A/N: Hi! It's me again. I know I'm still working on my other story, Messedup Highschool Ride, Maximum Ride FanFic. So, I decided to work on another one, a Book Thief FanFic. It will be on Rudy and Liesel's POV, just like on my Max Ride Fanfic. And, there will be no Nazi Germany, no WWII, it will be on Present Day Timeline and they will be in America. I know, so weird. But I don't like tragedy, or drama, or any crying stuff. Just reading the real book makes my heart ache. Sigh.

Iggy: And guess who's also here? Me!

Me: Oh, no. Why are you here? Aren't you suppose to be on my other story?

Iggy: So? I can still be a part of this story, can't I?

Me: (sighs) OK, fine. But on one condition.

Iggy: What?

Me: You will be saying the disclaimer every time I update a new chapter. And, you will be a part of any poll, suggestions, or any problems. And, you'll be my right hand man.

Iggy: That's more than one, you know. I don't care. But I have one condition too.

Me: And it's?

Iggy: I'll be in any story you publish.

Me: OK. Deal!

Iggy: Disclaimer: Aya doesn't own Book Thief or any of the characters.

Chapter 1

Liesel POV

Dear Diary,

I don't want to go to that place. I don't want to see them! I want my brother back!

Being orphaned at the age of ten is probably the worst thing that you could ever imagine to happen to you. I'm Liesel Meminger, a kid with blonde hair and brown eyes.

My mom orphaned me when my brother Werner died of a lung disease. I could still remember it. He was coughing so loud, so chronic, like he couldn't breathe, like he was choking. I tried helping him, but as soon as I put my hand on his back, his coughing stopped. Werner was now sideways and dead. His unseeing blue eyes stared at the floor; he is no longer breathing.

Werner's dead. Werner's dead. Werner's dead.

I still couldn't believe it. My mom and I, as soon as we left the L Train, grabbed Werner's dead body, running, trying to find the nearest hospital. As soon as we saw the hospital, it was too late. We burst through the doors of the Emergency Room with my mom crying, "Help me! Help me! My son's dying!". A doctor helped us but he said it was too late. My mom just sat there staring at the wall. Staring, unseeing, just like Werner's blue eyes. Then she broke. She cried all the tears that was left on her body. She cried everything, everything she's been grieving for the past years. Cried, like her heart has just been broken. Cried, like Death just took away her soul. I cried with her.

Werner's funeral was a small one. Only my mother and I attended it. We watched as Werner's casket bury in the ground. Just as we leave to go, I saw a book lying on the ground, The Grave Digger's Handbook. I took it and put it on my pocket. I looked at my mom because she, again, has the look in her face.

I had to admit, I can't read at that time. We were poor. That's why my mom decided to move to New York City because she got a higher paying job. But now that she's in front of me, kneeling, saying that she can't raise me now as her kid, that's why I'm going to an orphanage.

Once in the orphanage, I can't let my mom go. She was crying again, saying she loves me, that she cares about me. But I too, was crying. She was the only person that I care about. The only family I got now. And she's abandoning me.

My foster parents are Hans and Rosa Hubermann. They live in the suburbs of New York City. On my way to their house, I kept replaying my mom's face in my head. I didn't want her to go. Truly I don't. I was sitting there, watching the road, and only the road. When the taxi driver stopped in front if their house, I didn't leave the taxi. I just stared straight ahead. Rosa Hubermann, a short stout lady, who would have looked cute without the folding creases in her face, talked to Adoption Counselor lady. Then she started yelling. She wanted me to come out. Her husband, Hans Hubermann, a tall man with warm silver eyes with a cigarette on his mouth smiled at me. He towards my door at tapped the window. I looked and he made a look that said, Come.

The moment I saw Hans Hubermann, I knew I could trust him. That's why he convinced me to leave the taxi and hold his hand. From that day on, I knew I would be safe with him.

