Chapter One: What Goes Around, MUST Come Back Around
"Pass the dang thing!" He growls at me. I couldn't do this. I just can't!
"Come on shrimp!" His buddy, a tall, stout, tan guy with blonde hair, snarls. I cower as Surfer man does so..
"Get up!" The leader knees me in the stomach, and I crumble to the ground. "St..St..Stop!" I cry quietly.
"Oh MY LORD! He does talk!" The leader laughs, and his three friends, laugh with him. "Ren, please..." A beautiful blonde girl, about my age, pleads to her brother, who is the leader. "No! Get out of this Lily! This jerk doesn't need to be around you! You're to good for Foster Scum." Ren lightly pushes his sister, Lily, back. All I did was talk to you.
"You're the jerk." I mutter, slowly getting up.
"No! I want you DOWN!" Ren snaps his fingers, and Surfer man back hands my face. I go down again. "Thanks, Kyle." Ren pat Surfer man, Kyle, on the back.
"No problem." Kyle, obviously second in command, smiles, and then glares down at me.
"Chico, Jake, beat'm up." Ren, who is apparently done with me, motions to a big mexican, obviously Chico, and a tall, rugged guy with dirty blonde hair, who has to be Jake.
"With pleasure." The mexican smiles.
"You first Chico!" The dirty blonde laughs. I was right. Jake is Dirty Blonde, the Mexican, is Chico. Doesn't take major skill for me to notice Chico is a mexican kind of name! "Okay Jake." Chico, the mexican, approaches me as if I was prey about to be pounced by two lionesses. Yeah, I called them female. "Please.." I whisper, already in way more pain, since I'm five in all. lily cries out for help when Ren picks her up, and begins to leave with Kyle. Jake, when Ren and Kyle were out of sight, knocks out Chico.
"Run! Go!" Jake helps me up, and points me in a safe direction. "Don't come back!" He snarls.
As I painfully ran down the rest of the alley, and out onto the street, I couldn't hlep but look back. Jake was standing, watching me go. He just spared me. This was about to get bloody. I, was about to get bloody. As soon as I was out of sight, and hopefully out of danger, I stopped. Every part of me throbbed. "I don't care what they say, 5 year olds are not indestructable!" I moan. "And, from this moment on, I vow I will give Chico, Kyle, totally Ren, a taste of their OWN MEDICINE!" I snarl, then wince. I have to go to my foster home, and pack my stuff. I can't stay in this town. Not anymore. I'm gonna be a run-a-way. No one is going to put up posters. no one's going to report me missing. I'm just going to disappear.
Chapter Two: The Last Actual Meal
I got back to the foster home around dinner time, and Mia, my foster mom, had gotten dinner all done. "Oh, Keo! What happened?!" She got a paper towel and handed it to me. That's when I realised my nose was bleeding.
"Nothing, Mia." I sigh and take the towel. "Just the same old tree swing." My lame excuse she always took as, I got my butt kicked again by Ren.
"It's okay, Keo, I will talk to his parents!" Mia smiles, and gentlely wipes my face. She's been trying to adopt me herself. There are three other kids in this foster home, I'm not the youngest. Timothy is 6 months old, Kimberly, aka Kimmy, is 16, and Ferrat Face, actually known as Frank, is 11. "Hey Freako." Frank, as if on cue, comes in and wraps his tanned arm around my shoulders, and gives me a nuggy.
"My name is KEO." I sigh. Mia does absolutely nothing to stop him.
"Why Keo? That's a last name! Why not Leo?" Frank asks. "Or Rio?" Frank laughs and from another room, so does Timothy. "I'm going to my room." I say, sliding out of Frank's hold, my nose still bleeding, and I wince as I bound upstairs. There is only two people in this house I actually like to be with. Mia, is one, and Kimmy, is the other.
"OMG! Keo!" Kimmy, a tall, beautiful girl with jet black hair races over and scoops me up. "What happened?! Did Ren and his pack do this?" Kimmy knew the answer, but she always let me talk.
"Yeah.. All because I was talking to Lily.." I sigh.
"It's okay." Kimmy hugs be, and we go into her room. She sits on her bed, me on her lap. "I'm running away tonight." I say as soon as we are comfortable.
"No! Keo!" Kimmy wouldn't stop me, because she knows I would be happier somewhere else.
"I'm sorry.." I begin to cry. Tears stream down my face, and she hugs me tight, her brand new sweatshirt gets smeared by the blood streaming out of my nose. "It's okay.. Everything will be fine. I'll drive you as far as I an tonight. But you have to promise me something." Kimmy moves my head so we are eye to eye.
"What?" I ask.
"No, not till later." Kimmy whispers.
"Dinner!" Frank calls upstairs. "Come on!" Kimmy brings me into her bathroom, and begins to clean me up. When she's done with me, she takes her sweatshirt off and runs it under cool water, getting most of the blood out, then she disappears. Most likely to put her sweatshirt in the washer. She then comes back, and picks me up. As we exit the bathroom, our Foster father, Ty, stands by the entry to her room.
"You two coming?" He asks.
"Yeah." I smile. I like him too, just not as much.
When we finaly get sat down and settled, we all begin to eat. I eat as much as I can. Which is quite a bit. I even out ate Frank. "Slow down, Keo." Ty smiles. "Sorry, I'm hungry." I smile back. He knows. I know he does. After dinner, at about nine o'clock, I have all my stuff packed, and I'm ready to go. I just have to wait for Kimmy.
"You shouldn't do this." I jump, and turn to see Ty. "Mia really loves you, and wants to adopt you, Keo." "I need to find MY family. My mother, my father, and if I have any siblings, my siblings. I want to KNOW." I sigh.
"Yeah, I know how you feel, Keo. I was a foster kid. I said that too. Then I found out my father was killed. My mother died of depression five days later. I had one sibling, who didn't care about me, and I was adopted by my foster mom." Ty sits me on the bed, and sits next to me.
"If that's my case, I'll return." I look up at him.
"Promise me." Ty smiles.
"On what?" I ask.
"The River Styx." Ty smiles. That was our joke. He was from Crete, an immagrant, who changed his name and moved from all he'd known when he was 19. After being adopted.
"Alright. I, Keo...Uh.." I look at Ty.
"Valdez." Ty smiles. Valdez? That's my last name?
"Okay. I, Keo Vladez, promise on the River Styx, that if my parents are both gone, and my sibling/siblings don't care about me, I will return here, and hopefully be adopted by Mia and Ty." I finish by hugging him. I suddenly feel weird, like I'd actually end up coming back.
"Good." Ty ruffles my black untamable hair, and gets up. "I'll be waiting, just in case."
Chapter Three: The Second Promise
It was a long car ride. she took me all the way to Manhatten. We stopped in an alley.
"Now for the promise." Kimmy turns and looks at me.
"Okay, on what?" I ask.
"That river thing." She laughs.
"Styx?" I look at in the eye. Gods took this seriously. This would be my second one.
"Yes. Promise me you will come home, or call if you need ANYTHING. Please." Kimmy's promise was way easier.
"Okay. I, Keo Valdez, Promise on the River Styx, i will make contact, or go back to the foster home, if I need help." I sigh at the end, feeling another weird pull.
"Valdez?" Kimmy looks at me.
"Yeah." I smile, and I begin to get out. Once all my stuff is out of the car, Kimmy speaks.
"We shall meet again, Keo Valdez, you can depend on that!" Kimmy sounds like Joker as she speaks. "Yes. We will Kimberly Bellrayya." I smile.
Little did I know, I would not find anything for four full years.
Chapter Four: The Day Before Leo