It is very cold tonight. I'm grateful that Steve and Karen allowed me to spend the night at their house after our graduation yesterday. It was tiring, and I ate so much at dinner that I thought I was going to be sick.

"When I came to Earth, I came with 100 dollars in my mini purse. I thought that I'd be fine, but after a month and a half, I can barely afford any food. I tried to budget the money so that I could eat, get water to drink, and shower/wash my clothes. Unfortunately, 100 dollars doesn't get you that far. I quickly spent half of my money by going to wash my clothes and buying meals. I still have two more months before I go to college, and I have no idea how to apply for jobs, so I can't get one. I only have 50 cents to my name, and I'm hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired and sore from sleeping on park benches every night that I'm not having sleepovers with Michaela, Evie, or Lourdes, so that's pretty much every night that I don't have a bed to sleep in. I've even been beaten up for the little things I have left. We're all just trying to survive out here.

When I decided to enter Earth to guide Mick and Zeke, I never expected it to be this miserable of a time. A part of me wants to give up, but I made a problem, so I need to fix it no matter what happens to me in the process.

It is very cold and I don't even have a jacket, so I barely get sleep and spend the whole night shivering. I am woken from my sleep at what my beaten-up watch says is 7:30 am by someone I recognize immediately as Grace Stone. She starts speaking to me.

"Angelina? What are you doing sleeping on a park bench?" She looks worried for me. I don't blame her; I'm worried for me too. She continues speaking as I'm too tired to respond. "No wonder you look so thin and tired all the time. Have your parents kicked you out? I remember when my little brother's mom kicked him out. He was so broken."

She barely knows me, but there is a close bond between most siblings, and I can tell that she loves her brother just from the way she talked about him. We never really talked much before this, but I think she feels sorry for me just as she did for her brother. Just thinking about how someone finally found me out and is actually acting like she cares, I just burst out crying.

"I came here alone a couple months ago with only 100 dollars, and the money is pretty much all gone. I don't have any parents or relatives. I just sleep here alone in the cold most nights and nobody seems to care and I've been beaten up and I'm ready to just give up…"

Before I could finish, Grace comforts me, "Hey, you're not alone! You have friends, and they can be your family if you choose to see them that way. Don't give up on anything. You'll be in a college dorm soon, right?"

"No," I respond, "my tuition is being paid for, and I'm even in classes right now to finish college as soon as possible. I don't have a space in student housing though, because apparently the scholarship didn't cover that. I don't know what I'm going to do."

She pulls me in for a hug, but I tense up and pull away at first since last time someone who wasn't one of my friends or Mick's parents touched me, I was robbed of what little money I had at the time. I look into Grace's kind eyes and after a second, I decide to let her hug me.

Grace wasn't on a walk alone. After our hug, Ben came over with Olive and Cal. I greet the kids who were excited to see me since I played superheroes with them with their action figure toys last time they saw me. Ben and Grace walk away for a second whispering to each other, and I end up telling a funny story to the kids that I heard in a book that I read.

Ben comes back over with a smile on his face and says, "You know, Angelina, you're pretty great with kids. Cal and Olive really seem to like you."

"It's pretty fun to see their brains figure things out the more they interact with me and the world. You've got some pretty cool kids, by the way." I say that to them because it's true. Yeah, I've never interacted with other kids, but their twins seem really great.

Grace buts in, getting the conversation back to what I assume was the original plan, "Do you have a job?" I shake my head, then she responds, "I really don't like the idea of you sleeping on the streets with no job like this, so how about this: Ben and I have a spare room in our house. It's a bit away from your college, but you are free to stay in our guest room. Our conditions are that you keep up your grades in college, don't do any drugs or other illegal activities, you are respectful, and are willing to help us out. My business is just starting out and Ben works in the morning and has school at night. The twins go to daycare during the day, but sometimes I need to work late. If you could help watch the kids here and there, not every day, it would help us out. Yes, we will most certainly pay you. That way, you can have a job and a place to live. We did the same thing for my brother, Tarik, when he was left homeless."

