Seven years earlier…
Ten year old Kyle was running home from school as he was already going to be late getting in and he didn't want to get into more bother with his foster parents. Quickly, Kyle rounded the corner (on to the street in which he lived) and without looking where he was going, feel over.
Oh no. Now they are going to ask me why my clothes are dirty and I already think they are going to tell me off. Again!
Kyle's chain of thought was broken by a woman's voice as soon as he walked through the front door.
"Kyle is that you?"
"Yeah its me Anne."
"Where have you been?"
"Sorry I got out class later than usual. So I took the shortcut home and because I was running I fell over."
"Are you okay? Nothing's broken?"
"Yeah nothing is broken Anne."
"Well there is a hole in your jeans and I can see blood, so nothing might be broken but you have cut yourself. Come into the kitchen and I'll clean it for you."
"Ok thank you Anne."
"No problem sweetheart and I was you would call me mum instead of Anne. Also me and Doug need to have word with you before you go upstairs."
Kyle didn't say anything as he had feeling he already knew what they wanted to talk about with him. Instead he followed Anne into the kitchen which resembled something out of a cookery show and took his backpack off and sat on one of the chairs that surrounded the table they used for breakfast.
"What happened to your knee son?" Doug asked as he walked into the kitchen to see his wife putting a plaster on his foster son's knee.
"I fell over on the way home." Kyle replied to him.
"Well next time be careful ok and look where you are going like we've told you before, as we don't want something bad to happen to you."
"Ok Doug I will definitely be more careful next time. Promise."
"Good boy."
Anne got up from the chair she had been sat on to clean Kyle's knee and walked over to the bin. "I told Kyle that we needed to have a talk with him about something important."
"Ah yes I forgot about that thank you for reminding me. Kyle we need to talk about what happened at school this morning and from the sounds of it the past couple of weeks as well." Doug turned to him with smile.
"I had feeling that's what you wanted to talk about when my teacher said she called you both." Kyle replied.
"Well then this conversation is going to be straightforward then."
"Can I just say first that I did nothing wrong."
"Sweetheart you can't really say you did nothing wrong when you punched that boy in the face."
"But it wasn't me that did it to him."
"If it wasn't you Kyle who did then?"
"One of his friends. They wanted me to get in trouble for it."
"Kyle why would one of his friends do that to him and why do they want to get you in trouble?" Anne asked her son as what he said made no sense.
"That's a very good point dear. Kyle why would they do that to him and why would they want to get you in trouble. Before you say anything think carefully as there was nine witnesses who all told the teacher that they saw you do it."
"They've been bullying me since I started at the school."
"That's been six months Kyle."
"I know but I didn't want to say anything as I don't want anyone to get in trouble."
"Kyle, I'm sorry son I don't believe what you are telling us."
"But it's the truth Doug." Kyle said while trying to fight back the tears.
"Kyle do you understand that nine people say you punch the boy and they can't all be lying."
"YES THEY ARE LYING!" Kyle shouted at them.
"THAT'S IT! GET TO YOU ROOM NOW AND DON'T COME DOWN AGAIN UNTIL DINNER!" Doug shouted back at his foster son. "ALSO I DO NOT WANT YOU PUTTING THAT TV ON OR YOU VIDEO GAMES! INSTEAD YOU CAN DO YOUR HOMEWORK!"
"FINE!" Kyle shouted back at him as he walked out of the kitchen and straight up to his room making sure to slam the door in the process.
Present time…
"Kyle that's awful." Tamara said to her friend as she cut into him explaining the reason why he ran away. "Is that what made you run away because they didn't believe you?"
Kyle looked at her "That I guess was part of the reason I ran away but I think what really made me take that step and leave was what happened next."
"What happened next?" Tamara asked him.
"Well I'll tell you…."
Seven years earlier…
Kyle was sat in his bedroom doing his homework which he always completed on time and always did to the best of his ability when he heard Anne and Doug talking downstairs.
"I don't think we can do this anymore dear."
"Doug he needs us. We knew what we were getting into with Kyle when we agreed to take him in."
"I know we did but his behaviour is getting worse Anne and I don't think we can keep him here any longer."
"He's a bright kid."
"I agree he is a bright kid but he keeps getting into trouble at school to the point were I know expect to see the school's phone number on my caller ID every time my phone rings."
"I know but you got to put yourself in his shoes love. Its not been easy for him. You heard what the social worker said about how he finds it hard to make friends and how he finds it hard to trust people."
"I know all that but it's been six months Anne and nothing is getting any better. I think we just need to face that fact that we can't give Kyle the support that he really needs."
Kyle quickly closed his door and walked back over to his bed.
Great they don't want me anymore. I can't go to another new school and a new foster family not again. They can't make me leave if I don't want to. I need to come up with a plan but what? I know I will run away that way I won't be anyone's problem anymore.
