didn't want us making a mess or dropping anything in there.

Once we got in the house, Roscoe greeted us and we were handed our respective meals and we sat down in front of the TV and watched cartoons while we ate. Things went back to normal for a while after this.

July 16th, 1995

It was my first time going to the zoo today, after I got dressed and brushed my hair and teeth we hopped into the car and drove off once again. It took around 12 minutes to arrive at our destination, but I could already tell that it was worth it. We all got out of the car and stretched a little before we made our way to the zoo's main entrance, mom paying for our admission to the place. Once we entered, my eyes grew wide with excitement: animals!.. I've been watching them on TV for so long, but seeing them in REAL LIFE.. I could've sworn I was dreaming. In fact, I got so excited that my parents had to hold both my hands to prevent me from wandering off.

We strolled throughout the animal enclosures and looked around at animals of all sizes, colors, patterns and physiques. We stopped to see the giraffes and feed them food pellets. I held my hand out flat with food pellets in my palm, and the next thing you know, a giraffe came by and slurped the pellets out of it. I shuddered at the slimy texture of the creature's long, purple tongue as it touched my skin. I shook the saliva off my hand before looking up at my dad, who was holding a video camera and filming. I chuckled sheepishly, waving my hand like a bear at him.

As we walked, I asked mom, "Mama, are there any d-d-dinosaurs at the z-zoo?" she shook her head, "no sweetie. Dinosaurs have all gone extinct, remember?"

"O-oh, right."

"But we can see what they looked like at the Natural History Museum sometime. Would you like that?" Dad chimed in.

"Yeah! I-I'd like th-that a lot!" I nodded in response.

Soon we went and saw the monkeys and the birds (my personal favorite of the birds was the kookaburra, he really had me crackin' up!). I enjoyed seeing the gibbons and the spider monkeys swingin' around on their ropes, matter of fact I was super invested for a few moments.. and that's when one specific thought came to mind for the 1st time: what was it like to be an animal?.. after a few moments I snapped out of it when Mom took my hand and gestured me to follow the others to the penguin habitat.

Fortunately for us, it was feeding time for the penguins! I watched closely as the zoo keepers handed big, juicy looking fish to the black and white flightless birds, who greedily gulped the fishes whole. I kind of found it funny the way their heads bobbed up and down as they ate, but all-in-all feeding time was fun to watch.

However, of all the animals we observed that day, there's one animal that I've been aching to see - the tigers! When I saw them, I rushed over to the plexiglass and there they were! One of them was sleeping in the back of the enclosure, and the other was sitting just on the other side of the glass. He looked so.. big and fearsome, just like I wished to be one day. Dad then asked me to "look fierce", so I snarled and put my hands up like claws as he took a shot.

After we saw all there was to see, it was time to go back home. I let out a big yawn as I sat in the back seat with Keaton, resting my head against his shoulder as I nodded off a few minutes later.

When I woke up, I was in my bed at home. Someone must've taken me and placed me there while I was fast asleep, I thought. It was around dinner time, so I thought I'd go downstairs to the kitchen and ask what was on the menu. "H-hey mama, w-wh-what's fer d-dinner?" I asked, stuttering over my words as usual. "We're doing pick-and-choose tonight, honey. You can make a sandwich or warm up some pizza rolls." I chose pizza rolls, so she gestured Javier to come in and help me warm up my quick dinner.

"Remember - only ten!" dad called out from the living room. I did as I was asked and picked out 10 pizza rolls onto a paper plate and microwaved them for around 2 minutes. I held them in front of the fan to cool them down faster, which often worked like a charm. I ate my dinner and drank a nice, tall glass of orange juice, then played "Kirby's Dreamland" on my GameBoy for a while until I wound up nodding off again for the rest of the night.