Once again guys, please review this story! I hate having to beg for reviews but this is getting a little ridiculous! Seriously...the couples will end up together, they will be intact. This is just another insight to a character.

February 16, 1986

Phoebe stood outside the Youth Detention Center, breathing in the air. She was free. She had spent a year being locked up and now she was eighteen, officially and legally an adult. She was also a high school graduate. While in the detention center, she had made a decision to take the GED. She did want to move forward and having a diploma would definitely help matters. So she studied and all that reading she had done in the library had helped. She studied and crammed as much information as she could. The center paid the eighty dollar fee for take the exam and she went in and did it and passed. That was an amazing day for her. She kept staring at that diploma, it was hers and it was the first thing in a long time that she could declare as officially hers. She wasn't sure what she would do now, but she was officially ready for a fresh start. Being locked up was awful, she hated not having the freedom to do as she chose. Jail and the center both made her think of her step dad. She had never visited her step dad in prison and felt like she should She had not seen him in eight years.

She did feel a little strange going to jail after she had just left but she wanted to see him, wanted to talk to him. He was family, her only family. When she arrived, she was instructed to the visitors area. She sat and waited for him to appear. He had been arrested for buying drugs off a cop. It had been something he and her mother had done a lot to get money, buy and sell drugs. But then he got caught and sent to prison. It had been his fifth offense so he was give thirty years to life. When he finally came out, Phoebe was taken aback by his appearance. He looked thin, worn. Having just gone through a year of being locked up, she could understand it.

"Hi, Jeff." Phoebe said as the two picked up their phones and stared at each other through the glass. She never called him, "Dad". Her mom had always had a string of guys coming in and out and she by calling them by their names, she would try not to get too attached. Although, Jeff came the closest. She was attached to him. For a brief while, he had actually been fantastic to her. He had treated her and Ursula like his daughters.

"Phoebe or Ursula?"

"Phoebe."

"Oh...Phoebe. Is Lily with you?"

"Mom is dead, Jeff. She passed away right before Christmas in '83."

"Oh my G-d...that's why I hadn't heard from you. Where are you and Ursula living?"

"I don't know where Ursula is and I've been living on the street for the past few years. I'm eighteen today."

"Phoebe."

"Actually, I just got out of jail...like an hour ago. Actually, I spent six months in jail and six months in a detention center."

"And then you came here? To visit."

"I guess."

"What happened?"

"I uh...stabbed a cop."

"What?"

"Yeah...sixteen was a bad year. Got hooked on drugs, got kidnapped and held hostage by a pimp...stabbed a cop and then seventeen wasn't much better. I locked up for all of it."

"Phoebe, that's not like you."

"How do you know? You haven't been around."

"'Cause...you're Pheebs. The little girl who used to sing songs to the birds in our yard."

"Yeah, well."

"Are you still a vegetarian?"

"Of course...I don't eat things with a face."

"Sweet, Pheebs. Don't...I'm sorry."

Phoebe smiled weakly at the man staring at her behind the plexiglass. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing there. She just knew she needed to hear someone familiar.

"Phoebe, please do not mess up your life. I know you were screwed out of a normal childhood or life but you're eighteen today, right?"

"Yeah, you remembered?"

"You're legally an adult. Don't mess it up. Look, you're a beautiful person. You really are. I don't want you ending up here. You can break the cycle."

And with that, Phoebe just began sobbing. She had tried so hard to keep it all in. In jail, she had never cried as she was afraid that would show weakness. She didn't cry too much in the detention center, not really ready to let anyone in. But there she was, breaking down completely. Her voice coming out in sobs.

"What did I do?" Phoebe asked. "What did I do to earn this kind of life? Did I kill someone in a past life? What did I do? I have no one. No one visited me last year. No one...I deserve to have a life. I mean, people my age are graduating high school or starting college. When I was sixteen, all I wanted to do was learn how to drive. That's not a strange thing to want at sixteen. I ended stealing and crashing a pimps car...and he then retaliated by beating me up and spitting in my mouth. I didn't get a Sweet Sixteen like I'm sure other girls did. Although, I did see a movie with a boy."

