As Luna walked into her large breezy house, she contemplated over what she should do next. She sat on her light blue and white striped couch and studied her legs, thinking of what to do to cure her overwhelming boredom. She picked up her cellular phone and called one of her old friends from Vancouver, Jamal. She reached his voice mail.
“Hey Mal, it is Luna. Just hit me up when you can. Bye,” she said. She slowly got up and walked onto her back porch and through her small gate to the bay. Luna missed Vancouver very much, but absolutely loved the location of her new home, in Mission Bay, San Diego. She had a beautiful lime green and purple, two story house. When her mother had told her what the house would look like, she thought it would look hideous, but when she actually had seen it, she fell in love with the color. Her home also had come with a huge bird cage in the small side yard. They filled it with many amazingly colored parakeets, cockatoos, and finches. Although they were very pretty to look at and fun to talk to, they were quite noisy and messy. The exterior of the house was a reflection of the interior. It was very colorful, noisy, and messy, but uniquely beautiful.
Luna walked down the cement path and soon reached the sand of the bay. She slowly paced over to the water and slid down into the hot sand. She peered at the bay and listened to the seagulls caw and small children screaming and splashing each other with the contaminated salt water. Luna lay down fully, getting sand in her hair. She sighed, still not content with herself. She quickly got up and began to walk down the sandy cement path, passing her house, and onto the street side. Luna looked both ways and dashed across the busy street and to another side street. She walked along the short street and eventually arrived at the beach. It wasn’t before long that Luna ran into several of her acquaintances from school.
“Well Moon, where is your sister?” A surfer boy, named Kirby, asked her.
“Oh she died in my mother’s womb, that’s where she is.” It was true, she did have an unborn sister.
“Oh wow. Luna, all on her own for once. They should record this moment in the history books!”
“Just shut up, Kirby. No one wants to here you talk, okay?”
“Whatever.” He walked away with his little clique as Luna strolled over to Crystal Pier. Once she arrived to the pier, she walked along the edge and looked across the beach to see all of the surfers crashing under the salty waves they attempted to catch.
Life was quite dull for Luna at the moment. As she peered out at the surfers, she thought that they reminded her or her pitiful life. The surfers’ riding their waves, unaware of how hard the powerful wave they’re riding is about to break on them. And how they continue to ride it out until the unthinkable happens and they get stifled when the water fills their throats and twists around their bodies like an anaconda. That was virtually a mirror image of Luna’s life. But she was still riding out the wave, still waiting for it to break.
At that moment, Luna’s phone began to vibrate in her back pocket. She flipped out her cell phone, both hoping and expecting it to be Jamal. It wasn’t. Luna vacantly stared at the name and number on her phone as it continued to vibrate. Ash it read. She reluctantly pressed the TALK button.
“Hello,” she said monotone.
“Hey Luna, where are you this exact moment?”
“Crystal Pier. Why? Where are you?”
“I’m here standing at your stupid house waiting for your lazy butt to get over here. Come on!” Ash annoyingly ordered.
Luna sighed, “Yeah okay. I’ll be there soon.” Luna hung up her phone before Ash could say anything else. She slowly and grudgingly made her way home to meet Ash.
Luna and Ash appeared to be twin sisters. Same dark hair, russet skin, and emerald eye color. Nearly the same height (Luna was two inches taller), same body type. They came and left school together. Everyone always saw them together shopping, surfing, sun-bathing, eating out, everyone basically saw them together everywhere. But the unexpected aspect was that they dressed entirely different. Ash usually wore her bathing suit under every article of clothing; she always wore some sort of flowery or patterned flowing blouse or dress, and ripped up Bermuda jean shorts. Everything Ash wore was perfectly tailored to her body. Luna, on the other hand, was very homemade. She enjoyed making clothing herself, or altering other pieces of clothing she had bought. She especially liked to destroy old jeans. She bleached, ripped, sewed, dyed, sanded, and really did anything anyone could possibly do to a pair of jeans. But whatever she made, worked. She could bleach a whole pair of black jeans, making them a rust color, and they would still look good on her. That’s what made her popular among a great deal of girls at her school who wanted her clothes.
Once Luna arrived home, Ash was sitting on a lawn chair on Luna’s back porch.
“Eww who’s that ugly dude walking towards me? Oh wait, that’s Luna!” Ash said, laughing.
“Oh Ash have you looked in the mirror lately?”
“Yeah actually I did. The enchanted mirror said I was the fairest of them all so bite me.”
“Ugh whatever, you can be the evil queen and I’ll be Snow White,” Luna replied.
“Hey at least I get to be a queen and you die!”
“Ashley, Snow White doesn’t die.”
“Oh, well I’ve never seen it.” Luna laughed at that remark.
Luna and Ash walked down the street to several shops where they both bought a couple of bathing suits. Everyone in San Diego had a limitless supply of bathing suits, which made it difficult for Ash and Luna to find original bathing suits that they wouldn’t find on someone else. Their favorite store to purchase bathing suits from was a small space where a lady made custom bathing suits for them. They would get measured and they would tell the woman what color, style, and material they wanted their bathing suits. The only problem with that was it was incredibly expensive to have them made.
Luna and Ash hung out together at the beach for several more hours until Ash’s mother wanted her to come home. As Luna walked home, she felt her phone vibrate again. She quickly pulled it out. It read Mal.
