Quick note: (that ended up not being quick -_-). I write nana in this which is my family's way of say grandma. So nana is my dad's mom and grandma is my mom's mom. I say grandpa Ralph for my dad's dad, and grandpa for my mom's.  My nana was married to someone who died when I was two, but he is papa. Papa probably wont be mentioned past this, but that's why grandpa Ralph is grandpa Ralph. Also, Lance only has two siblings in the cannon realm which will replace my two blood sisters. Veronica will be my older sister Jaina (Jay-Na, who was named after a star wars character. Rae in the books her name is Jaina), as Luis is my younger (but middle child in the fic) Taryn (Ta-Rin). I have a half brother so his real name is used. As will my step sister and step sibling (she chose to be non binary and I respect that). will be using there own names (or chosen name).

I sat on the small twin size bed under the window beside his older siblings. Veronica and Luis were hugging each other as Luis sobbed. I didn't understand why they were crying. Mommy and daddy were being loud downstairs, but they will be fine. The fight started after dinner and earlier that day I hurt my finger. I was looking through all of Veronica's stuff and she didn't like it. So she slammed the drawer shut, but my finger was in the way. Daddy was angry, but it was fine.

Stomping up the stairs silenced my siblings as angry mumbles parted from my dad's lips. I looked out the window after the front door slammed shut. My dad held two bags of stuff, shoved them in his car. I waved at him, but he didn't see. He drove off and now I see him on weekends.

-_-_-

Years passed since my parent's divorce, and I have learned to accept living in two different houses. It was a new way of life, and many kids my age don't understand what I am going through. My grandmother has lived with my family since we moved to Texas. And I wouldn't trade anything to live with her. I started fourth grade this year, my older sister Veronica started high school this year, and it's weird to think she is so old. My older Brother Luis just started middle school, he is now a sixth grader. So the three of us all go to different schools. My grandma, who doesn't work will pick up my older sister from high school, and ask her to pick me up from school. Luis walks home from the bus stop, and Veronica and I walk home from my school. It all works out, and helps my mom out alot. She is an accountant and works really hard during the winter.

I have a few friends, but making friends is hard. Katie and Hunk are my friends, and we play during recess together. Today, like any other day is no different. We ran around the trees collecting pine cones. And we swung sticks at each other when they entered our territory. Hunk aloud his younger siblings to join our games. We played pirates most days and protected our treasure and ships. Our treasure was our pine cones, and our ships were trees. It was really fun to run around and look for treasure. We would argue when our pine cones got stolen, but we were still friends. After time a new kid joined the school. Hunk and I tried to make friends with him, so we can actually have teams in our pirate game, but he didn't seem to want to join. He would sit against the wall of the temp, and read. I huffed and walked over to him. I grabbed his book and glared down at the new kid.

"Hey new kid! You will play with me, or you wont get your book back!" I demanded holding his book above my head. He looked at me and rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but one time only." he sighed. I smiled at my victory and lead him to my friends. He sighed and asked for what we were playing. "Well, I am not being a pirate. Pirates are dumb. I am going to be a ninja."

"But there are not ninjas in the pirate world!" I yelled and the new kid turned to look at me. His dark eyes pouring into my soul.

"You wanted me to play, so I will play if I am a ninja!" he growled and we agreed. During lunch he joined our table and we started to talk with him. We learned his name is Keith, and he moves a lot. Keith joined our group of friends.

-_-_-

We entered fifth grade and my grandmother started to visit the doctor a lot more than usual. My dad had come over and it was a weekend we were supposed to spend with mom. Dad took mom and left. When the two came back they held ice cream from dairy queen in their hands. Victoria sighed and sat down on the couch. We learned when our parents bring dairy queen home it resulted in bad news. We all sat eating ice cream in silence for a moment before my mom spoke.

"So, nana has cancer. And she can't really walk up and down stairs so she will be moving in with Aunt Melanie." my mom smiled, but there were hints of sadness in her eyes. My older sister started to cry and Luis joined in. I sat there confused and looked at my ice cream. What is cancer? Why are they crying? I don't get it.

The weekend consisted of sitting in the hot temp at the high school as mom pinned the pants of the band kids. I hated the last month of summer. It consisted of sitting in the hot temp with a bunch of woman, and sweaty teenagers. I played on my mom's phone as Luis played on his. Victoria was outside marching with her flute. I hated marching band. We had to go to the night practices just to pick veronica up and it sucks. Sitting on the asphalt that is still warm from the now stetted sun. And this never ended until October, so it starts to get cold at night. But it isn't October yet. When we went to my dad's my older sister still had band practice so she wouldn't join us. But we would sleep in a small one roomed apartment. It was Cyndi's apartment, our dad's girlfriend. But it was too small, and her cat was mean. Fun to play with, but mean. You couldn't touch her, and she was always angry. Her name is Alice, and we try not to be around her.

-_-_-

As I entered sixth grade I already knew the summer vacation essay I was going to write. The dead sea lion on the beach of Oregon. It was cool, and I am cool. My family took yearly trips. Our first one was to new mexico, then we went to disney world in florida, then yellowstone in wyoming, then arizona to the four corners, then oregon. So I was excited. As I sat by Hunk in our first period class, we chatted about summer. I wont get a phone until Luis enters high school, but Hunk has his very own phone and I think it's cool. Even if it is a flip phone.

