By: M.D. Colorado

Prologue

As days went by Sammy could not wait until she turn 15 and get to do more things on her own. Life had been difficult for her since she was born. She was born in Arizona on one of the towns were being popular and being in gangs was more important than anything else. She never met her father. She has two younger sisters (Carly and September), that she has to take care of while her mom (Marbella) is away working. She really wishes that her life would be more fun and exciting.

Finally November 17 arrived and Sammy was really excited to finally be 15. All day long Sammy waited for someone to tell her “Happy birthday”, but nobody did. Not even her sisters remember her birthday. She spend the days doing what she did every day. At the end of the day she went behind the house and started to cry. She was tired of being ignore and all she thought about was running away from that town. She knew she was capable of doing it. She had been thinking of running away for so long that she had started to save any money that she had found or earn. This time she was more than ready to run away, she had enough with the life she had. No one deserve to live the way she did. After a lot of thinking Marbella got up and went inside her house.

When everyone had gone to sleep, she got all her belongings and run away from home. Of course she had no idea where she was going but all she thought about was getting out of there, so she decided to take the first bus that got there. She didn’t stop running until she got to the bus stop. When she got there she waited for the bus to arrive. The next bus was a bus that was going to Alaska. She didn’t know what she was going to do in Alaska all she knew was that she was going to start a better life there.

It was a cold night but she refused to go back home. As she was waiting for the bus to come she saw a man walking towards her. He was skinny, tall and look like he was in his 50s. Sammy grabbed her belongings and got ready to run in case the man wanted to harm her.

“What you doing here all by yourself in this cold night?” asked the man.

After a minute of silence Sammy decided to answer him. “Well I’m waiting for the bus that’s going to Alaska.” Sammy said.

“Good luck on your journal” he said and without another word he got up and walked away. Sammy stared at him until she couldn’t see him anymore. When she look down she saw a wallet that must have been the man’s. She picked it up and started to run towards where the man had been a minute ago but he was nowhere to be found. After a while of looking around for the man Sammy gave up and went back to seat down on the bench. Sammy was curious so she opened the wallet and took money out. She counted it carefully, it was two hundred dollars. She decided to keep it as a reminder of her mysterious friend. Minutes past and at last she heard the bus coming, she got up and picked up her stuff and went to stand near where the bus was going to stop.

When she got in the bus, she paid the bus driver and went to sit on a seat on the back of the bus. It was really warm inside and there weren’t a lot of people there. Her journey was going to be a long one since she was going to go all the way to Alaska. She decided to get some sleep while they arrived to their first stop.

Sammy was awaked at the touch of someone moving her. She opened her eyes and saw a young man in front of her. “Good-morning there” he said with a friendly smile.

“Good-morning, where are we?” she responded.

“We in Altamont, UT”

“I didn’t know a bus could travel that fast. What time is it?”

“Well we haven’t stop since we left Arizona” he said as he took out a small pocket watch out of his pocket, “And is exactly 9:25am”“Oh ok thanks for the information. So why did you wake me up?” Sammy asked.

“The bus driver announced that we going to make our first stop in a few minutes. So I figure that I should wake you up so that you could get ready and go get some breakfast or something.”

“Why thank you! That was indeed nice of you”

“You’re welcome”

“What’s your name?” Sammy asked.

“My name is Oscar, what’s yours?”

“That’s a cool name, my name is Sammy”

“Thank you, yours is really cool too. Nice to me meet you Sammy”

“Thanks, nice to meet you too Oscar” Sammy said as she gave him a shy smile.

“The bus is about to stop so I better go back to my seat, but we should talk when we hit the road again”

“Alright well talk to you later then” said Sammy. Oscar got to his seat just as the bus was stopping.

“Listen up everyone, we have arrived at our first stop. You have exactly thirty minutes to get something to eat, use the restroom and stretch some” said the bus driver as he opened the door. Sammy waited until everyone got out of the bus then she took the money out of her pocket and got twenty dollars for her breakfast. Then she put the money back in her pocket and got out of the bus. She didn’t know where to go so she just follow a group of women that were heading towards a café place. When she got there she got in line to order her food. “Good-morning, what can I get you this morning?” asked the young that was taking the orders.

“Good-morning, I want number four please” said Sammy.

“Is it for here or to go?”

“To go, please”

“Alright that’s going to be $6.20” said the cashier.

Sammy gave her money and went to wait at the other side for her order to be ready. After waiting for three minutes, she finally got her food. Sammy went back to the bus and wait for the rest of the people to get there. She ate her sandwich slowly so she could taste it. She never had one of these sandwiches before so she wanted to keep the taste of it. Just as she was finishing her food, most of the people started to come back to the bus. When everyone was back in the bus the bus driver closed the door and started to drive. When they entered the highway again Oscar went to sit next to Sammy. “Hey Sammy” he said.

“Hey Oscar, how was breakfast?” asked Sammy.

“It was alright, how was yours?”

“Mine was really good. I ate this kind of sandwich that I never had before.”

“That’s cool, is always good to try something new”

“Yeah it is” she said as she gave him another smile “So how old are you Oscar?”

“I’m seventeen years old, how old are you?”

“You look young for your age, I’m fifteen years old”

“Thank you, is always good to have good compliments like yours” he said “and you look older for your age”

“Yeah it is, and thank you I guess” said Sammy as she laughed nervously.

“You’re welcome, so why are you going to Alaska?”

