As me and Mori walked down the long hallway I began to panic. "what if father still remembers me hiding and running away this morning? He's going to be angry with me and make me stay in the basement for a week!" . The basement really wasn't that bad, but I was never able to stand still for a minute, much less a week. Plus, I was never a big fan of the dark. That was one of the many things that made father say I would never make it as a ninja. I soon realized that I had been sat down and was now sitting at the kitchen table while Mori fished through the refrigerator before tossing back two bottles of water.
I heard the thumping of large and heavy feet that I quickly identified and our dad. "I wouldn't make a good ninja my ass" I thought. He stumbled into the room, and automatically put and outstretched hand on the table in front of us, where both of us placed the small pouch of money that we had earned. Mori's bag was larger then mine and was probably a lot more. My bag was filled with the few gold coins I had gotten, and any spare change that I had found, while mori's bag was filled with thick rolls of paper that were probably worth more than the house we loved in. Our father snatched up the bags with greed, mines with out saying a word, but as he touched Mori's, praise rained out of his all but holy mouth. His speech was still slightly slurred so I could tell that he was still drunk, and I had to stop myself from laughing at how dad praised Mori, yet mori seemed more interested in the trees outside the window. Soon, dad had lumbered away and me and Mori sat in a comfortable silence.
"So…" Mori said suddenly in his monotone like voice, breaking the silence. "What's up?" he asked casually. "Nothing much, though I should be heading out soon, its getting late, and i got another job at 10." Mori frowned at my statement and mumbled a quiet "Late…". Mori was smart, extremely smart, but sometimes I could beg to differ. I was one of the few people who noticed that he constantly needed things to be explained to him, probably because he didn't tend to listen the first time. "yea, pretty late." I said after a short pause. Mori leaned back into the counter and closed his eyes, relishing the silence before walking slowly down the hall and out the door. I let out a light sigh before taking a swig from the bottle and taking it upstairs. My room was clean with plain white walls and a small white bed. That was it, plain, plain, plain. I stood in front of my small mirror, ran my fingers through my hair before tying it into a high ponytail to keep it out my face while I worked.
I reached into a supposedly empty drawer, stuffing my hand into its very back ,grasping a soft, think material and pulling it out, a large blue shoulder bag. Pushing my water bottle as far as it could go I hurry down the steps and out the door into the crisp are of the fall. I had started running towards the town what I noticed that the comforting weight that was always in my pocket was gone. In a mad frenzy, I sprinted up the stairs, and back to my room. I checked under my bed and threw things off my bed before spotting what I was looking for. A glossy, slick, black and purple throwing star, the one that had been a gift from my brother, and the one I had used to become an official ninja. Of course, I had been stripped of my status by my father, who thought I was unfit to hold the proud name. This star still meant so much to me, I knew I couldn't live with myself if I lost it.
Carefully sliding it into my pocket, I try to run down the steps, key word try.
I'm halfway there when I slam into something thin and hard. I fall on my ass, ready to fight with my hands balled into fist when I look up to see it mom.
Crap.
I jump up and start to apologize when she cuts me off.
"Shouldn't you be at work by now? Why are you being so lazy? Never mind, hurry up, you father will get angry. Get out, Get out Now!" She yells before hurrying me out the door and slamming it behind me. I don't even glance back before taking off into the wilderness. I had at least two other houses to clean and one garden to….garden. This was going to be a long and painful night. I got a headache just thinking of all the strain my body was going to have to inure for almost no money. The time passed quickly and soon I had finished cleaning both houses and had to go to the final house to water their garden and tend to their crops. As I went about my way, I began to think. "I cant wait to get out of this place. To find somewhere where nobody knows me, and to have a whole new life. Maybe if I did that, people would finally except me…" I felt a sudden urge to stop what I was doing. To run to the deepest darkest part of the woods and hide there, never to be found again. I would have done it if I hadn't reached my destination. It was my dream house. The largest house in from miles to come, and it all belonged to a thin young lady and her son. Nether of them ever left the house, and the lady was the kindest in the village (besides mori) to me. She paid me extra when she was in a good mode and often gave a break and some food. It was one of the happier points in my life to know there were still kind souls in the world. I stepped up to the house and rung the bell.