Chapter One (First 3 Years):The Bath Incident

Rumiko Inoue was born on May 2nd, 1996, in San Jose, Costa Rica. When she was born, the nurses shaved her head: twice.

Rumiko was a shy little girl and hardly talked to anyone. When she was two years of age, she really liked to take baths. But one day, she ran to the bathtub when she tripped and fell. She cut her head. The ambulance came and she had to get a cast on her

head. After her “incident” she went to a day care called San

Gabriel, and there she was very lonely. No one would talk to her because she was Asian. But one day, a little boy went over to lonely little Rumiko. At the time, she knew no Spanish and only knew how

to say the word “no”. Despite that, the little boy played with Rumiko and no one else, and that made one of the happiest days of her life.

Chapter Two (Age Four):The Favored Blue Shorts

When Rumiko was age four, she was still very shy, but came to a new school: The Country Day School. She was expecting everyone to be like the people in the day care,

racist. But at Country Day, everyone was nice. The first person she met was Lia and they became very good friends.

She also went to swimming classes, and her favorite shorts were blue with penguins. She was so happy because

she had two pairs, so she could wear them everyday. One day, she was on a slide, and then a guy came up,

named Javier, and she has a little four year old crush on him, but the next year, he left.

Chapter 3 (Age Five):Friend Issues

At age five, she was in kindergarten. She had only one friend, and her name was Diana Rojas. In the beginning, she was very nice, but one day, she became very bossy, and she would order Rumiko around. Though she was bossed around, Rumiko was still Diana Rojas’ friend. There was another girl:

Sofia Trejos, who was very nice to Rumiko. Rumiko liked to play with her, but Diana Rojas hated the fact that Rumiko had

another friend. So, Rumiko ended up with Diana.

Chapter Four (Age Six):The Friendship Bribe

When Rumiko was age six, she was in prep. In the class, every week, there was one leader, and they switch

every week. One day, the class was lining up, two girls, Min-Chee Jeong and Diana Quiros, asked Rumiko if they could go

to the front of the line, and they would become her friends. So Rumiko said yes, and they became friends, and are still

friends to this day. At recess time, they used to play “Home”.

Chapter Five (Age Seven):Dirt Cakes

At age seven, Rumiko got her dogs, Nana (a girl) and Shiro (a boy). Rumiko’s mom didn’t like the fact that one was a girl, and the other was a boy, so they returned Nana, and got another dog, Goro, who was another boy. Surprisingly,

each dog cost 5,000 colones (or about $10). Rumiko’s sister, Yukiko, really loved Nana, and hated Goro.

Rumiko’s grandmother, who lived in Japan, came to visit Rumiko in Costa Rica for a year. She was a very

grumpy grandma, and Rumiko used to be very scared of her.

Rumiko had a friend named Christina, who was also very bossy. That year, she met another friend, Mafa.

Rumiko, Mafa, Christina, and Lia (a friend for a few chapters back), all made dirt cakes together.

Chapter Six (Age Eight):“Heart Attack”

At age eight, Rumiko was in second grade. Her favorite word was “heart attack”. She liked to play tag. Her and her class had a rainforest café, and a living museum. For the living

museum, Rumiko was Beatrix Potter, the author of the “Peter Rabbit” books.

Chapter Seven (Age Nine):Snow Days

At age nine, it was the first time Rumiko saw snow. The snow was located in Japan, in the mountains of

Hiei in Kyoto. Remember Goro and Shiro? Well, Rumiko had to give them away because their neighbors said they were

“too loud”. After a week, Rumiko got sad and missed her dogs, so they tried to get them back, but they

could only manage to get Shiro.

Chapter Eight (Age Ten):Hannah

Rumiko met a girl named Hannah in the recess time, while

playing tag. They became very good friends, and were always together. They did lots of thing together like

hiking in the mountains in Escazu, and Rumiko visited her house a lot of times.

Chapter Nine (Age Eleven):Hokkaido

When Rumiko was eleven, she was in fifth grade, and moved to the middle school! That was the year that

Rumiko found out that Hannah was leaving . Rumiko went to Hokkaido, in Japan. For her, it

was really fun. For her class trip, she went to Tirimbina, and

was sharing rooms with Hannah and Leila F.H. They played flashlight tag a lot.

At this age, Rumiko started to play flute, and now she plays beautifully.

Chapter Ten (Age Twelve):

Rincon

Rumiko was in sixth grade, and met Miranda-Max de Beer, Leila Dayan, and Maria Tower.

For her class trip, she went to Rincon de la Vieja, and was with Leila F.H. and Miranda in the room.

Remember how Rumiko had to give up her dogs, but got one back? Well, while she was twelve,

she got another one: a girl named Luna.

Chapter Eleven (Age Thirteen):

Judg’d

Remember in Chapter Nine, when Rumiko started to play flute?

Well, this year, Rumiko moved to Wind Ensemble, which is for very good player only! She also went to a band field trip in Tambor,

and she had a lot of fun. Also, Rumiko was in a

play, called “You Just Got Judg’d!”, and was a flute player

and an office person in the play. Her sister also graduated from high school.

Chapter Twelve (Age Fourteen):

Birthday!

Recently, Rumiko turned fourteen. She baked a cake with her mom, and got lots of presents that she loves.

Her sister is coming to visit her on Friday May 7, 2010, and she is very excited.

Another major event is the Geo Fair, which is a fair of countries that her school does, and her country is Egypt.

Miranda-Max de Beer is very good friends with Rumiko Inoue, and would like to thank her a lot for helping her and sitting down with her a lot just to

get this book done. Miranda-Max de Beer was born in Los

Angeles, California, and currently lives in Santa Ana, Costa Rica with her parents, sister (a dog), and her

baby (another dog).

About the AuthorMiranda-Max de Beer