Rio: Forgotten memories

It was quiet in the rain forest adjacent to Rio de Janeiro many life forms exist in this dense, wet forest and many aren't what they seem. For many years humans have thought of animals being incapable of self awareness or being able to do what humans have been doing since their beginnings in a familiar dark continent. Dancing is one of the most prime examples of human culture and dancing in general seems to show its own emotion in the many types it has. The most well known in Brazil is the Samba, it is the emotion of what Brazil shows to the rest of the world, freedom.

The rain forest echoed in samba and rhythm, but this was not a human settlement. This land was not protected by the government and therefore was a hunting ground for many poachers, therefore only animals lived here. What was interesting was that the music was coming not from humans but from many species of birds in the forest.

(Real in Rio)

All the birds of a feather

Do what we love most of all

We are the best, at rhythm and laughter

All the birds in the forest had a reason to dance, it was just so addicting!

That's why we love carnaval

In the distance their was a man and his son, the father had various feathers of many species of birds known to man displayed on his hat and he had a hunting rifle for hunting big game animals. He was about 6'1 and his entire figure was enough to scare the strongest of men. His son on the other hand was physically frail and it looked as though he was the least person you would expect to come from a father of this magnitude. His son was about 4'4 and loved birds; he would always draw them and examine them very carefully and he was a really good artist. He always begged his father to take him to see all the majestic birds but his father always said no but today was different.

"Wow! Their so beautiful dad! I never knew this forest had so many kinds of birds"

"there are over ten thousand species of birds around the world Andrew but enough with that, help me set these nets up." His father demanded

"What are the nets for dad?" young Andrew asked with curiosity.

His father hesitated, would he lie to his own son? If he told him the truth his whole purpose here would be compromised.

"We are saving them from the hunters and bringing them to the nearby laboratory Andrew, these birds are in danger of becoming someone's feast"

"Feast? Yuck! Who would want to eat birds?" young Andrew was obviously disgusted at the comment from his father.

"People who are cold, harsh and evil, my son" his father cringed at his own words but he smiled mischievously at all the birds around them.

They had set up the nets everywhere and were about to unleash them upon the birds of the forest.

All birds we can sing to

Sun and beaches they call

Dance to the music

Passion and love

Show us the best you can do

Not too far away their was a baby Blue Spix macaw sleeping in its nest that had been woken up by the attractive music.

Everyone here is on fire

He too began to dance too and was entranced by the music he heard.

Get up and join in the fun

Dance with a stranger, romance and danger

Magic could happen for Real

In Rio

All by itself

(Itself)

You cant see it coming

you can't find it anywhere else

(Anywhere else)

"So many species! We are going to be rich" Andrews father whispered.

It's real, in rio

Know something else

(Something else)

"Son, I want you to pull the string on my mark okay?"

"Dad I don't think this is a good idea" Andrew told his father

"Just do it! Or so help me I will punish you for a very long time Andrew!"

"Okay…dad ill do it"

You can feel it happen

"Hurry up Andrew!"

"Dad I can't! The string is too strong!"

"God dammit Andrew! The father forcefully grabbed the string from his son and all hell broke lose on all the birds around them.

You can feel it all by yourself

The blue macaw lost its balance and fell to the ground below; although he survived the fall he failed in learning how to fly.

(Song end)

The father, Miller, walked towards his son in a fit of anger

"You're a disappointment, Andrew...I told you to do something simple...to pull down this string!" the father shouted at his son with all his anger.

The young boy began to cry miserably and all the birds felt his sorrow.

"You're lying to me...and you shout as if i should enjoy doing these things with you" Young Andrew sobbed

Miller sighed as he crouched down to meet his son eye to eye

"Listen Andrew...i didn't mean to make you sad...we need the money you know..."

"Let them go...dad" Andrew said softly

"I'm sorry Andrew...you're too young to understand yet" Miller finished as he returned to his upright position and walked to collect some birds that were trapped in the nets.

While Andrew was sobbing something caught his interest and it was the baby blue macaw, he went over to touch it but his father forced his way and put the blue Spix in a cage.

"Dad! let him go!" young Andrew protested to his father.

"Listen Andrew, things are going to be different from now on, I don't want to see my son with this weak personality of his, I lied to you my son about saving them but you will one day learn that this is merely the survival of the fittest."

"Survival of the fittest dad?" his son asked

"Sigh…I knew you wouldn't understand Andrew, in this world there are the strong and the weak, the weak perish and the strong survive. We are just fulfilling our purpose Andrew"

"But the birds did nothing to us! There just minding their own business!" his son screamed at his father

"When we get home you and I will have a long talk about this" his father finished.