“Ello love,” she answered in a British tone.
“Hey Luna, what’s up?” Jamal asked.
“Not much, just walking home from the beach. You?”
“Eh just chilling at home. It’s so freaking cold here I bet you I’m going freeze my ass off,” Jamal complained.
“Ahaha. Man Mal, we got eighty something degree weather down here!”
“I hate you, Luna, I really do. With a passion, too. I hope you know,” Jamal replied.
“Yeah I got the hint awhile back. So many people have said that to me, the words have lost all meaning.”
“Wow, Luna. That really says something about you. Look I gotta go. I called just to see what you wanted and you obviously don’t have anything pressing so I’ll hit you up later.”
“Aww that sucks. Okay, whatever, bye,” Luna hung up her phone. She was nearly home by now; they hadn’t gone far. The sun wouldn’t set for another couple hours or so, but Luna was already exhausted. She hadn’t slept well for several months and it really got to her at the end of the day. It was Sunday night and Luna would have to get up fairly early the following day. That night, she just sat around and later attempted to fall asleep, but her attempts failed until late into the night where she only slept about three hours.
Monday was tedious for Luna. All day she just had masses of work in every class and Ash was trying Luna’s patience. Ash had an awful habit of being terribly critical of every single aspect of everyone else’s lives but her own. Ash also was quite boorish. She treated people kindly on the outside, usually, but she was a Benedict Arnold when they turned around. She talked smack about every living thing possible. It annoyed the heck out of Luna. When Luna had previously lived in Vancouver, everyone was exceedingly polite and well-mannered. No one would back stab or act immature, probably because they were the only teens in the whole urban city. They were used to having to act adult and they were very independent. None of those characteristics could ever be found in Ash, or even related with her.
After school, Ash of course wanted to hang out with Luna, but Luna wasn’t in the mood to put up with Ash. “Sorry, Ash, but I’m busy after school,” she lied.
“You’re such a dirty liar. What are you doing?” Ash asked.
“I’m going to my cousin’s house.”
“Then blow them off, you’re always hanging out with your stupid cousins,” she said insolently.
“Sorry Ash. My mom is making me go. Otherwise, I would hang out with you,” Luna replied, not trying to sound irritated. Luna walked home and decided she really did want to go to her cousin’s house.
“Hey Leila!” Luna said as her cousin answered the phone. “So uh what are you guys up to today?”
“Oh not much. Why what are you up to?” Leila was about two years older than Luna, who was fifteen.
“Well… I’m kind of just sitting here, being bored… Wondering what you guys were up to… Maybe if you wanted to, I don’t know, hang out…” Luna hinted.
“Wow,” Leila laughed, “Luna you could have just said that in the first place, you know. Yeah sure we should hang. Um how about I pick you up and we go back here to my place?”
“Yeah that would be great. See you in like fifteen?”
“Okay bye Luna,” Leila said as she hung up the phone. Leila lived in La Jolla, the rich side of San Diego. Luna had always detested La Jolla because it made her feel poor. The large houses, beautiful beach scenes, expensive clothing boutiques, the Lamborghini dealership, they all made her feel poor, even though she had an incredible house on Mission Bay that was worth nearly a million dollars. But she didn’t have a Lamborghini or fancy expensive clothes. That’s what Luna actually like about Leila and her brother, Damien who was sixteen. They always had their own style and they didn’t go around driving a Hummer that they got for their sixteenth birthday. They didn’t by fancy impulse items or show off their cool new expensive gadgets. They actually didn’t like advertising their money.
Leila and Damien lived with their divorced mother, Clarice. Clarice was one of the coolest people Luna had ever met. She owned her own little successful boutique in La Jolla and all of the clothes she sold were handmade, by her. Clarice is what inspired Luna to begin making her own clothes and she taught her how to use a sewing machine. Clarice also was a very smart business woman. If she wanted something done, it was going to be done and if it didn’t, Clarice would step in and do it herself. She also knew all that there was to know about herbs and home remedies. She was like the herbal queen. Luna’s mother, Scarlett, always said that once Clarice retires from her old boutique thing, she should become an herbalist of some sort or work for an herbal medicine shop.
Clarice was once married to Damien and Leila’s father, Jeremy. Jeremy wasn’t at all a bad man, but everyone in the family despised him. He was a very wealthy realtor and it seemed like his passion was to boast about it. He wore a suit every day, no matter where he went. He drove his black, mint condition 560 SEL Mercedes Benz everywhere he went and he was never off of his cell phone or PDA or laptop. He wore his expensive Italian loafers even to the beach. He also got a fake tan every month. Jeremy’s main concern was his job, and that’s it. He didn’t care about Damien or Leila or even Clarice during their marriage. That’s why Clarice divorced him. He was a business man, not a husband, and definitely not a father. Jeremy had no problem with Clarice wanting full custody; although he made it clear he didn’t care for paying child support.
