The Mistaken

Chapter 1

One day. Just one day until freedom. One day until I can leave this family and start my life. One day until my 16th birthday.

When I was placed into my F3 I wasn't expecting to get stuck in a house with 6 other placements, along with 2 permanents. I was always used to being the only placement in the house, maybe one or two permanents, but not anyone who was still in school or wasn't in there F4 (fourth family/ permanent home.) These past five years have definitely been the most stressful in my life. The craziness never seems to end here. Every year we would have someone leave to go to either one of the Central's and every other year a new placement would come and join our family. But, tomorrow it's my turn to leave.

I've spent the most of the day in my room. Mostly packing, sometimes taking a break and reading. It was about midday, so I grabbed my shoes and headed downstairs.

"I'll be back in an hour or so Cal," I shouted to Callie, my M4 (4th mom), no surprise as I round the corner she has a bottle of whiskey in her hand.

"Where are you off to at this hour young miss! You better not be going to see that boy again, we don't need anymore officers coming around bein' more suspicious of you."

'He's just a friend Cal, and I'm just going to grab a bite to eat with some friends and say goodbye," I turn heading for the door. "and it's not me that the officers are suspicious of Cal." I add quickly and shut the door behind me so she didn't have a chance to respond. Sure, yeah, I was the one who brought the suspicion in the first place, but that was on purpose.

Cal's a good mom when she's sober and a good Host, that's why its her job, but she's rarely ever sober and if you don't see her with a bottle in her hand its because she has an important day coming up and can't be smelling like alcohol. I guess tomorrow wasn't all that important to her.

One day she came home real late, past curfew of course, and just about tore the house down looking for something. Of course she woke the whole house up to see if one of us took it. And when no one confessed she threatened us. None of us thought she would actually do anything. But, when she grabbed the broom and took Andrew, the youngest at the time at the age of 4, by the arm and told him to lay down and started to beat him with the wood part of it, we knew she wasn't kidding, and it was then we all knew what she was capable of when she was drunk.

Of course we didn't let her hit Andrew more than once but he still has the scar, and so do I. It runs across my shoulder and chest, easy enough to cover up a shirt with so you can't see it though. I got that when I went to stop her. But thankfully she did put up to hard of a fight, because that would have been bad.

Later that night, all 6 placements finally talked civil for the first time. We could've reported her, but that would have done so much more damage than a few scars, that you could easily cover up. It would put all of our Placers at risk of being imprisoned, because they were the ones who decided we would be best here, and I couldn't do that to Alex, it also could've put us at risk. Defying or having any rebellious nature or not changing your looks, including a scar, could put you at risk of being sent and labeled as a Mistaken and we couldn't damage each other like that, so we decided to look past it and move on from that night.

As I walked out of the house I was greeted by Ginger, our golden retriever. Amanda, one of the permanents, was an animal trainer, and Ginger was her guinea pig. "Hey Ging." I smiled at him.

"Hey Kenna, big day tomorrow, huh?" Amanda says walking up and attaching the leash to Ginger. Amanda and I've gotten close since she came here last year. She's only a year older than me, but when she came I was like her big sister, teaching her instead of the other way around. But, now that she's become comfortable and we've gotten to know each other she acts more like a sister than a friend.

"Yeah," I gave her a small smile, "I'm gonna miss you, but hopefully I'll be able to visit when it's all over."

"I'd like that," Ginger dashed off again, with the leash this time, and then she was gone.