"Really?"

"Yeah...he was in line and seemed to like me but when he asked for my phone number, I couldn't give him one so he thought I was blowing him off and honestly, I don't blame him for thinking that. It's just...what did I do that was so bad?"

"Nothing. Nothing. You are a wonderful person, you really are. I wish I could hug you."

"When I leave...I don't have anywhere to go. I have no home. The best thing about being in jail and being in that center was I got to have meals and a bed. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with the rest of my life."

"You can do a lot. It's not over. You're only eighteen. I believe you'll make it."

"I got my GED while I was in the detention center."

"Congratulations."

Phoebe let out a long sigh as she stared at her step dad. She was tired, very tired. She wanted a nap. She had barely slept in the year she had been away, but now, that's all she wanted to do. She wasn't sure what she was doing or why she was there but being there, being away for a year. She just felt tired. Not as angry, but definitely tired.

"Thanks. Maybe I should go. When do you think you'll get out?"

"Not for sometime. You still gotta keep going. You were my favorite, you know."

"No I wasn't...Ursula was."

"No...you were sweeter, kinder. Remember Tweet?"

Phoebe smiled and nodded slowly. She had been five and playing with Leslie outside when she had seen the baby bird, lying injured on the ground. She had cried when she had seen it, it's wing broken and letting out anguished little squeaks. Phoebe picked up the bird, carried it in her shirt and brought it home. She put it in a shoebox, fed it milk with an eyedropper and made it a little splint out of twigs. She had named the bird, Tweet and nursed it back to health. Ursula thought she was stupid, but she didn't care. When the bird was fully healed and nursed back to health, Phoebe let him go. It was in her nature to take care of animals. She had become a vegetarian when she was nine and learned how meat was made. She remembered the anger she felt at learning that these helpless animals were being slaughtered for food. She so desperately wanted to take care of them all, to take care of those who could not take care of themselves.

"I want to someone to take care of me that way," Phoebe said. "I want someone to love me and care for me. I haven't had that in so long. I want someone to treat me like I'm part of their family."

"You still have family. We're just messed up."

"No. I don't have family. Families care and support each other. They don't abandon each other. I do love the times that you tried. Same with mom...but...mom was too lost in her own demons and you were selling drugs."

Phoebe felt herself getting choked up again, the tears starting to fall. She wasn't sure what she had wanted to accomplish visiting him but she now she wanted to leave. So she said goodbye, got up and left and once again, she found herself standing outside, holding her guitar case close to her filled with her guitar and everything she had stolen. She began walking until she found a bench where she sat down and opened the guitar case. There were lots of clothes in there, all from that store. She thought of the brunette who she had been so angry at although she did feel a bit jealous as well. She wondered where that girl was, if she did end up going to that dance with Chip. She pulled out the backpack she had stolen from that Comic Book boy and flipped through the pages of Science Boy. She loved that comic, read it every single day. There was the ticket stub from the movie Chandler had paid for. She wished she had something from New Years boy, but she could still see his face in her head. She reached into the backpack again and pulled out the envelope from the girl named, Monica asking Ross to pick up Linzor Tortes. Phoebe wondered if she ever got her tortes. She put everything back and pulled out her guitar. She began to play notes, she was never sure what notes. She just continued to play. It was nice out, a nice New York day as Phoebe just kept playing until her fingers got tired. She put her guitar back and reached for that old Lincoln High sweatshirt and pulled on before closing the case and walking off. She kept walking, gripping the case as tightly as she could. She hoped Marjorie and Lowell would still be at that junkyard.

It took her about six hours of walking until she finally reached the junkyard. She had not been there in a year and it looked different. For one thing, she could not find the Buick. She looked around confused.

"Phoebe, oh thank G-d."

