A Penny For Your Truth

Chapter 1 - Orphan Annie (Dallas POV)

      I mindlessly throw the few 'valuables' I have into my beat up backpack that I've had since I was ten. The t-shirt I'm wearing is the only one I own that doesn't have holes. She promised me that they would provide me with new clothes, but I didn't want to burden them. So I grab my four shirts, two pairs of pants that have so many holes I can't even pretend that I purposely brought them like that, the underwear items that I'm absolutely positive are mine, and I slip on my one pair of tennis shoes. I take the small, battered, gray bear from behind my pillow and place it in the bag. People may think I'm too old to sleep with a stuffed animal but this is the one thing I've had the longest. I don't remember first getting it, it's just always been with me. So I associate it with possible memories that I may have had with my parents before I was placed here. Right now I wish I was like Annie (Yes, I know. Ironic right? But yeah, I've probably spent more hours of my life watching that movie than I have in school.) I wish I had a locket or something sentimental that I could keep on me at all times.

Something to remind me that at one point in my life, I had blood-related family that loved me. Especially if it was something that small and unnoticeable, because let me tell you I've gotten some weird looks from people at the ages of as long ago as I can remember to twelve, when I would carry that bear around everywhere I went. I'm sixteen now, and no longer carry it with me 27/7, but it's under my pillow while I sleep on good nights, and in my arms on the bad ones. It's the one thing that brings me a small bit of comfort no matter what I'm feeling, and I don't care if it's silly. I've had to share basically everything else in my life besides my toothbrush. But after I'd heard on multiple occasions that I wasn't being grateful for the things I did have, I did my absolute best to never ask for anything unless the current item I was replacing had been worn out past the point of being usable.

Let me introduce myself. I am Dallas Wren. Yep, you read that right. In case you were wondering, that's my first and middle name. I've never known what my last name is, since I've been here since I was an infant. If you haven't already figured it out, I'm in the foster system and currently living in the one and only "children's home" in our town. In terms of appearance, I was pretty average in basically every category. Except for my reddish colored hair (I know right? Serious Annie vibes. But it's more auburn than red anyhow.) I have always been talkative, more than most of the others here. But I knew when to keep quiet and to myself. I have always been thin. Don't get me wrong, I do eat. I'm pretty sure it's partly due to genetics. I'm just a thin person. But this was made into a bigger problem when I was younger. People tended to think I was or could be sickly and that would mean extra care on their part which they definitely didn't want. The place I'm currently in and have been for the last 6 years, has been the first place I've even thought about calling home. And at my age I never thought about being taken in by a family,  I assumed this would be my first and only real home for the next two years until I turned eighteen and then I would be on my own.

Miss Ashley is the owner of the children's home and established it 25 years ago. She's actually pretty nice. She has dark brown hair with very limited gray hair, which is surprising for a 50 year old woman with 2 adult kids, in a line of work that involves taking care of children. She said she wanted to talk with my in private last night, and I was scared out of my mind that she would be telling me that she could no longer afford to keep me here. This current living situation may not have been the best, but it was a thousand times better than my last 'home'. Here I at least had three meals each day and my own bed. Also, it was much closer to the only school in this town. Since I didn't have any reliable transportation, this made my life much easier (especially since I could sleep in for another forty-five minutes). I may have had to share a room with 3 other girls, but over the course of seven years we've went from strangers to the closest group of friends ever. Ever since I was old enough to understand what was happening, I wondered why Miss Ashley had decided to take in this many kids. She wasn't married, at least at the moment, I'm not sure about in the past. She has two sons that work and go to the community college a few towns over since there isn't much around here. They're pretty nice. They come by two or three times a years to check on things. I've been here for a while, so I'm assuming that before they left they lived with their dad.