My mind went a blur as the beautiful blonde haired woman walked through the door. I couldn't hear her thoughts, and that scared me. I didn't know her, never seen her. And since she was unseen or heard of I knew what she was going to asked as her hazel eyes looked around the room and stopped to me. As my mind blurred as I heard her say the words I dreaded to hear since I sensed someone had come into the abandoned building.

"Are you Alice? I'm Red Heart and I have come to adopt you." I fell to the floor with blackness surrounding me.

Two hours before…

I woke up with something warm wrapped around me I looked up to see Peter laying next to me. I was about to go and get dressed when I looked down to see the sweet five year old sleeping soundly. His was slightly wavy blond hair and was cut not very nicely but it was cute. I had to cut it, though, so I didn't mind. I turned away from the sleeping child to look at the clock. 4: 47 P.M. I must've fell asleep after I ran from school. The jerks at my school know no end.

Let's see I ran from school at twelve and cried for about an hour. So I've been asleep for about 4 hours give or take. I let out a loud sigh, but I looked at Peter to make sure it didn't wake him. I promised him I would go to school from now on and cry at whatever they did to me when I got back. That was my first day of school for about a month. Peter must have crawled into bed with me when she got back from preschool. I was supposed to pick her up with Hatter. Oh no Hatter. What's he going to think? Thank god he and I are in different classes or else he would've ran after me and dragged me back to that hellhole.

I silently maneuvered around the sleeping child and stepped out of bed. My school uniform was crinkled and itchy so I had to change. I dragged on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and headed down stairs. I saw someone come around the corner, scared that it was Hatter, I duck under the kitchen counter and heard a voice all too familiar.

"I don't care about school policies, one of my foster kids ran back here in the middle of the day and cried her eyes out." Ms. Smith stopped and listened to, what I thought was, the principal, then started talking again. "Look I know that she hasn't been in school for a month but from what I heard she will be out of here soon enough. She's going to a different home. She's a poor girl you know. Never having parents, only two friends and one is five, she almost never speaks, and blind in one eye. No wonder no one wants to adopt her, she's damaged goods."

Ms. Smith meant good, but she's a do-anything-for-a-juicy-piece-of-gossip kind of person. It's her habit and I'm used to it. I've lived here for six months, the longest I've ever been in a foster home. But now I'm going to a knew place, I know that Ford, my social worker, will try to get me, Hatter, and Peter in a place together. When I heard Ms. Smith hang up I stood up and she almost jumped.

"Oh my, Alice, you scared me! Anyways, if you're worried about Hatter, he's not here. But he told me that you need to talk to Peter as soon as possible." She started walking up the stairs when she turned around and gave me a large grin, "Oh and happy birthday."