Tied with a Smile

Chapter 8

After six months I saw Kendall once again. He wasn't the same, from what I remembered him to be, but, I wasn't either,so I didn't pay too much attention to it.

(Age 11)

Not much went on when I was ten. At least, things that weren't significant enough to remember. This age was when things started to change for me.

Kendall was obviously maturing into a young teen, all the while I was oblivious to it all. He would still hang out with me, but it was clear to me thag we now had some differences coming between us.

At home, things weren't much better for me. One thing that did drastically change was the arrival of one of my aunt's from Mexico.

She was my mom's youngest sister. I remember getting a bunk bed and sleeping on the top bunk. I owe a lot to her. I wasn't exposed to very much violence when she was at home.

She helped me come out of my shell a bit, I gained a lot of confidence because of her. She taught me how to have fun,in a way, to forget.

There are a lot of things she taught me. She taught me how to dance and sowing. She gave me advice. She was also the one that first knew about my not so secret crush on Kendall.

(Age 12)

At this age, we moved out of the garage and rented a house of our own. It wasn't far away from Mary's house, so she still picked me up and dropped me off after school.

In order to be able to pay the rent, some more of my mom's family moved in. My aunt, the younger one, Mel stayed with us. My other aunt, Terese, too. My uncle, Jon, moved in as well. The house soon became a caution zone.

Since there was so much family living together, my parents had to be careful on what happened while they were around. I was happy that there were other kids that I could play with, since my aunt Terese had brought her two sons and husband with her.

For a while, there were no fights. Well, none that were big.

One horrible thing that did happen to us though, one day, our house was broken into and robbed.

They took the big things, like the computer and other electronics. They also took our jewelry, that was handed down for generations.

It was devastating because my family wasn't nearly wealthy enough to afford to replace everything.

My aunt Mel, moved out with the excuse that she didn't feel safe in that house anymore. My aunt Terese left too.

One of my other uncles moved in, with his four daughters and wife later on, filling up the house in the garage that my aunt Terese had previously occupied.

There were investigations, if you were wondering about the robbery. They never found our things. Though that was the least of our problems.

I didn't know it at the time but hell was about to break loose in our family. If only I was prepared for what was to happen.