[i]Kimberly[/i]: It’s been about 8 years ago. I was 8 years old when it happened. My family and I were on a trip up in Vegas. The trip was very extravagant and there were always things to do. Always. You know that Vegas is known so highly as Sin City. It’s always been. To this day… still is. Always will be. But it was also known as a high excitement location for live shows… Gambling. Concerts and the whole shebang. I was there and just walking on my own to our hotel room as the rest of the family was out gambling. My older sister… She was back at our home here in Metropolis and she’d been just at the house. Watching T.V. All of a sudden… She heard a knock at the door and as curious as she was… She wanted to see who was at the door. She went to go check it out. Unfortunately… When she did… a homeless dirty man… well… Maybe not dirty. But he was homeless. He came in and broke in. Before she could escape… he hit her… knocking her down. By time she came to... She was wrongfully abused that would leave her with only the nightmares of that fateful point in her life. A time that she would never be able to wipe away. It left her totally broken inside. While she had that happening to her… I was still in Vegas… Walking my way over to see a show that was of a famous magician duo. My parents and I heard about him all during our trip coming to Las Vegas. Figured that... shit. With all the talk... they must be pretty groovy. So we decided to head to see the show. All of a sudden ahead of us... there was this crowd just gathering and it was due to something possibly as stupid as maybe a disagreement. But this fight was about race. Race between Mexican and blacks. Someone was heard spewing some anti-sematic references and things. Calling them the N-word. Jiggaboos... Blacks calling Mexicans Wetbacks and Beaner babies. The whole skit. IT went back and forth. for at least a few minutes till one side got so heated up that it came to blows. My parents were uneased by it and didn't want to be caught in the middle of it all. We tried to go around and avoid it. However, from the time we tried to do that... till the point it got really bad... the gathering grew to a very large crowd. My parents got somehow caught in the group. We tried to escape and before we were able to reach safety from the fight that was breaking out... I nearly got slammed by the fight as I was in between my parents. A couple of the blows came right me... outta nowhere. I got bruised up pretty fairly but not brutally. Thankfully. It was hours later when we finally got back to the hotel room. My parents were rattled by the ordeal and I was so so traumatized that I didn’t speak. I didn’t even make a noise. I couldn’t. But signs of my ordeal were all over me. The scratches… bruises. Marks. Everything. 3 years later… I was 11 when my sister Linda confided in me that she had taken up smoking. Smoked a year ago by that time. It was then when she gave me… my first pack. Parliament reds. But I dont smoke anymore.

[i]Ella[/i]: My life was never easy, not with being in a local hitmen group, or being famous for her singing. On our pokemon journey, we each carried three current pokemon. Kimberly carried an [b]Infernape, a Charmeleon, and a Squirtle[/b]. Whereas I had a S[b]quirtle, a Picachu, and a Combusken.[/b] We each had a rough past and we were both abused, and abandoned. It was a miracle we were still here. Especially me since I was starved and almost died. We both weren't talkative. Not after my past. My past is pretty rough. Growing up as a kid on multiple occasions I was bullied and harmed. My own mother and father would abuse me and call me "it" instead of treating me like a human for in her world anything other than a human was a disgrace. I do not look to my mom and dad as my parents for I ran away at 14 my brother was along with me but he left me to die. Because of that past, I was now unable to trust a lot of people or anyone for that matter. My best friend Kimberly was just as bad, she only trusted me because we had been through the same stuff, and had lived and helped each other most of our life. We hadn't even bothered to make friends with our group we were helping, we knew we had to save Jermey's mom but we couldn't decide how we were going to help. 

[i]Kimberly[/i]: *Singing* I used to shut my door while my mother screamed in the kitchen
I'd turn the music up, get high and try not to listen
To every little fight, 'cause neither one was right
I swore I'd never be like them
But I was just a kid back then

[i]Kimberly and Ella[/i]: *Singing* The older I get the more that I see
My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me
And loving is hard, it don't always work
You just try your best not to get hurt
I used to be mad but now I know
Sometimes it's better to let someone go
It just hadn't hit me yet
The older I get

[i]Ella[/i]: *Singing* I used to wonder why, why they could never be happy
I used to close my eyes and pray for a whole 'nother family
Where everything was fine, one that felt like mine
I swore I'd never be like them
But I was just a kid back then

[i]Kimberly and Ella[/i]: *Singing* The older I get the more that I see
My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me
And loving is hard, it don't always work
You just try your best not to get hurt
I used to be mad but now I know
Sometimes it's better to let someone go
It just hadn't hit me yet
The older I get
The older I get the more that I see
My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me
And loving is hard, it don't always work
You just try your best not to get hurt
I used to be mad but now I know
Sometimes it's better to let someone go
It just hadn't hit me yet
The older I get