Sophia's+Final+Draft

Megan

Please don't come over here, please don't come over here, I kept repeating in my head as the hairy old man started to approach me. Luckily he turned around and walked the other way after I ignored him. This is the type of thing I go through as a little homeless girl. Being harassed and questioned many times on a daily basis makes me want to give up on life already. My life had always been so hard from the day my mom left me on the sidewalk near the park at the age of 8. I am now twelve and I've fought for my life all along the way, making myself stronger to the point where I could probably take on anything. I learned not to trust anyone, and to always keep the few belongings I posses with me at all times. I live off of what I can find on the street, in the park, but mostly from the forest in which I visit every day. One day when I was traveling through the forest, I didn’t feel like going the same way I usually go, so I decided to take a different path. I didn't have a clue where I would end up, or how I was going to get back, but at this point, I didn’t really care all that much. Little did I know that I was going to find something that would change my life forever. As I walked down the path, I came to a giant mango tree. I was so amazed at all of the juicy mangoes that were hanging down from the tree. The first thing that came to mind was how I would be able to live off of these mangoes if I ate a couple everyday. I couldn't possibly eat all of those mangoes, and they would eventually get overripe and rot, I thought to myself. Then all of a sudden, a fantastic idea popped into my mind. I know what I'll do! I'll sell the mangos to make some money. And the ones that didn't get sold, she could keep for myself. It was a brilliant idea! I needed to think of a way I could make that idea turn into reality. I knew that a fruit stand would be the best option, however, I didn’t know exactly how I was going to make fruit stand without any of the materials. I thought about it for a while, and then I remembered that there was a dump about a mile down the street. I wasn’t really sure what I'd find there, but it seemed like my only option. When I got to the dump, I mainly saw old rusty metal pieces, cars, and plastic things. I didn’t see much wood, nails, hammers or anything else you would need to create a fruit stand. However, after digging around for a few hours, i managed to find about 10 pieces of wood, 19 nails, and an old rusted hammer. I hoped that it would be enough to build a decent stand. When I returned back to the park, I started to build my stand. I was able to dig up some cardboard and old rope, it wasn’t much, but it was going to have to work. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to make it, but after trying different ways of putting it together, I ended up with a nice, tall fruit stand. I wanted to make sure my brand new fruit stand wasn’t going to get stolen, so I hid it in the abandoned jungle gym and headed back into the forest to collect some mangos. Once I got back, I immediately moved the fruit stand on to the sidewalk so she could start to load the mangoes. After loading about 25 mangoes, I went back into the jungle gym and ate an extra mango I kept for myself while I kept a keen eye on my stand. Then I realized that the people wont know how much to pay for the mangoes unless there is a price. So I scavenged around the park until I found a pen with a little ink in it, but it did the job. I marked the stand saying 2 for $1, and then went back to the jungle gym. It seemed like years until I had my first customer. But when I saw the man putting a dollar into the stand, it was the most exciting think I have ever seen. I sprinted to the stand to collect that dollar right away. For the rest of the week I did the same thing everyday. Run into the forest to collect fruit, fill my stand, and collect the money. It was as if I had a job or something. I was so successful with my fruit stand that I was able to save some of the money that I made. With the rest of the money, I usually just bought myself food everyday at the supermarket about a ½ mile down the road. I was also able to buy a new outfit for myself at the Salvation Army a block away from the park. I was very pleased with her decision to make a fruit stand and even hoped that I would eventually be able to get a job and maybe even own an apartment later on in life.

Two weeks later About two weeks after Megan had started to sell the mangoes, she saw a young lady, a man and a little girl approach the fruit stand. The lady looked so familiar but she wasn't exactly sure why. Then it hit her, that lady was her mother. She remembered the heart bracelet that she always wore everywhere. "MOM!!!!!!" she yelled as she ran up to the lady. The lady gave her a look as if she once knew her, and then said to her daughter, "Now Suzie, when homeless people do these kinds of things to you, all you have to do is walk away. I mean, you wouldn't want to catch a disease or something." Right at that point, tears started streaming down Megan's face uncontrollably. Her own mother who had found a new family had just rejected her. She cried for days after that and then she just got mad at the whole situation. She knew now that she really was on her own and she needed to sell as many fruits as she could because she was determined make the best out of her lonely life. She ran back into the forest, loaded up her shirt with mangoes and ran back to the play structure to drop them off. She did this many times until she felt so tired that she thought she was going to faint. Once she had filled the stand with mangoes, she watched over the fruit stand like a hawk, making sure no one was to steal anything from her.

2 YEARS LATER She was now 14 and even stronger than before. She had about 300 dollars in profit from the mangoes that she had sold over the years. She wasn't scared of anything anymore. She was an independent young lady who knew what she was striving for. She applied to a couple of the stores near by for a job such as the PETS4LIFE store, Jamba Juice, and Bob's Mart. She was very successful with finding a job. She was asked to work at Bob's Mart and Jamba Juice. She decided that Jamba Juice would be a better working environment and started to work there 5 times a week from 8 to 2 in the afternoon. She was in love with her new job because it paid her well, and she could get discounted Jamba Juices which she loved. She didn’t want to forget about the fruit stand, so on the days she wouldn’t work at Jamba Juice, she would load the stand with fruit and sell her mangoes. In the end, she meets a guy who also works at Jamba Juice and they start to have a thing. When he finds out that she lives in the park he feels awful and invites her to live with him. They end up dating and later on getting married when she turns 20. She slowly works her way up to becoming the manager of Jamba Juice, which is a job that she was so pleased to have. Even though she ended up throwing away her fruit stand, she still remembered it and was so thankful for where it had lead her.