Paikapahu Street Gang: Growing up in Kona Hawaii

Authors Note: The names of the people in this story have been changed for legal purposes. (Were all under aged and I don't have permisson to use their names.) This is just kind of a character introduction.

Perfect can be defined as exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose. Purpose in life is something that we never thought about. In the younger days, its seemed our purpose beloged to each other, like our lives were devoted to play with each other everyday, little did we know that purpose was to become something much more greater than that.

Life had brought us all together to the perfect spot. Even though our situations were all different in one way, or two ways, or three ways, or countless ways, something always seemed to stick us together, bonded us together. We were never really sure what exactly that thing was, or is, but all we know is that it continues to hold us there. I think that part of what holds us all together is our capability to understand one another because of our ages. We are all generally in the same age group given the expectation of a few, but after that it seemed almost chronological.

The first one, the eldest, is Tina. She is currently 23 and virtually unstopable. She is the 'big sister' and she takes care of all us 'young ones'. She keeps a watchful eye from the top of the street. Her house faces the road of which we reside, and she can see from the entrance of the street all the way until it ends with the block of a guardrail. She is the most well rounded out of all of us I think. She was an active basketball player at the local high school that she graduated from and she never missed oe single day of school from the time she was in 6th grade all the way up until she was a senior. She also was a straight B student and an active participant in the rodeo scene. If shes not at home or at her grandparents house, then you can definately find her riding horse. She is also one of the most reliable people I know. When it seems that no one is there, she is. Tina is really great, but her brother is oddly very different from her.

The second eldest is Matthew. Matthew is 20 and an aspiring singer/actor. Matthew is also Tina's biological brother. Matthew was always around, but never really there. His mind is always wandering some where else. Sometimes I think he is just a zoner. Just zoneing out on nothing more than just an object, but it doesn't take long for people to notice that hes thinking. Apart from being a singer/actor he is also very creative and has a wild imagination that he has clearly not grown out of since he was a child. He is able to make up fantasy stories in seconds, adding to stories with juciy twists and turns that makes you want more with every word. I have no doubt in my mind that if he doesn't become a singer or an actor he'll become a writer.

Next in line is Justin. He is 19 and just completed his first year at college at the University of Hawai'i in Hilo. Having him home in Kona makes me feel so much better about being home in general. Justin is the calm, laid back spirit that I find comforting in my life. He has a couple of obsessions with 1) his truck and 2) his music. I remember when he was in 8th grade he had to do this project where he had to make something that meant something to him and find out the background information to present before a panal of school staff telling them about what he chose to make and why he decided to make what he did. He made a dune buggy. Smaller than 'normal' ones, it worked. He used old parts from other cars and had to buy alot of other parts, but I remember watching him work endlessly on that thing. He would work everyday after school, and sometimes at night; he also worked on it every weekend until it was finished and up and running. He determination and motavation is often something that I'm jelous of because he has such a strong hold on it.

Fourth is Malyssa. Malyssa can be more or less described as the cowgirl. Ever since as far back as I can remember she always had placed somewhere between first and fifth place in almost every rodeo she enetered. Shes participated in various