Phoebe spun around and saw Marjorie racing towards her, arms outstretched. Her arms wrapped around Phoebe as the Marjorie began crying. Phoebe smiled.

"Hi."

"Where were you? What happened? We thought you were dead and-"

"I was in jail and then they put me in a detention center."

"Oh, G-d. But the cop stabbed you first. We were there."

"Doesn't matter. Where's that Buick?"

"Oh, we don't have that anymore. Come on," Marjorie put her arm around Phoebe and walked her over to a strange looking car.

"What is this?"

"A Gremlin and this is Cindy," Marjorie said, pointing to a man dressed in a suit and bow tie. He looked overdressed to be in a junkyard. With one hand, he shook hers and with the other, he held it up and tapped his fingers together.

"Hello, I'm Cindy. This is Handy." Cindy said.

"Cindy? I'm Phoebe. Cindy is an interesting name for a guy."

"Oh, Handy agrees but I was named after my mother."

"Handy?" Phoebe asked.

"My hand," Cindy said.

"Really, Marjorie," Phoebe groaned.

"Come on," Marjorie said, grabbing Phoebe's hand and pulling her off to the side where the two girls sat on the ground by a chain link fence. Phoebe sat, stretching out her legs and staring up into the sun, squinting a little. She loved being outside. She loved the freedom that came with being outside. It had been a year since she had experienced the freedom.

"So, what happened?"

"You were there," Phoebe said. "I was arrested, spent six months in jail and then they transferred me to a Youth Detention Center and six months later...oh, I got my GED."

"You did?"

"Yeah. While I was in there, I got it," Phoebe said as she opened her guitar case and pulled out the backpack. She opened it and pulled out the GED and showed it to Marjorie. On it, it said her name, Phoebe Buffay.

"Wow. I still don't even have that."

"What are we gonna do, Marjorie. I don't wanna go back to jail. I'm eighteen now, I'm an adult. I'm sick of having to survive. I wanna be someone. I wanna be someone that people miss if I'm not there or people want to be around."

"I missed you."

"You never visited. Lowell never visited. It was a year-"

"We didn't know where they took you.

"I want a job...and a home...and friends. Real friends that I can hang out with everyday."

"Like me...and Lowell."

"I want a life. I deserve that, don't I?"

"We all do, Pheebs."

Phoebe nodded and feel silent, thinking about her life in the past two years. She had spent all of sixteen being drugged and drunk. She'd been attacked by a pimp and forced to work for him. She become addicted to drugs and drank too much. She had spiraled and didn't care anymore, then seventeen was spent locked up. She found herself starting to care. She wanted more, so much more.

After spending the night in the Gremlin, listening to Cindy talk to his hand, Phoebe woke up to walk to the library. She hadn't been there in two years. She wanted to know all that she had missed. After reading old newspapers, she began looking up all the books she used to read and some new ones. She found herself getting lost in spiritual books. She began reading about her sign, an Aquarius. She's a water sign. She definitely fit that sign, unique, a humanitarian, independent. Although, some might argue she was forced to be independent. She loved reading all of this. She began reading about reincarnation, which she found fascinating. She began to wonder if she had had past lives and what she had done in them. Had those past lives led her to this moment? This space? It calmed her to read about this. She began devouring books on religion and the world. She would go to the library every morning when it opened and leave when it closed. She would continue to make what money she could by singing.

Her days went far more smoothly now that she was out. She decided to no longer touch the drugs or smoke, although she was quite happy still boozing with Marjorie, Lowell and Cindy. She still wanted more though. She wanted a job and she finally got her first one. She had decided to start taking boxing and self defense classes at the YMCA, after what had happened with John and the pimp, she felt that maybe she needed to learn. She had heard there was a job opening for someone to clean and wash towels. Phoebe volunteered and was hired for afternoon shifts and work for minimum wage. She was absolutely thrilled. Her bosses at the YMCA were sympathetic to her plight and understood she had no home. So they were understanding. Phoebe felt like that job was a step. She was moving forward to maybe one day having her own life.