This all started in the streets of England.

I was an orphaned girl of ten year's old living in the streets and surviving off of being tough and not a bit girl like. I acted like all the other boys that also lived on the streets. They were the ones who took me in at the age of five. They are all as old as me or older. I was the youngest of them all back then.

The oldest one, Geoffrey, made me keep my hair long, never to be cut so it would show that I had some parts of a girl in my life. My long hair is the only thing that made me different from the boys. I was also the only girl in their group of ten, but I fought and stole better than most of the boys, so they have nothing to complain about.

I wasn't slowing them down at all. If anyone was slowing us down it would be the baby boy we found crawling in the trash piles.

I was eight and a half while the baby was just two years old. George, John, and I were hiding from the fruit seller. We stole ten apples for all the street boys and I, so we hid in the alley ways. I stole five apples without the fruit seller noticing. George came after me and took only four apples before the seller could see him. Then John walked up and looked normal. He walked past and quickly snatched an apple, but it fell from his grasp and the seller saw us. John picked it up and ran.

The fruit seller was right behind us, so we hid in one of the oldest and most disgusting alley ways. We kept running until we saw a huge garbage pile. The stink was almost unbearable so we decided to run behind it because the fruit seller was all too good to go near it.

I was about to jump in, but I quickly stopped at the scene in front of me. It was a little baby boy [I was presuming the baby was a boy] rolling around in the muck.

George and john didn't see me stop so they ran into me and I almost fell on top of the baby. We stayed sprawled on the floor for five minutes to make sure the fruit seller left. The little baby just stared at us in curiosity with his wide eyes. After we made sure the fruit seller was gone, we sat down around the baby and stared at him.

John was the first to speak, saying, "Well, we should get going, shouldn't we?" his eyes never left the baby. George and john saw just a baby, but I didn't. I saw something unique in the baby, something powerful.

But I guess George saw it too because he was the one to suggest that we take the baby with us. George was the oldest of the three of us so we had to listen to him, but he didn't command it, he suggested it.

I agreed then john did. George scooped up the baby in his arms and stood up. We all stood up after him. I grabbed George's apples so he could grab the baby more carefully. George shuddered and said,

"Maybe you should hold him since, you know, you're a girl." At any other time I would have been raging at George because it was the first time they took themselves as different from me just because I'm a girl. But that day I was more than happy to for some weird reason.

So I carried the baby and we then ran to the rundown house we all slept in. It was an underground house that no one knew about except the boys and I.

On our way we saw Geoffrey and Lance coming out of the ground.

"Geoffrey, Lance! We found a baby in the garbage pile between the oldest alley." I said running ahead of George and john.

When I reached them, Lance was staring at the baby while Geoffrey was staring at me. I just stared back expressionless.

Lance walked up to me and lifted the baby from my hands. At that moment George and John were on either side of me. Geoffrey finally took his eyes off me and looked at the baby. "Well, then. We'll have a meeting with all the boys and you this afternoon. But for now just keep the baby fed and put it to sleep. Iz, can you do that? Not because you're a girl or anything, just because you might be the best." Geoffrey said using my short name for Isabelle.

I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Because I'm a girl" I finished for him. He just smiled helplessly.

"Oh, plus, I need to talk to you alone, too. Rain will help you with the baby." I nodded and turned around quickly so my long orange hair would flutter in their faces. I might have been eight at the time, but I was not a fool.

You should also keep in mind that this happened ten years ago.

After Rain and I fed the baby half of my apple, we didn't know how to put the baby to sleep.

"Well, maybe we should…. rock him gently?" Rain said looking helpless.

"Or we could sing to him." I suggested. Rain nodded and lifted the baby. He held the baby from under his shoulders and sang to him. Rain had a good voice, but the baby couldn't sleep while swinging around.

So I grabbed the baby from him and said, "He can't sleep while swinging around."

So I cradled him in my arms and sang to the baby until it fell asleep. Rain was looking at me in admiration this whole time so that it made his black eyes shine.

Rain was older than me by a few months. He was already nine by then. And when the baby slept, I handed him to Rain so I could go and talk to Geoffrey. I wondered what he wanted from me.

I went outside and found him sitting up on the hill looking at the sunset. I sat next to him and said, "You wanted to speak to me."

I obviously caught him by surprise because he gasped and looked at me with wide eyes. That was how swift and quiet I was, to sneak up by accident on the street lord. He was fourteen at that time with the darkest hair I have ever seen. It was so dark that it shined. But his eyes are light green.

