Characters:
Josephine DeGuzman: 14 years old
Julian DeGuzman: 11 years old
Vinny Castronovo: 15 years old
Bianca Castronovo: 17 years old
Nick Rubiano: 13 years old
Tristan Rubiano: 11 years old
Josephine’s POV
My name is Josephine Elyse DeGuzman. I am 14 years old this year and I’m schooling in East Brunswick High School. My brother is Julian Louis DeGuzman and he is 11 years old. He can be irritating sometimes but I love him to bits.
My family is very very very close to Nick’s family. Nick Rubiano is 13 years old and his brother is Tristan Rubiano who is 11 years old. Our parents are best friends. Julian and I have known Nick and Tristan since we were very young.
Every week, the Rubiano family will come to my house for dinner and we’ll all have an amazing time together. Dinner will start at 7pm and end around 8pm because there will always be a spread of food and dessert. Usually, Nick’s family will bring some food too.
During dinner, I will always sit between Nick and Julian. The adults will sit at the right side of the table while the children will sit at the left side.
Tristan is a very playful kid and I always end up chasing him because he steals my stuff. Nick? Well, I don’t know about Nick now. I’ve known him since I was 5 years old but recently, he’s been acting weird. I think he likes me. I find it really unusual because we’ve been so close that we’re more of siblings instead of friends. He will always look at me during dinner nowadays and look away when I catch him staring at me.
After dinner, Julian, Nick, Tristan and me will always blast some television programmes in the living room or play at the backyard or do some freestyling at our home dance studio. Our gathering usually ends at 10.30pm.
Oh, I think I forgot to tell you that I am an adopted child. And I’m not Filipino like Julian or Nick or Tristan. Instead, I’m half American and half Chinese. I was borned in Shanghai, China and was brought to Vancouver, Canada when I was 1 year old. When I was 5 years old, my parents got arrested because of drug abuse. As I was the only child, I was left alone, without anyone to take care of me. Then, Mr and Mrs DeGuzman found out about me and adopted me to be their daughter. So I was brought to New Jersey and when I was adopted, Nick was 4 years old and Julian and Tristan were 2 years old. All of us used to play at the backyard, dance together and just had fun. I miss my childhood. They were the ones whom I spent my childhood with.
As we grew older, one by one, we started to take dance classes at Icon Dance Complex and soon, all of us were either an ICONic Boy or ICONic Girl. There was never a moment where the 4 of us were separated.
