(Note: This takes place in Arizona, but for privacy, I will not give specific location.)

You ran into a room that held two screaming kids and another that was standing and staring. One of the crying children was holding a hand over his mouth, and the other was throwing a tantrum on the floor.

"What's going on!?" You asked, picking up the little monster on the floor. She fought and kicked at you, but you were used to it.

"What. Happened." You said menacingly, tightening your grip on the child. The little girl gave up trying to get away and went limp.

"He pushed me." The girl muttered, pointing at the sniffling kid sitting on the floor. The girl smiled in satisfaction.

"Then I kicked him." She said with the same smirk. You sighed, then put the girl on the ground. She stood and turned to look at you.

"Go to your bed." You said to her. The little girl huffed, then stormed to the bedroom. You kneeled down to comfort the crying kid. The little boy that had been watching brought you a towel. That was when you noticed the child on the floor was bleeding from his lip. You sighed and held the towel to the kid's face.

You heard the back door slam and fast footsteps in the kitchen. You held the kid's hand to his face to indicate to him to hold the towel, then you walked into the other room. A group of two boys and a girl were in the kitchen, panting. The girl was getting water from the sink.

In one of the boy's hands was a plastic bag full of stuff.

"What is it this time?" You asked. The boy held out the bag to you, and you took it and looked inside. In the bag was a loaf of bread, carrots and other vegetables, and even a little meat.

"Good. Carm can make some beef stew out of this. I'll talk to her later." You said. Carmen was the oldest out of the kids, and she was also the chef. After she left, or was adopted, you would be next to lead the orphans. Carmen was sixteen, and you were second oldest at fourteen.

You hated what you did, but it was for survival. The headmistress and her two employees just spent their days in a room with a sign that said "No Kids Allowed". They had quit spending time or money on the orphans or the orphanage, and left you kids to fend for yourselves.

The children that were over eleven years old did most of the work. You had separated into groups based on age and skill. There was Carmen, the leader, who gave everyone jobs to do. She also cooked all the food because she was the oldest and most capable of it.

There was you, the smart one. You were good at several different things, but you mostly stayed at the orphanage to help with the younger kids and take care of injury. You were also great with animals and knew a lot about them. Your favorite things to do were climb the tree in the backyard, and practice running and jumping over and between obstacles.

You were strange in certain ways, too. You were faster and stronger, with a bigger spring in your jump than most people. People had to talk a little quieter when you were around, because of your super sensitive ears. The strangest part was that even your sense of smell was above average. You were also the stealthiest, earning the name "Wild Cat" from the other kids because you always unintentionally snuck up on them and reminded them of mountain lions.

The kids that were good with the younger children stayed in the orphanage and watched over them. This was you, a boy, and a girl.

There were all the kids younger than ten, who were being trained to take the place of older kids when they were gone. You were in charge of an eight-year-old boy named Danny, who was interested in everything you had to teach.

Then there were the two boys and girl. They had the most dangerous- and most important- job of all.

They were the thieves.

The thieves were most important because they were the only reason all the kids had food to stay alive. It wasn't a good path, and all the older kids felt bad for teaching the younger ones to steal. You all knew it was wrong. It was definitely not a good choice, but it was the only one.

You walked to the room at the end of the hall. That was where Carmen slept. She was the only one with a room to herself. You thought about Devin, the boy that had the bag when they came in. He had a snore that could cause an earthquake. You smiled at the thought of how quiet Carmen's room must be. You knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A kind voice said through the door. Everyone was happy that Carmen was a lot nicer than most teenagers. You were all stuck in this orphanage together, so you needed to stick together.

'It's (____), Carmen." You said. You heard Carmen walk toward the door, then she opened it. Carmen pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and stared at you expectantly.

"Uh, Devin, Chase, and Sarah came back. They have stuff that I think would make good beef and veggie stew." You told her. Carmen nodded and started down the hall with you close behind.

"I'll take a look." She said. She turned to look at you, who had run to walk next to her.

"You can go to that special place of yours if you want. Alice and Andy can watch the kids." She said to you. You nodded and ran to the back door. You threw it open and ran out, but made sure to close the door behind you before taking off.

You easily hopped the back fence and ran a few feet before stopping at a tall pecan tree. Your special place. You jumped and grabbed onto the lowest branch before pulling yourself up into the tree. You climbed about ten feet up before going to a wide branch that pointed in the opposite direction of the orphanage.

You sat down on the branch and stared into the forest on the other side of a short strip of desert. You loved reading about other places in the world and dreamed about going to those places. Everyone called you crazy for dreaming of traveling the world. You always had a sense for adventure, and wanted to go on one.

Maybe someday. You thought as you stared out at the place you had always been too scared to go to.