• I sat in history, staring at a picture that Mr. Fetherstin had in is class room. It was of a little girl named Kendra antiagoe. She lived during the gold rush in a little town of Corona, California. She looked almost exactly like me. She had shaggy blond hair with green-blue eyes and a big happy smile. It was almost as if I could have been standing in her shows. I blinked and I was sitting next to a tent with robin, my baby sister, in my arms. It was the middle of the afternoon. My mother was hanging cloths on a rope that was attached on either end to a tree.
    “After you are done feeding Robin, I need you to go bring your dad his lunch,” my mother, Hillary, says in a stern voice. My dad is near the river looking for gold. No one has found gold other than the first person that came.

    “Yes. Ma’am.” I said only loud enough to get the words out so that I did not disturb robin. After a few minutes Robin was asleep. I put her on a blanket in the tent and went to find my dad’s lunch. I found it on the table next to the laundry basket, which was only half full because my mother was not done hanging the laundry. I ran to the Ucon River looking for my dad, but instead I came face to face with a grizzly bear. I stopped breathing. Then I realized I was staring at a man’s jacket.
    Can I help you little lady?” he was a tall man with a short brisk beard, eyes the color of the rainforest, long flowing brown hair, and an expiation that I knew automatically. It was Aydan. No one knows we love each other. Aydan and I have a secret love. The only person that knows about us was my mother. If my dad were to find out he would move and I would never get to see Aydan again. My mother said that a teen girl does not pick the man she will marry, her father does. Even though she does not agree with it she still has to go along with it.
    “I’m looking for my dad. Where did you get that jacket?” I have never seen him in that jacket before. It was black fur with black leather for the shoulders and the pockets. It suited him.

    “My mother got it for me for my birthday. Come on, I will help you find your dad. He should be around here somewhere. I saw him earlier today.” He said with energy. He has had that tone lately because when I turn 16 we will leave no matter what anyone says. I will turn 16 on February 8. We walk to the north up the river and found him sifting and searching in the sand. The men in the town thought there was gold in the river and along the bank but my mother thinks otherwise.
    “Hear you go sir.”I said as I handed him his lunch. He had his usual; fresh bread, chicken, and a piece of pie. When Aydan and I left we walked to an empty field and lay down. We lay and talk about what life has given us, how much work we have to do, and how hard it will be to stay to together. We lay their till the sun went down.

    The day ended as I fell asleep and I was back in Mr. Featherstin’s room. The bell had rung and I was the last person in the room. Now I know what it is like being a teen during the gold rush in California.