A/N not mine, I own nothing.

Growing up I loved the musical Annie and two songs always stood out to me. Hard knock life and The sun will come out tomorrow.

Hard Knock Life

I was sitting on my couch watching the musical Annie, after another bad day. My car had exploded, I was covered in garbage not once, but twice, and my mother called to remind me that I was a disappointment.

It is only two weeks until Christmas, and this year I couldn't even afford to say Merry Christmas to anyone. The line from the song kept running through my head.

"Santa Claus we never see."

"Santa Claus, what's that? Who's he? No one gives a fig when you live..."

I definitely qualified as having a hard knock life, as an adult. It was getting harder to remember that the sun will shine again, when all I can see is the darkness.

Joe and I broke up for good after I caught him playing elf on the shelf with Terri Gilman. That same night Ranger made it a point to reaffirm that he is not now, nor will he ever be relationship material. I never really liked the holidays to begin with, but this year seemed like it would be grey forever.

I sat there taking stock of my life. I knew I needed to make some changes if I wanted to find my happy. I needed to stop hoping for things I'll never have i. e. Ranger, and focus on what I can have.

Maybe it's time for me to find a nice guy and settle down, someone who won't wrap himself in a bow and let the first pair of antlers he sees unwrap him.

Maybe it's time to find a job that I can actually use my degree on. I didn't go to college for nothing.

Maybe it's time to take my life back from everyone, and move forward with my life. I knew just what I had to do.

I stood up quickly and made my way over to my bedroom. I gathered all the items that belonged to Joe and Ranger and placed them in separate boxes. Rangers box was significantly larger, I even put his key fob inside.

I closed up both boxes and wrote letters to both men, effectively telling them goodbye. I am starting my new years a little early this year. I wanted to find myself, and I would.

I wrote my resignation out to Vinnie, leaving the dates on it open. I needed to find a new job first.

I am ready for a new me.

A/N This is the shortest chapter that I have written in this story. Most of them are averaging between 2,500-3,000. Longer than I normally write. This story, however, grew a life of it's own. It would not let me go until I wrote it until it's completion.

I am still work on Someone for Her, so please bare with me on that one. I am also working on my crossover story that has been interesting to piece together. The author, Sherrilyn Kenyon is very detailed oriented in her stories. She is also very serious with a bit of comedy thrown in for good measure.

We all know that Janet Evanovich is not really like that. She tends to lean more towards comedy, less detail and tends to be very redundant with her writing.

Both women are enjoyable to read, but the writing styles are completely different. That makes it a challenge to take the two and pull them together, but it is working.

Thanks for joining me on another journey and I hope you enjoy it.

Lynda