“I’m leaving with Lia and never coming back!” I yelled as I slammed the door while my parents yelled to get back in the house. Lia told me to go back, but I didn’t listen; we ran towards the store so that we could stay out of the cold. 

We were freezing and hungry. “I took some money from mom's coat”, 

“Why would you steal? You know stealing is bad Quintin!” 

“I know but we need the money.  Aren't you hungry?” We bought some food and walked down the alley to stay out of the rain… we had nowhere to go. what was I thinking?

        After last night I regret leaving home, but I have to do this for Lia. Later that day, we walked to my friend Evett’s house and told Evett everything. I left Lia there for a little bit. I needed to find a place for us to live. I was so lost, I didn't know where to go or who to turn to… maybe I made a mistake? Why did my life turn to this? I was such a happy kid until my dad got sent away… why did my mom have to lie and make things worse?

I went back to Evett’s house to talk to Lia, “I found someone.They might be a little sketchy but it'll keep us out of the cold for a few days with no cost.” 

“Are you sure about this Quintin? Maybe we should just go back home, I don't think this is a good idea.”  “No we can't go back to that dump, trust me this will be alot better anyways.” “tomorrow we will leave, but tonight we can stay here with evett.” 

The next day we woke up and grabbed all of our stuff and said goodbye to Evett. The guy looked familiar but I didn't pay attention to that. I feel like i've seen him before, he told me his name was Andrew… that was the name of our grandpa but we haven't seen him in years since he moved to New Hampshire. 

“What do you want to do once we get there?”

“I'm really hungry, we haven't eaten a full meal since we left home.”

“When we get there we can drop off our stuff and go find somewhere cheap to go because we don't have a lot of money left, we only have twenty dollars.”

We approached the house, it was on a corner. It was right next to a diner so we wouldn't have to walk far to go get something to eat. I knocked on the door and Andrew came out, he opened the door for us to come in. Once we entered he asked if we ate, we said “no” he told us to unpack and after that we could go to the diner and talk about what happened.

We were so hungry we unpacked as fast as we could.

We got to the diner and sat in a booth, I tried to order something cheap but he told us to get whatever we wanted.

“So why did you ask for a place to stay?”

I hesitated “We had to run away because our mom and stepdad weren't able to take care of us anymore, they spent all their money on drugs and themselves and never took care of us.”

“We have a dad but he got sent to jail because he took the blame for drugs that were my mom’s, he told my mom to stop but she didn't and she made things worse. We haven't seen him in four years, our mom never let us visit him.”

“What is your dad’s name? I have a son and he went to jail for the same thing.”

“His name is Roy, I think”

“That’s weird...We can talk about this when we get back.”

We started walking back to the house, I was a little afraid of what Andrew might tell us.

“So you say your dad's name is Roy?”

“Yeah im pretty sure, do you know him?”

“If we are talking about the same guy, you would be my grandkids.”

“Really?! I never thought I would see you again.”

“I was never able to see you guys because your mother would never answer my calls, i'm so sorry I was never there for you guys.”

We gave him a hug, I felt like I had someone that could be there for me finally, like I actually mattered to someone.

We started talking again about everything that has happened in the past years.

We were interrupted by a hard knocking on the door, my grandpa told me and Lia to go hide somewhere, I grabbed Lia and I ran as fast as I could to the back door, they were already there… It was the police, they found us. I screamed as loud as I could for my grandpa but they wouldn't let me see him.

“Let go of me! Where are you taking us?!”

“You're going back with your mom.”

I felt so defeated, we were going back to the place that caused all of these problems, why couldn't we just forget about all of this and move on.

“Can we at least say goodbye and grab our stuff?”

“Yeah hurry up we don’t have a lot of time.” scolded the officer.

As we were packing our stuff I was reliving every moment that has happened in the past years, the last time I saw my dad, seeing my mom doing drugs, seeing my sister grow up, all the yelling that happened. Why couldn't my mom just understand me, I just wanted the best for us.

“Hurry up you don't got all day, we got things to do rather than chasing you guys.”

“Bye grandpa, when I get older I'll come back to visit you with dad.”

They grabbed us by the arms and pulled us to the patrol car. I didn't want to go back to that place, I let Lia down, this was all my fault.

I had an idea though, maybe I could fix this.

“Lia, you have to trust me on this, there's no way out other than running. When we get to the house and they open the door I'll grab you and we have to run as fast as we can.” I whispered.

“Maybe we should just stop running and give up.”

“I know I said that I'll make things better and I haven't really kept my word but you HAVE to trust me on this.”

“What about our stuff?”

“Don't worry about that, we won't need it.”

“On my count of three we run…. 1….2…3 RUN!”

We ran for our lives, I felt a rush of adrenaline, Lia was falling back so I grabbed her and put her on my back.

They were chasing us but I was faster than them. We ran into an alleyway and hid behind a garbage can, they ran right past us. 

“Where do we go now?”

“We have to wait it out for a little bit because they will be on the lookout for us, we have to find a better hiding place. After that we can go back to grandpa and make a hiding place there.”

We found a new hiding spot behind a deli. It was just across the street from our grandpa’s house.

“We can wait here for another half an hour and then go to grandpa's house.”

We waited there until it was time to go, it was dark so no-one could see us.

We ran across the street and knocked on the door, he yelled at us for coming back but also pushed us inside.