"How is your grandma doing?" Hunk asked. I felt a pit sink into my stomach. She was doing fine it just hurts now I understand what she has and what's wrong. Cancer is a disease. She has stage four Lung cancer. She takes chemo for her cancer, and chemo is just a poison made to kill your cells. If you are sick, you can't see a patient with cancer, because they might get sick, and then die.

"She is doing the best you can in a situation like that. After chemo she is really weak and in pain, but she feels better later." I answered. Hunk nodded content that nothing really changed. "Oh! I am going to miss school next week, my dad is getting married to Cyndi, y'know here right?"

"Yeah, Cyndi is cool, I think it'll work out." I smiled and agreed with Hunk. Our teach Mrs. Quillen (Quil-len) walked inside the room. She had short blonde hair and wore a dressy shirt with jeans and sandals. She smiled and started to talk about what she teaches, how she teaches, and how switching between classes work.(since these teacher were technically elementary teachers I had, and sixth grade was elementary for me...) We started our day with math and that sucked. Especially since I didn't understand most of it. Our second class was with Mrs. Comcowich (com-cow-witch). She taught history. Mrs. Weimers (wee-meres) taught english. Mrs. Van taught us Science. Mr. Gastobando (Gas-To-band-o who was from Cuba) taught us music. Ms. Hansan taught us art, and Mr. Hevalent (hev-a-lent) taught us gym. I liked science, music, and gym the most. But I likes Mrs. Van, Mr. Gastobando (mr. Gasto for short), Ms. Hansan, and Mrs. Quillen.

Over time I would be pulled out of my english and history classes to have Mr. Halbash (my first grade teacher, because I forgot the tutor's names... oops). Tutor me in Math and english. The math one was just learning how to add, subtract, and multiply in my head quickly. English was reading books my level and trying to catch me up to a sixth grade level. The time to leave for the wedding came and I ran around collecting homework before the fifteen hour drive to North Dakota from colorado. My half brother Joe picked us up at three am and drove to my uncle's house where we helped load up his car before leaving to my aunts. There we helped load up her car, and find a way to keep my grandma on oxygen. They would have flown Nana if she wasn't afraid of planes. The drive was long and boring. Full of dozing to sleep squished between my siblings, as Joe drove and his fiancee sat beside him navigating. Eventually they switched spots and Breanna was driving. We are on a two lane highway. One side is opposing traffic as the side we were on was the right side of the road. Breanna fell behind Stacee, my uncle's girlfriend (wife? I don't remember), and a car slipped between us. Annoyed Breanna switched into opposing traffic. I woke and looked up to see a semi truck heading directly towards us. I felt panic pulse with my headache. Right before all of my father's children were instantly killed, Breanna squeezed into her lane behind my uncle's car. The semi zoomed by the driver's side window. I could hear Joe screaming at Breanna. Forcing my eyelids shut I yelled to fall asleep.

When we finally made it to Cyndi's parent's house we exited the car to stretch before driving to an ancient house to spend the night. The house was a historical spot for Nodak (north Dakota), it was a big ranch house with old paintings, and porcelain dolls in the "kids room" Luis and I were supposed to sleep there. Instead Luis, Victoria and I slept on an air mattress outside my nana's room. None of us wanted to sleep in our respected rooms. 

Preparing things for the wedding was a pain. We drove all across the small town of Fargo, and spent a lot of time in Cyndi's house. When the wedding arrived Cyndi and her bridesmaids were running around getting dolled up. Luis and I wore black suits with blue ties and sparkly blue vest. (which are replacing the sparkly blue dresses my sister and I wore). Luis had purple converses, as I wore salmon colored ones. Luis had a blue boutonniere, as I wore a purple one. Cyndi wore a long strapless long white dress and bright pink high heels that were shortly replaced with black and pink converses. Veronica and all other bridesmaids (and female escorts) wore black dresses ended below their knees. Simple v-necks and thin black straps. Converse colours varied between each woman. Victoria had light green converses.

The ceremony was short Luis and I walked down the aisle dropping flowers to sit down in the front row. I watched friends and family of the bride's maid and there escorts (varying in gender) walk down before Cyndi and her father. Then words, rings and a kiss. It was very cute and romantic. The reception after was at a bar and full of people. Nana sat at the same table as I. She was going to wear a wig, but wigs are itchy. So her bald head was a weird sight. She wore a navy blue dress and sat in a wheelchair. She would dance with us, but her dancing was swaying her arms. She was lively for being sick.

A young blond girl saw me playing with a bouncy ball in the back of the room and decided to join me. We moved to the area in front of the bathrooms were there were walls and doors. We would throw the ball at the wall and watch it bounce between the two walls. Eventually drunk people started to buy our balls, and we would buy more. And more drunk people would buy balls. We had a cup of balls and a cup of money. One drunk man threw a ball into the bar, and hit a man sleeping at the bar. We laughed and continued to throw our balls all around. Eventually the girl's dad took our money and walked us to my dad.

"Our kids are hustling people to go to the bathroom." he spoke and handed my step mother the cup of money. She counted it and started to laugh.

"They have two hundred dollars in this cup." the blonde girls dad handed her the cup and told her to return the money. She sighed and i wandered close behind her. Any money she didn't return I ended up keeping. I walked to the car that day with eighteen balls and seventy dollars.

Note: This was mostly the happy time before the storm came. Hoped you enjoyed so far! I forgot about the cat part so we will start with that next chapter!