Before
After
It was in mid-October when it happened. We didn’t expect and we definitely didn’t think it would happen to us. We thought wrong.
“Viviana, it’s time to get up! Hurry or you’re not going to make it to school early,” my mom said. “Ughh I don’t feel like going…I’m so tired… can I just go tomorrow?” I groaned. “NO. You’re not playing that trick on me, young lady, so get ready and head off to school,” she commanded. “Fine” I said. Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel.
“Viviana, it’s time to get up! Hurry or you’re not going to make it to school early,” my mom said. “Ughh I don’t feel like going…I’m so tired… can I just go tomorrow?” I groaned. “NO. You’re not playing that trick on me, young lady, so get ready and head off to school,” she commanded. “Fine” I said. Sometimes you just have to throw in the towel.
I went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I headed back to my room to pick out an outfit for the day. I picked a pair of blue jeans, a black and white striped shirt and, for shoes, I picked my favorite black Vans. It was kind of chilly that morning, like it sometimes is in the month of October. I grabbed my backpack, stacked my books in it and head out the door. “Bye mammy” I said happily. “Bye, take care” she replied. I shut the door and head out. I started walking all by myself, usually I walk with my friends but I forgot to ask them if they wanted to walk. The streets were getting kind of foggy and it was really quite. For a girl my age I was scared walking alone. There are a lot of dangerous things or people out there, but I tried hard not to pay attention to that. My school was just about 10 minutes away so I continued walking. I got next to the building I was relieved that I made it safe. I saw a lot of other kids walking so I didn’t feel that alone. I made it to class on time. I went straight to my locker to put my belongings in there. I entered that room and I was the first one there. I sat down and just sat there quietly and waited for the other student’s to approach the class. My teacher Ms. Deolivera told us to settle down and to take out or notebooks and write down notes. The class flew by and we had all our classes that are mostly important for our education. After all those classes we had our unified arts class. I like having unified arts because it’s mostly similar to free time but you still get some learning out of it. We were having Ms. Demello at the meantime, Ms. Demello is a really nice person, she make’s teaching fun unlike other teachers, but I love my teacher’s equally. After Ms. Demello’s class we still have one and a half more hours of school left and we go home. I had gym after Ms. Demello’s class. I really don’t enjoy gym that much because you sweat and feel sticky afterwards. But it’s time for me to hit the treadmill and lose weight! Haha!! I’m joking.
Gym went pretty well, but I couldn’t wait to get out of school and go home because I was really tired and I also wanted to play with my best friend outside too. Then, bell finally rung. Everyone rushed to get to their lockers and get their stuff and leave. I took my time because I didn’t want to leave anything behind. “Viviana! Are you walking?” Yeslin said. “Yeah, I am going to--wanna walk with me?” I asked. “Of course that’s what I was going to ask you.” We both headed out the door and continued walking. Yeslin is one of my bestfriends. We’ve known each other since 2nd grade. She’s a really good friend I can trust her with mostly everything. It was time for her to go because her house was like right around the corner so we both said our bye’s and left. I Walked alone , it wasn’t that bad since there was a lot of people in the street’s I didn’t have anything to worry about. I got home exhausted. I opened the door and there was nobody there. I had to go pick up my brothers from the bus stop. They finally arrived and I took them home. It wasn’t that far away it’s just like 30 seconds of walking, not that bad.We went inside the house and hanged our backpacks up and ate a snack. After that my brothers did whatever they wanted and I went in my room and turned my laptop on. I have this addiction with my laptop, I’m always on this virtual game called “Woozworld.” I’m really addicted to this game which I find really weird. My mom gets mad at me usually because I’m always on it and do nothing but sit there and stare at the screen. I respect what she says because it’s true but I just can’t control it. My mom got home. She came from work and took a shower and cooked dinner. I was pretty hungry since I haven’t eaten anything since lunch at school. My mom served us our food and we ate it all. I thought I was on the laptop too much so I decided to go outside and go downstairs and knock on my best friend’s door and ask her if she wanted to play outside with me. Me and my friend were talking about what we both are going to wear for Halloween since it was only 11 days away , I pretty much had no idea but I was thinking of being a zombie. I was telling her how I been watching YouTube tutorials on how to do zombie make-up. Jacqueline and I had been outside for about 5 hours. It was getting kind of dark out so we decided to play tomorrow. Jacqueline is my best friend. She lives in the same apartment as me but she lives on first floor I live in second. I went upstairs and ate dinner. After that I went on the computer. It was only 7:00 . I’d been on the computer for 2 hours, playing on the “woozworld” for a pretty long time. I shut off my laptop and got ready for bed. My dad arrived home at 10:00. “How was your day Papi?” I said. “It’s good just a lot of hard working how about you?” he said. “Good also are you hungry I’ll give you food since my Mami went to bed?”I replied “Sure thanks” he replied. Me and my dad were talking and talking when we finally decided to go to bed. “Goodnight pappy.” I said. “Goodnight” he replied. I slipped into my pajamas and went to bed since it was a school night and I really needed to get some rest.
