"My what?" His jaw drops.

"We have the same mom,"

"Had, she died, she never said she had another kid, she never said much to me or my brother. How is this possible?" He sits on the steps and grasps his head. I don't want to get too close, he seems fragile right now.

"I've wanted to find you and Ty for years, but mom said she didn't know where you were, said you ran away, but when she died she left me a letter. There's one for you as well," I hand him an envelope from my backpack.

"AJ?" I hear a familiar voice, "What's going on?" I see Callie walk out of the front door and stare at me, "Cressida?"

"You know her?"

"She's the new girl I was telling you about, what are you doing here? You're going to get in so much trouble!"

"Kiara has my back, I came to find AJ, he's my brother."

"I think you should come inside," She gently pushes me in and then grabs AJ's hand to pull him in too. I stand in the hall and look around the impressive home. "Come on, we'll go in the kitchen,"

AJ can't stop staring at me as we drink the coffee Callie made us. It's like he thinks the longer he looks at me, the sooner the dream will end. But this isn't a dream, it's very real.

"You look like her," He says, "Your skin is lighter and your hair is straighter, but your face is the same."

"You look like her too, you have her nose."

"So who's your friend AJ?" His foster dad walks in with the woman who opened the door to me. His arms are folded, he clearly knows what's going on.

"Callie told me what was going on, and I called Mike over,"

"Come on AJ, we're going home," Mike turns to walk away,"

"You expect me to just 'go home' after this? I need to talk to her, Mike,"

"Tomorrow, home now," He points at the door.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," he says before following his foster dad out.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride home," The woman says, I say goodbye to Callie. "Callie told me about you today, she said you were desperate to get out of Girls United, the best way to get out is to follow the rules and behave, running away doesn't solve anything" She lectures me, she goes on but I zone out until we pull up to the house, she insists on walking me to the front door with a light grasp on my arm. I can see all the girls watching me through the window. We don't even have to knock before Rita opens the door.

"Bed now," She says, "You and Kiara can get up early tomorrow and clean the kitchen by yourselves with Carmen's supervision,"

Kiara is already in our room when I get up there, I feel bad that I got her into trouble too.

"Sorry, I thought I could make it back for dinner,"

"It's okay, did you find him?" We both get into bed.

"Yeah, he's Callie's boyfriend actually,"

"AJ is your brother? I did not see that coming, how did he react?"

"I guess he reacted pretty well, I mean he didn't kick me out or scream in my face like I thought he would, his foster dad wouldn't let us talk and then Callie's scary mom drove me back here,"

"You mean Stef? She's not scary, I mean she's pretty intimidating, but she's really nice and she's always looking out for us, I wish she could just adopt us all,"

"Why can't she? She adopted Callie,"

"She's got like four other kids, and a wife, there wouldn't be any space for anyone else, plus they don't want more kids, but it's cool, I'm happy for Callie,"

"I'm jealous, if I could live there I could be closer to AJ, then maybe we could build a relationship and then get an apartment together, we could both get part time jobs and go to school still,"

"Girl, you're livin' in a dream world, shit like that doesn't happen for girls like us," She has a point, the only good things that happen is when I don't get my ass beat every night, I guess that's one good thing about this house, there are no men here either, men just fuck everything up, "Just be grateful you got Rita and Michelle, and me, and I think Gabi's taken a shine to you,"

"Really? Gabi? She's always staring at me like she got a problem,"

"That look don't mean she got a problem, that's the look she used to get when she thought about her boyfriend," Kiara rolls over and turns off her lamp. She thinks Gabi has a crush on me.

"You're crazy," I decide to go to sleep too.

Kiara and I have to wake up at 6 AM to clean the kitchen from top to bottom, Carmen sits there on a stool and reads her magazine, I doubt she's going to pay too much attention.

"UA," She says as she checks over my cleaning.

"What's that?"

"Girl, give her a break, she's new," Kiara says, "UA means unacceptable," She folds her arms, so do I.

"What's wrong with this?" I ask Carmen.

"It's still sticky, do it again," I just have to do what she says, I'm pretty sure she could win in a fight, so I don't want to get on her bad side.

After breakfast, we have group again. Everyone wants to ask me about why I left last night.

"I was always going to come back, I actually kind of like it here, I just wanted to meet my brother, Callie and Kiara were talking about Family Day, and I got no family apart from my brothers, I just didn't wanna be alone anymore," I tell them.

"That's understandable, but you could have talked to me about it, I could have talked to Stef and Mike and they might have been able to help,"

"That's the thing though, might, they wouldn't have done anything, they don't want their family or friends to have anything to do with girls like us,"

"That's not true," Beca says, "Callie was one of us and she lives with Stef and Lena,"

"I guess, I don't care about Stef or Mike, I care about AJ, and Mike and Stef don't want us to have relationship, otherwise they would have let us talk last night, Callie's on their side too, she's the one that told on us,"

"Is that why Mike Foster called this morning to set up a day for you to spend with AJ?" Rita says, it shocks me.

"Are you serious? He doesn't wanna get between us?" I can't help but smile.

"He wants AJ to be happy, Mike's coming to pick you up after lunch," She tells me, I'm so eager to just get ready and go but I have to listen to everyone else talk in group and then we all have to make lunch and clean up, but it's not long before Mike shows up at the door.

