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Be a man. The one phrase that has permeated through out my childhood and beyond. Being the product of army parents you would hear this phrase frequently. My name is Joseph Garcia III or Joey for short. Currently a senior at San Jose High I am a 5'6'', 153 pound raccoon at the age of 17. As you can probably tell from the last name I also come from a Mexican family. Army parents and Mexican, you can practically feel the machismo can't ya?

My family consisted until recently of my father Joseph Garcia II, my mother Patricia, younger brother Antonio or Tony, baby brother Miguel, and myself as the oldest. I used the phrase "until recently" not because someone died, but because of my parents divorce a little over two and a half years ago. Many people take divorce in different ways. I took it as a breath of fresh air from a horrendously unfit father, and no not in a abusive child beating way. More of a neglectful, psychological and verbal abuse way. I could probably write an entire book on just my father, but that can wait until another time. This is a story about myself after all, and I would hope that would entertain some people on it's own.

My parents met while they were stationed over in scenic Hawaii. It wasn't long before they decided to marry. When my mother got pregnant with me they arranged to be sent back to California for a while where their respective families both lived within a few hours drive of each other to show me off. When it came time to go back to work they left me in the care of my grandparents on my mother's side for about 8 months according to my mother. My grandparents cared deeply for me proven by the portrait of myself from around that time naked in a bucket freshly bathed with a huge smile on my face hung on their living room wall to this day. My earliest vague memories consist of riding my Big Wheel around the garage alone in Kentucky, and then playing in a snow covered playground somewhere in Germany with a three year old Tony. Being from an army family meant constantly moving for my dads work. As a result I never got much of a chance to feel like I made a friend or had a place to call home for long.

It wasn't until I was in the 6th grade that my mother convinced my dad to let the rest of us finally settle down for good. I think it was because Miguel had just been born and she had seen how miserable Tony and I had been from the constant moving. All of us excluding my father, because he still had to be where his country needed him, finally settled in a nice place two blocks from my favorite grandparents. About the only thing to look forward to through the years before was the trips to see them. And I felt lucky to get to live so close to them.

When I got back to school again knowing for the first time I wasn't going to be leaving ever again I was anxious. Unfortunatly it wasn't a good kind of anxious. At that point a lot of damage had been done to my ability to socialize and interact with the other students. Given the constant moving I had grown used to distancing myself from others and keeping to my self in order to avoid getting hurt. My mother had suggested trying out for sports many times so that I could have something to do, but I instead opted for reading in the library during lunch hours and heading straight home after school to play video games and watch television.

It wasn't until Tony and I found out that the badgers next door had some kids our own age that we finally had someone to hang out with. I hung out with the older brother John and Tony got the younger Jimmy. Through John I got to befriend Will the tiger, Pat the hyena and Cody the bear. I finally had a place to call home, I had a few friends and my dad wasn't around. Things were finally looking up.

Then my parents got their divorce. Turned out that during my moms pregnancy with Miguel my dad had been seeing my now stepmother Alexandra, a mouse who he impregnated not long after Miguel was born. About a month after Miguel's second birthday my half-sister Josephine was born. All of this put my mother and myself into a deep depression. We both went through feelings of worthlessness and never being wanted. She spent months crying in her room until she ended up throwing herself into working more hours at her job, meanwhile I secluded myself in my room with my books and video games. It took until my sophomore year to start feeling better about myself.

Through out my bout of depression I only hung out with my friends during school hours and continue to do so. I never told them why and they never ask. I don't feel like bothering them with my family drama. We have had one recent addition to the group Doug, a ferret a year younger than all of us. The most exciting thing I have to do now outside of sitting in my room watching anime or playing a JRPG is that my friends and a few random people I barely know at all get together during lunch in the science room to watch anime DVD's that either John or I bring. Just recently I have started to take notice of and feel things I've never felt before toward one of these random people, a rather short lion by the name of Chris. First meeting him and subsequently learning more about myself through him are where the story really begins.

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This first part is all true to life events from a few years ago with name changes and furiness added. Future parts will have true events included, but with a bit of fantasy fulfillment on my part. Hope this is an okay first time and hope you would like to see more.