When I looked into his eyes, it was my turn to gasp. I couldn't believe it. Tears were forming at the edges of his eyes. One tear was already falling down his face.

What could be so sad that the street lord would cry? I asked myself. He just sighed and looked back at the sunset. We sat in silence for a while, but then I couldn't bare it any longer.

"Geoffrey, what is the matter?" I asked trying to start conversation in the worst way. He just ignored me.

"Well, at least you should say something since you were the one who told me to come here!" I said losing my patience way too fast. Then he laughed. Just like that.

Then he turned around to look at me with tears streaming down his face nonstop. I softened up a bit and asked again, "What's wrong, Geoffrey?" he smiled at me and said, "Nothing is wrong, Isabelle. I'm just happy that we will soon have a new addition to our group."

I knew that he was lying but didn't say anything. Instead I said, "Are you wiping that or am I going to have to wipe it?" pointing at the tears running down his cheeks. He laughed again and wiped his face with his sleeve.

"So, where exactly did you find him?" he asked and I set off telling him. When I was almost finished I heard something behind me. Geoffrey and I both turned around at the same time and saw Matty with Seft trying to sneak up on us.

"Aww man! You caught us. It was the soda. We should have left it with Alexander." Matty said setting the soda cans on the floor. We all laughed until we heard Alexander running towards us yelling, "There's a ghost down there! It's possessed Rain!"

Without even thinking we ran after him into the underground house.

Then we heard it.

It was a crying sound. It was the baby! Everyone stopped running except me I ran right into the room of where I last saw Rain and the baby. Rain was patting the baby, but it wouldn't stop crying. All the other boys were walking up to us slowly.

I went over to poor, frightened Rain and took the baby from him. I cradled him and rocked him gently, and it began to fall asleep. Rain let out a sigh of relief and threw himself into the nearest chair.

I looked back at the boys and narrowed my eyes at Alexander. "A ghost, huh? What a horrifying little thing." I said with a smirk.

"Well, what is a baby doing here anyways?" he replied trying to defend himself. That's when Geoffrey stepped up and said, "We were waiting for the rest of the boys to have a meeting about him. And now since everyone is here we will begin. It's just one question. Do you want the baby to join our little street gang since we found him in a pile of trash in the alley ways?"

Everyone looked around and smiled. After we all agreed we decided to name it now.

"Dashiell?" I suggested. Everyone agreed again and smiled.

"Little Dash for a nick name, yeh?" Seft suggested. We all agreed and sat in the chairs while Sebastian passed out the drinks and I the apples. Matty stood up and announced that when he was looking for drinks he found a bill of hundreds on the ground, so now were rich! It was a very good night. Dashiell didn't wake up once and we all slept in. The next morning I woke up to find Dashiell staring at me with big, green, and round eyes.

The sun was just starting to rise so everyone was asleep. It seemed that I frightened little Dash when I woke up, so I jumped up with the baby and ran outside so if Dashiell wouldn't wake anyone up with his ghastly crying. We sat and stared at the sunrise until Dashiell started ripping out grass from the ground and putting it in his mouth.

"No, no little Dash. You mustn't eat grass if you're to become a great man. Come on. Let us see what there is to eat in the house." I said taking it out of his mouth and lifting him.

We snuck into the room we called a kitchen. It had a little table and ten stools. That was when I noticed that I would have to share my stool with Dashiell or he'd have to sit on the ground.

I opened the cabinet we had and found half an apple and a piece of bread. I gave him the bread because it was softer but he reached for the apple and immediately stuck it into his mouth.

"Okay. An apple can be healthy…I think." I said walking out of the kitchen with him in my arms. Then I went back to my room that I shared with Dashiell, and Seft. When I got in and closed the door, I looked around and didn't see Seft. I knew he was going to jump out any second now. I was always prepared for his play attacks but this time I was holding a baby.

"Seft, I know you're in here. Just keep in mind that I'm holding a little baby or else I'd be done with kicking your butt by now." I said into the dim light. Then I felt a breeze rustle my hair. So I turn around and see Seft leaning on the closed door with his arms crossed.

"I would have had you this time if it wasn't for little Dash." Seft said with a little grin.

"Yah, sure" I replied walking to my bed to change Dashiell's diapers. When I got there, I heard Seft's bed creak letting me know that he was in his bed right now.

Then he let out a long sigh.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked scrunching up my face and holding little Dash's diaper as far as away from me as my hand could reach.