Both Damien and Leila hated their father with a passion. Damien disliked his father the most out of everyone because he had always wanted a typical childhood relationship with his father, but obviously he never got it. He had always dreamt of playing catch in the backyard or learning to ride a bicycle with his father. The only father figure to Damien was Luna’s older brother, Nathaniel. Nathaniel was now twenty-one and he made a fact of it. Nobody thought Nathaniel was at all a quality role model for Damien. Even Damien knew he shouldn’t follow Nathaniel, but there was nobody else there for him. For two people five years apart, Damien and Nathaniel got along like peanut butter and jelly. So now that Nathaniel was away at college, Damien was dreadfully lonely. He had plenty of friends, but he really missed Nathaniel. Everyone missed Nathaniel’s recklessness. Luna always thought Damien reminded her so much of Nathaniel because they were so alike.
Leila hated her father, too, but she’d rather not talk about him or bring him up. Hear no evil, see no evil. Jeremy was dead to Leila. If ever he came up, Leila would just walk out of the room until the conversation was over. But she didn’t view him as an absolutely terrible person; she just thought he wasn’t much of a person at all. She said she never thought about him, or cared for him. He was just the dude in the background.
Luna heard a car honk twice and she knew it was Leila. She quickly gathered her possessions and ran out the back door, which lead to a back alley that Leila was double parked in. Luna jumped into the passenger seat of the bright green Scion xB and they drove off. They went to Leila’s miniature mansion in La Jolla and decided to go to Children’s Beach, a beach that was initially designated for the children to play in, but was soon taken over by sea lions. Children’s Beach was Leila and Luna’s favorite beach to go to during the spring because all of the baby sea lions would be there, rolling around and crawling. It was the cutest thing to see.
Later, Luna’s mother came over and they decided to go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. Luna’s mother went back home, but Luna slept over, even though it was a Monday night. Luna always slept over at Leila’s place no matter what day because Scarlett trusted Clarice enough and vice versa. They could put their children in each others hands for years on end and still have peace of mind. They even all had a separate set of clothes at the other person’s house.
The next several weeks went on as usual. Lately, Ash was noticing that Luna was hanging out with her cousins a little too often. She had never liked any of them, actually. She thought Leila was an attention hog and was trying to steal Luna from Ash because everybody knew Leila didn’t like Ash at all. Ash thought Damien was a demon child, probably only because of his name. She said he was evil and she saw him trying to set Luna’s house on fire. But everyone knew he would never do anything so irresponsible. Ash also believed that Clarice was smoking pot and if Clarice would ever say anything, Ash would say something like “Shut up, pothead” or “Users are losers” or something else and it really irritated Clarice. One day Clarice was pushed so far over the edge, she slapped Ash across the cheek. Ash became very angry and told her mother to sue, but her mother refused.
“Hey Luna, we’re chilling after school, kay?” Ash asked Luna one day.
“Sorry, busy,” she replied simply.
“Ugh man, if you’re going to your damn cousins’ house, I’m going kill you.”
“Ash, one day you’re going to be in Compton or something and you’re going to threaten somebody and they’re going to shoot you,” Luna said, annoyed.
“Whatever. Well until then, you’re hanging with me.”
“Yeah… No I don’t think so. Sorry,” Luna replied as she quickly fled before Ash could say anything else to her. Recently, Luna was becoming excessively annoyed with Ash and Ash knew it, too.
The next day, Luna was about to walk home from school when one of Ash’s friends, Anna Lese came up to her.
“Um hey Luna, have you been feeling alright lately?” Anna Lese asked timidly.
“Uh… Yeah, why?”
“Well Ash was kind of upset at you earlier and she was wondering what was-”
“You have got to be kidding me. She sent you here to see if I was mad?” Luna truly was angry now.
“Well not exactly. She was just concerned-”
“Concerned?” Luna interrupted again. “Ash concerned? Yeah, very funny. Look you can tell Ashley that the only reason I would be mad at her is that she sent you to take care of her business,” Luna said as she turned around and walked away.
As soon as Luna ditched Anna Lese, she got a call from Ash. She reluctantly answered.
“What?” She answered.
“Luna? What happened with you and Anna Lese? She said you really mean to her.”
Luna sighed, “No Ash, Anna Lese is just a bit sensitive. I wasn’t being mean at all.”
“Okay well that’s not what she said. Just checking. Bye,” and Ash hung up.
For the next several days, Luna tried to overlook her anger with Ash and tried to act normal and hang out with her. It seemed like Ash didn’t even notice any difference at all so Luna carried on. Luna attempted to hang out with Ash more and act normal so that Ash would continue to live in her own little utopia.
About two and a half weeks later, Luna was walking home from school as she received a phone call from her mother.
“Hello.”
“Hey Luna, baby, where are you,” her mother sounded distressed. This worried Luna a bit; Scarlett didn’t ever have that tone.
“Um I’m walking home. Mom, what’s wrong? What happened?” Luna was becoming frantic.
“Luna, I’ll talk to you when you get home, okay? Everything’s perfectly fine, don’t worry.” Luna knew her mother all too well to tell between the truth and a lie. This was an obvious cover-up.
Luna walked home as swiftly as she could manage. Once she arrived home, she was exhausted and nearly out of breath. Her mother wasn’t home yet, so Luna sat tensely on the edge of the striped couch, anticipating her mom’s arrival. Approximately five minutes later, which seemed like ages to Luna, she heard her mother pull into the parking spot in the back of the house. Luna unwillingly stayed where she was and waited for her mother to come in. Scarlett soon entered the house quietly through the back door carrying a grim face and heavy bloodshot eyes. Right away, Luna suspected something terrible had happened. She bolted off the couch so fast she nearly ran into her mother.
