I was woken up by a ringing noise. It took me a moment to realize that it was the telephone. I stretched out my muscles and reached for the phone. When my hand grabbed ahold of it, I brought it up to my ear. "Hello," I said yawning.

"Hi Jessica," I heard. It was Irene.

"Hi, Miss. Adler," I said. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong," she replied. "Umm... Richie told me the other day that you just recently lost your mother and you're staying at a children's home. Is that true?"

"Yeah," I said. Maybe she just wants to know more about me. I lifted myself up against the backboard of the bed.

"Well, I was just thinking..." there was silence on the end of the phone. "Maybe if, now you don't have to yes but if you would like to stay at our home for a bit, like fostering, you can."

My eyes lit up. "Really?" I spoke into the receiver.

"Yeah. But only if you're up for it, and then we will see how it goes. I have a spare bedroom upstairs and you could have it if you'd like."

"Yes, I would love that. Thank you so much." I was so happy that she wanted to take me in. Her family seemed so nice.

"Yay!" I heard voices on the other end cheer. It was Richie and Cheryl. They must have been listening to the conversation.

I giggled, not expecting anyone else to talk.

I was glad because living in the children's home was hard, especially since I didn't have any friends or family there made it lonely for me.

"Umm... I would need to know the address so I can contact them," Irene said.

"Yeah, sure." I thought for a second trying to remember what the address was. "It's 1359 New Garth Road."

When we both hung up the phone, I was so happy, I started dancing. I know that's a weird thing to do but we all have our weird sides.

When my leg started to hurt, I sat back down on the bed.

I was all awake now so I turned on the T.V. and put on MTV and jammed out to the songs for a few hours because I had nothing better to do.

The rest of the day alone like normal. I got my food, watched television and slept.

The next day, doctor Reed said that I would be able to leave in two days. I was excited and I wouldn't be going back to the children's home. I kept on thanking God that Miss. Adler was willing to bring me in and have such a kind heart. She already had it hard, raising two kids and be a single mother, that I didn't know how difficult it would be for her to look after another child.

That day when Richie came, he told me how happy he was. He also told me that my new bedroom is really nice. It already had furniture in it and he would prefer that room but its a little girly for him and it wouldn't fit all of his computer equipment in it. It was his mother's room when she was a teenager.

"Rabies is going to love you," Richie said to me. "He loves people."

My face went blank. "Rabies. Who is Rabies and why is that his name?"

"It's my dog. Don't worry, he doesn't have rabies. At least... we don't think," he laughed. "I don't know why he's called that. Cheryl named him."

I laughed along. "Now I just feel bad for him."

"Me too." He said with a sigh.

The next day, he brought me some food and we watched some movies.

My leg was healing pretty fast at this point but I still didn't want to see the mark that the bullet made.

The time at the hospital was going by slowly and I was eager to get out.

Richie told me that his mom signed all of the paperwork to let me live with them and I was all set. He also told me that the people at the children's home brought all my stuff to the house already.

That night, it was hard to go to sleep, knowing that I was going to be out of the hospital the next day and I won't have to stay in a bed anymore. I kind of got used to it in a way, but I wouldn't miss it one bit.

The next morning I got into clothes and checked out of the hospital.

I waited outside in the warm air and took in the scent of the flowers that had grown in the garden next to the hospital.

The plan was that I was going to go out to breakfast with Miss. Adler, Richie, and Cheryl, and then we would go to their house. I'd have to say, I was a little nervous but excited at the same time to move into their house. I just hoped that I would like it there.

After breakfast, we all got back into Miss. Adler's car and went to their house. The whole car ride, I was thinking about what it would be like at the Adler's house. I wondered if I'd like it or not.

When we got to the house, I saw that it was quite big for only three people. No wonder they had an extra bedroom, I thought.

When we walked into the house, we were all greeted by Rabies.

"Hi, Rabies," I said, almost laughing at how ridiculous that name was.

He jumped up on my leg and I almost lost my balance.

Cheryl laughed. "He really likes you," she said. She looked up at Irene. "Mom, can I give Rabies a treat?"

Her head nodded in agreement. "Sure honey."

Cheryl ran into the kitchen and Rabies followed short behind her with his tail wagging with joy.

Richie showed me around the house and showed me where my room was. When I looked into the room, I realized that it was much bigger than the room I had when I lived with my mom. I would defiantly have enough room to put all my stuff in.

Later that day, I settled down and started unpacking my things from a few suitcases.

The room already had a bed, dresser, and a desk in it and they were all painted an off-white shade. The bed had blue flowers drawn on the rim of it.

Cheryl came into my room a few minutes later and wanted to help me unpack my things. I told her that she could and even though she was only eight, she was a big help.

About an hour later, we all had lunch.

Miss. Adler made us all sandwiches and made fresh lemonade. I hadn't had fresh lemonade in who knows how long so I was very happy.

After we were all done eating, we put our dishes in the sink and Richie turned to his mom. "Hey, mom?"

"Yes?"

"Can I take Jessica to the park for a little bit and show her around the neighborhood?"

Irene looked at the clock above the stove and turned back to Richie. "Sure, just be back in about an hour or two because I'm going to be making some cookies in a bit and you don't want them to be cold."

Richie licked his lips. "Mmmm sounds great."

Both of us went outside and got our bikes from the garage.

I realized that when I was riding my bike, my leg hurt a little bit because I was putting a little bit more pressure on it when I was pedaling the bike. But the doctor did say that I needed to work out my leg a bit so I wondered if this counted.

Richie pointed to everything and told me what it was and he could list some of the people that lived in the houses. He also showed me where his friends, Ham, Jeremy, and Alice lived.

After that, we headed towards the park. We had to turn around since the park was in the opposite direction.

When we got there, I saw that it as next to a beautiful lake. I could just imagine the sun setting there.

The playground at the small park brought back some of my childhood memories.

I ran up the square steps and stood at the top of the slide. "I feel like I'm five again," I yelled to Richie who was propping his bike along the edge of the playground.

"You didn't have a playground where you used to live?" he asked, walking up to the foot of the slide.

"No," I responded. "But whenever I stumble across one, I love it."

There was a second of brief silence.

"Remember when we were kids and thought that life was so easy and great," I asked.

"Yeah."

"And now that we've grown up a little, life's hard. With school and family," I said sliding down the slide. "Sometimes I just wish I could travel back in time and tell my younger self that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought it would be. I wish I could tell her what to expect." I looked over at him. "Don't you?"

Richie looked up at me. "Yeah. I guess I do wish I could do that.

We talked for a bit longer and then decided to head back to his house, which I hope I could call 'home' someday.