Harte and Soul

Chapter 1

     "Alli, last day of school! Get up!" I hear Elise yell from the bottom of the stairs. She's the newest ( and last ) foster mom I have. I fake a cough.

"Elise, I can't, I'm not feeling too hot." But we both know that she can see right through me.   

"Bullshit, lets go."

     I can hear the sizzling of pancakes frying as I through my long red hair into a top knot as I make my way downstairs.

     "Wow, pancakes Elise? That's pretty fancy." I tease. I watch as she takes a large bite into the pancake that is presumably mine.

     "Here you go" I think she says, I'm not too sure though as her mouth was full. She drops the half eaten pancake on my plate as I give her a death stare. I'm only 5'6" So I'm not really that intimidating, but I like to believe I am.

     "Pancakes? Who died?" I hear my foster brother Gene say as he sits down beside me at our little round table. He's 19 but he hasn't moved out yet. I don't think he'd be able to make it on his own if I'm being honest.

     "I give up, I'm never doing anything nice again!" She's still smiling though, so I know she's not actually upset. Next to get to the table is my foster sister Lena. She's only 6, but she is the most sarcastic little shit that I've ever met. I kinda look up to her.

     "I wouldn't consider it nice Elise. Nice would be making us pancakes that aren't  burnt." I look down at my plate, she's not really wrong. The pancakes are kinda black. I watch Elise as she puts her headphones in and starts reading one of her parenting books, obviously ignoring Lena's comment.

     It's already 9:38 by the time I leave for school. I've already missed the first half of first period by the time I get there.

     "Alli, it's the last day, you couldn't even make it on time for the LAST DAY?" Mr. Fisch yells. I can't tell when he actually intends to yell or not. He says he has a sinus infection, but he's had it all year.

     "Old habits die hard sir. At least this time I can't get detention." I shoot him finger guns.

     "You know what kids, just leave, I'm too old for this." Wow, what a good morning. The rest of the day goes by pretty basically, I go to all my classes, sit down as the teachers all talk about what they're doing for the summer, while getting a little bit too much information from Ms. Tina. That's actually her first name. Her last name is Watschenburgher. That's why we call her Ms. Tina.

    After school, I start walking to the subway station with a fresh cup o' joe. Well, not really that  fresh, but it's at least luke warm. I planned on taking the subway to Manhattan to look at some apartments because in 3 days I can legally rent one. I check my phone for the time and realize that if I don't pick up the pace, I'm gonna miss the subway. So I eagerly pick up my pace and almost run to the station. I notice that the doors are just about to close. I speed up even more. THUD!

     "Oh my god, I am so sorry" I say as I realize that I just hit some guy and spilled my coffee all over him. At least I made it into the subway first.

    "Oh hey, don't worry about it" He says as he starts patting the coffee with the napkins I gave him. "What's your name?" He asks politely.

    "I'm Alli. You?" I ask back while still trying to clean up my coffee spillage.

    "Adam" I finally look up so I can see the person I spilled my coffee on, and wow, I am not exaggerating when I say he looked like a God. Like Thor. Okay, maybe a little exaggeration but damn. We continue cleaning up all of the coffee that I stupidly spilled everywhere. We cleaned in awkward silence for a bit before he finally speaks. "Alli, can I have your number?" I look up at him shocked unable to physically form words with my mouth. "Is that a no?" he asks looking slightly upset.

     "No no no. I mean yes you can have my number" I notice people are staring at me and realize I yelled. "Sorry" I tell him as I pull out my cell phone. We switch numbers quick until I look up at our next stop: Manhattan. We say quick goodbyes before I start racing to the first apartment.