“What the hell were you thinking?!?!”

“We couldn't go back to that horrid place and just rot, we had no other choice!”

“The police are looking for you. It's all over the news, they have searched my house like 3 times already.”

“We have to be careful, if they find you here again i'll go to jail and you'll be FORCED to go back.”

“Do you have somewhere for us to hide? Is there somewhere where they haven't checked?”

“There's a cellar in my basement, the door is under the rug. You have to hurry.”

We hurry and run down there, we hear them knocking on the door. My heart is racing, what if we get caught again? What will happen to us? Where will grandpa go? All I can think of is the worse things, i'm not helping the situation at all… 

“They stopped walking…”

“We have to be quiet.” Lia whispered

They were right above us, the door was rattling. How could they not hear that? What if they knew we were there? 

“We are dead meat.”

“Shut up! They are going up the stairs.”

We wait there until our grandpa opens the door.

“That was too close, I need to find you guys somewhere else to hide.”

“Is there another room or something?”

“No...You need to find someone else to hide with.”

“What do you mean? We run back just to be with you and you're kicking us out?!”

“I'm sorry, I just can't risk it.”

“We will remember this, when you need someone dont come crying to us cause we won't help you.”

We grabbed all of our stuff and started to leave, I took a look back and shut the door.

After all these years we thought we actually found someone who cared but really no one cared, we didn't mean anything to anyone we were just burdens.

“What are we gonna do now?” 

“I'm not sure, we don't have much of a choice other than finding another place to hide or we can turn ourselves in…”

“What will happen to us?”

“I'm not sure, but we have to give it a shot.”

“Ok, will we get seperated?”

“I don't know but if we do I'll find you.”

I asked to use someone's phone, I found the number for CPS. I dial in the number and it immediately picks up.

“Hello this is child Protection Service, What can I help you with?”

“Hi um I would like to turn me and my sister in, we ran away from home and we can't go back. The cops tried taking us back but we ran from them because we didn't want to go back home and now we don't know what to do.”

We finish talking to the lady, we give her our address. 

A van shows up, they tell us to come with them.

“What's going to happen with us?”

“We’ll tell you when we get there.”

The car ride is long and awkward, none of us say anything and just watch outside the window.

We watch as we pass grandpa’s house and we pass mom's house.

“I miss her, she's done so many bad things but she is our mom. I don't want to blame her.”

“Ok we are here, get out.”

We grab our stuff and get out the van; the building is huge. We don't see any kids there.

“So what's going to happen? Are we gonna stay together?”

“You guys probably aren't going to stay together. We are going to have to split you up.”

“Is there anyway we can stay together?”

“We will start by putting you 2 up for adoption together but if that doesn't work then we will put you up for adoption separately.”

“Oh great.”

They give us a room and tell us to unpack, i'm exhausted. 

“I just want to go to bed.”

“I do too but they told us we have to get checked in.”

They called us down to a room with a couple people in there. They seemed to be couples in their late 30’s.

“Hello guys, we brought some people that we thought would be good candidates to be your new caretakers.”

“Tell them your name and how old you are.”

We told them all about us and why we were there, they all looked so worried. We were used to it though so we didn't care much.

“We will introduce you guys to each family, we will send you to their home for a week and after that you can choose who you want to go with.”

“For the first week you can go with the Cobbs family. Next week will be the Morrisons, and the last week will be the Halls.”

We grabbed all of our stuff in a suitcase and got in the car with the Cobbs, they had a son and a daughter both our age.

They seemed nice but the boy wanted to do bad things all the time, Charles wanted to steal and do drugs. When he was by his family he would act more polite and innocent. 

“I'm not sure if I liked this family but we can't be too picky.”

A week went by and I already knew I didn't want to be with the Cobbs family.

We went back to the building, we were off again to the Morrison’s.

They had 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy. The boy was younger than me but the girls were older, they were twins.

They were really religious, whichI liked but they were also very strict.

“What do you think of them?”

“I'm not sure I just hope one of them will be the perfect match.”

“Me too.”

Another week went by, we thought that the Morrisons were great but we still had another family to go.

We went back to the place, they asked us how we liked it. 

“It was nice, we loved going to church but they were a little strict.”

“Well I'm sure you’ll love the last family, i've known them for years and they are so kind and big-hearted.”

We left the building for the last time, I was really hoping this was the family.

The Halls had 2 kids, another boy and a girl. The boy was younger than me and the girl was older than Lia.

This week was probably the best week of our lives. We went to church and walked around all of town and went to the carnival. It was so nice to finally see Lia smile.

“I hope everyday is this fun.”

“Me too, I think this is the family.”

“I can't wait to finally have someone to care for us...I wonder where mom is.”

“I miss her but…” 

“Oh well, we are living the life anyways!”

We go back to the building, all the families are there, they ask us to choose a family. The decision is easy but we feel bad for turning down the others.

“We choose the… Halls.”

“They have given us so much hope that our lives could be better, and happiness for once in this past week.”

“I think this is settled then. Mr and Mrs halls, Are you ready to bring 2 new family members into your home with love and cherishment?”

“We've been ready!”

“Great, This friday you can come back down here and pick them up.”

“We are finally going to have a home, someone is actually going to care about us.”

I can't believe we found our dream home.

I feel like something will ruin this...