It was 12:17..everyone was fast asleep..my parents woke up, they heard a loud alarm coming out of nowhere. “Do you think there’s a fire?” my dad said. “Nonsense, you know how many times that alarm went off and we head downstairs and nothing happens, it could be someone smoking or cooking at this time. Don’t worry it will go away” my mom said. “You’re right—let’s just go to bed” my dad said. 15 minutes later..the alarm wouldn’t stop. “Why wouldn’t the alarm shut up? We should go check outside just in case.” My dad said. “Why, if you go you’ll wake up the kids, it must be something someone pushed?” my mom said. Both of my parent’s stood quite for a moment and the heard the neighbors next door talking and it sounded like they were panicking. “There’s smoke, lets hurry and get out before something happens!” the neighbors next door said. “Fire? There’s a fire?!” both my parents said. My dad got out of bed and opened the door. As soon as he opened the door the smoke came right in. It was pitch black with grey. My parents were shocked. My mom came running into my room and woke me up. “Viviana Viviana wake up!” she yelled. “What now can’t you see I’m sleeping?” I replied with an attitude. “There’s a fire, put your shoes on and go downstairs NOW!” she said. “Fire?! Oh my god there’s a fire?!” I yelled. When I heard what my mom said my voice started squeaking and I couldn’t stop shivering. I got out of bed to go wake up my brother’s. “IVAN,RONNIE,MARVIN! WAKE UPP!” I yelled. They woke up. I explained how there was a fire and they needed to go downstairs immediately. When I went in the living room I opened the door to go outside and when I opened the door smoke came in. SWOOSH! I never pictured the smoke smelling like this. I always pictured smoke like the smell of nothing. I thought wrong. I felt like I was being suffocated by the smoke. I lead my brothers downstairs and told them to stay there. I stood down there with them too. My parents went downstairs also. Then everyone that was living in the building was coming out. Then when my uncle came out he asked my dad “What about your money and all those important stuff” “Oh shoot I forgot them I’ll be right back!” My dad replied. He went upstairs and went to go get it. In my mind I thought he was crazy, I was having a lot of negative thoughts of what would happen to him. “What if the building collapsed?!” I thought. My mom went upstairs also to go get her purse since she had important stuff also. I was shaking so much I couldn’t stop. My brother came up to me and said, “Viviana I forgot my shoes” he said so innocent. “WHAT! What do you mean you forgot them, I told you to bring them! Now your feet are soaking wet from the raining!” I said yelling at him. “I got scared that I was going to die so I came out fast” he said sadly. “Stay here and don’t move--I’ll go get your shoes. I was brave enough to go upstairs and get his shoes. I went upstairs and went into the closet, got what I needed and head out. We were all out, the firefighters finally came. They told us to go into the other side of the street so they can do their job. I saw a firefighter break the window from the basement and when he did that pitch black smoke when everywhere. Then all you see is orange flames going up. The firefighters were trying hard to take it out. But it was really difficult. A lot of people came out of their houses to see what was happening. More Firefighters came and more polices. The street was filled. A special bus came so we can stay in it for a while so we won’t be cold. While this was happening it was raining. The bus drove us around so we can clear our mind and forget about this tragic. When we were in the bus driving around you can see the smoke going to other streets, it was incredible. After that the bus drove us back to our street. We got out of the bus because we were bored inside so we decided to go check if they took out the fire. In fact, the fire was still going. What really hurt me was knowing we won’t be getting our stuff back. Knowing that we won’t have our house again. All we worked for..will be gone. I saw my mom tearing up. And Jacqueline’s mom also. I felt bad in the inside. I wanted to cry also, I tried hard not to. After that, a truck came. They told us if we got hungry to go and get some food. My friend Jacqueline and I were sad. We knew we were going to lose everything except for family. My mom told me that it’s okay that we lose everything because we’ll always earn it back today because your life is worth more than anything and once it’s gone there will be no way you’ll ever earn it back. Few hours passed by, the Red