"I'm glad your eye is doing better, Annie." Brandon said when he saw me step outside the house.

Well it now or never, in my opinion. This is where I would find out if everything was worth the heartache I had been through with him.

"You didn't go to practice today, Brandon." I stated, leaning up against the house, keeping a fair distance between Brandon and me.

I looked him over. Perfect hair, perfect cloths, perfect everything and he prided himself in having more than me. More than anyone else I'm sure. I felt betrayed. But why? He was an ass, it wasn't my fault as Joe would have said. It wasn't my fault that Brandon dropped the ball. It wasn't my fault he was not the person I hoped he would be.

"Is that all I get, hon?" He asked.

"I'm not your hon, Brandon." I stated cooly.

"Why is it such a bad thing that I missed one practice? Why would you care?"

"I don't know, because this is a team sport. It's not a me sport, it's a we sport, a team sport and you're just prancing around like you're a male lion, you're the top dog."

"That's because I am. I am better than anyone else. I am the main player on the team."

I didn't say anything for a moment. I had a thought. "So, I'm not good enough for you." I said. "I'm just a conquest that you can have."

"Yeah." He said proudly before stumbling slightly when it registered what I had said. "Wait, what?"

"You think you can sleep with the new girl. The girl that obviously has some skill with her, some notoriety because I have been published with the Miami Sun. I actually am good at something, I'm popular. But there is also something more. I've never dated. Sleep with me, you get to parade that fact around to the rest of the school. Tell you what, I have something for you."

When I opened the door, it knocked into Vanessa. She stepped back from me as I looked at her, then I looked back at Brandon.

"Brandon Kellett, meet Vanessa Anoa'i. Vanessa, this is Brandon. You two are made for each other. Why don't you two go for a romantic walk on the beach and plan for your matching outfits at the Winter Solstice Dance." I stepped around Vanessa and stomped towards the stairs.

"Does that mean you're not going to the dance with me?" Brandon called into the house.

"What do you think, Weasley!" I yelled running up the stairs.

Payback was a bitch. But hey, I gave Vanessa her wish. I gave her Brandon.

There was a knock on the door and then Ms. Patricia opened the door. "Annie, can I talk to you about your behavior?"

I looked up, from having my face buried in my knees. Regardless that my eye still hurt, I just had it with everything. "What did I do wrong this time?" I asked as she sat down on the end of the bed.

"I just want to know what's wrong." She touched my foot. "What happened outside?"

"Wishful thinking, mostly. I thought I could enlighten someone about how much of a scrooge he was and he just throws it in my face."

"It's more than that."

Yeah, it was more than that. "Vanessa doesn't like me."

"I kind of gathered that, sweetie, but…"

"Brandon wanted to take me to the dance, and she got mad." I wiped my eyes with my knuckle. "She apparently has had a thing for him for I don't know how long. And all he wanted was to be called the one that got the published teenager for a girlfriend. I'm almost sixteen, I've got things going through my head and I don't know how to deal with them."

"What sort of things?" She asked.

"I think I have a crush on your son." I mumbled, looking away from her. "I feel so stupid. I'm in a home that, well for the most part wants me to be happy, that wants me to be safe I guess." She nodded at what I was saying. "You guys want me to feel welcome but I've got issues with Vanessa, until recently Summer seemed to be mad at me for whatever reason and all I can think is that I would like to find a guy like Joe to date. And all I can do is make excuses for Vanessa as to why she is the way she is." And cue more tears. "I'm so confused."

"Teenage hormones, emotional trauma and the feeling of being surrounded by a family is going to give you conflicting emotions. Maybe you can think of something else, someone else?"

"Sketch." I mumbled, wiping away my tears.

"Who?"

"Sketch. He's a guy on Joe's football team. He asked me out to the dance but I turned him down because I thought I was going with Brandon at the time."

"Maybe you can."

"I told him about Vanessa and another girl needed a date to the Dance."

She smiled. "Honey, I think you need some time to yourself."

"Yeah, I kind of figured. What for?"

