"You are not going to that god forsaken hippy school Kiki! You were made for Harvard, or Yale!" Caleb yelled at his oldest daughter.
"Dad, I can, and I WILL go wherever the hell I want to go to college, if I want to go to Berkeley I will! I if I want to go to a college in Timbuktu I will! You can not stop me!"
"I'll cut you off…not a dime to you, do you think you can support yourself completely and pay for college, your still a child Kirsten."
"If you would have asked, if you would have CARED, you would have known I got a full scholarship to Berkeley, and I can get a job, live in a dorm. I don't need your dirty money. I won't give up what I want just to please you anymore dad!" Kirsten said before storming off to her room. Leaving a shocked Caleb behind her.
When Kirsten got up to her room she started throwing every piece of clothing she could find into her bag. She knew if she wanted to go to Berkeley she needed to leave now before her father did something to take that away from her. The only problem was dorms didn't open up for another two months, she would have to try and find an apartment with what little money she had, her first two priorities would have to be get a extremely cheap motel and a job.
As she was running down the stairs, a suitcase in each hand along with her purse she ran into her mother.
"Kirsten, are you leaving? Please I heard your fight with you father, but don't let him chase you away!" her mother said begging her daughter to stay with her family.
"I love you mom, and I love Hailey, and I will always love dad, but right now I really don't like him and I don't want to be around here while he tries to control my future."
"Will you at least come back? Or at least call me; let me know you are safe."
"Of course I'll call you, just don't tell dad." And with that Kirsten walked out of her house of 18 years and into her new life.
Only two hours later and Kirsten found herself sat on a Greyhound bus, watching the world she had known so well and lived as part of flying past. Overwhelmed by emotion she felt it well up inside her, and she quietly sobbed. They were tears of distress at what she had left, and yet somehow it was a release. A relief at finally being able to get out, away from the life her father had mapped out for. Kirsten Nichol was for the very first time in her life, her own woman.
She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed away her tears, trying to fix her make-up. Her thoughts turned to Berkeley. What was she going to do when she got there, she'd need somewhere to sleep, at least for tonight. As she looked out of the window, she realized it was already going dark.
Kirsten stepped off the bus and into the quiet station, it was 10pm and it was pretty much deserted. She drew her bag up her arm and held it close to her, looking around for an exit.
"Hey" a guy's voice said behind her.
Kirsten spun around startled, softening when she realized, that it was the driver of the bus talking to her. "You look a little lost" he said cocking his head slightly.
She sighed "Well, I'm…." she stopped
"You're…?" he asked smiling.
"I'm kind of here on the spur of the moment, and I guess I'm looking for somewhere to stop for the night."
He pulled a leaflet from his pocket and handed it to her saying "Take this, it's a list of hotels and motels in the area, the closest is probably the Flamingo Motel... and" he looked at the clock "if you run to terminal 53, you might be able to catch the bus that goes past there, but it's due to leave about now".
Kirsten clutched the leaflet in her hand "Thanks" she shouted quickly running off in the direction he had pointed her.
Kirsten sat on the bed of the Flamingo Motel…tired, hungry, and with 50 less much need dollars. She needed to make a plan, she needed a real place to stay, not this flea bag inn. But she couldn't really do anything productive when it was pitch dark and she was exhausted, so she would start her search for a job and a place to call her own tomorrow.
The next day Kirsten started her search for an apartment…everything she found, even the nastiest of places, was out of her expense range, even if she did have a job. Luckily she found a job within the first hour of her search as a waitress at a local diner, the pay wasn't great but it was something. For the next two days her search went uneventful but on the fourth day she passed someone selling a mail truck on a car lot. She laughed, who in god's name would want to buy a mail truck. It was old and surely nobody would have a use for it, and then it hit her.
Three hours later and Kirsten was trying to maneuver the mail truck in to a spot behind the restaurant. The space wasn't used and the manager had said it wasn't a problem, so here was as good as anywhere. "God damn it.." she shouted as she tried yet again to reverse without hitting the bins nearby. "argh" she let out a cry of frustration, it would have to do. She turned off the engine and jumped out, surveying her new home. It wasn't ideal, but at least it was a roof over her head. Kirsten Nichol living in a mail truck, she laughed at the thought of her father's face when he eventually found out! Parking behind the restaurant wasn't ideal, but at least there was the outside toilet, a running tap out back and work was only a few yards away.