Rain thudded angrily like a hammer on my faux fur sweater as the tan fur melted down like wax on a tall candle. My small sobs shattered the silence of the empty street as rain thudded down onto my messy brown hair and soft vibrations of thunder numbed my ears. The flood’s water was getting close to my knees as I made a splash of sadness every time I took a step. My cries were endless. The weather was just like everyday, the way I felt.

I have a special power. Not the obvious kind like casting spells or predicting the future. I wouldn’t actually consider it even a power. It’s more of something that I can’t control. I have the power to control the weather with my emotions.
My name is Madison Gertrude and I am a thirteen-year-old girl who lives in Pleasanton, California. I wish I could say my life is normal but trust me, it’s not. The entire weather in Pleasanton, California depended on how I felt that day. I moved hear recently from Cupertino so I had another school.  As I said before, I can’t control how I feel. It’s other people who can control how they make me feel.
It was about 3 pm after school. I had the most miserable first day. First of all I was late. My little brother, Cody’s pathetic dog, Roofus decided that he wants to ruin my first day of school by breaking the shower knob. Our new house was already as broken as Roofus’s 14-year-old dog toy. Since I am a total germ freak, I made myself wait until Cody was done so I could use his shower. He takes a longer shower than Mom, and he still smells like a paddock. Seriously, he could get an award for most interesting bozo in the world. Second, I had no idea how to get to any of my classes and I went late to all of them. If you enter a new school, you would expect to have a mentor or a counselor show you around. I couldn’t even get a hello from anyone. All I had to lead me was my schedule and a little post it with my locker number and the password. Third, the worst one of them all, my last period teacher made me take a test on my first day. The test included everything. Which wasn’t surprising because I joined on June. She was horrendous! Inside and outside! Have I mentioned that apparently, the teacher reads out everyone’s score? Don’t even ask what my score was. The weather was getting darker outside. Everyone laughed! I even heard the teacher snicker! I felt like screaming. Instead I sat there staring at my fake wooden desk. By the end of class, I was crying a river and so was the sky.
I got home late, again, to see Cody rapped up in a blanket, on the sofa with our mini table pulled up to the side with a bottle of Benadryl and the remote to the TV on it.
“What are you staring at?” he asked with an ounce of sass.
“Nothing,” I lied to his tomato red face.
“Mom picked me up from school early because I was sick,” He said again with his unconvincing sick voice.
He still hadn’t touched the TV remote to rub it in my face that he is aloud to watch TV on weekdays.  Maybe he really was sick. He groaned a slight groan shattering the silence of the halls.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked him.
“Mom’s at the pharmacy, picking me up some more Benadryl and dad’s at work,” he replied.
I nodded and went up stairs. There I found Roofus eating up my bed.
“Roofus! Stop, you’re tearing up my bed!” I yelled not noticing he was a dog.
I tried to pull him of but it only made it worse. Cotton was flying everywhere and the mattress was being dragged. Eventually I got that 80-pound dog of. He scurried out of the room leaving me with a torn mattress, a room full of cotton and an even more terrible day.
I had a ton of homework and that’s not an exaggeration. Once again I had to go to Cody’s room to do my business. By the afternoon, I had gone through about a quarter of my homework and Mom was back. The walls were so thin; I could here their entire conversation, clearly from Cody’s room.
“Mom what took you so long?” Cody asked distinctly.
“I had to stop by at this grand piano hall where this great artist was playing and after the show, I got to talk to him and he said he played there for free every Monday and he offered lessons!’’ She said anxiously.
“Gee, how exciting,” Cody replied sarcastically.
I felt him. Handling a ton of homework and piano lessons was just impossible. I fell back on Cody’s bed, letting out a deep sigh.
I whispered to myself, “I hate my life.”
In a while, Mom was up with a snack of a few cookie butter cookies and a string cheese stick on a plate. She put it down on the bed and sat down.
“Hey, what’s going, how was the first day of school,” she asked.
As much as I wanted to let it all out to someone, Mom didn’t seem like the right person.
“It was great,” I lied.
She gave me the look that she gives Cody when she knows he’s lying.
“You are the most obvious fabrication in the universe of obvious fabrications,” she said.
“Mom I have a ton of homework and I haven’t even gone through half of it yet,’’ I told her to leave me for a while.
“Okay kiddo, I’ll leave you alone,” she said getting up and leaving.”
***
The next day wasn’t any better. School was even worse and guess what, a group. Social Studies project and to make things worse for me, it was pick your own partner. I thought I’d be stuck working with the kid nobody wants to work with to be my partner. But I was the only one out so now I have to do the entire two people job by myself by two weeks. It was a huge project. It involves making a 750 by 1000-inch mural on paper! Where am I supposed to find paper that large? I was so stressed, I could barely think! The weather was terrible. It was all bleak, gloomy and unbelievably cloudy.
Mom also brought bad news: I’m going to take piano lessons. Every two days. I can barely play a note and I’m thirteen. I’ll be put in a class with kindergarteners! I told her, but she didn’t listen. No one listened!
***
The weather was terrible. The dark grey clouds invaded the sky bringing sorrow and depression to all of Pleasanton. I was getting irritated when anyone tried to talk to me or comfort me. I sat in my room all day and didn’t talk or socialize with anyone. I was so depressed. One day, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was tired of trying to fit in. I was tired of stressing over every little thing. I let go and dived in to the land of unconsciousness.
***
The next thing I knew, I was sleeping on my parents’ bed. The print on the blanket was soft and fragile, I couldn’t even tell what it was. I could feel the sadness of my parents uncomfortably pushing down on my weak and weary heart. I  didn’t know why I was there or what I had done to get here. All I knew was that I was with my parents. They sat in two chairs pulled together beside the bed. I looked around, as all I could see was white, dull walls.
“How are you doing?” Mom asked quietly whispering into my delicate ears.
“Fine,” I murmured back.
“We know about your secret,” Dad said gently.
“We read your diary,” Mom repeated.
I groaned. Not aloud, inside. They new my secret, yet they were not even a single bit mad about the fact that I had never told them. The conversation continued as I began to fell better bit by bit. The weather was still as cloudy and cold as it had ever been and the walls of the hospital weren’t helping to keep out the chilling air. The unforgiving stratosphere was still managing to hold up the thick layer of clouds. My parents were awestruck by the fact that their daughter had the power to control the weather with her emotions but that didn’t matter to them at the moment.  They felt as if the layer of warmth had been taken away from their hearts as they looked at their daughter on a hospital bed.
I would talk, they would reply trying to make a joke to cheer me up. The joke wasn’t funny but it made me smile. Feeling the warmth and comfort of being with my family was the best feeling.
Finally, I let go. I let go of all my stress, bad thoughts and even my manners and leaped over to hug my parents. Mom let out a tiny shriek of happiness and excitement.  I screamed at the top of my lungs, “I love you!’’
Then, at that very moment, the clouds rained down, showering joy, creating a tranquil storm over Pleasanton. I realized that family will always be there for you. No matter how much you change or how bad your times are, family will have your back. At all times you can count on your family knowing that someone loves to the ends of the earth.

The End