“Oh my gosh, what happened?” She was truly worried now.
“Luna, honey, sit down will you?” Luna sat as ordered. “There has been a terrible accident.”
Luna was all too familiar with those six words. Every time someone had been seriously ill or hurt or died, those were the dreaded words used to break the news. She already feared the worst.
“Your aunt Clarice,” her mother continued, “has been in a fatal car accident.”
Luna stared straight ahead, num with shock. She immediately felt like she was living in a surreal nightmare. She held her breath, waiting to wake up, but nothing happened. She clenched her jaw and managed to whisper in a raspy voice, “What happened?”
“Clarice was driving home when a dub teenage boy trying to impress his girlfriend lost control of his car because he was moving too fast. He spun around and ran head on into Clarice’s car. It all happened so fast, all three died on the spot.”
“Are you serious?” She continued to whisper, throat sore, on the verge of breaking into tears.
Her mother whispered back, “I’m so sorry.” Scarlett wrapped her arm tightly around Luna’s shoulders. She, too, was very close to crying.
“Mom. Man, I’m sorry.” Luna felt absolutely terrible for her mother. Scarlett and Clarice were almost twins. Although they were about six months apart, they shared a sort of twin telekinesis. Luna had no idea how Scarlett would be capable of living without Clarice. “Where will Damien and Leila go?” Luna asked her mother.
“Don’t worry about them, honey. They will stay with us for now,” her mother answered as mascara stained tears ran down her cheeks. That last “for now” part frightened Luna. Where else could they go that wasn’t with Luna and Scarlett? “Are you going to be alright, honey?” Her mother asked, concerned.
“Yeah, yeah. But Mom, are you going to be okay?” She questioned her mother.
“Don’t worry about me, Luna. I’ll make it through,” she answered with a few sobs, “just remember, everyone has their set time and it happens for a reason. It’s all apart of God’s divine plan,” Scarlett comforted her daughter. Luna disliked it when her mother used God to cover up something bad. “It’s all meant to be” or “It’s supposed to be that way” were some of Scarlett’s favorite things to say. “I’m sorry, but I need to go pick up Damien at Shannon’s house,” she said as she slowly stood up. Shannon was Damien’s girlfriend for nearly a year now.
“Oh my. Does Damien know?”
“Yes, honey. He said he wanted to talk with Shannon for awhile. I believe she has recently lost someone in her family, too.”
“Uh yeah, her sister. Um when will Leila come?” Luna asked, worried about her dear cousin.
“She said she needed some time to be alone and then she’s going to pack some of her and Damien’s belongings up and come over.”
Scarlett soon left and Luna was alone with her wretched thoughts. She hated it. She had developed an awful habit of avoiding deaths. Like when her grandfather recently passed, Luna just felt num, as she did now. She felt very num and emotionless for days and then soon returned to her daily life. Anytime her grandfather was spoken off, which seemed like very often, she just felt like hiding and avoiding it all. And she did, just instead of hiding in a corner or something, she hid in her mind. She hid in a dark place where sad thoughts couldn’t break through her force field. Eventually, those thoughts broke through the barrier and attacked her with great force. She spent a whole afternoon nestled in her closet, just sobbing and sobbing. By the time she was done, her tee shirt was stained with tears, eyes bloodshot, and throat scratchy and sore.
Luckily for Luna, Leila arrived nearly five minutes after Scarlett had left. Right away, Luna embraced her cheerless cousin and tried to comfort her. As predicted, Leila immediately broke into tears. Everyone knew Leila was pretty sensitive and they all knew she would be crying for a long time after this, and with good reason. Luna arranged her bed for Leila and she arranged the bed in the guest room for Damien. Luna planned on sleeping on the couch, although she knew she would hear protest from both of her cousins who would kindly offer their comfy beds.
Eventually Damien and Scarlett arrived. And, of course, Damien wasn’t crying and probably wasn’t planning on it either. He hadn’t cried since he was a baby. Sometimes people would tell him that it was okay to cry and he felt personally offended by those comments. He believed crying was a sign of weakness and that he didn’t even remember how to cry, although Luna was suspicious that it was all an act.
The mood for the next several weeks was very solemn. No one really conversed with each other and they all were too depressed to eat very much. Luna knew her cousins’ grades must have been drastically dropping, because they never did anything. Luna, herself, found it difficult to focus on her school work and Ash was definitely not helping.
“Dude, Luna, what is your problem? You’ve become so boring,” Ash said several days after the accident.
“Ash, I haven’t told you yet, but my aunt has just been in a fatal car accident.”
“And…?”
“She died, Ash. She died,” Luna answered, frustrated with Ash more than ever.
“Eh, good riddance.”
“Excuse me?” Luna was unbelievably insulted by that remark.
“What? Are you deaf? I said ‘good riddance’.”
“What in God’s name is the matter with you?” She yelled right in Ash’s face.
“Chill. That woman was a mean old witch. Trust me, it’ll be better this way.” Ash simply said as she pushed Luna aside and continued to make her way down the sidewalk.
