Sofia

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"Why did we move here?" was all I could think about for the first few months after we moved to Cleveland from California. I hated our apartment building and most of all I hated Cleveland. __Why would we move from California to Cleveland, crappy old Cleveland.?__ Also I all of my friends **were** in Cali and here I had none. In Cali the houses **were** amazing with pools, sundecks and views of the beach. I would never have made my parents mistake of giving up that house for this apartment. This place is basically falling apart. __No pools, no beaches and no sunny happy days__. Just foggy and cold days all year long. I hate it here. This morning I took my puppy Sadie out for a walk in the neighborhood. __I hadn't explored it much yet__. Sadie being an Irish setter was very interested in all the new smells. She stopped to go to the bathroom. I waited. Suddenly she took off! The leash was yanked out of my hand, I took off as fast as I could after her. When I rounded the corner I saw her. She was standing in the middle of a vacant lot. People in the lot **were** chasing her trying to catch her. I ran up to her. Finally when we caught her, then I realized this lot was not vacant at all. Instead, there **were** flowers growing in little patches, and the things I though **were** weeds **were** actually vegetable plants. All of the people here **were** gardeners tending to little sprouts and flowers. A girl on one side of the lot came over to me and said "Hey. I'm Annie" Annie and I talked about my dog. She said she did not have one because her dad was allergic to dogs. Then she told me that I could plant something here in the garden if I wanted. There was a small area near heres that no one was using. Suddenly a great idea popped into my head. __Since Halloween was the closest holiday I thought maybe I could grow pumpkins.__ The next day I went out to the store to by pumpkin seeds, and then I went straight to the garden to plant them. Every day I went to the garden to check on the pumpkins. Most days, there was nothing new to see, but when Annie was there I would stay for hours talking with her. Every now and then I would notice something different in my plants, the color of the fruit changed and the ridges became visible. After several months they were quite big. __My pumpkins were not the only thing growing. My social life was growing as well__. __Now I had five friends and my best friend Annie, and I was doing much better in school__. __I was even getting used to living with neighbors in an apartment building.__ One day when my pumpkins **were** fully grown, I decided to take one of them home and make a pie out of it with my mom. I realized I had enough pie for more than just me and my mom. Pies are for friends and parties. __So I called my friends and invited them for a sleepover the next night.__ We had a great time and ate all of the pie. After a while I realized that moving here was just like growing pumpkins. __You start out really small like a seed and as time goes by you grow much bigger and more magnificent. Like Annie says, "It just takes time."__