Cross came. They had us sign up so they can take us to the shelter to stay for a few weeks until we find some place to stay. At that time I didn’t want anything. I was really depressed I was going through a tough time. When we got to the shelter they gave us towels, soap, food, tooth brush, shampoo etc. The Red Cross workers gave us a credit card worth $2000 so we can go buy clothes and things we needed. We went to target and got everything we needed, school supplies, clothes. After all that we returned back to the shelter. I took a shower I ate and got ready for bed. The next morning I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t feel like doing anything because of what happened. Then few minutes later I hear a beeping outside. I see a familiar car. It was my best friend Laura. She came to visit me and take me to school. As you can see she was really worried about me and wanted to know if I was okay. She brought hair spray and everything so I can get ready for school. I decided to go to school because if I wasn’t going to go then my best friend Laura brought her mom here for nothing. I hopped in the car and left. In the car Laura kept staring at me and said if I was really okay. “Are you sure you okay Viviana? Just tell me I know you’re not.” She said. “I’m sure” I replied. She did my hair on the way to school and we finally go in front of the building. I was getting butterflies in my stomach. I was really embarrassed to enter the building because I thought people would make fun of me and ask me questions. I got out the car and kids were looking at me..i didn’t feel bad for them, I felt bad for myself. When we got inside the school Laura had to go upstairs since that’s where her classes are and my classes are on the first floor. I went to my locker and placed my belongings inside and opened the door to go to homeroom. The kids looked at me weird. They didn’t know what happened to me, it made me feel better that they don’t know. After that my friend Yeslin came up to me and told me she knows what happened to me. “Viviana I know what happened to your house. I seen it this morning,” she said. “yeah..Dont say anything.” I said back. We walked up to our classes. What made me happy was that we had Ms. Demello’s class first period. While we settle down in class more and more kids came up to me. I felt like I was going to cry. Ms. demello came up to me and said if I was okay. When she asked me that I told her what happened. She said she was really sorry. When I heard her say that. That’s when I lost it. I broke down crying in my desk. The kids in my class were looking at me. They just stood quite. Ms. Demello told me if I wanted to go to another room and talk it out, but I preferred not to. Everywhere I went the kids would be looking at me. I just ignored them, even though it killed me inside. Finally the school day was over. I decided to go walking all the way to downtown which was about one hour long, but It really didn’t matter. Life didn’t matter to me anymore. While I was walking I decided to go through my street and see if the fire was put out. Matter in fact the fire fighters were still there trying to put it out. I just stood there staring at my house having flashbacks and all the good memories I had there. I finally got to the shelter. My mom was there sitting down on the chair and asked me if everything went well at school. I lied to her and said everything went perfectly fine. She was happy when I said that. My family members came to visit us at the shelter. They told us if we needed anywhere to stay for while we could stay with one of them. My mom said that she will think about it because she didn’t want to be a bother. The day went by fast so I had to go to bed again. The next morning I went to school and I had the same class as yesterday for first period. When I entered Ms. Demello’s class she wanted to talk to me, so she took me outside and we talked. She told me to give her my size of my clothes and shoes. She said she was going to buy me clothes for school. I was happy about that but I felt like she was going to use her money just for clothes when she could spend it on something more important. She told me that she wanted to buy me clothes. She gave me the clothes the next day. I told her I was very grateful for what she done for me. She said I didn’t have to thank her. I did anyway. I got back to the shelter and my mom told me we were going to live in a hotel for a while, the red cross gave us 2 weeks to stay in a hotel and they gave us 2 weeks of free food at McDonald’s and we could eat anything we want. The hotel we stayed in was really