there's a first time for everything

TW: Animal/Pet death

The storm was raging heavily, lightning was flashing everywhere and thunder was booming so loud.

Little Aria, only six years old, had never been afraid of storms. She could always fall asleep to them, except now. Now was distinctly different, now her dog was sitting on the carpet of her room looking out the window and barking.

Aria's dog, Uri, never barked. Unless someone knocked on the door but that happened rarely. Uri always barked at storms, it was nothing unusual. But for some reason, it took a few more movies on Aria's small TV before she could finally fall asleep.

~The next morning~

Aria woke up relatively early. Uri was asleep, laying down next to the window where she was barking last night.

Aria reluctantly got out of bed, feeling extremely drowsy. She didn't get enough sleep as she normally did and it was noticeable.

Aria normally had bags under her eyes, she always slept well, there were just bags. But you could tell that she hardly got any sleep, if any at all.

She walked out in her pajamas into the hallway that connected her room to the living room. Right next the living room was the dining room, which was connected to the kitchen. The walls were filled with pictures of Aria’s family, friends, and pets. There was one picture of Aria with Uri on the day they picked Uri up from the pound. Though, Aria wasn’t looking at that picture or any of them for that matter. Aria was so tired someone could tell her the world had exploded and she would respond with, “No, the sky isn’t blue. It’s sometimes white or red.”

Aria grabbed a bowl from the cabinet, which she got to by climbing on the counter even though she was finally tall enough she didn't need to. She then got down and made the humorous decision to pour the milk before she put her Cheerios in the bowl.

Aria ate at the dining room table. It was seven in the morning and the sky was still dark. Every crunch felt so loud because it was the only sound going through the house except for her father's snoring and the light rain making a soft padding noise on the roof.

Aria stared at the dark sky and hoped that the storm would be past by tomorrow. Even though Aria had a big roof to keep it away, she was afraid she would be so tired again.

~A few hours later~

Aria didn't have curtains on her windows but she wasn't paying attention to outside, she was watching some old movies on her little TV in her room.

When she got up to put the next movie in, she took a look outside. It was finally clear. The sun was up, and the water on the concrete just were small puddles.

Aria put the movie CD she was holding back in it's case and ran out of her room, unlocked the front door, and ran out. Still in her pajamas.

Aria ran through the grass, just ecstatic that the storm had finally passed over. She was still the only one awake. She could grab her scooter and listen to music all she wanted! Which is exactly what she did.

Later, she went inside and woke up Uri. Uri excitedly squirmed when Aria shook the leash. They went outside and Uri sprinted, Aria ran with her as fast as she could, trying to keep up.

Uri ran next to the basketball hoop and Aria looked over to her bunny's cage.

"Uri, let's go inside for a bit." Aria smiled to Uri.

Aria took Uri leash off inside and then grabbed a handful of bunny food from the bag in the garage and ran out beside the house, her slept-on pigtails flopping behind her.

Aria went up to the cage but there was Aria's bunny, Fluffy, laying down with water filling her ear.

Aria knew.

Aria knew at that very moment that Fluffy had died during the storm.

Aria ran inside and started crying, to her surprise her dad was sitting on the couch and asked what was wrong. Aria told him. He comforted her and she didn't want to talk for the rest of the day. She stayed inside on such a beautiful day.

~A few weeks later~

Aria is sitting in the passenger seat next to her father on the way to her grandparents house. It's been quiet for the past few minutes. Aria watches the trees, the grass, she glances at the sun. (But doesn't stare at it because a girl in her grade told her she'd die if she stared at it.)

"Dad, when is Fluffy coming back?"

It was the most heartbreaking conversation of her six year long life. It was a lot. When she realized Fluffy died she was sad because he was just going to be gone for a while, she didn't truly understand death. It didn't make any sense to her. But then she got it.

~Seven years later~

Aria sits at her desk in Language Arts, staring at the heading on the assignment: Writing Challenge: Write about a moment in your life that hurt you then but you grew from.

The challenge was for bonus and Aria only needed a few more points to get her 4.0.

She sat there and pondered and pondered and pondered and pondered.

She went through many different headings such as: When I lost the Spelling Bee; When I got a C- in Math; When my best friend left me.

That's not it, she thought.

She needed those bonus points and nothing- even a little writer's block- was going to stop her.

She grabbed her pencil and wrote, My First Experience with Death