Chapter One

Chapter One

Since both of my parents passed away, I had to be the legal responsibility of someone. My grandpa was the closest living relative, so the torch was passed to him. I could see it in his eyes that he showed no interest in taking me in, but always trying to boost his reputation, he did anyway. Saving the day for a lost, hopeless 14 year old girl. Perfect way for everyone to like him. It all disgusted me.

I sat in my new bedroom at my grandfather's house, all alone. I'd been there three days, and he hadn't said more than “pass the corn” to me. How could he ignore a child he's responsible for? How could he be so selfish and care about no one but himself? How could he-- I interrupted myself mid-thought. I'm getting out of here.

I grabbed my backpack from my closet and took all of my school things out of it. I hadn't even unpacked all of my things that I had brought over from my parents' house. I started taking things out of the suitcase, shoving them into my backpack, but leaving plenty of room for food. After I had put in a few days worth of clothes, I walked out of my bedroom and into the kitchen. My grandpa was in the den watching TV, so he wouldn't even notice me taking food and leaving. I packed a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter, a couple of apples, and a thermos full of hot soup for when there was a cold night.

As soon as my backpack was comfortable full, I walked out. Out of that house, out of that life, and more importantly, out of that nightmare. I didn't know where I was going to go, but even living out on the streets being pitied by strangers would be better than living in your own “home” not even being pitied by your guardian. I'd seen homeless people on the streets, even teens, and they all got by with the help and kindness of strangers; I could do the same.

I began walking down the deserted suburban street, without a destination or goal. Will he even notice me gone? I couldn't help but almost feel bad about what I was doing. I was leaving, with no intention of ever coming back.

I reached an intersection, and turned. This is a part of Jersey I'd never been to, so I didn't know my way around. I was hoping that God would bring me to wherever it is that I needed to go. I walked on and on, each step lasting an eternity. It got to a point where I had to use all my will to even lift my foot and move one pace forward.

I'd been gone for a total of nine hours by the time I finally decided to stop walking. I wasn't even sure if I was still in the same state, let alone the same town. I plopped down on a bench on the side of a moonlit road,putting my feet up on the bench to rest them. I must've fallen asleep on that bench, because I remember being woken up by a youngish looking man, near dawn.

“Come with me,” he spoke softly as he held out a hand to help me up. I was too tired to ask why, or who he was, so I simply followed him.

We walked for a few minutes, which was hard on my still aching legs. After we turned a few streets, we reached our destination. I had no idea where we were, but I went inside the small building with him anyway. My gut told me this guy was trying to help me.

“We have a new guest,” he said to a middle aged woman once we got inside. “Make the necessary preparations.” He turned back to me, and motioned for me to sit in a chair in what seemed to be a lobby of some sort. I sat down, resting my feet once again, feeling so relieved to be able to rest some more.

He man left me to myself in the strange place, and walked through a door marked PRIVATE. I was still too tired to wonder where I was or what I was doing here, but curiosity was starting to creep up on me. I fell asleep wondering and dreaming about what might be behind the gold lettering on the PRIVATE door.

I don't know how long I was out, but when I woke up, I found myself in what seemed to me like a hotel suite. There must've been ten other twin sized beds in there. All but the one I was in and one other were empty. I was finally starting to get freaked out by what was happening, and I was worrying about what might happen happen next.

Not knowing what to do, I crept over to the girl in the other bed. I slowly reached a hand forward, and tapped her on the shoulder. Before I could withdraw my arm, she screamed, got a hold of my arm and twisted it. She stopped screaming once she saw what she had done, and saw what pain I was in.

“I'm so sorry,” she said in a sad tone of voice. “Last time someone tapped me on the shoulder to wake me up, it was to...” She didn't finish her sentence, because she was almost to the point of tears thinking about it.

“It's okay. Is there anyone here that can take a look at my arm? It's hurting really bad, so I think something's wrong with it.” I was trying to avoid her eyes as I spoke to her, afraid of what I'd see in them. I held my arm close to me, almost for fear that she would attack me again.

She saw my holding my arm defensively and said, “I really am sorry. It's just an instinct for me to react when woken up like that.” She stopped talking for a moment, almost as if she was stuck in a nightmare. “Roberta, our nurse, can look at that. She's really good with treating people and being gentle. I think you'll like her.” She cracked a small, guilty smile.

The girl led me through the door from the suite, and into a long narrow hallway filled with doors. Near the end of the hallway, we reached a stairway, which we walked down slowly; it was too steep to rush down. We walked back into the room that looked like a lobby, and into the room labeled PRIVATE.

“Are we allowed in here?” I asked in almost a whisper, afraid of getting caught if we weren't supposed to be there. I cringed, as I saw the man from before walking toward us.

“Hi, James!” she said happily. “So this is the new one?” she asked, turning to me. He nodded to her, with a cheery smile on his face. “Well we're looking for Roberta. It seems our friend here had a little mishap this morning, and she needs her arm checked out.”

“That's not true! The 'little mishap' she's referring to is when she practically broke my arm by twisting it almost all the way around!” I said loudly and angrily. I was glaring at both of the strangers, waiting for a response.

“Emma, you know better than to hurt people like that, and you definitely know better than to lie about it,” James said, the smile no longer on his face. “And as for you,” he turned to me, “I will take you to Roberta. She'll be extra careful, so there's no need to worry.”

I was once again being led through the building, but the walk to the nurse's office was much shorter. As we walked, James said to me, “I have formally introduced myself. I'm James, but most people call my Jimmy.” He held out his hand politely. I shook his hand, and he continued talking. “This is a program from troubled teens without homes. I myself used to be in that situation, so the moment I turned 18, I volunteered for this program. I wanted to help the people affected by the crap in their lives.” He paused, thinking of what to say next. “The program is pretty new, so we don't expect your life to change right away, but we're hoping to help you get through things.”