nice. I enjoyed the food at McDonald’s. At that time we were on vacation from school. Every time I go to bed I always think about what happened and wish that it would never happened to me. When those 2 weeks were over we decided to move in with our cousins for a while. It was really crowded in my cousin’s house, but it was kind of better than the shelter. There were 10 people in the house and there were only 3 rooms so we had to share. My parents and I slept in the living room. We didn’t mind. Few days went by and it was Halloween I was excited, but not that excited. My 3 brothers and I, and my dad went trick or treating, it was so much fun. About 4 months went by and my parents found an apartment to live in. We moved in the apartment. After that we moved out few weeks later. The apartment was all good except the people that lived there. They were drug dealers. We knew it was bad to live in a house filled of those. They also broke into our house and stole everything we bought. When that happened, that’s when we decided to move out. After that situation we found another apartment to live in. we also moved out of that one because it was too small and the people next door were bad people and would always make noise. Finally, we found an apartment to live in and that’s where we stood all along. The landlord lives downstairs and everything is protected. They are really nice with us, its big we have our own rooms. I also liked it because it was 1 street away from where my house burned down. Whenever I want to see it, I’ll always daydream of every good memory I had there. It might seem like it was nothing serious but for me it was. Whenever people ask me what happened I don’t mind telling them. It was a huge situation that impacted my life. The thing is, I never pictured it happening to me. We earned everything back, step by step. The important thing is that me and my family are all alive. Your life is more important than anything in the world. For a girl my age I think I went through a lot. But look at me now. I’m alive, healthy , and still happy. I will never forget this day. It would always be remembered in my heart. So now it’s time to forget the past and move on.
It was 12:17..everyone was fast asleep..my parents woke up, they heard a loud alarm coming out of nowhere. “Do you think there’s a fire?” my dad said. “Nonsense, you know how many times that alarm went off and we head downstairs and nothing happens, it could be someone smoking or cooking at this time. Don’t worry it will go away” my mom said. “You’re right—let’s just go to bed” my dad said. 15 minutes later..the alarm wouldn’t stop. “Why wouldn’t the alarm shut up? We should go check outside just in case.” My dad said. “Why, if you go you’ll wake up the kids, it must be something someone pushed?” my mom said. Both of my parent’s stood quite for a moment and the heard the neighbors next door talking and it sounded like they were panicking. “There’s smoke, lets hurry and get out before something happens!” the neighbors next door said. “Fire? There’s a fire?!” both my parents said. My dad got out of bed and opened the door. As soon as he opened the door the smoke came right in. It was pitch black with grey. My parents were shocked. My mom came running into my room and woke me up. “Viviana Viviana wake up!” she yelled. “What now can’t you see I’m sleeping?” I replied with an attitude. “There’s a fire, put your shoes on and go downstairs NOW!” she said. “Fire?! Oh my god there’s a fire?!” I yelled. When I heard what my mom said my voice started squeaking and I couldn’t stop shivering. I got out of bed to go wake up my brother’s. “IVAN,RONNIE,MARVIN! WAKE UPP!” I yelled. They woke up. I explained how there was a fire and they needed to go downstairs immediately. When I went in the living room I opened the door to go outside and when I opened the door smoke came in. SWOOSH! I never pictured the smoke smelling like this. I always pictured smoke like the smell of nothing. I thought wrong. I felt like I was being suffocated by the smoke. I lead my brothers downstairs and told them to stay there. I stood down there with them too. My parents went downstairs also. Then everyone that was living in the building was coming out. Then when my uncle came out he asked my dad “What about your money and all those important stuff” “Oh shoot I forgot them I’ll be right back!” My dad replied. He went upstairs and went to go get it. In my mind I thought he was crazy, I was having a lot of negative thoughts of what would happen to him. “What if the building collapsed?!” I thought. My mom went upstairs also to go get her purse since