Arriving Early

Alex and Gabriela grew to be like what he had hoped, family. He became her big brother. They grew close, the 'family' type of closeness. While Alex and his friends were in summer school or work. Gabriela continued to train in martial arts as well as study. She had eventually agreed to learn Martial Arts as she could learn better self-defense. Sometimes she would even hang out with Alex and his friends. Natalie and Monica fell in love with the energetic little girl and enjoyed the times they hung out, regardless of the age difference. Becoming real close with one another. They would help Gabriela out with her wardrobe, makeup, and other 'essentials' growing girls needed to know and helped her choose and purchase items for her 'monthly visitor'. Amy just got to sit back and relax, enjoying the liveliness that is in her once ever so quiet house.

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Now 11 yrs old, entering seventh grade, (she was able to skip sixth grade after taking the assessment tests and passing with flying colors.) Gabriela felt comfortable going to her new school now. Natalie and Monica were always encouraging her, letting her know that they are there for her if she needs help with anything. Her brother Alex and his friend Mike also told her to let them know if anyone tries to bully her. Her brother Alex and Monica, both agreed to her request for walking to and from school together. The high school was just 10 minutes down the street from the middle school, although that meant Gabriela would be early at school. Which she didn't mind since it would allow her time to look around inside it. Upon arriving at school, Gabriela started to explore the one-story maze of a school she will now be studying at. She walked around a bit, getting a feel of the different hallways. Her previous school was a two-story building, having a completely different layout than what she is used to. After finding the Main Office, which was empty at the time, she continued her journey twisting and turning down more hallways. Upon hearing faint noises echoing through the hall she was currently in, she decided to head towards where it was coming from. She noticed a much smaller detached building. Without hurrying, she made her way to the building peeking inside. A boy in regular clothes was shooting 3-pointers by himself. He didn't seem to notice her come inside, so she just let him be and walked around, opening doors and looking behind the bleachers, basically checking the place out from corner to corner. Though, it was the gym so there wasn't a whole lot to check out. She went back to the first door she opened and walked inside the room. Blindly looking for the light, she finally found it and turned it on. Turns out that she was in the storage room. She took her time checking out the different sports supplies they had, not noticing someone come in shortly after her.

Philip noticed that it was already getting close to the start of school so he decided to stop practicing. He picked up the balls and headed back to the storage room, only to find it open and the light on. When he slowly peeked inside he saw a female classmate (she is wearing her uniform, with a skirt) looking around, not looking for anything just curiously like a little kitten. He said hi, and asked if she was new. Out of habit, she turned around quickly showing a look to kill, ready to fight if need be. Flabbergasted, he backed up with his arms raised, "Woah, Woah, now, now their little kitten I mean no harm." Gabriela relaxed just as fast as she had turned and tensed upon his arrival. She disregarded his comment and answered, "I am Gabriela and yes, I am a transfer student in this school. You are?" He glanced at the color of her uniform tie and noticed they were in the same grade. He smiled, "I am Philip also a 7th-grader, it's a pleasure to meet ya 'little kitten'." Mike's words then popped into her head, "Kittens are curious, feisty, and cute. Just. Like. You." He added as he touched her nose. (Mind you, Mike only was able to do that after a few weeks of hanging out with her and gaining her trust.) She sighed, thinking of how she really needs to work on her reactions, but then again, living so long having to be on guard, made it hard for her to relax around strangers, especially when she is caught off guard. Which she noticed has happened a couple of times since living with her Grandmother. With this revelation, she thought it best to put up her guard while at school at least or when meeting people for the first time, to avoid situations like these. She really doesn't want to be dubbed "little kitten" her whole school life.

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Back in previous school years, she would end up in fistfights, without fail until students found out the hard way that they were no match against her. Just as students around her learned she was strong, she learned to always watch her surroundings. 'Surprise attacks' only happened at home, not because she let her guard down, well she did when she thought she was alone or when sleeping. But even with her guard up, she would only be able to try and avoid seeing "HIM" (her abusive drunk Dad), since the moment he finds her and felt like doing something (which became more often when she turned 9, well sexually, since he did quite a bit of hitting her way before the sexual assaults began) he would tell her to come to "HIM". Since the adults, like neighbors, teachers, and friends, were all on his side as well as her Mom, she could only submit to him no matter what he did.

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Amy was happy her Granddaughter had seemed to blossom into a beautiful flower, making friends and now going to school, but knowing how she has terrible nightmares (there are a lot less of them now though) waking her up in the middle of the night and the breakdown she had at the Doctors office that never left Amy's mind, caused her to be full of worry as she saw Alex, Gabriela and Monica walk towards school. She only hoped that everything will be ok.