There's a few ground rules in the Hubermanns' household. Rosa said I should call her, starting now, as Mama. I hesitated at first because she wasn't my Mama. My Mama was gone, she said. That's why she's Mama Number Two. Hans, however, said I should call him Papa. That, I didn't have difficulty. They showed me my room. To them, it was pretty small. To me, it was bigger than my old room back in our old house. Twice bigger, I should say.

I noticed that there wasn't any more children in the house. They said they had two kids. One boy and one girl. The boy, Hans Junior, is in the Army. And the girl, Trudy, is a doctor.

After dinner, I went straight to bed. I was exhausted from all that crying and sobbing.

During my first night in their house, I had a nightmare. Werner's death. I would sat up, screaming and crying. Then Hans, Papa, would come in my room and comfort me. He would stay there until I could sleep. He would even play his accordion.

There are also the bed-wets. I was embarrassed at first. I'm ten, so why should I have bed-wets? Rosa, Mama, didn't want any noise during the night. So, whenever I would have the incident, Papa and I would creep downstairs to the laundry room. We would sound-proof the walls with my pillows, so Mama won't scold us.

For the first few weeks, I would still have nightmares about Werner. Papa would be there, playing the accordion. Mama, who doesn't like Papa's playing of the acoordion, would shout to him to stop. But during one night, I had my usual bed-wets. We removed the bed sheet and the pillows. I had been hiding the book I found on the funeral under my pillow.

"Is this yours?" Papa asked me.

I nodded. I wanted to take it away from his grasp but I didn't want to.

He read the title of the book. "The Grave Digger's Handbook. Where did you get this?"

I didn't answer. So, I said, "I want to read it. But I don't know how."

"Well, I could teach you. But we have to do it secretly."

"Why?"

"So Mama won't know. We don't want to disturb her, do we?"

I nodded again. And that's the start of our midnight classes.

To tell you the truth, the Hubermanns aren't a bad family. They both have jobs they could hold on to and they are middle-class. They have two used cars, which they both use to go to work. All their kids have gone to college. And Papa is always there for me.

Mama loves me. Believe or not, she does. Although she has a weird way of expressing her love to me, I know that she does. She would always call me names, names that only girl teenagers call to their slutty enemies. Mama also is five-foot-one-inch tall. She always wear her brown hair with gray strands in a bun. She works as a cook on a restaurant. Her cooking is atrociously good. She experiments different food everytime she cooks.

I learned a lot of things about Hans Hubermann. He loves to smoke. He's a painter by day and musician by night. Eventhough Mama doesn't appreciate his music abilities, he supports him. One thing I really like about Papa is his silver eyes. They are always warm and comforting.

One day, they said they are going to put me on a school. I was ten, so I'm in fourth grade.

Confession time: I don't know how to read or write. I'm illiterate. My old family were poor. So Werner and I would be at the house helping Mama with her work. We can't afford going to school, so we mostly spent our childhood working.

Papa looked at me, when Mama made the news. My head was down, staring at my knuckles that are turning white. I was ashamed. I looked back at Papa and said, "I don't know how to read or write."

Mama was shocked. "What?"

Papa wasn't shocked or anything. "I'll teach you."

Every night before bed, Papa will get a paper and a pen then teach me to write and read the alphabet. Soon, he teaches me how to write and read 5-letter words. I was improving. Though I still read slowly, Papa doesn't give up.

Two months after I became a part of the Hubermanns, they enrolled me to a public elementary school. I was scared. I now knew how to read paragraphs as fast as any regular ten-year olds. I knew how to write the alphabet and 5 to 9-letter words.

So, why was I so scared?

If you're a girl who has never been to a school in her whole entire life and never had a friend except for a brother, then I think you know why I was so scared.

It's also the same feeling you get when you transfer into a new school. Nervousness. Anxiety. Fear. You're afraid that you won't fit in. Afraid that nobody will like you. Afraid that you won't have any friends.

Well, I felt that way.

