| Our Running Story I'm 15, I am failing all my classes, and my family is messed up. I wanted 2 start over, my friend C. was like a sister to me, we had everything in common. During the school year we skipped class all the time, stayed in the bathroom and talked about all the problems we had. The school caught on our ''skipping sessions'' by the time we reached our 16th time. Those were fun days. But one day we skipped class, my friend was telling me on how the night before her mom tried to strangle her, and the day before I got in a huge fight with some girls at school. We wanted to start over and become new people, we thought we had NOTHING to loose. That exact day at school we skipped all the classes and went in the school library, we were looking at prices of trains, planes, and busses. We planned to go from Florida to New York, with no money. So after second lunch we decided at that moment to go...far. We ran off campus. We ran through the track and football fields to a small open gate. We ran to my aparment which was empty because my mom was at work, we took some hours to plan the escape. C. called her friend and told him she was at my house and to come pick her up. When he did she went home and packed as I was at mine and did the same. Later that night she told her dad to drop her over real quick to review a English paper together. He didn't trust her because she was bringing a suitcase and a small backpack, but she told her parents she's giving me some of her old smaller clothes. They bought it and by the time she came my mom came home. Her dad waited in the aparment parking lot, waiting for her to come out because he was suspecious of a possible runaway, obviously we out smarted him. We wrote goodbye letters in my room and took the suitcases downstairs. My mom's boyfriend came home and asked me why the bags were by the door. I told him ''C. gave me some old things.'' He said okay and went in the room and closed the door. The timing was right as me and C. locked my door. Inside was the goodbye notes as we ran downstairs and made a dash with our luggage. We planned never to come back so our luggage was about 50 pounds. Lucky hers was a back pack with wheels. Her dad called my cell about 3 minutes after the dash and he said '' saw you and T. leave, come back.'' I said '' Okay be right there'' . Me and T. ran in the darkest places behind a car dealership to avoid being seen by anyone. I had met a older guy about a year E.ier and called him to come pick us up. He came and we jumped a fence and dashed to his car, threw our bags in and jumped in the car as he sped away. At that time I couldn't take the phone calls so I turned off my phone. We thought we were free, but then the guy who picked us up said he isn't gonna help us, just gonna drop us off somewhere. We were dissapointed in him very much but were grateful of his help. He ended up dropping us off at a church. We looked around ( it was about 1 am ) and I saw a school bus. Knowing that all busses can be opened by the outside we went and locked the door ( the church was about 50 miles from home.. ) Then we started getting hungry so remembering I had only 50 dollars ( in quarters,nickles, and dimes ) we walked to A Walgreens store that was across the street. We wanted to kill time so we started talking to a boy who worked in there, we told him we ran away and he offered to help us, and that his shift ended at 3:30 am...we waited but made some trips to Walgreens. One of them was to buy some hair dye and makeup to hide our identities. While waiting me and T. made up some new names ..We went from S. P. and C. S. to Chloe Collins and Talia Hyler. The manager got suspicious of us and called the cops, but I guess they didn't even bother to come. So we decided to stay on the bus till 3. We were starting to get a little tired so we just sat and talked for a while. I was laying back and C. was sitting up talking about what to do next when I saw her eyes widen...she looked so afraid, so when I leaned up and turned around I saw a long haired man out side the bus looking in my window. He was holding a ''Machette'' or w/e u call it, a long SWORD. I instantly ducked, thinking maybe he didn't see me, but then crawled to the seat that had the bag where I put the 6'' knife I brought from home. I never let the grip of the knife away, after about 5 min. of ducking we decided to stand up and see where he was. He was gone, but we weren't sure if he was. E. (the guy at Walgreens) called and we told him the situation, he told us he is just he local crazy guy but he won't hurt us. Turns out the long haired man thought we were gonna rob his trailor. Anyways E. came and brought some soda, then left after 5 minutes because he got ''bored and tired''. We locked the bus door as I kept grip of the knife. we ended up falling asleep talking, as I was asleep I woke up to a big BANG. I stood straight up instantly and held up the knife. I saw a strange looking man at the door of the bus staring at me. I woke T. up and asked him what he wanted, he told us he was the driver of the bus and to get the hell off the bus NOW. We were scared, maybe he was lying. Turns out he wasn't because we took the chance and opened the door and he thru out our luggage and left us on the street. It was 5 a.m., we were walking on the street near a grungy trailor park with 50 punds of luggage. We found a tree and sat under it for a while. I turned on the phone and listened to all the messages of people beggin us to come home. I ignored them all. Later on E. came back and took us behind a bank and told us to wait there for a while until his brothers leave his house so we can come. We waited longer then expected and thought he abandoned us. We used one of the members of the bank to use his key and get us in the main building. We went in the bathroom and cleaned up and organized everything. I charged my phone n called E., he told us he was coming right now. We went to the Walgreens again and waited, and he finally came and took us out to lunch. After lunch he took us to his trailor and we took the risk....we went, we used his computer and then called a cab to take to Miami. We wanted to go farther ..the cab came and we left his house. One of the reasons why we left is because E. kept hitting on us and we started to feel uneasy about him. I'm in Miami now, in a friend's apartment. The cops are looking but I'm happy. If you're thinking about running away, you shouldn't plan to be gone for long. Running away just for 1 day can get the point across to the people that you need a new life, they will listen. Bring a knife and P L A N V E R Y W E L L .. have a good plan and back up plan and remember the best places to sleep are churches...fire stations, and in our case, school busses. And if you do plan to be gone for long, don't go alone. It's VERY RISKY and can be lonely, think about every little diecison you make on the street. And
maybe if your old enough you may want to get a job at a little old immigrant
owned restaurant, where they don't care who you are, they just want work.
Good luck to you but just think before you do and once again have a good
PLAN. Thanks for reading.
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