“Ashley, I don’t even know where to begin with you,” and Luna completely turned around, going the opposite direction of her house, but she didn’t care. She took a back street home and when she arrived home, she was still absolutely furious with Ash. She grabbed all her pictures taken of Ash and brought them into the secluded back alley and set them afire. She watched in admiration as the picture perfect Ash burned to a crisp. She then took the “friendship bracelet” Ash had made for Luna and ripped it apart into pieces and through them into the street as far as she could manage. Luna took the ugly preppy shirt Ash gave her for her birthday and ripped it apart with a knife. She blocked her on her chat room, erased her from her contacts list on her phone, and deleted Ash’s email on her computer. Luna just didn’t want to think, hear, or see Ash at all anymore. She was done. Done with putting up with Ash, done with the insults, the stupidity, and the clinginess. She was done with Ash.
The following day, Luna found out some terrible news about her cousins. Their father, Jeremy, wanted full custody of Leila and Damien. Nobody wanted the two to have to be stuck in Pennsylvania with their freak father. Scarlett was going to fight Jeremy as long as she could and got the best lawyer San Diego had to offer, although Jeremy’s lawyer was, of course, highly paid and therefore, a better lawyer. Damien would kill, literally kill, to stay in San Diego. He was planning it all out in his head, actually. He thought of ideas on ways that Jeremy could “mysteriously disappear”. The concerning part was that if Damien truly wanted to, he could have made Jeremy mysteriously disappear; Damien could do anything he put his mind to, and that means anything.
While Damien was thinking of ways to get rid of Jeremy (and Luna had to continuously remind him that you spent more time in jail for pre-meditated murder), Luna was just exploding with insane thoughts about how she would get Ash back for everything she had done to Luna. She decided she needed to cool herself down before she did something really irresponsible. She decided to go Children’s Beach, no longer visited by Leila. Happy things weren’t apart of Leila at the moment, she’d rather stay in Luna’s dark room, thinking of ways she could out smart Jeremy.
As Luna walked up to Children’s Beach, it, for some reason, reminded her a great deal of Clarice. Luna strolled down the narrow walkway looking over at the now adult sea lions. She walked to the end and stood there for several minutes. She searched the waters for dolphins but none were to be found. Luna decided to walk down the street to the shopping district. She headed down the street feeling foolish because everyone was wearing their fancy clothes and Luna was in faded jeans and a plain hoodie. Not realizing until she passed it, Luna walked right by Clarice’s old shop. She looked into the dark windows to see emptiness. All of the clothing was packed away in Scarlett’s closet and the desolate building was for lease. Luna was stuck with a familiar feeling. Not a great feeling though. It was all coming to life. When Luna peered into that boutique, she caught herself searching for her aunt, whom she knew was dead. Luna leaned against the wall and slid down it until she hit the cement pavement. She sat there for a minute and then began to weep. She knew this was going to happen, she just didn’t realize how embarrassing it would be on the streets of La Jolla.
Luna soon cleared her busy mind and remembered what her mom had said about everything was meant to be. As silly as Luna thought those sayings were, they helped when she needed them. She soon stood up and eventually Leila picked her up and they drove back home. Now that Luna’s head was clear, she knew what she was going to do with Ash. Nothing all too terrible, obviously. But it was going to be enough to get the point through.
Monday at school, Luna avoided Ash until lunch, where it would all go down. As expected, Ash walked up to Luna, her cronies not too far away; they never were.
“Hey Luna, why have you been acting like such a bitch lately?”
“Wow, Ashley, that sounds like a question that would be better directed towards you,” Luna replied.
“Excuse me?” Ash spit through her teeth.
“What? Are you deaf or something?”
“Well it sounds like you just called me a bitch.”
“And…?” Luna asked.
“You better watch yourself. You should not be messing with me. Do you realize how many friends I have willing to fight you?” Ash said, sounding idiotic.
“What friends? You can’t possibly call these people around us your ‘friends’. ”
“Uh obviously I do. And look at you! You’re the last one to talk, you have no friends.”
“I should be the last to talk? Dude, I bet you don’t know the names of half of these people and the ones you do, I know what you’ve said about them,” Luna argued.
“I haven’t said anything about them, Luna. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Okay let’s see….” She thought for a quick moment. “Like Anna Lese over there. You said she was a spineless crybaby suck-up. And you also mentioned she dresses like a dowdy housewife from the 40’s.” Luna could hear Anna Lese whimper. It was true, though. She was pretty spineless and was always crying and dressed very conservative, but nobody said anything about it.
“And James there,” she pointed towards him, “you said his mom was a prostitute and he is drug trafficking on the streets because he is so poor.” Right there, people started to get angry, but at Ash. Naturally, Ash brushed it off and denied having said any of that, but no one really believed her. Ash was known for lying often and Luna was known for being brutally honest. Luna continued to tell people what terrible things Ash had said about them and they obviously got angrier and angrier. Eventually, the vice principle came and brought Ash and Luna to his cramped office. Ash put on her façade and pretended that Luna was the wicked witch and Ash was poor Dorothy, unsuspecting to the witch’s wrath. Luna knew that the V.P. didn’t believe Ash’s bull for one second. Luna ended up being suspended for two days because of “causing trouble” and Ash too was, of course, suspended for three days for spreading malevolent rumors.
