I meant to post earlier this week but finals were crazy. So sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoy. As always, I don't own any of the characters that also exist on the show. I'm not an expert on some of the things I write about so do realize that.

"Miss, you didn't answer my question. What are you doing? And what are you doing with all of that money?"

"Um, well, you see, um, Officer Smith, um, oh crap…" God why am I so nervous, it's not like I'm doing anything wrong, it must be from living in that drug house all those year. "…You see, I was just walking and decided I wanted to play basketball and then I opened my bag to get my ball and then I stuck my hands in to grab the ball and then my money just started to fly everywhere and then …"

"Okay, don't need a play-by-play of it. You say this money is yours?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Suddenly getting my confidence back.

"Just checking. No offense miss but that looked like a lot of money and to be quite honest I'm a little surprised someone like you would have that type of money."

"Somebody like me? What do you mean? Being that I'm fifteen I'm not allowed to have that kind of money?"

"No. I meant that usually people who look like they haven't bathed in at least a week or so don't usually have money just lying around, like in a back pack or something." With everything that had been happening I kinda forgot I was still covered in mud from the night before.

"Yeah, had a fight with a slippery hill last night, obviously the hill won. Any other observations or questions officer, or am I free to go?" By now I was getting the tone in my voice that usually got myself slapped back home but I didn't care, I wanted to get away from the cop. If he found out I was a run away he would surely report me and I couldn't have that.

"Got a few questions. To start off with what's your name?"

"Not that it's any of your business but it's Jenny."

"Jenny …?"

"All you're getting is Jenny."

"Where's home Jenny?"

"Nowhere, not wanted at home. Now I'm here in Tree Hill. End of story. Now if you don't mind I'd like to leave."

"Actually you're going to need to come with me."

"Why?"

"Why? Because Jenny, you're fifteen, and without a home."

"Who said I was fifteen?"

"You did. In one of your little rants you let that fact slip."

"Oh."

"Yeah, you need to come with me. I'm not arresting you or anything but I do need to bring you to social services."

"And if I refuse?"

"Well then I would have to arrest you, bring you to the police station, do all of that and then when that was done, bring you to social services." Having a feeling that there was no way around it I agreed to go with him willingly.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad. The social worker here is even a friend of mine, well more like the wife of my best friend who puts up with me."

"Great, good to know," I said sarcastically

Soon we were pulling up in front of a building that said 'Tree Hill Social Services'. The building was kinda big and seemed really uninviting. I was scared again.

Officer Smith walked right next to me as we climbed the steps to the front door so he could make sure I didn't make a last minute attempt to flee, but I was too scared to even think of fleeing. When we reached the door Officer Smith went to pull the door open but it was locked. "Crap, they're not open yet."

For the first time since I got into the police car at the basketball court I opened my mouth to speak. "If it's closed, whose vehicle is that?" I asked as I pointed to a black SUV parked in the THSS parking lot.

"That's Haley's." Haley, that was the second time I heard someone talk about a Haley from Tree Hill, wonder if they're the same person.

"HALEY, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE. OPEN UP PLEASE!" By now Officer Smith had resorted to pounding on and yelling at the door.

"Geez Tim. Will you be quiet before you wake up the whole neighborhood?" A woman who looked to be in her early thirties had just opened the door ready to scold the officer whose first name I was guessing is Tim. "Why are you here this early anyways?"

Officer Smith then stepped aside so that the woman could see me. "Found this one at the Rivercourt this morning. She looked like she needed some help and I thought I would bring her to you to see what you could do."

The woman ushered us both into he building. As I walked past her and into the building she said, "Good morning, I'm Mrs. James Scott but you can call me Haley."

"Hi."

"Tim?"

"Yes?"

"Can you give me and …"

"Jenny," I said quietly.

"Can you give me and Jenny some time to talk alone?"

