Three Long Years Ago...
It was a normal day in the urban area of Hillwood. Mike looked a little different than she does now. Her hair was tied into one ponytail, her ears had not been pierced yet, and she wore a larger red long-sleeved shirt with a skirt and white high socks and red and white boots. She was wearing a black backpack as she walked with her mentioned friend at the time.
The boy had a football-shaped head with wild blonde hair, a tiny blue hat, a long-sleeved green shirt with a plaid red kilt underneath which made some people believe it was a skirt and he wore blue pants and black shoes.
"So how did you sleep last night, Arnold?" Mike asked on the way down the street.
"Pretty good, I had a crazy dream though after the evening I spent with Grandma and Grandpa," Arnold informed as they walked together. "You know how I said I kinda wanted to be alone with them last night?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, I found something..."
"What was it?" Mike stopped, very curious. "A pot of gold? A unicorn? Tickets to the Bermuda triangle?"
"Mike, don't be silly," Arnold chuckled a little, being more mature for his age and not believing in fairy tales like that despite being nine-years-old. "I found... This..." He reached into his bag and held out a brown book to her.
Mike took it and looked at it. She flipped through it a bit, but didn't read any of the pages. "Arnold, this is a journal."
"Exactly, it's my father's journal."
Mike's eyes widened, she had never really heard anything about Arnold's parents except that they gave him his hat when he was a baby before they disappeared. "Whoa... Hey, Arnold, I know this is personal, but... Whatever did happen to your parents?"
"I honestly don't know for sure myself," Arnold replied. "They've been gone for eight years."
"Really?" Mike was taken aback.
"Yes, they left one evening when I was a baby and had Grandma and Grandpa babysit me, I guess then they became my guardians," Arnold explained. "I never knew this about them, but they're explorers and have been to the jungle plenty of times because of the green-eyed people."
"No way!" Mike couldn't believe she was hearing.
"I'm serious, I even found a map at the end of the journal," Arnold showed her to the end of the journal pages from his father.
"Are they still alive?"
Arnold instantly frowned. "I don't know... Grandma and Grandpa don't even know... I wanna believe they are, but... No one knows..."
"I guess I can kinda imagine how you feel," Mike shrugged. "I never really felt like I belonged with my own family. I always thought maybe I was adopted or something."
"Did you ever ask your parents?" Arnold asked.
"Nah, I don't wanna offend them if I'm not."
"Well, come on, we better pick up the pace before we get late."
"Yeah, you're right."
Mike and Arnold carried on walking into their school of PS 118.
YOU ARE READING
The Jungle Story
AdventureMike tells her friends on the island about the biggest adventure she had before coming to the island and before she became a foreign exchange student of how she helped her old friend Arnold from PS 118 on the biggest thrill of his life after he disc...
