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Prologue

"Can't."

"Can't what?"

"Can't do my homework."

We were sitting in the common room trying to finish our load of homework.

"Try Zack, try. Nean won't let you skip another assignment. You'll get detention! And although he only makes you do lines, you need all the extra time you can get!"

"But, come on Kyle! So I miss a practice. So what? We are already as perfect as we are going to get," Zack said picking up on my not so subtle hint about time.

"Every practice counts! Jeez. What if we blow the Championship? Hu? It would be because our best and fastest catcher wanted detention more than practice. Would you like that hanging over your shoulder?"

"I don't want detention more than practice! You know that this championship is important to me too. I'm just too bored and tiered. I'm going to bed."

"Fine! You are just letting down the team!"

"Night!" his voice was crisp cool.

"Great! Now I'm too upset to finish my own homework. I'll have to get up early tomorrow. Gosh. Thanks Zack, thanks!" I sarcastically said to the now empty room.

I sat back against the big, squishy armchair and let my mind wonder, while the fire flicked heat before me. I thought back to the first time I found out I was a wizard, and the first time I met Zack, the first spell I cast….

Chapter One: Fate's Orphan

"Get up you filthy child!"

"I'm up, I'm up!"

"Fine. You know the routine. Now, get to work!"

Once he was gone, I heaved a huge sigh. "I just want to get out of here!" I thought for the zillionth time.

I have been living, if you can call it that, at Our Generation Foster Homes for ten years, 361 days and six hours. Eleven years in three days, my birthday. I hate my birthday. Nothing special ever happens. That and my parents gave me away on my one year birthday. I don't remember anything before I walked in here. I do remember me walking in alone. I always wondered why my parents wouldn't walk with me and kiss me good-bye. It was the last day they would see me.

I also wondered why I learned to crawl at seven months and walk perfectly in eight months. I also learned how to talk when I was three months old. My childhood until I walked in here has been a complete mystery to me. The rest, just a misery.

"Get out here! Now!" Mr. Hairston roared.

Luckily for me I'm in the middle child group out of the twenty three that live here. So I don't get pushed around much by the older boys and I don't have terrible jobs like Elven. He's the oldest and he has to paint and re-paint the Foster home whenever it rains because Mr. Hairston won't buy the lasting type (thankfully for Eleven, it doesn't rain often) and change and feed and clean the baby's rooms. Babies need a lot of care, but they get taken first so every now and then Elven can relax for lack of babies. But not for long, because the cycle will continue and more babies will come.

We right now have three babies. One two months old, dropped off four days ago. Another six months and the last two years old who doesn't know how to talk or walk yet, so is of basically no use in Mr. Hairston's eyes.

"Did you hear me boy? Get your ass out here!"

Saying that he stomped in, and pulled my hair until I got off the stool that I had been using to put on my ratty torn shoes.

We are all used to the abuse and cursing, but the babies are what I worry about. I remember only being here two days and he set me to work. I'd never done any work before that I can remember, but I learned quickly enough. Kids usually do if you get smacked enough. By the end of that week, my butt was as red as a brick and my face black and blue.

I went down to hall to the kitchen, if you could call it that, grabbed a piece of bread (un-toasted of course), ate it in two bites and then went to clean the seven bathrooms, mow the yard, and make dinner. I learned a long time ago that you should eat any food that's given to you. Breakfast always contains just a piece of bread, lunch is nothing unless you are a baby and you get a bit of spoiled milk, and dinner is rice and watery soup. And you get water every night before you go to bed. Mr. Hairston makes it so that if you drink it and wet the bed, you have to sleep in it for three weeks before he allows you to wash it. That's it, but it was better than nothing.

I was on my sixth bathroom when Tom "Wolf" Deaver came rushing in. In a low quick whisper he said, "Come on Kyle! Don't you remember? The two month baby is being adopted today!"

"Oh! It totally slipped my mind. Let's go!"

We ran to the end of the hall where the best window to watch the front door is.

"Come on Wolf. Open it!"

"…beautiful, peaceful baby! Here's the rest of the paper work Mr. Hairston. Say bye-bye!"

"Hope she is everything you wanted. Good bye." Mr. Hairston can be so nice it's pathetic. Especially sense after they are gone and he shuts the front door he says such disgusting things. Cuss words and if the mistress is pretty it's worse.

"I can't believe that baby got adopted in four days and we have been here for eight and ten years! It's so un-fair!"

"Calm down Wolf! We'll get out of here eventu… quick to our chores!"

Coming up the stairs I heard heavy footsteps only Hairston could make.

"Why? It's not like Hairston is coming up the stairs or something," he replied.

"Yes he is! Get your ears cleaned! Now, shut the window and go back! Hurry!"

"He's not coming! But you're right about the window. The wind is a bit chilly."

"Get back to your chores! Quick!" I was getting frantic now.

"No, I refuse to be told what to do." Tom can be so stubborn some times.

"Please!" Seeing he wouldn't budge, I tried to grab his arm.

"Get off me!"

"Fine! I'm not gonna get caught though. I'm going back to my own chores. Good luck facing the beast, and I warned you!"

"He's not coming! He never comes upstairs in the afternoons!" Tom yelled at my back.

"Wow! How did you know?" Tom had managed to pretend he was cleaning the windows and so didn't get punished to get an awful chore added to his list of the chores he already has to do.

I flopped on to the bed that was really just a mattress as thin as paper and a small blanket that smelled of fungi.

"I told you. I heard him"

"But that's not possible. He didn't start coming up until three minutes after you went back to the bathroom."

"I'm telling you, I heard him! Come on, just drop it."

"Okay."

"I'm so sick of this place!" I stated a few minutes later.

"Yeah, I think everyone is."

