I breathed in the fresh, wintery air. Five inches of sparkly snow lay perfectly on the ground. I stick my tongue out to let a snowflake fall gently into my mouth. The wind starts to blow, making my long hair fly all over my face. My small twelve year old body starts to shiver. I should go in, I thought.


As I was walking into my house, our gatekeeper cam and said, "You!" He looked really angry. I've never seen so much anger out of anyone. I wonder what's wrong with Leonard. "You go and tell your father to go find a new gatekeeper! I quit!" He said. Then he turned around and walked away. I just stood there, shocked.


I wonder what that was all about. I went inside and decided to ask Rosy, our maid, to make a snack for me. As I walked into the kitchen and asked Rosy to make me a sandwhich, she just said fine in a not so cheery voice like she usually is. I decided to ask what's wrong. "Rosy, are you okay? You're acting a little strange." "I'm fine! Just please! Leave me alone! Here's your sandwhich!" That was the end of our conversation.


At the dinner time, mother, father, and I all sat down at the table. Mother and father were talking about building a new hotel. Wow. Aren't six hotels enough? I thought. "Dad. Leonard quit. "I said. All dad did was sigh in aggravation. "Do you know why father? He was really angry when he told me." Rosy then came over and gave us each a glass of water without even looking at one of us and walked back into the kitchen. "Let's not talk about that Stacey." He told me. After that we ate in silence. When I was done, I went up to my room and changed into my silk nightgown.


At school the next morning, I saw all my friends sitting together by Sophia's desk. They all looked a little sad and they were whispering amongst themselves something. Rosemary then saw me coming towards them. Then, everyone saw her face and looked towards me in a not so friendly voice. "Hi!" I said. "Hi." Sophia said. "What's wrong? Why are you all acting like this?" "Let's see. Stacey. What's on February 7th, 1948?" Sophia asked. "I, I don't know." They all fell silent as soon as I said that, as if they were expecting me to know what was happening next week. Was it someone's birthday? "Wait, you don't know?" She asked in astonishment. "Nope." "Why, your dad's tearing down the Grizzly Park and he's replacing it with a new hotel."


"No. No no no no no!" I yellow. "How can he? He never told me this! That's the one special place everyone loves to go to. The beautiful tall trees, a long trail, swings and slides for the children to play on, and most importantly, that's where we found Bruno. We have to stop this."


"Your dog, Bruno, is so cute! I can't believe someone just left him there. Did you see all the cuts and bruises he had? So sad." Sophia said. Right then, a bunch of kids walked by us and were looking right at me with a disapproving face. "I didn't know!" I yelled. The teacher then came into the classroom when the bell rang and went to the chalkboard to write today's lesson. I should go talk to father right after school.


Father was sitting in the dining room reading the newspaper. I decided to be firm with what I was going to say. I walked right in there and said, "Father, I disapprove with what you are going to do with the Grizzly Park. No one likes what you're doing." Father didn't even look up from his paper. All he said was, "Well, what's so important about it?" "Well, everyone loves that place. People have been going there for so long and no one wants to see it all gone. It's just-." "Stacey, I'm not going to change my mind. I've already signed a contract. It's done." He then continued to read his newspaper. I decided there was no use arguing with him. We need to take things into action.


At school the next day, I went over to my friends and said, "My father's not going to change his mind. We have to put things into action. Last night I thought of a wonderful plan. We're going to go on a strike. On the day they're going to tear down the trees, us and a whole bunch of other people are going to the park real early and try to convince them to stop. Are you guys in?" Everyone turned their heads towards each other with a big grin on their face and said, "We're in!"


My friends and I all decided to go to my house after school to make some posters and signs. We're going to hang up some posters around school and around town that say, Save the Grizzly Park! Come to the Grizzly Park at 6:00 a.m. on February 7th, 1948. On the top we drew a grizzly bear and some tall trees in the background. "Okay girls. Let's go put up some posters!"


We all ran downstairs and right before I opened up the door, mother saw us and asked what the posters were for. I was a little nervous to tell her because she would probably disapprove and tell father. I then realized that I had to tell her so I just told her everything. She was just stunned. She looked down at Bruno who was right next to her leg. "Well. Will you guys need some snacks?" She said with a big smile.


It's the night before the strike. I hope everything goes by fine. I was fast asleep after that.


"Save our park! Save our park!" A lot of people were shouting. "I can't believe this many people showed up mother!" I said with excitement. I then saw my friends in the front waving right at me. I then ran right to them with my mother right behind me.


Not long after did I see fater and a bunch of people there to help tear down the trees. "Save our park! Save our park! Don't tear it down! Don't tear it down!" We all chanted. Father just stood there in astonishment, especially when he saw mom and me. Everyone continued to chant, including us. They all started to walk towards us but no one moved. Instead, I started to walk towards dad and everyone started to quiet down. I then said, "Well, I know I've got your attention. Please father. We all don't want you to do this." "But I signed a contract and-." "Who cares! You can just, just, do it somewhere else! Please." Everyone then started to yell to do it somewhere else. He then looked straight at me and said, "Will you then tell everyone to go home?" "Yes!" He then thought about it for a few minutes and said, "Alright. I'll do it somewhere else." Everyone else then started to cheer with great excitement. Leonard then stepped forward and said to us, "I'm sorry how I acted. If you wouldn't mind, may I have my job back?" "Of course." Father said. I just hugged my dad and softly said, "Thank you."