Again I don't own anything. I'm also not an expert in some of the stuff I write about so please take that into consideration if some stuff isn't actually realistically possible.

This one sheet of my paper that I hold in my hands has changed everything. What am I going to do? I look at the birth certificate again to make sure my eyes aren't playing tricks on me. No, right there in plain black and white it says that my last name is Jagielski, why wouldn't she tell me this. Half the time she ignores my existence or says she wishes I didn't exist, and yet she made it so that I share a last name with her, yes a common one, but still the same one as her instead of giving me this other one that would separate us even more. I have to hold onto the piece of paper for now my hands are shaking with this sudden enlightenment of new knowledge. I look to see what else I can discover. Well supposedly my father's name is Jacob Jagielski and I was born in Tree Hill, North Carolina. As I sit there absorbing this all in I can hear my mother and her boyfriend starting to stir, never mind, it quieted down, false alarm. Still I gotta hurry.

As I quickly slip my birth certificate back to where I found it one of the pictures that had been covering it falls to the floor. It's a picture of a young teenage couple who look so in love. The boy is standing there with a Tree Hill Ravens jersey on hugging the girl while she's in her cheerleader outfit. The look that they are sharing makes it really clear that they're so in love. I flip the picture over to see if there's anything written on the back. On the back it says Jake + Nikki Love with a big heart around it. Oh my god, this is a picture of my parents. My mother looked so different than she does now. I wouldn't have recognized her if I hadn't seen the name on the back. It would seem the drugs have taken a real toll on the way she looks. I can't seem to take my eyes off the boy though, his face looks like such a friendly face and then way my mother is settled in his arms it looks like she feels safe there in his arms. I wish I knew what it felt like to feel safe in someone's arms.

As I started to put the picture back, not wanting to because this was the first time I saw my father, but knowing my mother might notice if I take the picture, I got an idea. I would go live with him. Even if I got caught I figured they would probably look at my home life before returning me to this place. I just really wanted to not live here.

Not wanting my mother to suspect something until it was too late to easily find me I just simply wrote down the address that was on my birth certificate for where my mother lived, at least it was a start. I also took the money that she had saved up for me for college and just replaced it with some strips of newspaper that was just lying around, gotta leave the illusion that there's still money in there. I left the picture; I wanted to take it but I knew that once she knew I left, if she noticed that picture was also missing, the first place she would look is Tree Hill and I wanted to leave without a trace.

I made sure the box looked how it did when I took it down and I quickly put it back in the closet. I then quickly headed back to my room to grab some more stuff quickly. They were still passed out when I slipped past the living room. Once inside my room I grabbed only what I thought I would need; a pair of jeans, a couple t-shirts, my hooded sweatshirt, the money I had stashed in my room, my art book and my basketball. I put everything into my backpack and left my room. I locked the door again to help hide the fact I was gone. Once that was done I pretty much bolted out of the house.

I didn't know how I was going to get there, all I knew was Tree Hill was my destination. Unfortunately Tree Hill is in North Carolina while I'm in California, but what's a little geography when it comes to meeting the father you never knew. I headed to the local Greyhound bus station determined to get on the first bus heading East.

I wasn't sure if they would actually not sell a ticket to me if they realized I was fifteen, so I made a quick pit stop in the bathroom to put on enough make up to help me look older but not too much to make it obvious that I was trying to look older. When I was satisfied with the way I looked I headed to the ticket counter and waited in line.

"Next." Well it's do or die time; crap, I don't know where I want to go.

"Miss, I haven't got all day," said the woman at the ticket counter who looked like she really didn't want to be there. "Where to Miss?"

"Um, give me a ticket to St. Louis." That bus left in twenty minutes, hopefully they hadn't noticed me missing yet and I still had a little time.

"That'll be $75." I quickly counted out the money and handed it to her. She handed me my ticket and in a bored tone said, "Have a safe trip."

Since I only had a carry on I just got on the bus right away. I found a spot toward the back of the bus and settled in for what I was sure was going to be a long trip. I passed the time drawing and day dreaming. Would my father be happy to see me? Would I be allowed to live with him? Would I live a good life now? The questions kept coming but no answers.

Once we got to St. Louis I picked up some food because I really hadn't eaten since I left and plotted out what my next mode of transportation. I didn't want to keep using the bus system because I was sure by now my mother figured out I was gone. As I was walking down the road trying to figure out what I would do next I saw some people standing along side the road; hitchhikers. Some of them seemed to be having some luck getting rides so I decided to try my hand at it, I mean it's not like it's illegal, I just won't get in the vehicle if the people look crazy. So I tried my luck at hitchhiking with my self made sign that said "East or Bust", and wouldn't you know, I hadn't been out there longer than five minutes when someone stopped for me and they didn't look crazy. I got some dirty looks from other hitchhiker who had been out there longer than me but I didn't care, I was on my way.

"Hey, thanks for the ride."

"No problem, sign said you were headed East and so am I so I thought why not help some other traveler on the road that is life. Name's Taylor. What's your's?"

"Jenny."

"Well Jenny, where exactly are you headed cuz you know East is pretty broad."

