Runaway from Peace

Ch. 1: Ripped Coats and Jeans

This is my life: food throwing, biting, wrestling, and exasperational yelling. Once in a while there are small fights here and there, but mostly I get caught in fights. You can tell by looking at my face, arms, legs, elbows, you name it.

My life is basically my brothers. They're the ones who start the food throwing, biting, wrestling, and exasperational yelling. My idiot brothers, Zack and Kurt, cause my Mom's stress and job. She was on the phone doing business with a client trying to book a showing for a house, since she is a realter, and my brothers were being stupid, as always, and they snatched the phone out of her hand and screamed,

"Why are you talking to our Mom? She is LAZY!" They apparently thought it was a joke, until Mom explained to them loudly that she was doing work and that now we might not have money since they put her job in jeopardy. Her boss talked to her the next day which shows that she heard about the incident with my brothers. She said,

"I heard from one of our clients that you're sons yelled at them about our business. We cannot have your children telling our clients that our company employees are lazy. I'm sorry, Merideth, but we are going to have to let you go. We cannot lose clients at this time and without clients, we lose money. Therefore, we go out of business. I'm really sorry." My Mom has been yelling ever since.

You're probably wondering why my Dad isn't mentioned. Well, my Dad abandoned us when I was just five and my brothers were newborns. My Dad is a bad example and is the worst Dad in the history of Dads. He drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and played poker on Saturday nights. My Dad one night wrote a note and left it on the dining room table and left for good. My Mom found it the next morning on her way to work. It said:

"I cannot bear to pull this family down anymore with my stupid ways and addictions. I'm sorry, but I must leave and not hurt you anymore. I love you all and that is why I am leaving.

Your loving father and husband, Ron

This also causes my Mom to yell because my Dad isn't here to help. I understand why he left, but I'm still heart-broken. I felt like he didn't love me, his own daughter Shannon Perry. Doesn't he know that we need him? That I'm empty without him? Whenever I see little girls with their dads, it makes me feel like I'm the only one without a Dad. I feel like half of me is missing and I'm all alone. I barely even remember him. I'm mad, angry, disappointed, and upset that he left me with two twins I can't stand. He isn't there to help me with problems. He isn't there to cheer for me when I score a point in volleyball. He isn't there to watch me pour my heart out in dancing. He's just never there when I need him. Whenever i receive a flyer for the father daughter dance, I crumple it up and throw it in the trash. Sometimes, I even cry myself to sleep thinking about him. I knew he made bad decisions and I know he didn't want us to be embarrassed by him, but he's still my father. He can't just leave me and his family to get run over with my ripped coat and jeans.Luckily, my best friend, Mairilyn Dumarinal,(practically sister) backs me up.

I can tell her anything and she won't make a sound. She understands me and is there when no one else is. I'm used to having someone not there besides my Dad. Me and Mairilyn's first and former best friend, Jasmin Castleton. We did everything together: played with barbies, had sleepovers, watched movies, played games; everything. But then she started hanging out with Stacey Jackson, who is also my former friend.

Stacey became rude, acted like an adult, gossiped, and thought she was all that, which she's not. Jasmin apparently was bored with me and Mairilyn, so she started hanging out with Stacey ever since. Now, its just me and Mairilyn.

I was heart-broken and shocked when Jasmin ditched us for someone who was rude and self-absorbed. Me and Mairilyn were both upset and felt like we were left on the curb. Like I havent' felt that way before. Mairilyn on the other hand had never experienced the feeling of abandonment.

Her family is very traditional and if you made a promise you stuck to it. Her family is still held together and very well run. On the other hand, my family is split up.

My mother's side of the family is Italian. I don't know what nationality my Dad is. You can tell my Mom is Italian just by looking at her name: Merideth Alicia Bertolini. Her first name isn't really Italian, but her first and last name are. My full name is Shannon Adrianna Perry. My grandparents helped my Mom pick out my middle name. My grandparents actually live in Italy. They live in Florence and own their own little bakery. We always get yummy deserts when they come to visit us every summer. When my grandparents, Mary Clare and Andres Bertonlini, visit us, we have Italian week. We eat Italian foods and speak the language. My Mom taught me and my brothers so we could understand them better.

My Mom grew up in Florence in the same, old house my grandparents still live in today. I've never seen it, but my Mom says its pretty big, considering it fit her, my grandparents, and her three other siblings. I have two uncles and one aunt. My aunt's name is Celia and my uncle's names are Antonio and Dameon. My Mom's name isn't really Italian because my grandparents just liked that name. Right now my Aunt Celia lives in Rome, Italy so that she could go to Berry College there so she could study the ancient architecture of ancient Rome. Uncle Antonio lives in the U.S. in New York. He wanted to see what the United States would be like and he heard many good things about it. He learned English, got married, and had my cousins Raina and Celeste. My Uncle Dameon moved to Venice, Italy so he could see the beautiful canals and the gondala's which is a type of boat. He also got married and had my other cousin's Giovanni, Adele, and Gulianna. My Mom eneded up in Arlington, Virginia because she wanted to go to Marymount University so she could study economics. She learned English and met my Dad at college. They then got married and had me and my brothers. Our Dad then left us and now we're on our own.

As for school, I'm going to Jefferson Middle School and I'm in eighth grade. I'm turning fourteen in January which is only four months away! I just got to get through only four months without ending up in a ripped coat and jeans. But as the Italians say, "Buona Fortuna!" (means good luck).