About two weeks later, Ash happily transferred to La Jolla High after being shunned by everyone. Luna figured it was better that way; Ash would fit in at La Jolla High very well. Luna did have other friends besides Ash and she was perfectly content with them. Luna also made a lot more friends just because she stood up to Ash and for telling everyone the truth, which, in Luna’s opinion, was a poor foundation for a real friendship with anybody. But she was okay with that.
Scarlett rightfully won full custody of Damien and Leila, but Leila turned eighteen right afterwards so she was legally on her own. And although Damien and Leila never were the same after their mother’s death, they were very ecstatic that they didn’t have to live in Pennsylvania with Jeremy. There eventually was a funeral service for Clarice and it was a fully attended event at Mission San Diego De Alcala. There wasn’t any happiness about this death, except the fact that she was killed quickly and probably painfully, so everybody was grim, smothered in black. Clarice died at the young age of thirty-nine.
During the 16th century, there was a hobby of many monarchs in France. The hobby was simple: people would gather dozens of cats in a net or in wicker baskets and hoist them high into the air from a special bundle onto a bonfire. Everyone laughed and danced when they heard the cats screeching and howling in pain as they slowly burned to death. After learning this, one might say, “That’s terrible. But at least nothing like that goes on today.” But they are completely wrong. Although I, myself, am not sure if anything such as burning heaps of innocent cats happens often these days, I do know that acts just as cruel are going still going on today in our modern society.
In the 1980’s, less than three decades ago, there were several infamous films made that were examples of acts of cruelty towards animals. The film Heaven’s Gate was reported to have killed chickens and bled horses from the neck that was used to smear on the actors’ faces. It also was reported that a real live horse was blown up with dynamite, a scene that actually made it into the movie. Another film, Cannibal Holocaust, was an Italian film that was hugely criticized not only for its animal cruelty, but also for its extreme use of graphic violence. Throughout the movie there is a slow and gruesome beheading of a turtle, a beheading of a monkey that’s brain is eaten by natives, a spider being chopped apart, and so much more graphic violence scenes that it’s incredibly disturbing. Films like that are continually being made to this day, despite all laws made against animal cruelty.
Sometimes it seems like acts like this are inescapable. That for some strange reason, cruelty to animals continues to happen every single day. But why would anyone want to hurt a poor, defenseless animal? Do they have no soul or are they just born like that? Studies show that children and adolescents that torture animals for fun, have extreme antisocial personalities and usually end up becoming murderers, serial killers, rapists, and child molesters. The acts of which they conduct on animals when they are young usually become acts they do to people when they become adults. If you believe that it is wrong for a human to be mistreated, beaten, tortured, or killed, then you must believe that it is just as wrong for an animal to have the same things done to them. Really the only difference is that the animal usually cannot do anything about it. But they do feel the same as we do, and hurt the same as we do. If you were to pull a cats tail, (hypothetical only; don’t actually do it) surely the cat would screech, hiss, scratch, or bite you. This makes it obvious that the animal feels pain. Why else would they do that? Are they just really moody and happened to hiss at you right after you pulled their tail? Was it just a coincidence? No. The animal feels something that they don’t like. But all they can do is attack us with what nature gave them. People, on the other hand, have knives, guns, poison, bombs, etc. We have weapons that almost no other animal could use. We have the unfair advantage.
Sometimes animal cruelty is not noticed as well as it would be if it happened to humans. In 2003, at a Danish museum, there was an art exhibit involving goldfish swimming in ten blenders. For some reason, the artist had all of the blenders plugged in. He offered anyone who came to turn on a blender. One person did and two fish were “liquefied”. The artist was not charged for animal cruelty because apparently the fish died in nearly a second and probably died painlessly. But if that were a person, the artist and the person who turned on the blender would probably be charged with homicide, even if the person died painlessly. It was cruel to kill the goldfishes because the person ended the goldfishes’ lives. It is cruel to take away a life of a poor, young, innocent animal, even if that life may be short and uneventful.
Another topic related to animal cruelty, is animal testing. People use animals to test makeup, air fresheners, drugs, and much more. This form of animal cruelty is just like the old-fashioned way of using a canary in mines. They have the canary there so that if there is a gas leak, the canary will die first and leave time for all of the miners to get out before they suffocate from the gas. Testing on animals is just the same. They test all of their products on animals to see whether it will work on people or not. Plenty of animals can die from this terrible, yet not all too well known form of animal cruelty.
Throughout the years, animal cruelty has thrived everywhere. It is as old as the Stone Age and yet we still practice it. Maybe we should all begin to learn a little more about animal cruelty so that we can stop repeating ourselves. We need to fix the mistakes of the past, but that will never happen if we continue to make those mistakes. There has been very little progress from the cat burning in the 16th century to now. Animal abuse, cruelty, and negligence still continue to happen in our society’s seedy underbelly and it needs to stop immediately. We need to stop hurting these poor animals that have not harmed us intentionally in any way.
On November 4, 2008, there was an election. On the ballot, there was a proposition for California saying that homosexuals do not have the right to get married. As of right now, this controversial proposition has passed. Thousands of people were disgusted with the turnout, including me.
