The Princess and the Streetrat

Chapter 1-The Streetrat

The unnamed boy slipped through the shadows. He never remembered having a name. He lived with his two older brothers and they simply called him brother or boy. He believed he was 16 now. His brothers were in jail. He was homeless. He had nothing. It was about midnight. He slipped into an alleyway.

"Midnight!" He softly called. A gray cat approached him. With an eye missing and torn fur and scars all over the cat was not the prettiest sight. Neither was the boy. Unwashed, messy, dirty blonde hair descending over his blue eyes. He brushed his brownish blonde locks away from his eyes. His hair was not too long, no longer than the top of his neck, but still decently long and certainly unbrushed.

Midnight was the name of an alley cat he met and bonded with. Midnight only really came out near midnight. The boy heard a car approaching. The headlights shone on the street. The car stopped in front of the alleyway. He recognized the car. A police car. A man in police uniform stepped out, eyeing the boy.

"What are you doing out here kid?" The man asked in a gruff, yet kind voice.

"I-uh..." The boy froze.

"What's your name?" The cop asked. 

The boy shrugged,"Dunno." He said. And after asking a few more questions such as 'where are your parents' or 'where do you live?'

After a few more questions the cop concluded that he should take the boy to the police station to get things sorted out. 

When they finally arrived at the station they found no information on the boy. It was like he didn't exist. The cop that found him looked at him and said,"You got any family?"

The boy looked around,"I got two brothers in prison."

"Their names?" Another cop questioned.  

"Samuel and Caleb...I think." The boy responded. Turns out the cops did have information on his brothers. They needed more answers, so the cops decided to question Samuel, the eldest brother first.

"I think I recall plenty 'bout young brother." Samuel claimed.

"Tell us." The gruff voiced cop gruffed.

"Well, boy there...we raised 'im, right on da streets. Our mom died birthing him. We were street livin' at the time. Papa didn't care 'bout us.  Never named the boy. Ol' pop got arrested and we raised the boy, our brother, ya know? Taught him how to live on da streets of New York. We had two great brothers, but now we arrested. We even taught that boy to read and do math and stuff like dat." Samuel explained to the cop.

"And why do you guys have records, but not the boy?"

"Well, we born in hospitals. We had a house, but our parents lost it all gamblin' so he ended up being born on the streets and we ain't ever told anyone 'bout him."

"I see."

~~~

After lots of complicated stuff, the boy was to be sent to a foster home in the suburbs of Maryland. The boy still needed a name. William was his new name. The boy, or now William was a lot less than happy to leave the streets, his home and be forced to live in the suburbs and go to school. Although he hated it, he was soon being sent to go see his new family.