"Sure, no problem. I'll be in the next room," he said as he headed to another room. As he left I could have sworn I heard him muttering, "Geez, she was giving me lip but now she quiet as a mouse."

Haley indicted to a chair that was right next to a desk and I sat down.

"So Jenny, how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Where do you live?"

"I don't have a home, I'm not wanted at the place where I used to call home." It wasn't a complete lie. Most of the time my mother couldn't care less about where I was.

"That's too bad. Did Officer Smith explain why he brought you here."

"Yeah, since I'm fifteen and don't have a home I had to be brought here cuz he couldn't let me just stay out there."

"That's correct. Now there's a couple things we can do now. First off we can try and find out if there's someway for you and your parents to reconcile your differences and you could move back home, that would be the best."

"NO! I refuse to go back there, besides it's actually my mother and her boyfriend at the time that I'm living with."

"Okay, we'll nix that idea, at least for now. Actually something you just said sparked something in my mind. You said you lived with your mother and her boyfriend…"

"Well at least the one she has right now."

"Yes, okay, how about living with your father? Do you have a relationship with him and could move in with him?" Did I want to tell her that I thought my father lived in this town? I decided not too, what if he didn't know about me and then to have this sprung on him would be rough and maybe a bit much.

"No, I never knew my father, so I don't know if that's even a possibility."

"Okay, then we'll look at some of your options. We could, and this is probably what we're going to end up doing, is putting you in foster care. The foster parents around here are all nice, so you don't have to worry about any of those foster care horror stories here. If you did that I have a family that I think you would be a good match with and who would more than happy to take you in, at least for a little bit."

"Okay, any other options?"

"Well, as a last resort, and I mean only as a last resort we could try and get you emancipated."

"Will that even work, would a judge actually let a fifteen year old become emancipated?"

"Considering your situation I would say it would be worth a shot and I don't think age would be too much of a big deal. A judge here in Tree Hill let my husband become emancipated from his parents when he was sixteen. But of course, I want you to at least try foster care, because while you might not be completely happy at least you wouldn't have to also be making a bunch of decisions about your life and future, you'll have foster parents to take care of you."

"Okay, I'll give foster care a try."

"That's good. I'm going to go talk to Officer Smith to see if there's anything else. I'll be back in a minute."

I reached down to my bag, which was under my chair to draw a little.

"Oh, by the way, how did you end up covered in mud?"

"I was outside in the rain last night and slipped on a hill and got all muddy and somehow the mud didn't come off yet even with the rain."

"Funny, that's what my sister said when I asked her why she was muddy this morning when she ambushed me and Nathan." With that she walked into the other room where Officer Smith was muttering also, but she was muttering, "Damn Taylor."

Yup must be the same Haley, small world we live in. I started to draw and got lost in my thoughts, I'm not sure how long I had been drawing but I had been drawn out of my thought when Haley who had looked over my shoulder suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh my god, that looks like the pictures Peyton draws." She grabbed my picture of a teenage girl driving a car in the woods with a caption that said 'Leaving the Life I Knew Behind'. "Tim, doesn't this look like one of Peyton's pictures?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Who's Peyton?"

"A friend of ours. Actually I kinda mentioned her before when I told you I had a foster family in mind for you."

"Okay," I said a little unsure about how fast this seemed to be going.

"We just need to fill out some paper work and I need to make sure it's okay with the family, but if all goes according to plan, hopefully by tonight we can have you in Jake and Peyton Jagielski's home."

Wait, did she just say Jake Jagielski?

Spoilers

Jenny and Jake meet but will Jenny reveal the truth?

Jenny and Taylor will meet up again.

Other favorite OTH characters will make appearances.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, they've been appreciated and please continue to read and review.

FYI: I'm going out of town for like a month so I probably won't be updating during that time, but please stick with me and I'll start updating as soon as I can. If I can I'll update at some point during these next four weeks but that might not happen. At the latest I'll update again January 11th. I promise to have multiple chapter updates though when I do update.