"So you can get your thoughts straight." She brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. I looked at her. "Maybe it would be beneficial for you. You by yourself, so that you can get out and not be surrounded by the noise of this household. Do you still have some money left over from that fifty I gave you?"

"I think about five dollars, why?"

"Well there is a strip mall. Why don't you take that money and just go spend it on yourself. Make yourself feel good. I'll give you bus fare and you can go out by yourself. Do what you want with yourself. I'll give you my cell phone so that you can call home."

I looked down at my hands and really thought. Just for me, just for me to do what I wanted? I mean five bucks wasn't much but to a foster kid it was something that I could get several things that I would need.

"Okay." I answered.

"Okay?" She had to ask me, seeing if I was really okay with what she had said to me.

"Yes, I'm okay with going out on my own. I'll get ready to go and figure out when the next city bus is from here."

Though where the Anoa'i family lived, it was a mostly residential area but I knew where Ms. Patricia was talking about. There was a strip mall type place where there were ninety nine cent stores and dollar stores, thrift stores and I think there was a toy store in there. I didn't think I would find something there but maybe I would.

I had my skateboard shoes on but this time I wanted to feel special about myself. I wanted to feel better about myself. So I took that red shirt and those black jeans and I pulled my usually straight free flowing hair back into a ponytail. I had my tattered wallet, I had the extra cash, which I could was actually seven dollars instead of five and then I headed downstairs.

"Here is what you need for a one way trip to the strip mall and what you will need to come back." She handed me a fist full of coins.

I put one one-way fair in my right pocket and the other in my left pocket so that I would remember where the money was. I usually did this if I took public transport.

"Where are you going?" Myritza asked, walking up.

"I'm going out for a little while." I answered as I took the cell phone that Ms. Patricia was handing me.

Pushing down her pink top, the younger teen smiled. "Cool, can I go?"

"No, Myritza. Annie needs to go out alone." Her mother answered. "Now, Annie, you have your bus fair, you have my cell phone, is there anything else you need before you go?"

I looked down at myself. This felt different, walking around in different cloths than my usual baggy stuff. "I need confidence but sure, I think I have everything."

Joe stopped as he walked in front the kitchen. He had a sandwich in one hand and a glass of something else in the other. "Whoa, Annie. You're looking good."

See what I mean by conflicting emotions and thoughts? One moment he wants to be a brother to me and then the next it sounded like he was flirting with me.

"Thanks." I half mumbled as I turned back to Ms. Patricia. "I'll be back later. I'll check in when I get there and when I get on the bus back here."

"You do that."

As a goodie two shoes, I was planning on doing what I was told.

The bus stop was a few streets over from where the Anoa'i family lived. But it was on a main road and it was a straight shot to the strip mall. I stood at the bus stop, my head whirling with thoughts and just waiting. I had checked online when the next bus was to come and I had about a ten minute wait. Ten minutes, wow think about that. I could think about a thousand things and then some in ten minutes.

As the bus pulled up, I dug my fair out of one pocket and then as I got on I paid my way. I knew the area where the strip mall was along this route. So I sat down in another ten minute ride to the strip mall.

When I got to the strip mall it was about three in the afternoon. Most stores closed at six but on Friday and Saturday these stores closed. I was happy for this, I could spend a few hours to myself and just relax. But what store did I want to go to first?

Ms. Patricia said I had to spend the money on myself, but that isn't how I worked. I always found a way to do for others besides myself. I had ideas for Christmas gifts for people, well for the ones that I actually knew.

"Annie?" I heard someone say.

I looked up and then around to find walking up behind me was Sketch. I hadn't seen him since football practice that day. He was wearing street cloths, jeans and a polo looking shirt.

"Hi, Sketch. What's going on?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Nothing much, I'm taking some of my extra money and buying gifts for foster kids. You sort of inspired me to do that. What are you doing here?"

"I'm enjoying myself. Away from Brandon, away from so much going on in my head. I have some money that was left over from cloths shopping, I was told to go spend it on me."

"Yeah, how much?"

I looked down slightly. "Just seven bucks."