she had important stuff also. I was shaking so much I couldn’t stop. My brother came up to me and said, “Viviana I forgot my shoes” he said so innocent. “WHAT! What do you mean you forgot them, I told you to bring them! Now your feet are soaking wet from the raining!” I said yelling at him. “I got scared that I was going to die so I came out fast” he said sadly. “Stay here and don’t move--I’ll go get your shoes. I was brave enough to go upstairs and get his shoes. I went upstairs and went into the closet, got what I needed and head out. We were all out, the firefighters finally came. They told us to go into the other side of the street so they can do their job. I saw a firefighter break the window from the basement and when he did that pitch black smoke when everywhere. Then all you see is orange flames going up. The firefighters were trying hard to take it out. But it was really difficult. A lot of people came out of their houses to see what was happening. More Firefighters came and more polices. The street was filled. A special bus came so we can stay in it for a while so we won’t be cold. While this was happening it was raining. The bus drove us around so we can clear our mind and forget about this tragic. When we were in the bus driving around you can see the smoke going to other streets, it was incredible. After that the bus drove us back to our street. We got out of the bus because we were bored inside so we decided to go check if they took out the fire. In fact, the fire was still going. What really hurt me was knowing we won’t be getting our stuff back. Knowing that we won’t have our house again. All we worked for..will be gone. I saw my mom tearing up. And Jacqueline’s mom also. I felt bad in the inside. I wanted to cry also, I tried hard not to. After that, a truck came. They told us if we got hungry to go and get some food. My friend Jacqueline and I were sad. We knew we were going to lose everything except for family. My mom told me that it’s okay that we lose everything because we’ll always earn it back today because your life is worth more than anything and once it’s gone there will be no way you’ll ever earn it back. Few hours passed by, the Red Cross came. They had us sign up so they can take us to the shelter to stay for a few weeks until we find some place to stay. At that time I didn’t want anything. I was really depressed I was going through a tough time. When we got to the shelter they gave us towels, soap, food, tooth brush, shampoo etc. The Red Cross workers gave us a credit card worth $2000 so we can go buy clothes and things we needed. We went to target and got everything we needed, school supplies, clothes. After all that we returned back to the shelter. I took a shower I ate and got ready for bed. The next morning I didn’t want to go to school. I didn’t feel like doing anything because of what happened. Then few minutes later I hear a beeping outside. I see a familiar car. It was my best friend Laura. She came to visit me and take me to school. As you can see she was really worried about me and wanted to know if I was okay. She brought hair spray and everything so I can get ready for school. I decided to go to school because if I wasn’t going to go then my best friend Laura brought her mom here for nothing. I hopped in the car and left. In the car Laura kept staring at me and said if I was really okay. “Are you sure you okay Viviana? Just tell me I know you’re not.” She said. “I’m sure” I replied. She did my hair on the way to school and we finally go in front of the building. I was getting butterflies in my stomach. I was really embarrassed to enter the building because I thought people would make fun of me and ask me questions. I got out the car and kids were looking at me..i didn’t feel bad for them, I felt bad for myself. When we got inside the school Laura had to go upstairs since that’s where her classes are and my classes are on the first floor. I went to my locker and placed my belongings inside and opened the door to go to homeroom. The kids looked at me weird. They didn’t know what happened to me, it made me feel better that they don’t know. After that my friend Yeslin came up to me and told me she knows what happened to me. “Viviana I know what happened to your house. I seen it this morning,” she said. “yeah..Dont say anything.” I said back. We walked up to our classes. What made me happy was that we had Ms. Demello’s class first period. While we settle down in class more and more kids came up to me. I felt like I was going to cry. Ms. demello came up to me and said if I was okay. When she asked me that I told her what