"Mike, I'm really sorry about last night, I lied to you, I should have just been honest,"

"That's okay, Cressida, come on, AJ's waiting at home for you," I get in his cop car with him after Kiara hugs me and wishes me luck. We drive through the streets I walked through last night, it looks a lot different in the daylight, much less dangerous, "How old are you Cressida?"

"16, I was born a year after AJ, he and Ty were in a foster home for the first few years of my life so they never knew I existed, then I was put in foster care for a few years and in that time they were back with my mom, then she was on drugs, but then she got clean and by the time I finally got back to her, AJ and Ty had already left, she said they ran away,"

"Really? The way I heard it, they decided to live with their grandma because your mom was mentally ill,"

"Well she was, I guess that's why she said they ran away, she was in an institution for a while and I was at home living with her boyfriend, he was an asshole, but then she got better again and dumped him and we were happy for a bit, then things went south pretty fast and I lost her. During all of this I've been in and out of different foster homes and group homes, and I was in Juvie for a little while,"

"I know," I look at him confused, "I looked you up on the system, I just wanted AJ to know what he was getting into,"

"So he knows what I did?" I begin to panic, he can't know.

"No, he doesn't, I thought it would be best if you tell him. You don't have to do it right away, but sooner rather than later," We pull up outside the apartment building. I swallow my nerves. I tell myself I can put it off for a little while, I need him to get to know him before I tell him, or he'll judge me without really knowing me."

"Hey," AJ comes up to the car and we get out, "You alright?" He looks at me the same way he did last night.

"Yeah, I'm good, you?" I stand face to face with him, well he's a little bit taller than me.

"Yeah," Suddenly he gives me a great big smile and hugs me, I can't help but cry a little bit.

"I'll be upstairs," Mike leaves.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He bends down to my height and wipes away my tears, it's like we have an almost instant connection, he wants to protect me.

"I'm just overwhelmed, I've been pretty much alone my whole life, when I lived with mom she was barely there, but it was better than being in care, but now I have family again,"

"You'll always have family with me," He hugs me again and we begin to walk, "This is so weird, I've always been the little brother, but the second I saw you and found out who you were, I just wanted to take care of you, I could see the pain in your eyes,"

"Really? When I saw you I thought you would want nothing to do with me, like Grandma,"

"Grandma knew about you?"

"Yeah, I mean she wasn't my grandma, she's on your dad's side, she hated me since the day I was born, I'm pretty sure she's the one who told social services that mom was on drugs," As we walk, I tell him my story, except for what I did, I can't tell him that yet. He tells me about his life too, and he tells me about Ty, and where he is. I guess we're all pretty messed up, we've all been in Juvie, but I tell AJ I was in for drugs, which I kind of was, but that's not the main reason. He was sent there for tagging, "When I saw that that cop was your foster dad, I thought you'd be some goody two shoes boy, but I guess we're more alike than I expected, how did you get a cop to foster you?"

"He's not like other cops, not like the racist ones, he protected me, after I got caught stealing from the drop in center, the Fosters took me in and then I guess Mike decided he wanted to foster someone too, and I was already there, we get on pretty well,"

"So Callie was your foster sister, isn't that like frowned upon?"

"It's illegal, we had to keep things under wraps until I finally got to live with Mike,"

"Well, good job with her, she's hot,"

"That's not why I fell for her, but it doesn't hurt, she's an amazing girl,"

"Yeah, I guess she is," I feel bad for being rude about her earlier at GU, I guess she was looking out for both of us.

"What about you, you seeing anyone?"

"No, Kiara seems to think one of the girls has a crush on me, but she kind of scares me, Juvie made me so weak, before that I could fight anyone and win,"

"You don't seem weak to me, you're a Hensdale,"

"True," We laugh, "We don't back down," I reminisce on one of the good days I had with mom, she took me out to her favorite spots around the city, she told me that Hensdale's are strong, especially the women.

"What about your dad?" He asks me.

"I never knew him, I guess I was an accident that he wanted no part of, you?"

"He died, I don't know much more than that, I don't even know what he looks like,"

"Mike's cool though, I wish I had a foster dad like that, I guess I'd rather a foster mom though, men don't seem to like me," I tell him all about moms ex-boyfriend, how he used to hit me if I talked back or left something messy, sometimes I still hear him yelling at me.

AJ and I walk around the city, he shows me the drop in center and introduces me to the guy in charge, and some of the other kids there, I've heard about this place but I never knew where it was. They offer counseling services for free, but I don't know if Rita would let me go. He takes me to the park and shows me the graffiti he did when he was looking for Ty, I guess it worked cuz they got reunited.

"Do you wanna meet him? Mike could drive us, visiting ends in two hours,"

"Have you told him about me? I'm kind of nervous,"

"Yeah, I called him this morning, he knew about you already, he'd seen you a while back, you were coming out of our old house and I he could tell you were one of us, I said you look like mom,"

"If he knew about me why didn't he try to help me? He never even tried to talk to me?"

"He thought you were happy, how could he know you were getting beat? He's sorry though, he wants to see you,"

"Okay, but not today, I can't face it yet, there's so much going on, and I start school tomorrow, I got some money from mom so I could go to a good school,"

"Anchor Beach?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I go there, so does Callie and her family, one of her moms is vice principal,"

"So one mom is a cop and the other one works at the school they go to? How do they have any fun?"

"They always find a way."