Then Andrew's father examined the blue Spix in the cage. It was a very rare kind of macaw and there are very few of them left. Only about 78 of them left, he would make a lot of money selling his creature to the industry.

"Well! This pretty much makes us have what we want! Ha ha! We did it! We are rich! Finally!" his father said in joy

Young Andrew sighed, completely powerless to help the birds

They had loaded up all the birds in the truck but before they left, Andrew's father took a glimpse at the Spix Macaw, he smiled.

"Son, you know every baby has a mother right?" he asked his son gleefully.

"yea..what about it dad" the 8 year old asked.

"Well! The baby blue bird's mother will be returning soon and she might be worried where her baby is, maybe we should go look for her." The father said expressing evil in his face.

(A few hours later)

They had arrived at their destination and sold all the birds, including the blue spix for about 100 million dollars. Then they returned home in the busiest part of Rio de Janeiro. Their apartment was 20 stories tall and was one of the richest in town. Mr. Andrew turned on all the lights and grabbed his son and threw him on his bed and yelled.

"No more! No more of this my son! No more drawing pictures of animals! No more of this love for them! You need to grow up and learn to hate them! They are your enemies!"

The father went to his son's drawing board and destroyed every last one of his beautiful drawings and then left. His son was shocked by this and began crying once more.

"Mom…where are you. I need your help." The boy was left crying for days to come.

(A few more hours later)

"In other news, their had been reports of many species of birds that suddenly disappeared from the nearby rain forest and the government of Brazil has decided to take action on this incident. President Itamar Franco has initiated a close down of all nearby rain forests from all tourists and locals except government officials. He ordered an immediate investigation for the crisis.

months passed and Mr. Andrew had no reason to stay in Brazil because hunting there was now illegal so he booked a flight to California with his son where they both had all they could enjoy. His son became a very skilled hunter and hated animals like his father had wanted. They bought a very big house in the outskirts of Los Angeles which had about 42 rooms. Life seemed to be perfect for them. But was that truth? Were they really happy with what they wanted?

(Fifteen years had passed since that day in the rainforest)

The sun rose in the always busy town of Los Angeles and a young and grumpy person was about to be visited by what morning people love most.

-Ring!-

"Ugh…shut up…shut up!" the young man broke his alarm clock with a swift hit.

It was 8:23 and people were already going about their business.

"Wait! 8:23! Holy shit! I am late for school!"

The nineteen year old's room was thrust into chaos as he quickly found his clothes to wear for the day and ran out the front door.

He would always wear a red sweater that read "crunch time" and blue jeans and on some days he would wear a blue cap along with it. He got in his BMW and drove off to his school.

He went to May wood academy High school and his mascot is the Nighthawk. May wood is home to one of the most successful students in Los Angeles but also the worst, in this case. The young adult drove his car in a parking garage just down the street from the school. He turned off the engine and sprinted towards his High school. The bell rang as he reached the front door of the courtyard. His first class was American Government and this was the second semester at his school. Every student that was a senior were eagerly waiting to get out of school in the next four weeks. Seniorituious had already affected the vast majority of seniors in the school, but like any last semester of any school year...there was finals. And many students that have hit seniorituious were just going to either cheat or do the Christmas method on their scantrons. Andrew sighed as he opened the door that lead to his first period class. Everyone looked at him, their faces tried to contain their laughter. The teacher was a typical old haired man, but this teacher hated Andrew with a passion but found ways to express this.

"Late again I see Mr. Andrew" Mr. Smith told the irresponsible student.

"I'm sorry smith but I kinda got stuck in traffic and"

"That's Mr. Smith to you Mr. Andrew. You have no excuse"

"Right…sorry sir won't happen again" Andrew said walking to his desk.

"Mr. Andrew, since you are here with us today earlier than usual why don't you tell us a few facts about our country"

America government was not something Andrew excelled in and it was indeed his worst grade in the semester.

"Here Mr. Andrew... show us how hard you have been studying at home late at night, a pop quiz should prove to us how great you are doing in my class. Question number one how many senators are their in all 50 states combined?"

"Um...50?" Andrew answered. Everyone in the class exploded with laughter.

"Wrong Mr. Andrew, the answer is obviously 100 because each state has 2 senators, multiply 2 and 50 and what do you get?"

Someone in the audience shouted out "that was like the first question in chapter one doshebag"

"Next question, what are the requirements to becoming president of the United States?

"Uh...I don't... Know we never studied that" Andrew said

"Wrong answer, the requirements to becoming president are as follows: 35 years of age and older, resident in the US for 14 years and a natural born citizen with no immigrant history."

"Oh…" Andrew said walking to his desk and putting his head down.

