“Ugh, I can't believe that I got another 50 in algebra.” complained Alex.
It was a cold January day.  Alex thought that the wind was b**** slapping her. She had to use her free time shoveling snow in her backyard as a punishment for her sucky grades. Not even an hour has passed and Alex is dead asleep in the cool, white snow. Then she felt the darkness creep up on her. 
*    *    *
She saw it, a flashback of herself, it was during the 7th grade final exam. She was trying to grip her pencil and writing down random answers while running out of time. Tick tock tick tock, time felt like it was moving faster by the minute. The stress, the fear, and the pressure, Alex was reliving all of it. She felt like she was being eaten alive by her emotions, but why Alex would wonder.
*    *    *
Alex opened her eyes. She mumbled to herself. “I must not live in the past.  The past is a dark and evil place. I must focus on the present and future.”  She slowly got up and wiped the snow off of her body.  As Alex got back to work she was continuously interrupted by this really high-pitched squeaking noise.  She slowly and cautiously walked closer and closer to the high-pitched squeaking noise. When she finally approached the cause of the squeaking her eyes quickly watered up. Cuts and bruises all over a shiny silver blanket of fur and blood, one ear instead of two, and it was slowly limping across the white fluffy snow. Alex yelled. “Why is life so cruel to me today?!”
As soon as she yelled that then Alex heard foot steps. She slowly turned her head, looked up only to see her older brother Harold while he asked, “You okay Alex?” 
“Yeah, I'm fine Harold!” Alex cried.
Harold asked again. “Are you okay?! You were just lying there for a really long time.”
“Goddamnit I'm fine!” Alex yelled.
Harold stared at Alex.  You could tell by the expression on his face that he did not believe a word that Alex said. He heard the squeaking and looked down at the abused animal.
“Harold you're smart right?” Alex asked.
“I guess you could say that.” He answered.
Alex was panicking. “Do you know what animal this is?” She asked.
Harold quickly pulled out his phone and looked the answer up on Google. Alex would have done the same sooner, but she had her phone taken away from her because of her failing grades. He put his phone back in his pocket. “I think it's a chinchilla.” He answered.
Harold started walking back into the house. “You stay here. I'm going to get a medical kit and some warm blankets.” He said.
Harold slams the door. “And then there were two.” Alex said sarcastically.
Alex looks very carefully at the chinchilla. She looks at its shiny fur and how it glitters when the light hits it. The abused chinchilla looked right into Alex's hazel eyes, it slowly limps towards Alex’s hand and carefully sniffs it. The wind kicked up again. Alex wrapped the chinchilla in her arms to keep it warm. Alex wondered about the dream she just had. “Did the fear and pain that happened in that dream have anything to do with the chinchilla? I wonder if it was my destiny to find this chinchilla or was it just a coincidence that I had this dream right before I found this little guy?”
As soon as she had thought that Harold came running outside with the medical kit and some blankets. He places the blankets nicely on the cold snow. Alex carefully places the chinchilla on the blankets, but the thing would not want to move away from Alex.  It only wanted to get closer and closer to her.
“Alex you hold it down while I stitch up of those nasty gashes.” Harold explained.
He opens the medical kit.  Alex gently holds down the chinchilla.  Harold puts some neosporin on the chinchillas wounds.  Harold took the smallest needle he could find and carefully started to sew up the chinchilla’s gashes back together.
“I called mom and told her about the chinchilla and she said to stop the bleeding before we bring it in the house.” Harold explained.
“Of course she would say that, only mom would not want an abused animal to bleed all over the nice clean floor.” Alex complained.
Harold stopped stitching for a second and looked at Alex in the eye, “At least we get to keep it after we fix it up.” He explained.
“That's if this thing survives!” Alex screamed.
Harold said no words but just continued to sew up the bloody chinchilla’s wounds. Alex looked down at the chinchilla. She watched as her brother slowly weaved the needle in and out of the chinchilla’s beautiful silver fur.  Its fur reminded Alex of pencil lead. This got her thinking “This chinchilla, the pressure, the pain, and the fear it’s all happening to me again, but why?”
Harold finished stitching up most of the chinchilla's gashes. “Alex can you stitch this small area by the ear, my fingers are killing me.” He asked.
Alex answered. “I guess I could but--”
Harold interrupted. “Great I'll go get the little guy some food, he must be starving.”
Harold ran back into the house. The chinchilla looked into Alex’s eyes again, it looked like it was in pain, a great pain.  It didn't want to die.  Alex started to pet it gently. She would have told it it was going to be okay, but she didn't want to jinx the chinchilla's chances of survival. Alex tried to grip the needle, she felt like she was gripping her pencil. “I must not think of the past what’s wrong with me I'm so stupid.” Alex thought.
She cleared her mind and started to slowly stitched up the gash where it's ear used to be. Harold came back outside with some lettuce for the chinchilla. Alex finished the stitching the area where it's ear once was. “Here you go little guy eat up you must be famished.” Harold calmly said.
He carefully handed the chinchilla some of the lettuce.  It sniffed the lettuce and carefully took very tiny bites savoring each and every one. “Aww so cute.” Cried Alex.
“I'm going to dive to the pet store to buy a cage, you bring the chinchilla inside okay.” He happily said.
Harold took the medical kit inside grabbed his keys and drove away in his baby blue Toyota. The chinchilla runs around and squeaked with joy. “At least your happy little buddy.” Alex cried.
Even after the little guy was all fixed up Alex still felt the pain and fear she started to tear up. The chinchilla walked closer to Alex, it jumped on her lap, looked Alex in the eye and squeaked really loud. “You’re so cute, so cute that it makes me feel kind of happy.” Alex joyfully said.
The chinchilla squeaked some more and at that moment all of Alex's painful emotions disappeared. For once Alex didn't feel any pain. Alex got back up, picked up the chinchilla and walked into the house.