and then i met you {chim}

Chapter 3

Jane's POV

"Good Morning, Karen." I groaned, walking past the front office.

"Good Morning, Jane." It's our morning routine, just like how we say goodnight to each other.  Karen is the only mother figure I've ever had, I can look up to her in a way.  She's always been there for me and somehow makes me smile a little bit.

I don't smile much and it saddens me.  The foster home I just came back from marked the twenty fifth house.  No matter what happened or how many times the 'bad things' happened, they throw you back in the system.  You get tugged around like a dog, going from home to home.

"Eggs?" I nodded at Susan, our cook at the foster care.

"Sausage or bacon?" I pointed to the bacon, for some reason I'm just really depressed today.

"Orange juice or water?" I pointed to the orange juice, still not saying a word.

"Thank you, Ms. Susan." I gave her a small smile and sat down by myself.

"Hey, Jane.  Are you okay?" Mariah, one of the girls my age, came over to me. She spoke sweetly, trying not to frighten me.

"Yeah, I'm just a little down today." She smiled sadly at me and decided to eat with me.

"You don't mind, do you?" I shook my head and smiled at her.

"What's got you so down?" I looked up at her, afraid to open up to someone I'm not that close to.

"I don't know-" She cut me off as I began to wing it.

"Yes you do..." She pushed me to tell her.

"Okay, I'll tell you.  But, you can't tell anyone, okay?" She nodded her head and gave me her full attention.

"So, I've been dreaming of my birth parents recently.  I've just been imagining what their like, you know?  But, I don't really want to dream anymore..." I looked at Mariah, she seems confused.

"Then don't." She says it like it's obvious what I should do.

"What do you mean?"

"They can't find you, you have to find them.  So do it." She's talking nonsense, but I would try anything at this point.

"How?" She smiled at me and stood up.

"I'll show you." She lead me to the study room where all the kids read and write.

She went over to a table, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil.  She wrote down an address and handed me the piece of paper.

"Go to this library and use anything you can." She walked away, knowing that we could get in trouble for leaving the care.

I went up to my room, changing out of my clothes.  I put on a little makeup, trying to look like I come from the outside world.  I changed into a big grey sweater with a blue, collared, button-up shirt underneath.  I put on a pair of black skinny jeans and white converse.  I let my hair down and opened my window.  I stepped out and looked around.  No one was in the outside playground so I ran.

I ran through the woods that I take to go to the coffee shop on 6th street.  Usually, the windows are locked, but I broke the lock on mine a while ago.  No one ever noticed.

Mariah said she would cover for me, so I didn't worry about anything.

I ran to the library, it's huge.  There's a whole wall of computers in the back.  I went to one of the desktops and searched ancestor websites.  When I found a safe one I took out my emergency credit card.  One of my foster parents gave it to me before they died, I've had it ever since.