Keaton P.O.V

As soon as I got out of the shower, I went to my room with my towel around my waist and my hair dripping still. My dark hair hung in my eyes and I flipped my head slightly to get it out of my eyes so I could see everything around me. I was a very paranoid person, for no reason really, since I wasn't really noticed at all at school. It just felt like everyone was going to pounce on me like prey. Which made the hallucinations and the voices that much worse, the voices usually consisting of teachers or other students telling me that I'm worthless because I don't have all the screws tight in my brain. When I got into my room and shut the door, I grabbed some of my ripped jeans and a loose hoodie, putting them on after I dried off a bit. I just left my hair how it was and looked in the mirror, hearing whispering voices in my ears. The whispers say too many things for me to register at once, things like, "Useless" and "Freak" were the whispers that bounced around a lot in my head. Even more disturbing, sometimes-- I welcomed them. If everyone else was too scared to say it, the voices would say it for them, no questions asked. What was even worse, was that it scared my parents when I would talk to myself and my voices, and I just laughed. I found it pretty entertaining, if I'm being honest with myself. Other than these voices, my days were pretty boring.

Dakota P.O.V

After I got dressed, I grabbed my bag and all but ran down the stairs and out the door, knowing that my parents wouldn't give me any food, or money for food at school. As I began my trek to school I started thinking, which I had way too much time for. I started thinking what it would be like to get put into a different family, a different life. A life that wouldn't be out to get me every second of every day. I didn't care how, I wanted to be out of having to live in fear in my own "Home". If you could even call it that. These homes that I read about aren't like this, the parents love their children and would rather die than see them get hurt.

My parents were nothing like this, if anything, they would rather see me die then get hurt themselves. That was what hurt me the most. I heard kids talk all day at school about how amazing their mom or dad was, getting them new clothes, a new X Box, something. Me? I got pushed around and teased for the fact that one of the only pairs of shoes that I have, were beat up converse.

I went through most of my day thinking like this, until about 6th period when I was called out of class to the office and I saw police officers there. And people from a foster agency a few miles from the school. Crap... At that moment, I was thinking, 'There is really a God..'

When I was brought in, they questioned me for a long time, saying that my parents had been arrested for child neglect from one of our neighbors. I didn't know who had reported it, but I sent a silent thank you to that person. Soon enough, they asked to see physical evidence. I stood from the chair I was sitting in and lifted my shirt off slowly, getting anxious very quickly. They saw the bruises first, then the cuts, then the fact that you could see each of my ribs pretty clearly through the skin. The officers were in shock, the foster agents were mortified. They had seen many cases like this, but it still jarred them to hear and see this stuff happening to anyone. After a few more minutes of the police taking notes and the foster agents telling me that I would be sent to live with someone else very quickly, I was led outside to an SUV and told to get in the backseat. I was silent while I was driven to the foster agency.

Within 4 hours, a family was contacted, halfway across the country and they had said that they wanted to adopt me. I was amazed. These people hadn't met me yet and they already were saying, "Oh, yes, we'd love to adopt this boy with mommy and daddy issues."

I couldn't believe it. I was getting away from this life.

Keaton P.O.V

When I got back from school, my parents gave me the news that stunned me... They were adopting this 13 year old boy from Texas and he was coming here, to Florida, to be my brother. I could barely handle dealing with myself everyday! How could I deal with this kid in the house with me, asking a million questions that I didn't have answers to?!