Kyle stood up and emptied his backpack and filled it with his favourite book, some change of clothes and his bear that his mam give him when he was born and placed it on the back of his chair and started to write a note to his foster parents telling them he was sorry for all the trouble he had caused and he won't be a problem anymore.
"KYLE, SWEETHEART COME DOWN PLEASE YOUR DINNER IS READY!" Anne shouted up the stairs.
"COMING!" Kyle shouted back placing the letter under his homework book.
Slowly Kyle made his way downstairs and joined his foster parents in the dining room.
"Have you finished all your homework?" Doug asked Kyle who was currently moving the food around his plate instead of eating it.
Kyle without looking up replied "Yeah I've finished it."
Anne joined in with "What was your homework then sweetheart?"
"It was just maths which I found way too easy."
"Well when I was at school I didn't find maths that easy I was more in to science."
"I find that too easy as well but there again some of the others in my class are struggling with it like today during science we were learning about the different types of forces and we had to do write a definition that you might find next to the word in a dictionary I was the first one on my table to finish and the other people sat at the table were stuck with what to write so I helped them."
"Well that nice of you Kyle. Isn't it Doug?"
"Yes Kyle that is very nice of you as most people would have just let be stuck and not help out when they can."
A couple minutes later Anne got up from the table and started to clear the plates away and Kyle helped while Doug went into the living room to make sure that his and his wife's favourite programme had recorded.
"Thank you for helping me clear up." Anne told Kyle as he finished putting the plates away he had just dried.
"It's no problem I like to help." He replied to her.
"Anne are you nearly finished in there?" came the voice from another room in the house.
"Yes love I'm coming now," Anne replied to her husband. "Why don't you do us Kyle? I think you will like this show its funny."
"No thank you Anne. I'm going upstairs to play my guitar as I would like to finish learning that song Doug was teaching me last weekend."
"Okay but don't forget your bedtime is at 8:30 as you have school in the morning."
"I won't."
At 8:30pm…
Kyle finished getting ready for bed and headed downstairs towards the living room.
"Night Anne. Night Doug."
Anne answered first "Night sweetheart."
Doug not looking away from the TV "Night son."
With that Kyle closed the living room door and went back upstairs, entered his bedroom and climbed into bed making sure his bedside light was still on.
Three hours later…
Quietly once he was sure that his foster parents had gone to sleep, Kyle got of bed and headed over to his wardrobe and took out some clean clothes and got changed.
Once he had made his bed Kyle picked up the guitar that Doug had bought him two months before and placed it on the bed. He then walked over to his desk and put his back pack on and took out the note that he wrote and had hidden under his homework book and walked back over to the bed, where he placed the note on top of the guitar case.
Slowly and quietly Kyle walked out his bedroom and straight past Anne and Doug's room and went downstairs making sure he missed the squeaky step at the bottom and went to the front door and left making sure he had locked the door behind him.
Present day…
"Wow, what happened after you left?" Tamara suddenly interrupted again.
"Well the next morning when they found the note and realised I was no longer in the house they went and looked for me." Kyle replied.
"I guess they found you then."
"Yeah they did eventually."
"Where?"
"Well when I left the house I couldn't think of anywhere to go so I kept walking until I got to the local park. I was really tired after walking around so I went into the park and climbed inside the tunnel that was attached to the climbing frame. The next morning, I woke up to hear my name being shouted and decided to have a look as I was a curious ten year old and there they were."
"So they didn't want get rid of you then?"
"No they asked me why I ran away and told them it was because they didn't believe me when I said the kids were bullying me not the other way around and then I told them how I heard them say they couldn't look after me anymore. Anne told me it was just something that Doug had said in the spare of the moment and he apologized he didn't realise I had heard him and then they both said that they believed me."
"Aww isn't that sweet. Did you get in trouble for running away?" Tamara asked him as she wanted to know the full details so she could tell the others when she got back to camp.
"Not really. They told me that what I did was wrong and that I scared them when they couldn't find me in the house and then when they had realised I'd ran away how upset they were. In the end they just made me promise never do that to them again and I never did."
"What happened to them?"
"Well I was with them for another four months before I moved to another foster family."
"Really I thought they weren't going to get rid of you."
"They couldn't help it Doug's sister family had just lost their house and needed somewhere to stay till they got back on their feet which meant there no room for me anymore so I left them and never heard from them again."
"Oh I'm so sorry Kyle." Tamara said to him.
"That's okay. Anyway its really late now and the others are going to be wondering what the hell has happened to us so we better head back to camp."
Hi everyone just want to apologize for how long this chapter is. I was going to split it but I thought it was better to leave it all in one, as I couldn't decide what part would be best to split it.
