The two boys, twins, had been on the street for so long, they barely remembered what life at home had been like. What they did remember wasn't pretty, drunken arguments, and shouting matches between people they were only related to in blood, never bond. There was pain in there too, as their father didn't only attack their mother. Alvin, the oldest by minutes, took everything he could, believing it was his job as oldest, despite by such a short time, to protect his baby brother. But one fateful night, everything came to a peak with a sharp scream. Their father had turned to them, stepping over their unmoving mother, bottle of alcohol in one hand, gun in the other, and murderous look on his face. They didn't know what was wrong with their mom, but there was blood and anger and fear, and the boys did what any self-respecting child would do- scream.
When it was clear their mother wasn't going to help, Alvin grabbed his brother Theodore and ran with him out of the door and out the house, taking off down the road. They hadn't been back since.

They'd been 7.

The girl, with her short, and rough hair, with a body that hadn't hit puberty yet, could pass as a boy. Could and did.
She was smart, had planned her actions in advance. She had an IQ of 187, which was north of Einstein and knew that life of the streets would be tougher for a girl. Her hair, which was long and silky back then, was roughly taken to the scissors. Her mother didn't notice, but she never noticed much any more, not since her father left.
She contacted her British cousin, and he, unknowing of her reasons for him doing so, paid in on a favour a school friend owed him, a genius with computers, and soon America thought she was in England, while England thought she was still in America. Fool proof.

She had grabbed her bag and left, kissing her paranoid schizophrenic mother goodbye as if she was off to the high school she attended (her intellect raising her through the years).
The girl changed her name, becoming Simon, and changed her mannerisms and voice to match the boy's name. A boy would fare better than a girl.

She had been 10.

Now, five years on from Alvin and Theo's desperate run, and two years since 'Simon' had become who she was now, the story can truly develop. The beginning was not very pleasant. Unfortunately the next bit isn't very nice either.