Mikal 'Four' Land; district 2 {done}

Ophelia Martin and Stephen Land. They met when they were 6. Their mothers always teased them about them being together. Once, they even made them dress up in a bridal dress and a groom's suit. When they entered high school, even the kids around them started teasing them about dating. Until, Stephen actually got the nerves to get up and ask Ophelia out. She said yes, because little did he know, Ophelia had a crush on him. They grew up, got married, like a normal couple would. On the night of their wedding, they had a little too much fun, which created me. She was now my mother. My mother discovered she was pregnant soon after, and had a hard time telling my father. They never did intend on having children. My father was enraged, and demanded that she had an abortion. Luckily for me, she didn't. Out popped me, Mikal Land. My terrible namesake would change later on in my life.

I grew up with my father always telling me that I was not worth all the money that they spent on me, and that I was a disgrace to the Land name. Of course, behind my mother's back, and of course, I was too young to understand it. My mother, how ever, was a complete different story. She was completely nice to me. She always cradled me in her arms, always tucked me into say goodnight, and when ever I had a bad dream, she came and comforted me. But, at nights, when I listened very closely, I could hear yells from outside my room, screaming about how I was treated. I never understood, really, but it was hard to listen to it when I was supposed to be asleep.

I grew older, and more mature. My father quit his job, while my mother was working her butt off. I sometimes felt sympathetic for her, and I tried to clean the house as much as possible to help her out, because I knew my father wouldn't do it. The yelling at me continued, and I was old enough to understand it. The yells of me being worthless, a waste of time, space, and money. My father began punishing me for small things, from not being smart enough, and not doing what he wanted right away. My usual punishments were being locked in the death room, or at least what I learned to call it. It wasn't really a death room, I was just really scared of it. The death room was a small closet, so small I could barely fit in it. And that was how I got my first fear: Claustrophobia.

My mother was still over-working, oblivious to what was happening in the house. She believed that my father had cleaned up his act, because when ever she was around, he'd reward me with a small toy, and when she left the room, he would take it right back. He began thinking of better punishments then the death closet; it had to be cruel, unusual. He eventually thought of it; making me jump on top of the roof, high from the ground, for several hours. My second fear came: Acrophobia.

I began school shortly after. My two fears were still there, but I tried to ignore them as much as possible. School got me away from my father, and I was rarely punished because my mother got home when I got home from school. We played an introduction game in Grade 1. We went around, said our names, and then said our favourite thing to do. But lil' old me didn't want to be known as Mikal. I didn't like that name (smart lil' me). So, when the circle came all around to me, I said "Hi everybody! My name is Four, and I like to draw." Despite I never liked to draw in my future, I couldn't think of anything else to say. I didn't really have any talents. I chose the name Four because I always grew up to believe 4 was my lucky number. And to this day, it still is.

And so, everyone knew me as Four. I told my mother to call me Four, and she thought it was cute, so she called me by that name. I didn't want to tell my father to call me Four, in fear of him locking me in the death closet or making me stand on top of the roof for a couple of hours. But, he began to eventually call me by Four. I was surprised, but he proved to me he did have a good side.

My little brother came when I was in the 4th grade. Charles. Charles was a planned child, and unlike me, my father loved him and cared for him, while my mother acted the same way he did to me. Ophelia was just a natural nice person. He was a complete opposite of me. I pretty much ignored him my whole life, but when he began school, he kept following me around, and sort of annoyed me. But, I eventually got over it. What bothered me was that he called me Mikal, when he knew I went by Four. But he still did.

Dyslexia was a weakness of mine. I never told anybody in my life, except my mother of course, about it. It was so difficult that I couldn't read without stumbling majorly, and my writing often had spelling and grammar errors in them. I still have dyslexia, and it is as bad as it was. Math was a REAL difficulty for me. I couldn't remember the times tables and had trouble remembering what 2x2 was. My mother told me to just work as hard as I could, but I had so much trouble she had to hire multiple tutors for me to pass each grade. Ophelia was willing to spend money on me to pass school.

In eighth grade, I met Kelsey. Kelsey eventually became my best friend, and kind of like my parents, I had a crush on her. I finally got the nerves to ask her out. She said yes, to my surprise. We began going over to each other houses, and learning much more about each other. I learned that she went to illegal fights. Of course, being protective, I tried to convince her to not go to them. She kept on telling me that her family was struggling, and needed more money, and illegal fighting was the only way to earn money. I couldn't understand. I kept on telling her not to go. But, she got fed up with me, and broke up with me. We got together soon after that, but in fear of us breaking up again, I never bothered her about the illegal fighting again. But I tried to offer some of my money to her, Kelsey refused. I didn't know why. I keep on trying to get her to take my money, but she wouldn't.

Kelsey inspired me to become a career. Well, so did my dad, because I wanted something to impress him with. I wanted me and my father to have the relationship like Charles and our father had. They were so close, because he was a career as well. I began training, and discovered I was amazing in agility and speed. I was also pretty handy with a flail, but I'd much rather prefer running to whipping the chained ball around.

And that, lady and gentlemen, is the life story of...

Four Land.