hi guys! :D so this is something new, but not actually: this is a story i wrote a long time ago 2007 to be exact) and i always wanted to publish it but was too shy. well my brother convinced me to finally go for it. THANKS BIG BRO! he was always the one to encourage me in my writing so i dedicate this story to him. :D ive cleaned it up a little but there might still be typos i missed. just reading this again is making me all nostalgic i should see if i still have my old discs. enjoy!

THE DEATH OF JOHNNY

"come on, Johnny!" P.T. cried at his sons' bedside. "you can do it! just stay with us!"

Johnny's vision was too blurry to even make out any of his family's features. all he could do was listen to them crying. but maybe... there was something else he could do.

"Mom... Dad... Jill..." he struggled.

"we're here for you, Johnny," his mother said through her weeping. "except Jill, we told her to go to the waiting room."

"I... I'm not gonna make it..." Johnny wheezed "please... I need... I need to know... about..."

and then... Johnny flatlined.

hi. my name is Caitlyn Pridemore. I have long blond hair and big blue eyes. I also have a tiny, slightly upturned nose and a heart-shaped face. everyone at school says im cute, but I am always too shy to listen. thankfully they are all really nice and never notice. I am 16 years old and I live in downtown Pleasantview... or, at least, I did.

my dad is a very wealthy business man and we've lived in our mansion on the west side of the city my entire life. but Dad is very kind and generous despite owning tons and tons of money, so on my last birthday (my sixteenth birthday) he sold our house and donated most of the profit to charity. then we bought a house in Strangetown, our parents wanted to teach us not to be snobs just because we had money.

today we are settling in at our new home, at 38 Road to Nowhere. I stood still as the taxi sped away from this desert place. in my mom's arms was my toddler brother Astral

"mama!" he said.

"yes, Astral," Mom said "it is a nice house isn't it"

so we went inside. it was cold, someone forgot to turn on the heating. but soon it was on and we opened up the windows to let the scorching desert warmth indoors. I went upstairs and went to my room.

"this must be my room" I said there was a letter on the door that said "hello Caitlyn, this is your room. we hope you like it. please call us if you ever need anything! best regards, the real estate company."

"ugh" I grumbled. I didn't like being called Caitlyn. I've always preferred Cait. but maybe they didnt know that.

i stepped inside. the walls were painted pink, my favorite shade of pink, and there was a pretty white canopy ofer my bed. the same material was around the windows as drapery. there was a white desk with a laptop on it and i had a closet and the floor was wood.

"well, at least it doesn't make my eyes vomit," I thought and sat down on my new bed. it was really comfy and i decided to take a nap. meanwhile the movers put all my clothes away and the clothes of my family members in their own rooms.

when i woke up i smelled something delicious. I walked downstairs but nearly tripped because i was still shaking off sleep. dowsntairs at the dining room table my family was dinnering. there was a big white box shaped like a square and a couple inches high in the middle of the table with a picture of something i didn't know.

"did you have a good nap honey?" asked Mom.

"uh, yeah," i said, yawning. "whats that on the table?"

"this is dinner!" Dad said proudly as if he'd hunted it himself. for all I knew that may have been the case.

"... what is it?" I asked.

"pizza!" he said and opened the box happily. inside was a round doughy thing that looked like flat bread, covered in cheese and what looked like tomato sauce. big round red things were scattered across it.

"eww!" i said. "is it sick or something?!"

"no!" Dad said and I sat down and he handed me a triangle shaped piece. "that's called pepperoni! it's sliced spiced sausage!" he smiled.

i looked nervously down at the triangle in my hands. i had never had... pizzar before. Astral and I had been raised on a fancy diet since birth, served by staff and I even had a wet nurse. i didnt want to seem stuck up though or anything and the pizza smelled heavenly so I took the tiniest of tiny bites. immediately my eyes lit up.

"OMG DAD THIS IS AMAZING!" I said before taking another bite.

"i'm glad you like it!" he said before taking a bite out of his own slice. "... reminds me of my childhood..."

"what?"

there was a tear in Dad's eye, but he sucked it back into his tear duct. "oh, uh, nothing, honey. perhaps I'll tell you... someday..."

we ate dinner and Astral wanted some too so we threw a slice in the blender for him. however it turned out to be too much for the stomach of a three year old and he threw up all over Dad when he tossed him in the air after dinner. but in the end, we all laughed.

maybe this new place wouldn't be so bad after all.