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Kids' Stories

My Lucky Life
By Judie C.
(Mid-Valley Youth Center)

Once upon a time, there was a ten year old girl named Latasha whose mother was on drugs and her father was in prison. She had one younger brother, two older brothers and a big sister. Her big sister and brother lived with her grandmother. Latasha's oldest brother, Antoine got into trouble with the law and got detained. Soon Latasha began to get into trouble too.

Antoine began to influence her into ditching school and breaking into houses. When they would go home, their mother would be high, there would be no food in the house and the lights would be shut off. Their mother would send them to ask their friends parents if they could borrow some money and she would never pay them back. Sometimes, their mother would not pay the rent and when the kids would ask her why she did not pay it she would tell them that she lost the money, even though they knew that she really bought drugs with it. The mother's drug use got worse and she started to hit her children. The children got tired of the mother hitting them and they decided to run away. Running away became a habit for these children.

Latasha and Antoine would not let the younger kids go home because they did not want them to see their mother the way she was. When the children did decide to go home, their mother would call them ungrateful and tell them that she wanted to kill herself. When the kids heard this, they would cry.

The mother acted as if the kids were never gone. When the children were on the street, they would struggle and fight over money and food and did not have anywhere to sleep. They would steal cans from people to recycle them for money or when people left their car doors open they would look for money in their cars. One night, the children had to sleep in the parking lot of a local mall. The kids got bored and began rolling a security cart through the parking lot. The police spotted this and Antoine was arrested, so Latasha went home. Her second oldest brother also got detained.

One day, Latasha's mother hit her and she became fed up and she called the police and they placed her in a foster home. The foster home was a very bad environment, so Latasha called her Social Worker and she removed her from the home and placed her in a temporary foster home in Malibu. One day, Latasha wrote a letter to her Social Worker and told her that she was raped at school. Latasha was sent to a group home in L.A. close to her big sister Amanda's house. Latasha soon began to get into fights and was sent to a psychiatric hospital. When she was released from the hospital, she was sent to a residential placement that had a school on grounds. This placement was in Van Nuys. Latasha did not like being so far away from her brother and her sister, so she went AWOL and had no way to get home, so she took the van from the placement. She got dropped off at her sister's house and she felt free, but her father wanted her to go back to the placement, so she did. The director of the placement decided to press charges on her for stealing the van, so she went to Juvenile Hall. A month later, she was released from Juvenile Hall and was sent to another placement. Latasha was glad that she was out of juvenile hall, but she had a lot of trouble in her new placement. Soon Latasha was allowed to go home on the weekends and she was very happy. Her parents came to family sessions and her mother tried to deny all of the things that had happened in the past. Latasha's father and sister tried very hard to get her out of the placement and Latasha was finally released and sent home to live with her sister. She was very happy to be out of the system and back with her family. It has been a year and Latasha is doing very well.

Daniel My Brother
By David C.
(Mid-Valley Youth Center)

Once upon a time long ago, there was a boy by the name of Kyle and he was sent to a foster home on his 12th birthday because his parents died in a big car accident and his older brother was not old enough to take care of his younger brother Kyle so his older brother called a nice foster home for his brother Kyle.

While they were waiting for the people to come pick them up, after waiting awhile the people finally got to Kyle's house and they took Kyle and his brother to a foster home and a week after being there, they shipped his older brother off some where else and they wouldn't tell Kyle where they shipped him so Kyle broke out 2 years later to go try to find his brother and one day when he walking to the store to try to get some food he saw his older brother in the news paper and it read Daniel the fire fighter saved 32 people from burning flames and he found out what town his older brother was in so he set off on his journey to find his older brother so he went to the docks and broke into the ship that was going to stop in the town where his brother was.

So he gets on the ship and hides on the lower desk of the ship and fell asleep. All of a sudden he wakes up from a loud scream on the top decks so he goes to take a look and he hears the scream again Man overboard so he looks and there's a bad wind storm and the boats rocking left and right.

There's thunder crashing and next thing he knows boom the sailor got struck by lightning so no one has the wheel so he run up and grabs the life jacket off the dead guy and starts to take control of the ship but he is not strong enough and the boat was sinking and he saw a small island not very far so he jumps into the ocean and all of a sudden boom the ship is gone and a bairal came down right on his head and he got knocked out and the next thing he new he woke up in the hospital with his brother right beside him holding his hand Wake up Kyle. Wake up Kyle.

Daniel, Daniel is that you? Yes yes Kyle and it's going to be all right now. Just relax now so Kyle squeezes Daniel's hand and said I don't ever want to loose you again and Daniel says me either kind of in a short breath. Me either he says again and they lived happily ever after.

Taken Away From His Mother
By Amanda M.
(Mid-Valley Youth Center)

Once upon a time there was a boy named Devonte Johnson, he lived with his mother who was a drug addict. His mother was never home so he was left at home along with no food and no one to take care of him. A few days later the police came over and took the little boy and placed him in a home until a family came and adopted Devonte, he was happy because he had never been outside to see what was in the world.