"It's a little town called Tree Hill, North Carolina, you don't need to take me the whole way there but the closer you get me the easier …"

"No way, Tree Hill, you wouldn't believe this but that's where I grew up, kid sister's still there so I get there every so often."

"Any chance that's where you're headed right now?"

"No dice girly. Me, I'm headed to Wilmington, but you know what I'll do, I'll make a little pit stop in Tree Hill for you. Maybe I'll pay Haley-bub and that cute husband of hers a surprise visit."

"Haley-bub?"

"Long story, don't ask. So who are you going to see in Tree Hill, it's not a big place and even though I haven't been back in a while I might know them."

"I'm visiting some relatives that I haven't seen in a while, their last name is Turner." Well it wasn't a complete lie, there's a chance I could run into some of my mother's relatives, but I didn't really want to tell her that I was meeting some people with the last name Jagielski, because that's too specific for me, that and I wasn't quite sure how to pronounce it.

"Turner, the only Turner I know is Vice Principal Turner from the high school, I wouldn't say he hated me but I don't think he really liked me. Well, I don't think that's who you're going to see cuz he's African American and unless you hide your blackness quite well, I don't think the two of you are related."

"Yeah, probably not. If you don't mind do you think it would be okay if I rested my eyes, it's been a long few days?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll try not to kill us while you're asleep," she said with a smile that let me know she was just messing with me.

I fell asleep and the next thing I remember was hearing the grinding of metal and Taylor muttering "Oh shit."

I didn't want to open my eyes so I just said with my eyes shut, "You killed us didn't you?"

"No, but got some bad news, there's a thunderstorm going on, my cell phone is dead, there's no one else on these roads, we have a flat tire and we have me who doesn't know how to change a flat tire."

"Pop the trunk."

"What?"

"Well, that's probably where your spare tire is."

"Oh, I knew that."

We both got out of the car and went around to the back to get the spare. "Good Lord, you must be like the only person who has an actual tire for their spare and not just a spare tire as well a spare tire."

"What's the difference?"

"Well, with a spare tire you can't drive too fast with it on or you're going to blow that tire too, kinda an incentive to bring it into a body shop. But with this bad boy, once we get it on, you can drive as fast as you want to. Now hurry up and help me before we get even more soaked."

Of course Taylor's flat tire had to be on the side right next to the shoulder which had a nice little ditch right next to it, which made this changing of tires a little more difficult. After I got the vehicle jacked up I went about removing the flat lire. I had to jiggle the tire slightly to get it to come off and when I finally got it to come off I had enough momentum going that I fell backwards right into the ditch, which by now was completely muddy, so I became completely muddy. "Taylor, help me up."

"Now why would I get down there to help you up?" She asked pretending like she didn't want to help me.

"Cuz the sooner I get this done the sooner we can get out of here." I could tell that Taylor really didn't like being stuck out here so I played on that.

"K, sounds good to me," she said as she ran down the slope.

"Slow down," I yelled but it was too late. By now Taylor had fallen, on top of me, mind you and now we were both covered in mud.

After Taylor finally got off me, I got up and quickly got the new tire on and put the stuff back in the trunk and was ready to go again.

"Who knew you were like the fourth Charlie's angel."

"I've always thought that a woman should be at least some what self-sufficient even with things that usually guys are known for doing."

"Raised by a single mom?"

"Kinda and also kinda raised by myself."

"That's rough."

"Yeah, but think of it this way, if I didn't know how to do that we would still be stuck in the middle of nowhere."

"YAY for Jenny!"

"So how close are we to Tree Hill?"

"Another half an hour and we'll be there. I was planning on getting some food at a local diner before ambushing my sister and her hubby, care to join me?"

"Rain check on that maybe, I think I just want to get my barings about me before I go and see my relatives. It's not that I haven't enjoyed your company, it's just…"

"Sometimes you need that alone time. No problem, I totally get that."

Before I knew it we were in Tree Hill. Not quite how I had pictured it but I already knew I liked it better than where I grew up.

As she dropped me she looked at me and said, "Well if I never see you again, have a good life and I hope you find what you're looking for. You were fun to talk to."

"Thanks, you too." With that I began to walk away.

"Oh, by the way," I turned around to see what she had to say, "You might want to clean up a bit before you see the relatives, especially if you haven't seen them in a while." I looked down and smirked, somehow despite being out in the rain after the slipping in the mud, I still seemed to be covered in mud. I actually now looked like a runaway, dirty and not that well kept.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

Then I walked away. It was still early morning so there wasn't really anyone out yet so I had the streets of Tree Hill to myself mostly. The town looked quaint and after the rain from the night before, everything looked so clean. As I walked I saw an outdoor basketball court. I headed over to the court to play some basketball to help clear my mind. As I went to take my basketball out of my bag, some of the cash I had stuffed in there that I still had fluttered out. I ran to catch it all because who knew how much money I was still going to need.

"Hey, hey you girl, what do you think you're doing?"

I looked up to see who had yelled at me. All I could think when I saw who it was was, 'Oh, this can't be good.'

Who caught Jenny at the River Court? When will she meet Jake again? All will be answered shortly.

Thanks for those who reviewed. Reviews of any kind are appreciated.