After breakfast, Papa and I headed to the garage. Papa's car is a used silver 2000 Audi TT. (A/N: I really like Audis. My favorite brand of car.) I called shotgun so I can see Papa drive for the first time. I was so excited but then it faded as soon as we stopped in front of our neighbor's house. The brown house left of us. A boy my age came out of the front door. He shouted goodbye to his mother who was waving in the front porch. He opened the back door and sat down. He put on his seat belt and caught me looking at him.

He looked at me then smiled. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. "Hi. I'm Rudy. Rudy Steiner. You are?"

"Liesel. Liesel Meminger. Nice to meet you."

"OK, now that you two have met, Rudy, I want you to be Liesel's friend and guide at school, is that clear?" said Papa to Rudy.

Rudy nodded and smiled again.

The school is humongously huge. As soon as Papa left us and said he would pick me up at 3, I looked at Rudy.

"Ready for you first day of school?" asked Rudy.

I shook my head. "No. Not really."

"It won't be that bad. Besides, I'm here."

"Uh huh."

"No, really. It won't."

"What do you know? You've probably been here all your life."

He laughed. "You're funny. I like you. C'mon Saumensch."

"Saumensch?"

"It's German. I'm going to start calling you that."

"Hm. I don't know what that means, but I think it's a bad word."

He laughed some more. His blonde hair bobbed. "C'mon. You'll like German. It's awesome."

"Uh huh. By the way you say it, you like it, don't you?"

"Yep. Favorite class. Better than Math."

I chuckled. "Oh I bet I do. Better than PE?"

"Oh, God no! PE is way better than German. No. German is good. PE is better."

I nodded, but still smirking. "What the heck are you laughing at, Saumensch?"

"Nothing. Let's just go. You don't want to be late, do you Rudy?"

"Of course I don't! The punishments are so not cool."

I smirked. We walked to class and after the end of the day, I rather liked it.

I also learned what Saumensch means.

Bitch.

And, I learned a new word. Saukerl.

Bastard.

I started calling Rudy that. He glared at me when I called him a Saukerl.

Now I have a counter for him.

Saukerl.

I still laugh whenever I hear the word today.

Even from this day on.

Eventhough today, we're in highscool and 17, I still remember that memory.

That's the day I absolutely found a new friend. And a new crush.

You'll see.

A/N: Woohoo! A new story to work on. Hm. I'm thinking of starting another story!

Iggy: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't keep track of everything all at once.

Me: Yeah, I can. I'm a multi-tasker. I do a lot of things all at once.

Iggy: Uh huh. Of course you are. By the way, I'm halfway through the book.

Me: What? No you're not. Besides, you shouldn't be reading that book. It's only for girls.

Iggy: Uh huh. Just like when you read your mom's Jude Deveraux, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, Barbara Delinsky books? Eventhough there's "mature" content in it?

Me: (blushes) Oh, keep me out of this! Besides, I'm thirteen now. Going on fourteen this August. I can read those books! I have the right to read it!

Iggy: And I don't have the privilege to read Sarah Dessen books?

Me: Fine! You can read her books. But that's it.

Iggy: Are you cutting my reading of books? That's ridiculous. I should tell your mom to stop you from reading her books.

Me: What?! No! She's my mom, not yours! You can't tell her what she can do to me! I only have the right to do that to myself.

Iggy: Oh, is that so? Then why does she always tuck me in at night? Why does she let me eat chicken everyday?

Me: You stink! Besides, I don't need someone tucking me in at night. That's for babies!

Iggy: Are you calling me a baby? Are you-

Max: GUYS!!! STOP!!! YOU BOTH ARE ACTING LIKE BIG BABIES!!!

Iggy: Max? What are you doing here?

Me: No. The question is, how did you get here and why are you here?

Max: Easy. I flew here. Duh. Remember the letters you sent to me? So, I decided why not? Fang's actually outside, waiting.

Me: (eyes widened in surprise) Fang? He's here? Really? Can I have his autograph? Can I have-

Iggy: Stop! This author's note is getting really long. We should cut it now.

Max: You're right, Iggy. So, RnR?

Me: FANG!!