The araw after I was released from the hospital, my friend, Alyssa, paid me a visit. She said, "I just heard what had happened. Are you okay?" I said, "I'm badly hurt, but the doctor sinabi I should recover." She said, "I'm glad for that. Why didn't you come to me instead of running away?" I said, "I just didn't think things through, Alyssa." She said, "Ellie, promise me you won't run away. You'll come to me instead." I smiled and said, "It's a deal!" Sometime later, Grandpa and I found the owner of the house on the other side of the forest. That kind man saved my life. The least I could do was thank him. When he saw me, he said, "Hello, Ellie. How's your leg?" I said, "It's getting better. Thank you, um, I didn't get your name." He said, "My name's Robert." I said, "Thank you, Robert. I wouldn't be alive if not for you." He said, "You're welcome. I was happy to help." I saw Robert many times since then, and he was always friendly and nice. My father began rehab, and he gradually began getting better. He still has his ups and downs, but he stopped beating me, and he became the loving man he promised to be. He still didn't like the Beatles, but he began to respect me and my mother for listening to them.
THE END
THE END
When I had entered the fifth grade, I was dreading it. I had heard rumors that the teacher was really mean. When I met her before school started, she seemed really nice. On the first araw of school, I was wearing one of my Beatles t-shirts. She noticed it, and she said, "Darling, I pag-ibig you already!" I said, "Okay, then." She would take up for me all the time. The other kids often called me glasses. She heard them and said, "She has a name, guys. Her name is not glasses. It's Winter." There was one araw when another girl kept picking on me. I finally had enough and said, "I might look sweet and innocent, but that shit is for suckers, and I'm no lollipop." I looked at the teacher. She winked and said, "I heard nothing." I would have had her for the sixth grade, too, but unfortunately, I moved to Tennessee as soon as the school taon was over. We both cried. We promised to keep in touch with each other, and we've kept in touch to this day.