"No! I've been here for almost eleven years and still nothing!"

"So? You're not the only one. What about Elven? He's been here sense he was two, so that's… thirteen years and still nothing!"

"I know. But all I want is a stroke of good luck. You know, being how it's my birthday and nothing ever goes right."

"Don't give up. No one can say what will happen in three days time. Who knows? You might get what you wish for."

"Yeah right."

"What will you do once you get out of here?"

"I don't know. Eat so much food that I can't even walk," I answer. "How 'bout you?"

"I want to go to school."

"School? Why school? Don't you want to ride amusement park rides, play sports, get a good hunting dog and hunt?" I really could not understand why anyone would go to school first thing.

"Nope. I rather go to scho…"

"Lights out!"

"Happy birthday Kyle," Tom said.

"What's so happy about my birthday? It's also my eleven year anniversary to this place."

"Come on Kyle. Cheer up. Today may be the day!"

"What day?" I had no clue what he was talking about.

"The day you get adopted! Who know? Now that it's your eleventh birthday you might get that stroke of luck."
"Stop being so naive Wolf. I will never…"

"What's this? Talking? Well I can't allow this. You!" Oh, oh. Mr. Hairston grabbed my arm so tightly that I was sure the circulation was cut off from my arm.

He led me to a room that was "Forbidden" to us.

"Wait here, Mr. Chatterbox," He said sarcastically.

I waited outside. What was I waiting for? "My doom," I thought.

Mr. Hairston came out of the "Mysterious Room", as my friends and I call it, carrying a couple of pieces of clothing. We never get any new clothes, unless we grow, and we have to wait three months to clean our clothes fully. In between months we just put them in the sink. Of course Hairston doesn't know about that, he wouldn't like the waste of water. These seemed to be clean and new. I stared at them wondering if this was a cruel, sick joke. I wouldn't put it past him.

"Don't just stand there! Go clean up."

But I couldn't move. What was up?

"Sir, why are you giving me clean clothes?"

"As pathetic as you are some nut jobs want to adopt you. Now get cleaned up so you will be adopted. I want any opportunities to get rid of you bastards fill-filled!"

"Ye…yes, sir."

I quickly grabbed the clothes and started for one of the seven bathrooms that I clean.

"Take a shower too smelly-ass! They'll be here in one hour. So hurry up!" Mr. Hairston yelled after me.

I ran to the bathroom and quickly closed the door.

"Is this a trick? He said they would be here in one hour! Demie said that Cory got a long shower and new clothes on the day he got adopted. Well, if it is a joke at least I'll be able to wear new clothes for a little while. I'd better hurry. Whether or not it really is a trick, better safe, clean and adopted then sorry, dirty, and stuck here."

As I thought this, I quickly undressed, hopped in the shower, and scrubbed so hard that I thought my skin might come off. "Just in case it isn't a trick," I thought to myself. "I want to get out of here more than he wants me to. I have got to tell Wolf!"

I finished rinsing, stepped out of the shower, and put on the new clothes. It felt weird, but nice at the same time. I opened the door and silently went up the stairs to Adam's bedroom, where Tom was probably scrubbing the floor.

"What happened to you?" He asked as soon as I walked in.

"Listen," I whispered. "Hairston gave me the clothes. He said that someone wants to adopt me!"

"Duh! I told you so. It's your eleventh birthday. The numbers can go backwards and forwards. So you made a wish that was opposite of what your real life is, so it came true."

"How do you know all that?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I have a lot of time to think about things while I scrub the floors." As he said that he shrugged his shoulders, as if it were no big deal and not at all a surprise that after eleven years I got adopted.

"What about Elven? Or the rest of the guys who have already had their birthdays? Why weren't they adopted?" I questioned.

"I'm not sure, but strange things always seem to happen to you so I just figured that if it happened to anyone, it would be you."

"Wow. I can not believe it. Oh no! The hour is almost up! I'll miss you. Tell the rest of the guys I say good-bye."

"'Ight. See you after my eleventh birthday." Tom smiled a sad kind of smile.

I slowly made my way down the stairs. As much as I wanted to get out of here, I'm gonna miss Wolf. He's been the greatest best friend I could have ever asked for.

"It's about time!" Mr. Hairston whispered in my ear, interrupting my thoughts. "They are already here. Let's go! And don't screw this up for me! "

"For you! I'm the one getting adopted and hopefully getting out of here!" I wanted to yell at him.

"Don't just stand there! Get in there and be adopted!" He screamed at me. But he had to whisper-scream it because he probably didn't want them to think he was the mean old guy that he actually is.

So I walked into the sitting room Mr. Hairston had motioned to. Two people stood up.

"So you must be Kyle," the male said, as if he wasn't quite sure.

"Yes Sir," I answered trying to make a good impression.

"Oh, he's so cute!" This was from the female. What did she think I am? A puppy?

"So…I guess you know that we want to adopt you Kyle. That is, we want you to be our son. Would that be okay?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good. Then it's all settled! All the paper work is done, so you can come home with us now."

"Okay."

"Hope you get along quite well! Bye!" Mr. Hairston yelled after us.

We went through the door way and stepped outside. I breathed in a nice long deep breath of fresh air. It was like having a freedom. Sure I had been allowed to go outside, if I had chores, but the air always seemed to suffocate. Now it seemed to be relaxing and freeing. As we walked down the walkway, I couldn't help but look back. This had been my home for eleven years. Even thought I despised the place, I had a lot of memories and friends in there. I turned back to where I was walking to. It seemed that they drove an old Cadillac. It was pretty and shiny, yet really old.

We got in the car. The man got in the driver's seat with the woman next to him. I sat in the back. The man started the car and we drove away from the one place I had ever known with a dust of air.