“I had some problems at home and I thought that getting away from home for a while could help” said Sammy

“Well I think that going to Alaska will really help because Alaska is a beautiful place”

“Alaska’s passengers welcome to your destination”.

A few people got out including Sammy. Now she just had to find a shelter, her mom had told her that people without a home went there. She walks around for a while. She got tire of looking and ask an older women

“Do you know where a shelter is around here”?

The women look at her with curious eyes and said

“Why would a child like you be looking for a shelter you should have one already”

With a sad face Sammy said “well I had one before I run away from home I was tire of my mom always telling me what to do and making me do the entire house work”

The women just made a small smile and said “well I don’t think they will have a room for a child in the shelter but while we find your parents I will take care of you okay”

“But I don’t want to go back with my parents they don’t like me and I can’t live with them anymore, they will beat me up when they find me for running away” said Sammy

“okay then you will only go with me and I promise I won’t take you back to your parents If you promise you will not run away from me and will trust me and will tell me all the truth and not lie to me okay” said the women

“Okay I promise” said Sammy with a smile

“Let’s go to my house and then you can tell me more about you okay”

“Okay”

The both of them walk to the woman's house and when they got there Sammy was surprise at how enormous the house was.

“Your house is really big” said Sammy with wide eyes. “It’s big but I don’t have anyone to share it with but now that you with me I hope you be good company and bring some happiness to this house”

“I sure will”

As Sammy walk inside the house she felt loneliness. The women ask her servant to bring her tea and turn to Sammy.

“So tell me what your name is”

“My name is Samantha Freeman but they call me Sammy what’s yours?”

“My name is Rachel Nicole Flores but people call me Mrs. Flores, how old are you”

“I’m 15 years old, yesterday was my birthday I had been waiting all my life to turn 15 because I was going to get more freedom but yesterday nobody notice me and nobody even care about my birthday they forgot it so I got mad and run away at night”

“Well Sammy I tell you something I’m going to enroll you in school and then on Saturday you can have your 15 birthday party and you can invite all your new friends okay but first you have to let me talk to your mom and tell her you okay and you are staying with me until you realize how important is to be with your family okay”

“Ok Mrs. Flores” Sammy said with a sad face

“Ok tell me your phone number so I can call her now ok”

“The number is (910)879-2660”

Mrs. Flores got her phone and calls the number

“Hello” a voice answers

“Hello may I speak to Samantha’s mom”

“You speaking to her” said Samantha’ mom

“I’m Mrs. Flores, I have found your daughter and have tried to get her to tell me where she lives but she said that she don’t want to go back with you and I would like to ask for your permission to let me keep her for a few weeks and see if I can make her to go back”

“ Well let me tell you Mrs. Flores I DON’T WANT THAT GIRL BACK SO IF YOU WANT HER YOU CAN HAVE HER NOW LEAVE ME ALONE” after that Samantha’s mom hang up on Mrs. Flores.

“Well not one of my favorite conversations but ok you can stay with me now”

“I’m so happy that I have a new family now to be with, thank you Mrs. Flores for accepting me into your house”

That night both of them ate a special meal and then Mrs. Flores show Sammy her room. The room was big and it had a big bed, she never thought she could ever have a room that big. There were a lot of books. The room had a computer and a TV with a table with movies. Sammy was so happy tomorrow she was going to her new school; she was going to be in the nine grade.

At night Sammy start to think about all the things that had happened to her on this day, “I think that I will have a good life from now on but I don’t know Mrs. Flores very well. I didn’t have time to ask her questions about her. What if she is a bad person, and try to kill me, well I be good and don’t get in trouble so she be good with me and I can get all the stuff I didn’t get with my old family”. Sammy sleeps like she never had. In that morning Mrs. Flores made pancakes and waffles. They drank orange juice. That day they went to the school so they could enroll her. The name of the school was East Arcadia School.

When Sammy got to her new school the principal welcome her with a big smile.

“Welcome Samantha, Mrs. Flores call me last night and enroll you, you are in the nine grade now so I expect you to be a good student and to not get in trouble”

With that the principal took her to her classroom. She opens the door and introduces her to the class.

“Good morning class, we have a new student so I expect you to make her feel home okay, this is Samantha Freeman”

When Sammy enters the classroom all eyes were on her (the boys’ eyes almost came out).

When the teacher, Ms. Lennon, told her to sit next to a boy named D’andre, he smile at her. He was so cute she was glad she sat next to him but she wish the teacher could had put her somewhere else where she could concentrate in her work instead of being there staring at a boy.

At lunch everyone ask her questions about where she came from and what she like to do, everyone was really friendly, almost all the girls sat next to her.

“So do you see any boys you like?” said a girl named Hannah

“Well there is a boy in my Algebra 1 class” said Sammy

“Is he a senior or junior” said a girl named Selena

“What’s his name” say said a girl named Bella

“His name is D’andre Howard and he is in the same grade as me” said Sammy

“He is a good guy, do you want us to help you so he can go out with you” said Selena

“Well yes” said Sammy

A Bella call D’andre name so loud everyone heard her, D’andre turn around and see Bella waving at him and came to sit next to her.

“What do you want” he says

“Well, Sammy wants you to know that you are really cute” said Selena, when she said that Sammy face became red.

“Really?”

“Yes” she said

“Well, thank you Sammy that’s really nice of you, you are really pretty?”

With a shy face Sammy said “thank you”