I'll show my parents that I'm not useless. If they don't want to feed me, then I'll have to feed myself.

My parents believed that I would have to get my own food. My parents were idiots. I was born when my mother was seventeen. They didn't know how to raise a child. I was always unhappy. My parents yelled at me all the time when I was little. They would never say goodnight to me or give me hugs.

They told me that my constant hunger from a lack of food just wasn't their problem, and that if I needed food, I just had to get it for myself. After all, they had to get their own food, so why shouldn't I be able to provide for myself?

The problem was, ten year olds aren't allowed to get jobs in District 5, as most available employment is often very dangerous for younger and smaller people, such as myself.

For the months after that, I have been surviving by sneaking food out of the pantry when my parents weren't home.

A few times, though, I have actually been caught by my parents, who, in their anger, would beat me, screaming that I was useless to them and that they wished I had never been born. (I'm not quite sure how fond I am of this idea, as it sort of narrows her parents down to one-dimension characters. They might be in need of some dialogue, so readers get an understanding of this situation has come about.)

One day I heard my parents talking in low whispers in the night.

"How are we supposed to survive here? We're running out of food and Finch isn't helping with that problem," said my mom.

"Well what should we so about her, then?" asked my dad.

"Send her away, to the orphanage maybe. Gosh, if she had never been born surviving would be so much simpler," said my mom.

I gasped. The orphanage? I had heard that so many kids had committed suicide because of how horrible the orphanage was. Fear bubbled up inside of me. I needed to leave, really soon.

xXx

That was two nights ago. Now I am running away from a place that I could never call my home.

I go to the pantry and take enough food for a week, and, after some consideration, I also gather some basic tools like matches, clothes and a sleeping bag, putting it all in my cloth pack.

Before leaving, I take one last look around my old house.

I glance at the table and see a book of plants. That could be useful, I think to myself.

I snatched the book off of the table. I hesitated for a second. This book would help me survive but it would also help my parents survive if I left it here. After some consideration, I picked up the book and put it in my pack. It would benefit me more than it would benefit my parents.

With that, I walk straight out of the house. My heart drummed loudly in my chest. I swear that anyone standing within a mile of me would be able to hear it. I took a deep breath and stepped into the street to begin my new life.

xXx

I looked into my pack. It had been a few days. I realized that I needed food, fast. But how? I could use the plant book. No, it was too cold to get food from plants. Think, Finch. Think...

It had been a few more days. It was much colder than it had been before and I still didn't have any means of finding food. I only had a day's worth of food left.

I should have planned this out better, taken foods that would fill me up more. I should have thought of a way to find some kind of food.

Well this is the end, I think to myself glumly. I'm going to end up dying of starvation after trying to prove that I could feed myself and live on my own.

What on earth possessed me to I think that I, a ten-year-old could survive on the streets of District 5, alone? Why hadn't I planned this out better, instead of being such an idiot about it and pretending like it was some great adventure, instead of the sort of life I would have to live until I was old enough to get a job?

I leaned my head against the tree I'm sitting under and closed my eyes. To make matters worse, it starts to rain, and I feel like crying.

I sat there for who knows how long, but then I heard footsteps not too far off from the tree that I am resting underneath.

I opened my eyes and saw a girl my age standing there. She had dark hair, was small for her age and she wore her hair in a side braid and her eyes were a bluish-purple color.

I hastily stood up, staring at the girl with some trepidation, but she didn't move, only looking at me with the same hesitation that I gave her.

Suddenly, possibly recklessly, I spoke: "I'm Finch," I said, hoping to not startle her.

"I'm Eve," said the girl. Her voice was curt, but it didn't sound entirely unfriendly. I wondered what she was doing out here in the cold and rain, when there were so many other places to take cover under

"Why are you alone out here? It must be close to midnight." I said.

"I could ask you the same thing," said Eve "But to answer your question, I ran away because my parents barely ever fed me. In fact, they hardly ever bothered feeding me or even seemed to care if I had enough food to survive.

"Hey! That's so weird-I ran away for the same reason!" I said. I guess there were more heartless people in this world than I thought.

"So, how long have you been away from home?" Eve asked.

"A week, I think," I answered. "What about you?"

"I've been away for two weeks, but I'm running out of food," said Eve. She held a small bag in her hands, and when I looked down, I noticed Eve's grip tightening on the opening; she must have been robbed before.

"I have about a day's worth of food left," I said. "If I'm careful about it, that is."

Eve looked like she was about to tackle me, take my pack and leave me to die but then something seemed to change in her eyes.

And then, Eve said something I had thought no one would ever say to me.

"We should stay together and take care of each other," she said shyly. "It's better to have two people helping each other survive than one person going it alone. We could be… allies."

Take care of each other. Nobody had ever thought to take care of me. The idea should have been preposterous, but I felt myself trusting Eve. She understood how I felt, never having enough food, being kicked out of your home by parents who never loved you.

"Sure," I said, and, even though I had no idea if I could trust Eve, I knew that Eve was someone I'd rather have as a friend than an enemy.

And then, I thought about what she said. 'We could take care of each other.'

I smiled to myself. Maybe, with Eve here and willing to live with me, I finally had someone who would care about me, instead of treating me like a waste of space.