Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Ordinarily, I would have never taken a trip to Hollywood unless my parents were here. The bus reeked of rotting fruit and other food, and I just happened to be standing above a swarm of ants. I struggled to keep them off my earth-weary jean as the bus traveled across the road.

"Hey kid, where do you think your going all by yourself?" says the driver. He was completely correct, in fact, I was alone on the bus. I tried to devise a question to avoid his.

"Where do you think I might be going?" I reply. He makes no comment, so I keep silent. The bus driver glances back in my direction.

"How old are you?" he starts, "Because I've never seen a kid all by himself on a bus before." My head aches at the question, but I still answer him. 

"I'm fifteen," I lie. He nods at me and then faces the road again. I just want to yell that I have no parents, that I'm only twelve, and that I don't want to die. But if I were to say that, this bus would be on a one-way trip to a Stacks. That's what we call foster homes nowadays, because everything about a foster home stacks. The chores, the dishes, the beds, everything looks like it was done by a machine of some sort. I continue to watch the ants panic by my feet as I shuffle around.