He was only 10 years old. The foster parents put him into a school around, kids for him to play with. He was very happy because he now had a mother and father that were stable enough to take care of him. His mother would always get him ready to go out with his dad when he came home from work.

When he came home from work he would take Devonte out to the movies to see "Sprung" then after that they would go to the mall and, out to eat at Cafe Soul. After they finished their dinner, they would drive past the Warner Brother Studios. Devonte wished that he was an actor.

Devonte always wished that his mother was not a drug addict because maybe he would not have turned out the way he was. Devonte wished that he could be with his mother. As he grow up Devonte realized that his mother did not take care of him when he was a little boy. Devonte had a friend named Anissa at his school. He had been in that school for 5 months. Anissa asked him if he would liked to go for a bike ride after school. As the days went by he was happy and he always walked around with a smile on his face.

Anissa was very intelligent and successful she was a good influence on Devonte. Devonte's mom and dad would always take Anissa out where ever they would go. After that Devonte his mom, dad and his friend Anissa became closer and closer.

The Life Story of Xavier Davis
The following teens participated in the project:
Jonathan B.
Scott E.
Narit K.
Luis L.
Manual S.
Adrian S.
Thomas T.
Nathan P.
David R.
Anthony V.
(Camp Fred Miller )

Xavier is an African-American, twenty-four year-old man from the South whose big dream is to be a singer. Xavier ran into trouble along the way and now he's paying the price.

We open with a dramatic scene where Xavier is shot and killed. The screen goes black, and we move to a church where a gospel choir is singing during a funeral. We assume it's Xavier's funeral, but instead we see Xavier as a young boy, singing passionately, a great gospel solo, in the choir. It's the funeral of his BEST FRIEND, who was killed by a drunk driver. Xavier begins to narrate the story of his life. The death of his friend affected him deeply, and he starts getting into trouble at school and trouble at home. Xavier is very close with his mother, but his parents divorce, and Xavier is heartbroken.

At eighteen, the gospel choir is the best thing he has. He's a wonderful singer and he learns of a local talent contest, where the prize is a bus trip to New York and a chance to sing at the fabled Apollo Theater. He wins the talent contest and makes the trip to New York, where he looks up his cousin, Lewis, a bag guy who deals drugs and runs with dangerous people. Xavier stays with Lewis because he needs money and a job and is counting on being discovered at the Apollo.

Xavier is awed by New York and its energy. He's happy just walking the streets, taking it all in. Today's walk is important because he sees a beautiful, well-dressed woman hurrying along to work. He's very shy because she's so pretty, but he works up the nerve to catch up with her and he buys her some flowers. She's charmed by him. She tells him her name is NIKKI and she hurries into work. Xavier looks up at the building and sees that she's walking right into MTV.

It's the big night at the Apollo Theater that Xavier came for. He gets up onstage. He's very sure of himself, but then something happens. This isn't his local church. This is nothing like it. It's hundreds of rowdy, unforgiving people, lights, television cameras. It's blinding. He chokes. He's frozen. They're booing him because he's paralyzed with fear. After a few painful minutes, the emcee escorts him offstage.

Xavier is crushed. He decides he's going to make it anyway. He sees Nikki and her boyfriend at a restaurant, along with Nikki's cousin, nicknamed SPARKY (because she's nervous and spilled coffee on a hot amplifier and gave herself a shock.) Nikki's boyfriend is drunk and he starts to hit her. When Xavier tries to help Nikki, he accidentally shoots her boyfriend, who turns out to be a big DRUGLORD.

Nikki listens to Xavier sing and is blown away by his talent. She thinks he's wonderful and wants to try to help him. Xavier can't believe his luck. She tells him to go back to the Apollo and try again. He's got to make it there and she'll have MTV bigwigs come watch. Xavier thinks he can do it if Nikki is there with him by his side.

Meanwhile, the Druglord's HITMAN comes to Lewis's apartment to find out who killed his boss. Sparky tries to stop him, but she can't. The hitman forces Lewis to tell him that Xavier did it. He threatens to kill him if he doesn't tell him Xavier's whereabouts. Lewis is terrified and he sells Xavier out.

At the Apollo that night, Xavier walks slowly onto the stage. It's the same rowdy crowd and the same blinding lights, but when he focuses, he sees Nikki and she's smiling at him. He begins to sing and the audience falls quiet. He's soulful and thrilling - he blows them away. The audience gives him a standing ovation. Sparky runs into the audience, hoping to save Xavier before the hitman kills him. Lewis races on his motorcycle, trying to save his cousin from death.

As Xavier and Nikki walk outside, she tells him how much the MTV producers loved him, how his future is set. Suddenly, shots ring out. Xavier falls to the ground. It's chaos, people screaming and running. Xavier tells us in voice-over that this is how he came to be lying on the sidewalk. We see his cousin Lewis racing on the motorcycle. He hits a truck and the screen goes black. We hear Xavier's voice singing at a funeral. He's there, at Lewis' funeral, with his arm in bandages. His mother and aunt are grieving at Xavier's side. He remembers his childhood, wonderful memories with his cousin Louis, as his voice sings a sad song.