Everything Changed

Prologue

I wish it never happened.
I wish I could rewind time and help her.
As I run to safety with the dying girl in my arms muttering my name, I realized that if I lose her, I'll have nothing. I've never had parents. No siblings. No place I could call home. She was the only one I loved. I had been in an orphanage from when I was a baby to when I was six years old, when I ran away because the orphanage owners kept yelling at me for going to their library and taking books. Then I was living on the streets surviving on scraps being thrown away by others until she found me.
And that, is how everything changed.

***

It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I was sitting on the sidewalk of an outdoor mall with a ripped up coffee cup in my hand, asking for money under the hot July sun. So far I've gotten two dollars and a piece of gum. Every once in a while someone really nice will buy me a meal from some fast food restaurant, but it doesn't happen that often. I've been surviving on scraps for the past seven years, and I had managed to buy a coat for the cold winters after someone had given me a 50 dollar bill. I run my hands through my black shaggy hair as I eat my lunch for today. An apple that I managed to buy with a two dollar coin at the supermarket. As I sit against a jewellery store a couple people walk in, and manage to kick me in the legs, not even bothering to say sorry or excuse me. They just walk by, completely ignoring me. I keep eating as I see a girl with the prettiest brown mid-length hair and beautiful icy blue eyes coming up to me with a couple bills of money in her hand. She drops them into my muddy coffee cup and I see that she just put 100 dollars into my cup. Wow.
"Hi" She says to me with one of the prettiest smiles I've ever seen.
"Hey. Thanks for the money. You know you didn't have to do that bec-"
"Ya. I had to do it. I'm Anna Brooks."
"Zach Halser."
"You hungry?" She asks me
"Nope. I think I'm good. I have a lot of money now so I can buy something if I'm hun-
"Ya. You're hungry. Come on, we'll go get something to eat. My treat"
"No, seriously, I'm fi-"
"Oh come on!" She says as she gets up off the wall and starts to pull me up
"Ok fine. Just this once though!"
"We'll see."

***

"So how long have you been living here?" Anna asks me as we sit down with a burger each from the food court.
"Well I had been in an orphanage from when I was a baby to when I was six years old, but I ran away because the owners of the orphanage kept yelling at me for taking books from their library... I've been on the streets for the past seven years living in an alleyway of the mall, or other places."
"Seriously? I would've been dead in a week. So what did the orphanage do when you ran away?" She asks, with a super surprised look on her face.
"They tried to find me, but they gave up pretty fast. I remember walking past the orphanage and briefly seeing them all huddling around the computers screaming about erasing the kid from the records."
"That's just crazy"
"Yup."
"So you were screamed at for taking books."
"Surprisingly yes. They noticed that a book was missing and saw me one day reading it. They had let me off with a warning but I had kept going down to the library to get more. Then one day they caught me in the library taking a book again, and started screaming their heads off at me, but I don't know why. They were very protective of their books. Since I ran away I've been going to different places, but here's my favorite place." I love it here. The whole mall is surrounded by gardens, and it even has a huge library that I can go to.
"That's really weird. I wonder what the books were"
"I know! I have no idea why they would but it seems like they were hiding something in the books.
"Hmmmm. Weird." She says and looks like she's thinking a lot.
"Ohhh! I know what I'll do. I come here for the library a lot too. Every time I come I'll bring you food so you don't, ya know, starve" Anna said, smiling the whole time.
"Are you sure you want to do th-"
"Yes! Trust me" She said with a wink.
"Well, th-thank you" I stammer back
"No problemo. I gotta head home, but I'll be back tomorrow!" She says as she takes all the garbage and throws it away.
"Thanks again!"

***

Sure enough, Anna stuck to her word and brought me a meal every day, and normally we would go to the library and show each other good books we've read. We kept this up for about a month, when she stopped coming. One day passed waiting at the library without Anna. A second day passed, still no Anna. I was starting to get a little worried. Where was she? Surely she would've told me if she was leaving on vacation or something. Third day, still nothing. I kept sitting at the library all day just in case. Around nine o'clock, I see Anna, sprinting up the steps of the library.
"What happened?" I ask her as she makes it to me, panting.
"My parents found out I was sneaking out of the house with food and the locked me in my room. I've been trying to get out but my parents kept catching me. I finally managed to climb out my window. I'm so sorry"
"No no, it's ok. Seriously."
"OK. Good. So I had been thinking, and if my parents catch me one more time sneaking out, they'll probably put cameras up or something, so... Maybe you could go to an orphanage and get a foster home. My family has been applied for a foster kid for a while from Oak Orphanage, so go there and just ask for a foster family. I'm not sure but I think you have a say in what family you can go to..." She said
"Ok cool. Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow" She replied with a grin.

***

So the next day we went to Oak Orphanages and Anna waited outside while I went in. There was a nice lady named Kristina who asked me who I was and what happened to me, so I told her my name, my age, my birthday, and how I had gotten to living on the streets. After about an hour of filling everything in, I had asked if I could get a foster home. Kristina told me that I had to stay at the orphanage for a little while before they would find me a foster family, but I told her all about Anna and how her family was a foster family. Kristina told me she would look into it, and that I should go to the room where everyone sleeps, which was right down the hall. Anna was near a window on the way, so I signalled her all good, and I'd be seeing her soon.
"Oh, well what do we have here?" A really tall boy with shaggy blond hair asked me. Three other boys, the only other orphans, started to corner me into the wall
"Uhh, I'm Zach"
"Well, that's great" he said. "You do anything annoying, you'll be sorry. Got it?"
"Uhh, ya" I stammer.
"That bed's yours" he says, motioning to the old, ripped up mattress in the corner of the room. I walk over and sit down to look out the window while the others started goofing around. Man, I wish I hadn't given Anna the all good.

***

After about two weeks of being tortured by the other orphans, I finally got assigned the foster home with Anna. When her parents arrived with Anna to get me from the orphanage, Anna was beaming.
"It took a bit of convincing, but they agreed to take you in. They even said you could come to school with me!" She exclaims.
"Hi Zach, I'm Anna's mother, and this is her father. When we get home we'll show you around. You'll get the guest room, and we can send you with Anna to grade nine at Oakhill High. Ok?"
"Yes. Thank you!"
We drove back to Anna's place and she showed me around the house, then brought me to my room. It was painted a dark blue with a bed against the back wall and a closet on the wall opposite. There was even a desk so I could do school work!
"This is great." Was all I could say. I was in shock. I finally had a home!
"So Zach, we have a whole set of extra school supplies so you can use those ok? School starts in a week" Anna says.
I thought this would be great.
Boy, was I wrong.