I am just so, eternally grateful for Grace and Ben's offer. Michaela once told me how kind they are, and I'm seeing it now right in front of my own eyes.

"So, Angelina, what do you think?"

"Really?! Thank you so much! I was so worried that I'd live like this for years until I graduate and get a job. You really don't have to do this, you know?"

"We insist! You seem like a bright, kind young woman. Now, what are you thinking of studying at college this fall?"

I guess that I haven't thought much about what I will study. I say the only thing that comes to mind, "Um, I'm going to study education."

"Seems like a great choice for you." Ben responds with a kind smile.

I grab my duffel bag and walk with them around the park, just taking a morning stroll. Eventually, we circle back and go to their car. They offer the middle seat in the back, between the twins' car seats. I am so small, that I easily and almost comfortably fit there.

Their house is actually a pretty good size. As I go up the steps and enter the suburban house, it feels so odd. Ben and Grace set their things down on the kitchen table as I stand in the entryway. They then take me upstairs and down the hallway to the door on the far right once you make the left turn after the staircase. Grace opens the door to a room with mint green walls, other than the walls surrounding the twin bed that is pushed up against the right wall, which is light pink and white. If I had been told the color scheme before I came, I would have said that there's no way that they go together, and that's partially true. They look alright, but the room looks a bit…unfinished. Part of the left wall is painted white, but it looks like they stopped midway and just decorated the room with the furniture they had. The bed has a white frame and headboard, and light pink bedding with gold and white throw pillows. There is a chair on one end of the room, and cardboard boxes that say "save for BGS" on it. I can't help but wonder first of all, why did they stop painting in the middle, and secondly, what or who is BGS? It can't be Tarik since his name doesn't start with a B or a G. I almost ask, but I don't feel it's appropriate as I'm a guest who just arrived and I don't want to come off as rude.

"Make yourself at home, Angelina." Grace tells me with that same comforting voice she used at the park, "Oh yeah, sorry that it's a bit of a mess. We were re-doing the room after Tarik left, but we haven't been in here for a bit. Those boxes will be out of your way soon; we just have to take them up to the attic."

"No worries guys," I reply, "I'm just glad to be able to eat and have a bed to sleep in. You are both just too kind."

"It's the least we could do. You remind me a lot of my brother, and he's successful now. You deserve the same chance. The bathroom is downstairs next to the door that leads to the garage. Once you go down the stairs, if you turn 180 degrees, go down that small hall and you'll see it. Go ahead and use it to freshen up if you'd like. We'll go ahead and leave you alone to get accustomed. We'll be watching a movie, feel free to join us if you want. Now, do you have any allergies?"

That is a lot of information to take in, so I just try to follow along and shake my head at her question.

"Ok then, I'll leave you to it. There are some books in the closet that Tarik left. Feel free to read them. I'll bring you up some blueberry pancakes."

I sit on the bed and just look around. Eventually, I shower, put on the clothes that Michaela washed for me on the night before last, and join the Stones for a pancakes and Princess and the Frog movie watching day. It is quite the adjustment, but by the end of the day, I came out of my shell.

"Lili," the twins would ask me, "play?"

I've started to feel like a part of the family. It felt sort of wrong since I'm Angelina April Meyer, not Angelina April Stone, but I feel safe and comfortable here. Another plus is that Ben is Mick's brother, so I'll be able to do my job more effectively now that I'm closer to her family and I've learned that she comes over here frequently.

I wrap up the day preparing for my first time nannying the twins tomorrow and going to the closet to find the books that Grace mentioned. I pull out the classic: To Kill a Mockingbird. I read the first bit and I get hooked, being the bookworm I am.

I fall asleep lightly hearing the white noise machine from the twins' room, right next to mine, and I dreaming of living in a world without the time loop, as unrealistic it is.