A Story of My Life: Part One

     "Run, Carrie, run!" Johnny laughed as he ran down the street, shielding the rain from his head with his backpack.

     I laughed as I followed my older brother down Bradford Street. I was getting soaked, but the rain felt good against my feet. A long, boring day of school had ended and I was eager to get home and talk with Maria, my owner.

     How do I describe Maria? She's very friendly and is constantly trying to make money to buy me a petpet and a paint brush. She always says she's close to getting me one, but I don't mind if it takes her 10 years. I just want us to be together forever.

     Unfortunately, Johnny doesn't feel the same way. He said that a long time ago Maria adopted him from the pound because his original owner was her friend and he asked her to take him in. I'm not sure why anyone would want to abandon Johnny. He's so sweet to me. Anyways, Johnny claimed that Maria was awful to him and that she made him clean the house every minute of his life and she would hit humiliate if he didn't do a good enough job. He once told me that when she got angry at him she made him roll around in the mud and go into every store and say what a terrible child he had been.

     I don't believe him.

     At least, I didn't believe him until we got home that faithful day. We reached our NeoHome, gasping for breath and laughing, wiping rain off our backpacks. Johnny reached into the front pocket of his bag and started to pull out the keys. Just then the door swung open and Maria stumbled out with three suitcases.

     "Hi Maria!" I said cheerfully. I glanced at the suitcases. "Where are you going?"

     And right then and there Maria broke down into sobs. She fell to the ground and cried. Johnny gave her a dirty look which I didn't think she deserved at all. I bent down and stroked her head.

     "What's the matter, Maria?" I whispered gently. My heart started to race and I felt myself go numb. What had happened?

     "You two!" Maria wailed. "I've let you down. Look at you, Carrie. I can't even afford you a paint brush! You're a stupid yellow Acara and Johnny's a dumb blue Shoyru."

     "Stupid?" Johnny looked furious, but he didn't say anything more.

     "Maria, why are you talking like this?" I asked my voice wobbling.

     Maria took some deep breaths and wiped her eyes with her hands. "I gambled," she confessed. "Today I went gambling. I lost all our money and now we're being kicked out of our house."

     I sat there in the rain. I will never forget that moment of my life. Not ever. Not even when I'm old and have a memory disorder. I felt my whole head spin around, I clutched Johnny's arm and felt myself sink into the ground. What?

     "What are you talking about?" Johnny demanded. "Why are we getting kicked out?"

     "I can't afford the house anymore, Johnny," Maria whispered. "It's not ours anymore."

     "And why can't you just make more money?" Johnny asked furiously. "We can play games and sell things in our shop…"

     "I sold our shop," Maria said glumly. "I needed more money to gamble. The games…" She snorted. "Like that'll do anything. You know I'll just get sucked into the gambling corner again if we go there."

     "How could you do this to us!?" Johnny yelled. "What are we going to do with our lives now? What? Tell us that!"

     That whole time I sat there, stunned. I listened to them argue, but I didn't hear a single word. I watched Maria slap Johnny across the face, but I saw nothing. Everything was going in slow motion now. I felt my stomach twist.

     "For your information, we'll be staying with my cousin, Sherry," Maria snapped. "She has graciously decided to take us in with no charge. She has no pets of her own so that's convenient."

     "Convenient?" Johnny yelled. "Where does she live? What about school?"

     "She lives on the other side of Neopia if you must know," Maria said, sounding tired. "And you're going to have to skip school for a few weeks or so."

     The next words I heard loud and clear. I was finally awake when I heard Johnny speak.

     "I hate you."

     Then something terrible happened. Maria stood up and pushed Johnny right on to the road. He lay there, mud splattered over his wings. I jumped up, shocked. I ran to help him, but Maria pulled me back.

     "Don't," she hissed. "He can get up by himself."

     Johnny stumbled to his feet, panting angrily. He just glared at Maria. Glared until I could stand it no longer.

     "Stop it!" I yelled. "Both of you! We are going to go find shelter right this instant."

     "Then we should be off to Sherry's house." Maria glanced at her watch. She picked up the three suitcases. "If you don't mind," she said sweetly. "I can't carry all of these by myself."

     She was acting like what had happened five minutes ago hadn't happened.

     The walk to Sherry's house was horrid. It was still pouring rain and thunder crackled above us. We would usually ride our bikes to get to faraway places, but in this case, Maria had sold our bikes.

     I couldn't figure it out. I didn't want to hate Maria and I didn't want to hate Johnny. There was no reason for me to hate Johnny, but there was a reason for me to hate Maria. I wondered why I still wanted her to be with me. She scared me so much when she had pushed Johnny on to the road. Had he been right? Did she really do all those awful things to him? I suppose I can only imagine. She seems to be back to her sweet self now. She said how lovely Sherry's house is and is being very cheery. Johnny is avoiding her like she's going to throw him into the path of a bike. Now I can't be sure WHAT she's going to do.

     As we walked by the Food Shop I realized how hungry I was. My stomach growled loudly. I hoped nobody noticed, but they did.

     "Feed your kid, missy!" a red Bruce shouted at Maria. "Can't you see she's starving?"

     "Mind your own business!" Maria growled. I looked at her, shocked that she would speak in such a harsh way. She gave me a sweet smile.

     We continued on our way.

     While we were walking down a long street with houses on both sides, I found a half eaten apple on the ground. I picked it up, but Johnny snatched it away from me and threw it on the ground.

     "You don't eat things on the ground," he said firmly.

     I nodded numbly.

     I wondered how far Sherry lived. Would she be kind? I hope so. It would be awful to live with someone unkind. How long would we live with her?

     While we were walking, Maria kept making funny grunting sounds. She kept glaring at Johnny, but put on smiles when I glanced at her. I wondered what was going on with her.

     I think I wonder too much, but I'm not too sure. I was still deep in thought when we reached Sherry's house.

     "Here we are!" Maria said brightly. We stood in front of a large yellow house with a big red front door. What was most peculiar was that the door wasn't rectangular. It was made to look like a circle.

     "Is that her house?" I whispered.

     Maria nodded. She started to knock on the door.

     Johnny pulled me aside.

     "Aren't you even a little angry about what she did to us?" he hissed in my ear. "She ruined our lives and you still adore her! What is wrong with you?"

     I pulled away from him. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Should I be furious? I don't know. She is my owner after all. Everything was so confusing.

     Maria knocked three times loud on the circular door. I held my breath as I heard footsteps. I didn't know what to expect at all.

     Would Sherry be a tall towering figure with a knife? Would she be plump and holding a chocolate cake? I had no idea.

     The door swung open.

     I admit it.

     I was scared.

To be continued...