"Look alive, Faith!"

A split second to determine the call came from the left and slightly forward, 10 O'clock. A half second to see that a baseball was now barreling towards her face, time slowed. One second before its dart like path connected with her completely exposed cheek; her hand flew up to catch the faded ball before impact. Less than a thought had flitted through her mind from the time she heard the shout until the action had completed. Three years of baseball was not wasted, and her face was grateful.

Faith smirked as she mockingly waved the ball side to side for him to see, "Don't worry bro, maybe a few more years and you'll be half as good as me!" she said. A bark-like laugh echoed in Code's throat as he lifted the folder cardboard box up and waved it in a mirrored motion to her ball. "Maybe a few more years and you'll be able to pack a box properly," he taunted as he headed to the side of the building where the dumpster hid in the alley.

He tossed the useless box into what Faith could only guess was a pile of unkempt junk before heading towards her where she perched in the trunk of the truck. He sat heavily, and pulled a rag from his jeans pocket, dragging it across his sweat soaked face. "It's my turn to sit on my ass," he said. Faith laughed as he fell back and lay down. She picked up a box labeled 'books' in her brother's calligraphic handwriting and started towards the building.

"And clean up the shit from that box!" she heard him say.

"It broke when you had it!"

"Don't be lazy!"

"Jerk!" Faith said, she heard some kind of retort come from his direction but couldn't make it out. She was already taking the rusting metal stairs two at a time up to the fourth floor. The creaks from each of her steps were disheartening, especially when she made it to the third and could see the ground so far below her. She made a face to herself and pressed on to the fourth floor, panting by the time she made it to the ledge.

'Elevator needed,' she thought, setting the box on the ground and leaning her back against the window at the hall end a few steps from the stairs. The glass was warm from the setting sun, and she felt gross and sticky covered in her own sweat. It was almost enough to make her wish that they hadn't moved from Tennessee. Almost. Overall the elated feeling of moving had carried her on wings through the whole process of moving back to her hometown. Her crazy, dangerous, thrilling, terrifying, alive Manhattan. The dull days they'd spent in Tennessee had been passed listlessly. Southern gentlemen and belle's were all well and good for those who knew know different, but her first eight years had been spent in a place that never slept, and that sleepy little town could never take its place.

The only excitement she had had was on the baseball team, which she had had to fight to be on. The boys had stared skeptically her first day, and it had been a long road to impress them, but eventually they had become a team and she sighed happily remembering her friends fondly. The girls she hadn't been fond of, as most had aspirations as high as to win a prize for their pie recipe. She couldn't imagine the mundane life they would live as housewives, and while she had found a few kindred female souls, she had kept closer to her boys. The one female jock in the school, and she grinned to herself at the thought.

A siren blared and the lights flashed in her view as the car passed the window four stories below her. She could just make out Code lying in the bed of the truck and picked up the box, heaving it to the end of the hall. Her friends had called her crazy, what kind of girl wants to live somewhere as dangerous as Manhattan when they were already in a town that didn't lock their doors. She'd made vague excuses, a promise between siblings; they had to go help out family, etc.

The truth she wasn't willing to explain to them, it had gotten her picked on and teased the first day in her new school there, and a call for her mother to come talk with the principle. After being scolded over and over she had finally given up trying to tell anyone the truth, they never listened anyway. Code being the exception, he listened, and even promised to bring her back when he turned eighteen so she could search. This worked out since their mother had left the country once more for business and had approved the move while she was distracted preparing for her flight, which she almost missed.

She traveled more than she stayed, her job as CEO of an establish hotel chain having her travel to many locations around the world. She technically didn't have to, but the control freak in her drove her to travel and inspect. This meant Code had taken over being mom when theirs decided to skip out. Only two years older in body, Code was 20 years older mentally. His I.Q. was 110, but instead of learning how to become a rocket scientist at age 13, he chose to stay with her and go through school normally. She smiled as she carried his books through the latched door and set it on the stack of his other book boxes. He had three, and there were three more in his bedroom. Her big brother was like her mother more so than her real one, and she was completely satisfied with this. He was all she really needed.

She found the contents of the broken box in the doorframe of her room. She sighed and started to pick up her desk accessories, pens, pencils and all sorts of knickknacks that decorated the tabletop and wall space around it. She heard splashing as she started arranging her desk with the things that she had scooped up from the pile on the floor. She looked over at baby turtle swimming in his temporary bowl and making a fuss. "I'll build your house soon, Shell, promise," she said.

He didn't seem to believe her and continued to throw his tantrum. Faith laughed at her baby boy, who was just as temperamental as his mother had been. His mother, who Faith had gotten when Princess was as tiny as Shell was, had recently passed away, and Shell was still not used to being completely alone. Faith had taken to bringing him along when she went out, along with a plastic folding bowl and a bottle of water for when they had rest time.

People often stared at her awkwardly, which was easy enough to understand, it wasn't exactly normal to see a girl with a turtle on her shoulder. For Faith it wasn't given a second thought, her affinity for turtles locked deep within her psyche. Since she was eight years old turtles had been her favorite animal, and green her favorite color by no small coincidence. It happened so long ago, before even her brother was her brother, and he was just the quiet best friend who lived next door. Before her mom became CEO, and left the country and her alone with the nanny, and she only had Code and her imagination to keep her happy, she had a fascination with rain. With storms and thunder and the dampened world after the downpours had ceased. She had a dire need to go and play in the puddles that glistened with moonlight, her eight year old mind only wrapped around the fact that it was something she wanted to do.

And one night she did.