Chapter 1 - Kari

Kari
By Tajana

Kari just loved volleyball. She couldn’t get enough of it. She was even on the A volleyball team. She also loved to swim. Kari would go down to her pool every morning before school and swim for thirty minutes. After school she would come home, do her homework, then practice volleyball in her backyard.
One day she decided that she needed to practice her swimming and volleyball longer everyday. She also decided that she needed to eat less food to stay fit. Kari would soon learn that this was a huge mistake. Kari started her new idea the next morning. All she had to eat was a piece of toast. She had decided to start her plan on her birthday. After she finished her toast she went and swam in her pool for an hour.
Kari seemed more exhausted than usual, but that didn’t seem to faze her. After school, as usual she came home and did her homework. Then she went straight outside and practiced harder than she ever practiced.
When Kari was all done with her volleyball she decided to lie out and soak up as much of the sun that she could. Kari finally went inside to get her birthday presents and cake. Kari opened the door very slowly for some reason. She didn’t seem to have any strength left. Kari became dizzy and everything started to seem so blurry. Then she collapsed.
She collapsed right there at the back door. The door wasn’t even open all the way. As she collapsed she fell into the door, opening it the rest of the way. Next thing she knew, she was lying in a small bed. Kari knew that it wasn’t her own because her bed was a double. Her bed also had warm cotton blankets. She then realized that she wasn’t wearing her own clothes either. These were not her comfortable athletic clothes that she practiced volleyball in.
Then it dawned on Kari. She remembered the blurry vision, and how dizzy she was. Something must have happened at the back door. Kari, still to tired to open her eyes, focused on her surroundings with her ears. Then she heard this strange patterned beeping. Kari put her hand to her heart, the beat of her heart was the same as the beeping. She thought that she must be at a hospital.
Kari opened her eyes and discovered that her family was there too. They were all staring at her. Kari could tell her mom had been crying. When Kari had opened her eyes, her family smiled, they hugged each other. They seemed so happy. A doctor came into the room. The doctor was a tall woman with shoulder length, blonde hair. She asked Kari what day it was. Kari responded with May 14, 2004. The doctor told Kari that she had the right month and year, but the day was wrong. It was May 17.
“What happened to me?” the confused Kari questioned.
The doctor responded, “You overworked your body and gave it no food to refuel. Kari you collapsed at your back door. You have a minor concussion.”
Kari needed a moment to take in everything that had happened to her. She couldn’t believe it. What about her birthday? How could something this horrible happen to her on her birthday?
A few days after Kari woke up, she was ready to go home. She felt dizzy from all of the tests they had run on her. When she arrived home she couldn’t go to school for a few days. She would have to miss her volleyball and swimming for a while too.
Kari sat inside looking out her bedroom window. She saw children running around playing. Jealousy rose over her body so quickly that when she tried to look away, she couldn’t. She wished that she could be outside too. Kari closed the blinds on her window.
Later that day Kari managed to get out of bed. Her bed had become so uncomfortable throughout the day. She had slept in it for days already without doing something active. Kari crept down the stairs into her living room. Her mother was in the kitchen. Where could Kari go?
Kari just had to get out of her house. She didn’t know where to go. Kari suddenly remembered the tree house that she and her brother had built last summer. But how could she get there unseen? The tree house was in her back yard. She could sneak there by staying hidden by the bushes.
Kari’s mother was coming into the living room. Kari had to act fast. She ran and hid behind her ocean blue couch in the living room. The back door was only a few feet away. She dove for the door and escaped just before her mom reached the living room. She was outside.
Kari quietly crept behind the bushes. She was becoming closer to her beautiful tree house every minute. The twigs snapped under her feet, as she kept low. She felt so much better that she was finally was finally outside.
Kari arrived at the foot of her tree house. She stared up at it, wondering how she would get up unseen. The ladder was on the side of the tree. She could be seen from the living room, but not very well. Kari began to climb the sturdy wooden ladder. Kari could see the inside of her tree house. She was almost there. Kari had no idea about what was soon to happen.
Kari had almost reached the top of the ladder, when all of a sudden her foot slipped on one of the steps. She was hanging 20 feet in the air barely holding on with only one hand. Kari knew that she could fall if her hand slipped. She still hadn’t regained all of her energy since she was home, but this was a life or death situation. She tried her hardest to pull herself back onto the ladder. With one struggling pull, she managed to regain her balance on the ladder.
Kari was so terrified by what had just happened. She was shaken, she couldn’t move. Then she realized that if she kept standing there, she might slip again. So Kari scrambled to the top of the ladder as fast as her legs could carry her.
Once she reached the top of the ladder, she climbed into her fort. She lie down and fell asleep. She woke up to something rubbing against her leg. Kari looked up to see a kitten. It must have climbed up the ladder with its strong claws.
The kitten seemed to have no home. It looked like it had been wondering for days. Kari assumed that the kitten was only a few weeks old. She decided to let it stay with her. She was going to keep it.
Kari quietly climbed down the fort’s ladder. As soon as she knew that the coast was clear, she snuck into the house. Her mission was to get some food from the kitchen. Then she was going to go get a blanket and pillow. Once she was in the kitchen, she spied the cans of tuna fish. She grabbed the tuna fish, opened the cans, and got a blanket and a pillow.
Kari then realized something when she reached the fort. How was she going to get all this stuff up in the fort? She decided to take the tuna up first. The blanket and pillow were next. She got those up, with not much trouble.
The kitten was sitting in the fort. It looked like it had been waiting for her. Kari gave some of the tuna to the kitten. It must have been starving because the tuna was gone in 20 seconds. The kitten sat there staring at Kari with loving eyes.
Kari decided she should give the kitten a name. In order to do this, she had to find out if it was a boy or a girl. She didn’t want to, but she looked, thank god it was a girl. She decided to name the kitten, Baby. She thought that would always fit her because of her baby-like eyes.
Baby learned to trust Kari very quickly that day. She trusted Kari to hold her. Baby even ate out of Kari’s hand. Baby snuggled with Kari in the fort. Kari slept in the fort all day.
When Kari woke up it was night. She looked out on her street as all the streetlights turned on. Baby was still snuggled next to Kari. Kari did notice one strange thing. Her house’s lights were the only ones that were still on.
Lights in other houses in the neighborhood were coming on one by one now. She could tell that someone was in her room. People started coming out of their houses with flashlights. They seemed to be looking for something. She thought that they were just looking for a dog or something.
Kari could tell that everyone was yelling for someone or something. Maybe they were looking for Baby. Kari listened closely to the voices. They were calling for Kari. All of a sudden Kari realized that she had made a huge mistake coming out to the fort.
Everyone was looking for her. Kari’s parents might have called the police. Maybe there was still time to come forward. Kari climbed down the ladder, she made sure that Baby was staying put. Kari walked on to the backyard, waiting for someone to spot her.
Kari recognized someone. It was her mom! She yelled to her mom. Kari ran to her mom hoping she wouldn’t be mad. Her mother couldn’t have been happier to see Kari. Her mom was crying.
Kari decided that she would never do that again. Her parents were mad at her, but they didn’t ground her. She decided to stay inside instead of sneaking out again. Baby became a member of the family. Kari would remember those moments of her life forever.

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