The argument for the people in favor for Proposition 8 is mainly that the term “marriage” was first used in the Bible and is defined as “between a man and a woman”. It also is defined like that in the dictionary. Many of these people say that they have nothing against gay people, they just don’t believe they should use the term “marriage” because it would go against the Bible. Others that I have talked to say that there can be no procreation between the same sex. They said that those people would have to go out of their way to have or get a child. Many people also believe that gay marriage may be taught in schools and kids at young ages shouldn’t know this kind of “stuff”.
I can see where people are coming from most of the time. I believe that it is wrong to tell homosexuals they can’t get married, because it eliminates their rights. I know people say “Oh well they have domestic partnership, which is the same thing” but it’s not the same. There are some differences between “marriage” and “domestic partnership”. I don’t think everyone realizes that even just using the words “domestic partnership” is eliminating rights. It’s telling certain people that they can’t use the word “marriage”, which is discriminatory. You can’t just tell someone that they’re not allowed to use a word because it goes against some book. I also think that the reason it is defined like that in the dictionary is because at the time the dictionary was written, same sex marriage was illegal. Why wouldn’t the dictionary put in a definition that only meant between a man and a woman at the time anyways?
When people say that people of the same sex can’t have children unless they go out of their way, I don’t understand what they mean entirely. I still can’t figure out what getting married and having children have to do with each other. Just because you aren’t or can’t get married, doesn’t mean you can’t be a parent. There are plenty of single, unmarried, and gay parents out there that are just as good, or better, then married parents.
Then people go and say that it will be taught in schools. First of all, no one has to teach anything about marriage in schools. When they say that in another state some kids read a book about a prince married to a prince, I think “Well that’s way over in Massachusetts and we live in California”. Personally, I think that it would be great to be taught in schools. Teachers will teach of tolerance at an early age so that when kids grow up, they don’t discriminate against anyone. I don’t know why some people think that regular marriage can be taught, but gay marriage shouldn’t be because they don’t want their kids knowing about it. These people need to take a very serious look in the mirror and think about what they are saying. To ask that teachers teach one form of marriage, and not the other, is very discriminatory.
This law shows that people don’t want to go against the Bible, which God supposedly wrote, for the equal rights of all citizens. But those people will go against the Declaration of Independence when it says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Sooner or later, whether people like it or not, it will be legal for homosexuals to wed under the term of “marriage” and it will be recognized by the government because no one that is against Proposition 8 is going to stand for this dysfunctional society.
Millions of are soldiers have bravely died defending our country. Whether they participated in the Vietnam War, World War 1, World War 2, the war in Iraq, or any other major battle, our troops have stood up and fought for us. They risked their lives for our well being and happiness. We need to honor the veterans for all they have lost serving our country.
Hundreds of soldiers sadly die in Iraq everyday. These soldiers aren’t defending us to be treated poorly if and when they come back home. Those who have died didn’t die for nothing. All they wanted to do is help others and defend our country. Most of us would never have such courage to accomplish that.
There are a lot of inspirational memorials across the country for those who have died at war, especially in Washington D.C. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery represents all of the unknown soldiers that died for our country. The cemetery also has thousands of graves of lost soldiers, commanders, colonels, etc. The Vietnam Memorial is a very long, black wall with the names of everyone who was lost in that war engraved on it. We should honor these people because of their courage and bravery.
Thousands of people have fought and died in defense of us and our country. We should be able to give them at least something very small in return and honor them. Many sacrificed literally everything they had, including their lives. Some veterans are still suffering from pain they obtained from fighting in a war, if it was recent or a very long time ago. It’s not very hard to honor these people, just important.
I know that I would never have such bravery to fight for our country in a war or battle. I would be way too afraid to defend us. I know that many other people also wouldn’t be willing to fight or give they’re lives for the greater good and the common welfare. They would be too selfish or maybe even too lazy to get out there and defend us. This is why we should honor and celebrate our veterans that have done what many of us would never be able to do.
The warm water was splashing my face and the adrenaline of the boat speeding faster, two of my favorite feelings. We hit a large wave and we all through the air. We began to pass more boats and then slowed when we reached our destination. There are tons of small islands off the North Carolina coast. We pull into an area that literally thousands of people are drinking and blasting music to celebrate our nation’s independence on the 4th of July.
“Okay you guys, we’re here. Everyone meets back at the boat at around 5:00pm,” our captain said. His name was Mickey and he was my aunt’s best friend. We all jumped off the boat and into the 80*F warm water. It was the warmest water I’d ever felt in my life. For several we swam around, raced, jumped off the boat, and met new people. Later my dad and I took the wave runner out and wandered off. Driving a wave runner for the first time was incredibly exhilarating. A nearby pelican began to pass us and I decided to race it. It turns out that to beat the pelican, I had to go at least 55mph.From then on, I’ve wanted to buy a wave runner and ride it in the Karquinez straight.
Once we arrived back to the boat, it was time to go. We were going to have a large party later at Mickey’s house so we needed to get ready. Once we had all taken showers and gotten dressed, we headed over. There were about thirty adults and ten kids. My brother and I just hung out with all the teenagers and played video games and ate.
When it got to about 11:00pm and was finally completely dark, we headed over to a nearby marina to set off fireworks. It was a very warm night. We walked over while all the teens road their skateboards and bikes passed us. Once we arrived to the marina, we began to set off the fireworks. Feeling the fireworks rumble our bodies and seeing the brilliant colors explode in the sky was the ultimate ending to a perfect day. My brother and I had never experienced setting off our own fireworks legally. The quality of the fireworks was astonishing. They were just as good as ones cities put on. They must have been expensive.
