Chapter 1

I opened my eyes. My room was dark and smelled musty. I sat up and rubbed my head.

My foster father, an angry drunk when it came right down to it, had beaten me again last night. He's a business man, and lately he's been angry because of his stalk profits. He lost over two million dollars when his stalks dropped last month. Of course I don't see any reason for him to be unhappy. Margret, my horrid foster mother, is a top fashion designer and pulls in about ninety-thousand dollars a year, not to mention bonuses. They have been swimming in money for as long as I've been with them. I had tried running away countless times but after the first few Rodger, my foster father, hired a few body guard type guys to make sure I didn't get away. For the past year, however, I stopped. This wasn't because I'd given up, oh no, I had a plan. If I could convince them that I had accepted them as my parents then I could convince them to take me somewhere else besides the huge house we lived in.

I got up and went down the stairs to the kitchen. Margret was drinking her coffee at the table when I walked in. she looked up and gasped. "What in the world did you do to your face?"

I wanted to say 'Your dumb husband, that's what.' but instead I just replied " I tripped over hamper last night cause I couldn't find the light switch." she looked at me. "Well then you need to work on being more careful." I nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you." I said putting on my little act. She just raised her eyebrows and looked back to the magazine that was laid out on the table in front of her.

"Oh and we need to go sopping of some new clothes for you." she said still looking at the magazine. "Why?" I asked taking a mango out of the basket. "We're going on vacation this summer." she replied. "Oh," I said feeling a bit excited, my stomach getting tingly. "Can I ask where?" "Venice." she replied. I did my best not to show how truly excited I was when I heard that. It was perfect. The crowds, the tourists, the mazes of alleyways, the perfect place for a young, fifteen year old girl to get lost. Margret finished her coffee. "Well finish your breakfast and go get dressed I want to leave soon. We only have till tomorrow afternoon to get prepared. I nodded tossing the mango back in the basket and ran up stairs.

I took a quick shower then brushed my teeth. I ran into my room and pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt. I was so happy I could stop pretending to be the innocent little girl these people wanted me to be. I could the person I really was. I would finally be able to stop pretending.

"Clara!" Margret yelled up the stairs. ' I hated when she called me that name. it wasn't my real name. my really name was Onyx, my mom had a sort of passion for odd things, Margret had it changed when they adopted me because she saw the name as 'atrocious', but even so I called out, "Coming" as I pulled my shoes on. I ran down the stairs being careful not to trip. We got in the car, a limo nun-the-less, and we rode to the mall. The day was spent going to designer stores, Margret piling up clothes on a girl's arms and me trying on outfits I really didn't like. After hour of this Margret was finally satisfied with what she had bought me.

When we finally got home she sent me up to my room to pack. I packed only the outfits I really liked, four out of the twenty she had bought me , and filled the rest of my suitcase with my other clothes. When I finished I looked at the clock. It said 10:54 pm. I lifted my mattress and pulled out the money I'd saved up. It was about 200 dollars. Now if your smart, you know that I would need a lot more then that if I was going to survive the streets of Venice. I would have to take the money from my foster parents.

I decided that tomorrow would be the better option for stealing money, it would give them less time to notice it was missing, well Rodger anyway. So instead I took off my clothes and found some pjs. Once I had changed I crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.