Alex was sick of people. She was sick of their betrayal and distrust. Most of all, she was sick of her parents. You might call her a typical rebellious teenager, but you would be wrong. Her hat was much stronger and more deep-rooted than that. Aunt May and Uncle Josiah were so good to Alex. They had no reason to, really. They proposed to take care of her during the summer while her parents cooled off and tried to resolve things between themselves. Alex would be informed of their divorce when she returned in August. She was a great liar, too. Sure convinced her aunt and uncle. Alex told them she had a job, showed them a bundle of money every Friday (which happened to be some she stole out of her mother's purse before she left), and none of the details really mattered. They were so proud that she was trying. But she was more likely to sit around doing nothing than bag groceries or flip meat-like patties making minimum wage. The way she actually spent her time was much different than what she told her aunt and uncle. Behind their house were a few hundred acres of forest, just enough, anyway, to become desperately lost in. Loggers had made a road through the first hundred acres or so a few years back, and the trees there were scarce. It was sandy when the rain came and horribly dusty during the dry season, just perfect for a teenage girl to hide herself in. Alex discovered the place in the first few days of July. Her army surplus boots left deep prints on the sandy path, but she didn't care. Though this was insignificant, there were few things she cared about nowadays. Below the crest of a hill lay a little valley that a trickle of water ran through. The trickle widened into a thundering river further into the forest. Alex watched the little bubbles of ground water rising out of the sand, enjoying the cool breeze caressing her young face. The loggers had left a few of the larger trees wherever there was water, so it was much more comfortable here without the sun beating down painfully on everything in sight. For once, Alex had found a place where she was calm and happy, and that's all she could have ever really wanted.