I know I will always remember that hot, humid 4th of July because it was definitely one of the best days of my life so far. I experienced so many new things and had so much fun. Ever since then I’ve wanted to go buy some wave runners and fireworks. I know my family had just as much fun because it keeps coming up in our conversations again and again.
About seven months ago, my step aunt, Kit, was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer was in her fluids and started from her lung and spread to her ribs and hip. I know these past few months have been the hardest of her life. When I was told about the situation, I was very upset, but hopeful. Several other family members have had cancer for years and are still alive and well. Our main goal was to support Kit in every way possible.
We decided to go see her on an upcoming Sunday. That Saturday we were at the mall and decided to get her a Build-A-Bear. A while back when my grandfather was suffering from cancer, it had become incredibly draining and he seemed as though he didn’t have the will to live anymore. We got him a Build-A-Bear and put all of our love and prayer into it. Three years later and he still cherishes that bear. This is what gave us the inspiration to make one for Kit. It was a soft, pink bear wearing simple lavender clothes. We chose those colors because we knew they’re Kit’s favorite. We named it Reika, after the healing method of reike. We put the purple “Hope” hearts into it along with our love.
The next day, we gave Kit the bear along with cards my brother and I made for her and she burst into tears. She tried to hug us all, although it was hard with all the IVs attached to her arms. It really got to her and she couldn’t keep from hugging the bear.
Several weeks later, she was out of the hospital. My mom was on the internet looking for any local musicians that could play for Kit. We found Steve Susskin, a folk artist who was known for his inspirational lyrics. He came over on an upcoming Saturday and played several songs for her. She was completely over- joyed by it all.
It has been several months since I last visited Kit. I keep on trying to go, but I’ve been really busy lately and I go to my dad’s house every other weekend, which makes it even harder to visit. But it doesn’t keep us from praying for her and showing her our love. Like the other day we sent her a beautiful bouquet of vibrant tulips. We also have a healing chant for her. Everyday for the past two months or so, the whole family calls in on a conference call and we read the chant to her. It is meant to help Kit (and us) to get through these tough times together and hope for a better future. We all pray for her health and healing everyday.
We are here tonight,
United as one light, one voice.
Regardless of Who or what we call as Divine Spirit,
We call on you now, as one voice.
We ask that you bring to earth all the light that is,
To be present and help us heal this woman.
We need your light, to show us the true path,
So that Kit can find her way to health and healing.
Universe, One Light, One Voice, One Love.
In perfect love and perfect trust, so it is.
The name “Sarah” is not the best name in the world to have as far as I’m concerned. Sure it’s short and easy to remember, but it’s very boring and common. The only thing about my name that I truly enjoy is that the name means “lady” or “princess”. I always thought that actually having the name of “Princess” would be pretty cool and come in handy. Like if your mother ever tried to tell you you’re not a princess, but you really are. My name was selected mostly by my father who enjoys old-fashioned, plain names such as Dianne, Susan, Andrea, etc. I, on the other hand, enjoy more original names such as Prosper, Rainy, Venus, etc.,which is why I don’t like my name. Since I was introduced to the name Prosper (which was when I was about eight) I’ve considered changing my name when I become an adult. But until then, I will remain Sarah, plain and tall.
We arrived at the old, beautiful Victorian. I could here the clunking of my tall, black wedges against the ground as we climbed up the steps. Once we got inside I smelled the scent of warming chocolate and heard popping corks. Right away I was confronted by my step-cousin Annie.
“Sarah! Come help me with the ganache!” She said. We walked over to the kitchen and I helped her hurriedly prepare various chocolate dishes as guests began to arrive. Once all the dishes had been made, Annie set me free to enjoy the company and food. There was fudge, chocolate ganache, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate fondue, white chocolate candies, and a lot of wine going around. My brother and I knew the night had just begun.
After about four hours, I sat next to my brother and wished that it would end soon. It was about 10:00pm and everyone had started getting a little tipsy. Then a lady that I’ve never met started flirting with my brother.
“You’re pretty cute…” She said with a bit of a slurred speech. It was obvious she was drunk because she was at least twice my brother’s age and she wore a large diamond on her ring finger. Thankfully, I wasn’t the victim of too many alcoholics there. But my brother wasn’t so fortunate.
I was guessing it was about 1:30am or so. People were beginning to leave and eventually there were about 20 people left, which was just my family. This was the point where everyone had lost there wits in the wine a long time ago. It had gotten to where my step-sister was attempting to sing along to Frank Sinatra, my mom was drinking straight from the wine bottle, and my sister’s husband and my uncle were teaching my brother how to “pick up chicks”
“You know what, Jon? You really need to get a good pair of Italian loafers. Chicks love Italian loafers. Or a good pair of cowboy boots. That’s what you need,” my sister’s husband said.
“No, no Jon. The only way to pick up chicks is to pretend to be sincere and act like you care. Then she will…” My uncle trailed off.
I will always have a picture of that night imprinted in my mind and the potent scent of alcohol on all my family and friends breath. It had been a very long night.