"Well it looks like all Mr. Andrew has done in my class is sleep, I think you should stay up today Mr. Andrew, tomorrow is the final exam but enough with that class! Today, guess what i have in store for all of you?

The entire student body sighed

"Pop quiz..."

"Thats right! and i hope you all studied like you were supposed to...especially you...Mr Andrew" Mr. Smith said dropping the thin piece of paper on the young adults desk.

"The quiz has ten questions, try your best and don't fall behind...if you are stuck on a question, move on" Mr. Smith said

To everybody other than Andrew, this quiz was an easy A+, but the young adult felt nervous, the quiz was going to kill his quarter four grade. Andrew began to sweat and his breathing got a little tense, Mr. Smith was catching anyone who happened to stretch their neck to look for salvation. You know sometimes when your nervous and your taking a test or quiz that might seal your fate in the particular class, well...Andrew started feeling pressure on his seat, he tried to desperately hold it but his gas was looking for a way out.

"Come on Andrew...you can do this...just...guess, no...guessing will only get you wrong answers...maybe i can get answers from the nerd" Andrew said under his breath, he looked towards the local nerd but this person was sitting two seats away from his row so it was impossible to cheat from him, next to him was the local idiot so that would not help and Mr. Smith was observing everyone's movements.

The pressure began to build up again at an alarming rate, Andrew dropped his pencil quieltly and held on to his seat

"Don't do it...don't do it!" Andrew said

One girl looked at Andrew, she rolled her eyes but then began to smile, she noticed Andrew's futile attempts to hold a fart and she quietly told her friends about this, then eventually the whole class saw what Andrew was doing. The young adult could not hold it in any longer, his buttocks exploded which echoed across the room, there was a brief silence before everyone in the room started to laugh. The humiliation tore Andrew apart like paper.

"well, how disrespectful of you Mr. Andrew, disrupting my class in the middle of a quiz...shame on you, go to the principal's office and get a demerit from him."

The young adult did not say anything back, he jsut stood up and walked towards the door. Everyone taunted Andrew as he reached toward the door, he left as everyone got back to their test.

"Man...what a loser" One student said

Mr. Smith turned around and said

"Yes...very much, especially at how he is doing in my class" Mr smith finished.

(Sometime later)

"Well Andrew, i don't know what to say...your failing almost all of your classes and plus, you are disrupting the classroom's like an immature child." The principal said, the blinds on his window were shut, creating a dark atmosphere

"This time, it was not my fault...it couldn't keep it in" Andrew said

"It does not matter if this time, it wasn't your fault, the fact is...in the four years that you have been in this high school, you have a total of 573 demerits and you have been placed in disciplinary probation twice and academic probation three times. With this record...i doubt you have any chance of going into college as it is. You are currently in academic probation and your access to Grad Bash and prom will be terminated immediately. On another side note, Your Gpa is 2.2 and that wont be enough to get into even the worst campus in Los angeles." The principal said

Andrew just stayed quiet, the principal walked up to his desk and sat down

"Listen Andrew...is something going on at home? Your father maybe?" The principal asked

"my father has nothing to do with this" Andrew said quietly

"Maybe you are still thinking of your mother?" The principal asked

"How did you know about that?" Andrew asked

"Your father told me but that was a long time ago, you shouldn't let your emotions control your actions, listen to me very carefully, i am giving you one last chance...one last chance or you will repeat the school year to meet with the demands in college because with this Gpa, you wont even Graduate with your fellow classmates and you will not receive your diploma" The principal said

"i understand...ill do my best" Andrew said

"Easier said than done, i want to see results very soon" The principal concluded

Andrew just stood up quietly

"Your free to go and this demerit will be sent to your father tonight" The principal finished

Andrew sighed as he left the principals office and headed towards his first period class again, once he opened the classroom door, he was greeted once again by students, whose faces could not contain the laughter of what happened earlier.

"Please take your seat, Mr. Andrew, i hope you wont disrupt my class for the rest of the semester after that" Mr. smith said

Andrew sat down

"now then class, today's lesson will be the history of sovereignty" Mr. smith said

Andrew tried to stay away but he slowly drifted to sleep.

Everything went dark and Andrew found himself in a rain forest. Every single leaf was so detailed and it seemed as though everything was animated from a kid's movie.

"What...is this? Where am I? Andrew said nervously. He tried to walk normally but tripped as a result. "What? What's wrong with me?"

There was a puddle of water right next to him, curiosity got the best of him and he wished he hadn't looked into the puddle.

"No…impossible! This cant be true!" Andrew backed away from the puddle in shock

He was a bird. The very thing he hated most…