"JESUS CHRIST, That scared me!" I said as my voice quaked from the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist" my mom said as she cranked the wheel on the black disposable camera that she held in her hands.

"Where's the digital?"

"Your father left it at home" my mom said as she shot him a dirty look.

"I didn't think we would need it when you said our son was struck by lightening, and when this happened I really wasn't thinking about cameras" he said in a tone that was almost a whine, which suggested that they'd already had this argument earlier,  and mom won.

"Why can't you just go home and get it now, we don't live that far from Orange County General Hospital.  And when can I go home, this place is getting claustrophobic."

" We'll  talk about all that later, champ. And I didn't want to leave you and your mother alone." He said as he put his arm around my shoulders and pulled  me into a half hug. I could tell he didn't want to tell me something, a BIG something, but decided against digging for more information. I'll let him tell me when he's ready.

"How about we head down to the food court and get something to eat!" my mom said as she put the disposable away in her hand bag.

"That sounds great, I'm starving" As I said that I realized that I was in fact starving, I hadn't had any solid food in three days!

"Here, put these on" my mom said as she handed me an ugly pair of hospital slippers. Now, when I was Ron I didn't really care what I wore or what it looked like, but I was absolutely repulsed by the hideous things my mother held in her hands.

"I am not putting these hideous things on my feet, isn't there anything less... Repulsive?" I asked  as I took the slippers between my index finger and thumb and held them at arms length away from me as if they where some kind of poisonous  creature.

A huge smile stretched across her face and she tried to stifle a giggle.

"Whats so funny? Would you wear these things?" I said

"It's just so funny that already thinking and acting like a girl, a very girly girl. I know a certain boy that would wear anything that was still mostly in one peice. I had wanted to save these for when we leave but I guess now is as good a time as ever." My mom said through a huge grin.

Then she pulled out a box wrapped in powder pink and white polka dot wrapping paper.  As I took the box from her hands my heart rate started to go up and my palms started to sweat.

"Am I really getting excited over shoes, what's happening to me?"  I thought as I started to carefully peel away the paper that covered this fairly small box. When the last strip of paper fell away from the box onto the floor it revealed a name that I was very familiar with, 'Sperry's'. I opened the box to find that the shoes where wrapped I  pink paper instead of white. Under that paper where a pair of sperrys identical to the pair I had at home, in a smaller size .

I lifted them out of the box and noticed upon closer inspection the floral pattern inside the shoes, a quality only girls sperrys had.

"Do you like them?"

"Yes, I love them, Thank. You so much mom!"

"Come on then, try them on, make sure they fit!"

I pulled the wadded paper out of the toes of the shoes and slipped them onto my feet. I stood up and bounced on  the balls of my feet, rolled my ankles and and pointed my toes. This was something I did everytime I tried on a new pair of shoes, a sort of ritual I had picked up from cross country.

"They're perfect"

"Well im glad you like them, now lets go get some food!"

The walk down to the food court was fairly uneventful and the food was tasteless but I enjoyed every bite of it as I hadn't eaten in three days. I don't even remember what the food court looked like all I remember was the food.

When we got back to the room I sat down on the couch that was below the window. I decided it was time to pursue the question of when I get to leave this god awful place. Over the past three days I've been poked with more needles than a pin cushion, given more blood than I thought was possible, and was in bed for two thirds of it.

"So when can we go home?"I asked with mock excitement.

My mom looked to my dad and let out a sigh.

"What's wrong?" I asked as my dad sat down next to me on the small two cushion couch. Hehad a look on his face that id only seen once before, that was when grandma Lang died. I was getting scared as he sat there in silence searching for words.

"Daddy your scaring me, whats wrong?"

He looked up at me with smirk on his face that scared me even more.

"You haven't called me daddy since you started the first grade. I remember you sitting at the kitchen table eating cereal and telling me daddy was a baby word and you are a big kid. But that wasn't you, that was Ron and you are Ashley, Ron grew up in that house, he was my little buddy. You are my little princess, And your mother and I feel that you should grow up in a different environment so we are moving into grandma Langs old house in Smallville, Kentucky"

I sat in stunned silence as I processed what he had just told me. I'd never been to Smallville, whenever I saw Grandma Lang she came to us. I know that she lived on an old farm and left us a substantial amount of land when she died but that was all I knew. On top of that I've never even left the state of Florida before, I've lived in the same house since birth. Now we are moving half way across the country to a new house,a new school, new people, And a new  me.