"Hey, could you help me?" Sketch asked, running a hand through his hair, ruffling it slightly. "I need help with buying for kids I don't know. You see I was given this list of four kids in foster care and their ages and what they sort of like but I don't really have a clue as to what to buy them. I don't have any younger brothers or sisters, so I don't really know what I'm doing."

"Sure, can I see the list?" I asked, holding my hand out.

He handed me the piece of paper and I looked at it. Cars, dolls, stuffed animals and stuff like that. Things that wouldn't be too costly for any normal people.

"Lets go see what this toy store has. Maybe we can figure it out there." I suggested, pointing to the strip mall toy store that was there. "I see someone likes dinosaurs on the list. Toy stores usually have lots of dinosaurs."

"I used to love dinosaurs when I was younger. My mom said that I went bananas over them." Sketch laughed at the memory apparently. "What did you like?"

"I liked stuffed animals, because I didn't have much in the way of friends growing up. Stuffed animals were my friends. When I started getting into writing all I wanted was notebooks and mechanical pencils and stuff like that. I got a few books, used books on how to write novels. That's my goal some day."

"To write a book?"

"A novel, yes but I haven't found that nitch yet. The genre and whatever. I write mainly short stories but I haven't really dipped my foot into writing chapter stories yet."

Sketch opened the door for me. "Well, as they always say. You can do it as long as you put your heart into it."

"Thanks." I said as I stepped in. "I really mean it, Sketch."

The store was dressed commercially for Christmas. Small fake trees with fake wrapped gifts around the bottom were up on top of shelves and there were trains choo-chooing around some displays. There were lights and sounds going off in all the little areas. Children with their parents or guardians were hanging around the store as if it was a normal thing to do on a Saturday. It was a rather nice sight.

"So, dinosaurs we chose right?" Sketch asked looking down at me.

"Right. I think they are over in that direction, next to the cars." I pointed to the right side of the store.

The store was almost divided up into two parts. Boys and girls, boys to the right as you enter and girls to the left as you entered and what could be called unisex was in the middle. I think stuff like playdough and stuff like art supplies and things of that nature were strewn around in the middle but that was just over guessing the situation.

"I have a question for you, Sketch. Why do they call you Sketch?" I asked as he was going through different types of dinosaurs.

"I like to draw, and sketch. It's my pass time, much like writing is yours." He answered. "I mean, I'm not just a big football player, I actually have something that I like to do outside of it. That just happens to be drawing."

"Do you paint?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's called pastel painting."

"Oh, I like that. It almost abstract without being abstract. I like the different textures that pastels and charcoal art gives off." I said as I picked up a triceratops figurine. "How old is this kid that likes dinosaurs?" I asked.

"Six, why?"

I motioned to some of the other things. "Well this one is a 3D puzzle, it's for kids five and up." I tapped a puzzle box. "Or do you think he would prefer a collection of them?" I asked motioning to a box set of dinosaur figurines. "If it were me I would go with the box set of figurines."

"Then that's what we'll get." Sketch said plucking the box off the shelf. "That's one down. Then there are three more to go."

As we were looking at stuffed animals for a little girl, I finally decided that maybe Sketch had good intentions for asking me out. Maybe I should just talk to him about what was going on with me and the quarterback.

"I'm sorry about earlier, turning you down about going to the dance." I said fiddling with a toy dog.

"It's no problem. I'll just as someone else. I don't know who…"

"Brandon came by the house where I'm staying and I found out his true intentions about me." I said honestly as I put the stuffed dog back. "He seemed like he just wanted to have the glory of saying he was going out with me, the published foster kid, you know. So I dropped him, gave him to Vanessa like she wanted and walked away from it."

"Are you hinting you would like to go with me to the dance?" he asked.

"Sure, if you still want to go with a mess up like me."

"You're not a mess up, you're not a burden, you're a human. I can't guess all the crap that you've gone through in your life, and I can't see myself not having the family that I have right now. But making mistakes is what humans are known for. That's just what we are. We're humans. We're not perfect." He smiled at me. "But yes, I would like to go to the dance with you."

At that moment I was truly happy. And I was happy about myself.

Well, there you go. I hope I did good this time. What do you think?