happened. She said she was really sorry. When I heard her say that. That’s when I lost it. I broke down crying in my desk. The kids in my class were looking at me. They just stood quite. Ms. Demello told me if I wanted to go to another room and talk it out, but I preferred not to. Everywhere I went the kids would be looking at me. I just ignored them, even though it killed me inside. Finally the school day was over. I decided to go walking all the way to downtown which was about one hour long, but It really didn’t matter. Life didn’t matter to me anymore. While I was walking I decided to go through my street and see if the fire was put out. Matter in fact the fire fighters were still there trying to put it out. I just stood there staring at my house having flashbacks and all the good memories I had there. I finally got to the shelter. My mom was there sitting down on the chair and asked me if everything went well at school. I lied to her and said everything went perfectly fine. She was happy when I said that. My family members came to visit us at the shelter. They told us if we needed anywhere to stay for while we could stay with one of them. My mom said that she will think about it because she didn’t want to be a bother. The day went by fast so I had to go to bed again. The next morning I went to school and I had the same class as yesterday for first period. When I entered Ms. Demello’s class she wanted to talk to me, so she took me outside and we talked. She told me to give her my size of my clothes and shoes. She said she was going to buy me clothes for school. I was happy about that but I felt like she was going to use her money just for clothes when she could spend it on something more important. She told me that she wanted to buy me clothes. She gave me the clothes the next day. I told her I was very grateful for what she done for me. She said I didn’t have to thank her. I did anyway. I got back to the shelter and my mom told me we were going to live in a hotel for a while, the red cross gave us 2 weeks to stay in a hotel and they gave us 2 weeks of free food at McDonald’s and we could eat anything we want. The hotel we stayed in was really nice. I enjoyed the food at McDonald’s. At that time we were on vacation from school. Every time I go to bed I always think about what happened and wish that it would never happened to me. When those 2 weeks were over we decided to move in with our cousins for a while. It was really crowded in my cousin’s house, but it was kind of better than the shelter. There were 10 people in the house and there were only 3 rooms so we had to share. My parents and I slept in the living room. We didn’t mind. Few days went by and it was Halloween I was excited, but not that excited. My 3 brothers and I, and my dad went trick or treating, it was so much fun. About 4 months went by and my parents found an apartment to live in. We moved in the apartment. After that we moved out few weeks later. The apartment was all good except the people that lived there. They were drug dealers. We knew it was bad to live in a house filled of those. They also broke into our house and stole everything we bought. When that happened, that’s when we decided to move out. After that situation we found another apartment to live in. we also moved out of that one because it was too small and the people next door were bad people and would always make noise. Finally, we found an apartment to live in and that’s where we stood all along. The landlord lives downstairs and everything is protected. They are really nice with us, its big we have our own rooms. I also liked it because it was 1 street away from where my house burned down. Whenever I want to see it, I’ll always daydream of every good memory I had there. It might seem like it was nothing serious but for me it was. Whenever people ask me what happened I don’t mind telling them. It was a huge situation that impacted my life. The thing is, I never pictured it happening to me. We earned everything back, step by step. The important thing is that me and my family are all alive. Your life is more important than anything in the world. For a girl my age I think I went through a lot. But look at me now. I’m alive, healthy , and still happy. I will never forget this day. It would always be remembered in my heart. So now it’s time to forget the past and move on.
- Viviana M.
From Roosevelt Middle School.
From Roosevelt Middle School.
I love how you're story is nice and detailed. Good Job.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been hard for you. It was good that the redcross helped you and your family.
ReplyDelete