I thought about all of what he had just told me, and finally decided to say, “So you're only 18?”

“Yeah. A lot of people think I'm older because of the suit and tie, but that's mainly for show.” He winked at me, and grinned innocently.

“We have some counselors to talk to the teens in this program, and if you decide you'd like to stay, you would be in Mimi's counseling group,” he explained. “There is one thing you must realize about this program, though. We're breaking some laws.” He paused once again. “If a minor is reported missing and we find you, we're supposed to bring you to the police. But we want to help these teens before we send them back to their hard lives. So what we do is we make everyone fake Ids, so if we're ever caught, we can pretend to be oblivious to the whole missing child thing and continue to help more troubled teenagers like yourself.”

I stared at him. He really was like me. Willing to go to any lengths to make the suffering go away, even if it wasn't his own suffering. I remained silent, expecting there to be more for him to explain to me.

“On the outside, it's a privately owned and operated youth center. On the inside, we're exactly what I just explained to you. What do you say, are you in?” He had a hopeful look on his face, knowing that if I said no, I could easily turn him into the police because of all the information he just gave me. I didn't want to do that though, because then he wouldn't be able to help me. I needed the help.

“Yeah, I'm in.”

We were standing right outside Roberta's office by this point. James opened the door for me, and I walked inside. I saw a very slim girl sitting in there reading a book, and I smiled.

“Hi, I'm looking for Roberta. My arm is kinda messed up, and I need it checked out.” I cringed, thinking back to when it happened and how much more pain I had been in just minutes before.

“That would be me. I'm the nurse at this facility, and with rough teenagers here, I can almost guarantee we'll be seeing each other quite often,” she smiled, and held out her hand. Realizing that I couldn't shake her hand with that arm, she quickly pulled her hand back. I hadn't realized that the nurse would be so young. Maybe they found a medical school intern to work here, so she could be closer to the ages of the teens?

She gently lifted up my arm, looking it over carefully. After a few minutes of examining it, she said, “Well there appears to be no physical damage, but I suggest trying to use this arm as little as possible. It'll be sore for a few days, but then you should be just fine!” She laughed merrily. She was one of those people that is naturally happy no matter what the reason. Roberta smiled and let me out of the nursing office.

To my surprise, James was still right outside the room, waiting for me. I smiled kindly, and walked past him.

“How's your arm?” he asked worriedly. “I hope Emma didn't hurt you too bad. This isn't the first time something like this involving her has happened.” He shrugged at me and looked at me, waiting for a response.

I stopped and turned around to look at him. “My arm is fine. Just a little sore. Roberta said I should avoid using it for the next few days, until it stops hurting.”

“Great! I guess I should show you where the lunch hall is, before all the lunch is gone.” He had a certain sparkle in his eye that made him completely likable. Or maybe it was the fact that he was like me. Whatever it was that made me like him didn't really matter. The only that to matter is that I liked him. A lot.

I followed him into a cafeteria full of food. It was like a buffet. Well, I guess it wasn't really like one. It was one. I guess I won't be needing that cheap food in my backpack, I thought to myself with a little chuckle. Then it occurred to me that I hadn't seen my backpack since I was on the bench the night before. Oh well, I didn't really need it anyway, right?

I walked over to where the plates were on a large table, and picked one up, along with a fork. I grabbed a banana, a piece of fried chicken, some macaroni and cheese, and Jell-O. I sat down at a deserted lunch table, and began pushing my food around on my plate with my fork. There were only about 50 people total in the program, and not all of them were in the lunch room, so there were quite a few empty table. I made sure to sit down away from where everyone was, because for the time being, I was an outcast.

I took a bite of my macaroni, and was pleasantly surprised. I expected it to be like the kind you'd get in a school lunch, but this stuff was actually good! I could immediately tell it had been baked in the oven. After that, I realized how hungry I was, and ate the rest of what was on my plate rather quickly. I was very satisfied with my first complete meal since my parents' death. Just thinking about their deaths made me feel sick to my stomach, so I hadn't eaten much at all since that Night in the hospital.

I got up to put my plate with the rest of the dirty dishes, and I bumped into the girl who I had made the mistake of waking up a little while before. “Oh, sorry,” I said, trying to hurry away from her before I got hurt again.

“Hey, don't run away from me! I keep telling you I'm sorry about what happened to your arm. Like I said, what I did was out of instinct because.... nevermind that. Wanna hang out?” She seemed rather determined to become my friend. I really didn't want to say no to the only person that would even talk to me other than people that worked there.

“Yeah, sure. But where is there to hang out in this place?” I asked shyly.

“The rec room, of course! Do you really think there would be a place just for teens without a rec room?” She grinned as we walked to the cafeteria's exit. “You wanna get some water before we go play some games?” I nodded, and stopped at the drinking fountain to take a long drink.

I then followed Emma to where the rec room was, and my eyes grew wide at what I saw. It was a humongous room with a small dance floor with a disco ball, a basketball court, fooseball and pool tables, arcade games, and so much more. It was a teen's paradise.

“What do you wanna do first?” I stared glossy eyed at the things that filled the place. “Hello?” She waved a hand in front of my face.

“Oh... Um, anything would be great! All of this stuff looks amazing!” I was actually excited about being there, forgetting all the problems that had been on my mind the past few days. Four days before, I had been a normal teen. Three days, and I had been a teen with a completely messed up life. After all that, I still managed to be happy and enjoy myself.