I live in a very nice neighborhood. I live at 395 Twin Rivers Lane here in Nashville, Tennessee, with my adoptive family, a family that includes both my parents and my adopted brothers and sisters.
My next-door neighbor, Gene, also happens to be one of my very best friends. He is 13, too, like me, but he is about a month-and-a-half older than me. He has bright orange/red hair and freckles covering his entire face; and he has large grey-blue eyes that have a tendency to sparkle, especially whenever he is in a good mood. He is in several of my classes at my school, and he wants to be a professional musician when he grows up. (He has already won several local fiddle contests in the junior division; he is quite talented at the fiddle. He's played the fiddle since the age of 5, so you know he is quite good.) By the way, Gene's last name is Princeton-Peoples.
My other next-door neighbor is Opri (pronounced like OPRY), Opri Johnson. He is an only child, but he is a few years younger than me (11). He has NOT had an easy life. First of all, his mother and daddy divorced when he was a little baby, and if that weren't bad enough, he was born with severe kidney problems that resulted in two kidney transplants (one he had as a baby, and the other, just a few years back, when he was 9). He is small and thin for his age, and people (kids, in particular) are always picking on him. They call him things like "Teeny", "Shrimp", and "Pee-wee".
Unlike Gene, Opri is NOT musical. His thing is reading or working on scientific experiments. He also builds model airplanes, boats, and cars. He is very good with his hands.
Most of the kids in my neighborhood ARE quite nice, but there ARE a few exceptions. These are the kids I TRY to avoid at any costs. These include Cindi Dawson (she is my age, but she is a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT), Peter Blades and his friend, Ruben Rivera (they are younger than Cindi--both boys are just 11, like Opri--, but both boys are just plain MEAN, especially Peter!), and "The Girlz" (Cindi's "crew"; these girls hang around her, and all they do is torment the younger kids or brag about how rich they are and how successful their parents are), as well as Amber Ackbourne (she has such an ATTITUDE!!). She's another one who brags about her parent--as well as how many boys she's kissed.
I have had more fights with kids like Amber, Cindi, and Peter because they all seem to like to pick on my younger, disabled brothers and sisters--or on ME. They call me "Cajun Creep" or make fun of my choice of music and stuff like that. I CAN'T TELL you HOW MANY black eyes I've given to them for trying to defend my brothers and sisters!!
I am also friends with Melinda, who lives across the street from me. Her last name's Mulligan, and she is 13 as well. We kind of look alike because we both have long, ash-blonde hair (although hers is quite a bit lighter than mine is) and brown eyes; but she is taller than I am. She is a tomboy like me, and we're both crazy about baseball, soccer, softball, and tackle football. She's also the one who dared me to chew a wad of tobacco last year. (Oh, was I EVER SICK!!!) We also have something else in common: there are several of her family members who are adopted. She has several sisters and brothers from places like Vietnam, Korea, and India, as well as two sisters (one big, one little) from Louisiana.
By the way, these two sisters are none other than Ronee' 's real-life sisters! Robyn is Ronee' 's twin sister (they look EXACTLY alike, excepting Robyn is heavier and taller, plus Robyn DOESN'T use crutches for walking), and Lu-Anne is their "half" sister. That is, they have the same mother, but different fathers.
(Or SOMETHING LIKE THAT.)
It's kind of neat, on Ronee' 's part, because she gets to see her sisters, and they are usually always together.
The newest kid in our neighborhood happens to be Akimwe Sopai. She is originally from Kenya, Africa, and she is in my little brother Andre' 's first grade class. She just moved to America a few months back, and Andre' has been making her feel more at ease with her new surroundings and has been teaching her English, too, besides.
And she is teaching him Swahili.
Our neighborhood has a lot of people, people of all ages, sizes, colors, and backgrounds. Some are rich, some are poor, and quite a few are "middle-class". (We fall somewhere between middle and upper-middle class.)
There's also A LOT of kids. Our neighborhood can get RATHER noisy at times, especially when the kids are out of school for the summer!!
So, if you DON'T like a lot of noise (or, better yet, a lot of kids!), my best advice to you would be this: DON'T come to my neighborhood!!
But I AM glad I live where I do. I love the area, I love a lot of the people here, and I love the school I attend! I guess I am rather fortunate, in other words.
I could be living in a place like the projects, where gang life and violence is so common, or I could be homeless and living on the streets, or living in a place where I am the only one of my race and then the neighborhood residents would make fun of me....
So I live here, and I am lucky.. I have a nice house and a nice family, and MOSTLY nice neighbors!!
Gemma succeeds in starting a girls' football team at her new school, but bitter rival Tyrone does everything he can to stop the girls playing. So begins a battle of wits between the girls and boys, and also between Gemma and sports teacher, Mrs Lawfo
