The Perks of Loving Summer

- 01 -

  New York, New York
Friday, July 17th 2020

I took a deep breath, inhaling the stuffy air that must've leaked in the building from the streets of New York. Rattling the key in my hand through the veins of the lock. Finally, the door opened and I stepped inside. Closing the door with my foot behind me, I sat my bag down on the counter, and watched its contents spew out all over the surface. Mail, bills, spam, wallet, a letter from the school, more spam.. Wait? A letter from the school? I pushed off the other, less important stuff off. It read, "Mrs. Nancy Monroe," Hm, I haven't heard anyone speak of that name in a while. I carefully ripped open the parsel. 

"Dear Mrs. N

After what felt like forever, I arrived "home." Looking up at the old, rundown, abandoned place we lived in, I wondered why I chose such an ugly, beat up place to live in for this period of our lives.

I opened the door and began to call out for my sister, "Harp-." I cut my self off, because I could hear voices coming from the next room. Carefully walking towards the room, I flicked the switchblade my dad got me out, automatically opening. The door was cracked open ever so slightly, only leaving me room to look in.

Harper was in there along with three other people. Two men, One woman. From the only rational explanation behind this I could think of, before I crept in the room, was that this was definitely CPS. How did they even find us this time? "Shit, not again." I thought to myself.

I raised my switchblade up behind her, getting ready for a violent "action" between me and her. "I wouldn't do that If I were you, Summer." The lady who had glasses on said. "How?- Jesus, reflective glasses?" I questioned. These chicks are getting smarter every day.

Before we go any further, I think it would only be right to share Harper and I's background in a nutshell. So actually, we kind of have a history in mental illness, not sure if it skipped a generation or not, but I hope so. Dad was Bi-Polar and normally the vast majority of people who are Bi-Polar aren't a danger to themselves or others, but he was. In fact, I feel he was almost an extreme case. Some days, he would throw things at us and break things, yelling in a fit of anger, then the next minute he'd be crying and telling us how much he loves us. I know deep down he does love us, but it's so hard to believe it when he's like this. It didn't really get bad until I was 10. This went on until I was 13, and Harper was 11. He soon checked himself into a mental hospital, because he was scared he would hurt us again. We still have the scars to prove this.

Mom on the other hand was never home, and when she was, it was like wasn't. She was never home to help take care of Dad. We were so young and taking care of someone we were scared to death of. She might've been having an affair during this whole time. The only reason I believe this theory is because as soon as Dad did what he did, She left. Didn't even say goodbye or leave or a note, and not a clue to where she went. For all I know she could have a whole new family.

Ever since then, we've been in and out of at least twenty different foster homes, and ran away from CPS a whole bunch of times. Once, I wasn't careful enough, they took Harper without my knowledge. Then they took me, and was screaming and kicking everyone who laid a hand on me. She's my girl. It took a whole six months for me to find her, it was the worst six months of my life. Once I did, I made to pledge to always keep her by my side and safe. Now that you know this, I think it's time to get back to the what's happening at this moment.

She turned towards me. "My name is Grace, and I'm with Child Protective Services, but you already know that." I tried to go around her to get to my sister but she stopped me with her hands. "Hey, Fat man! Let go of her." He sure did look angry. Actually he tried to come near me, but Grace stopped him. "John, It's okay. We know about your background and history with us, and we're gonna take you somewhere safe." Since the man let go of Harper, she ran towards me and I hugged her tightly.

"Sure, that's what they all say." I said back.

"In fact we're taking you to a new location, but we'll tell you once we leave so pack some bags, we'll be waiting outside." She said and they walked out. I could tell the fat guy was still standing outside though, and we had no windows so there was no choice but to obey.

"Harper! Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" She smiled, "No, seriously I'm okay. But what if we go with them?" I raised my eyebrow, "And why would we do that?" "I mean look, we could finally have that life we always talked about, you know like in the movies."

After a couple minutes I reluctantly agreed. "Only if once we get there, we can still run away, just like old times?" I whispered. "Okay fine, now pack your bags." I put all the clothes and things I owned in a bag, which wasn't a lot.

When we were done we headed outside with our bags, I made sure to look at their faces to see if they heard anything. They didn't. Harper and I opened the doors on both sides of the truck they had. There were two cars, one for one John and Grace. The other for the other fat man. "Look at the shitty car, he drives." I whispered to Harper. She laughed.

"Yo, Grace. So, where are we going?" I asked. "We haven't gotten you a family yet but we're just taking you to what we feel is a more suitable location. The place we're taking you is Outer Banks, North Carolina."