Around 12:00 am, a 15 year-old girl stands in her room. Her parents have gone missing. Her aunt treats her like a freak. She's bullied at school, and no one cares for her anymore. Now, she's made an important decision that will change her life in more ways than she could imagine. Well, at least in more ways than she can imagine now.
This girl takes out two rolling suitcases, her backpack, and her fold-out bed. She fills the first suitcase with 7 outfits, for each day of the week, junk food she kept hidden in her room, water, and two folded blankets. The other carries her pillow, a bar of soap that she has randomly found, some pillows, and tosses in a framed photo of her parents.
She opens her window, and carefully drags the fold-out bed on the fire escape. The girl slips her backpack, places her suitcases on the escape, and decides to take one last look around the room. A pink stuffed bunny, named East, catches her eye. The rabbit sits with her stuffed animal family: Southern, her little brother that plays a song when you press his chest, West, her big brother colored pink and with a pink ribbon 'round his neck, their father, Rabbit-Shoes, and their mother, Rabbity, an Easter basket designed to look like a bunny. They were snuggled together, and over the years the girl has cared for them and they have cared for her.
She lets out a tear. She can't leave without them.
So she decides to stuff the bunnies inside of Rabbity and hang her over her arm. Drying her eyes, she steps outside. She's ready to go.
Balancing the fold-out bed on her suitcase, the girl hasn't the foggiest idea when to hide. Where would no one find her? Where would no one think to look? The answer finally comes as she walks past a manhole: The sewers.
She carefully pulls the lid up. She stuffs the bed down the hole, and carries her suitcases and Rabbity down. She checks to make sure that she has closed the lid securely.
After coming down the latter, she wanders through the tunnels, using chalk to mark the ones she ventures through so she can find her way to the surface if necessary.
Eventually, she spots the entrance to an abandoned subway station. She's been trying to find one so she can have access to plumbing and possibly electricity. and, apparently, she has succeeded!
She sets her stuff down, and checks to see what her new home looks like. "Wow!" She squeals. "This is amazing!"
She's looking at what looks like an actual home! A TV, couch, comic books, devices scattered here and there, a punching dummy, and more rooms! How amazing! It also looks as if it has been used recently. Do others live here? Well, she thinks, I'll betting that they won't mind me spending the night. I hope they understand. I'll explain the situation...
While she silently hopes, she prepares he fold-out bed in front of the couch. She removes her glasses, wraps herself in a blanket, and happily drifts off to sleep, excited and grateful to meet the family that dwells in the station.
Her name is Jennifer Leslie Fernandez, and her life is changing a lot in the next few hours.