"When will you listen girl?!" The older lady, a heavy set woman with graying hair, banged her fist on the kitchen table of the small house they lived in, making Anna flinch slightly, "You are [i]not[/i] to leave this house with my permission! If you keep running off like that I'm going to look you up in that room of yours until you've learned to behave! I swear, bastard children like you are always causing trouble! Wouldn't be surprised if one day you wind up arrested! In fact, I'd probably be dancing with joy the day that happens! It'd get you out of my life!"

"I just went to the park is all...." Anna began quietly, though of course, barely even got that out before the woman was back yelling at her.

"Oh, shut up! Go upstairs! I don't want to see your face for the rest of the night you little brat! If it wasn't for that money the government gives me for letting your pathetic ass stay here you would be out on the streets right now!"

"Yes, Mrs. Graven." Anna replied quietly, trudging up the stairs. She was used to this. After so many years, twelve years to be exact, of living with this woman as her foster care taker and living with her verbal abuse, Anna had grown a rather thick skin. Used to be, when she was younger, she would cry her eyes out for hours after being spoken to like that. Now, she just took the emotional pain with a straight face and went on with her life, reminding herself that she would be out of here soon. Once she was out of high school, she could leave this place. She could make something of herself.  

Making it to her room and shutting the door quietly behind herself, she sighed, sitting on her bed as a small scrappy dog crawled out from under the bed, hopping over to her and sitting in her lap. She smiled and petting the pup, "Hey, Pooka. Hiding from the witch too?" Pooka was a dog she had found digging through the trash and had brought home a year ago. A first, the woman was going to send him to the pound, only to find out that in letting her have a pet, the government would give her an extra two hundred dollars a month. So, the woman tolerated the animal, locking him up in her room constantly. Anna gave him enough attention to make up for it. 

Looking over to the bedroom door, Anna thought for a moment, "You know...she said she didn't want to see me the rest of the night. So, she probably won't be up to see me until morning. We could go for a walk? Sneak out through the window. What do you say, Pooka?" She looked at the dog that barked and smiled, "Then its settled." Standing up, she grabbed his leash from her desk and stuck it in a small messenger bag she often carried with her, and after that was in there, she walked over to the window, opening it up. They were on the second floor, so it was always tricky getting down to the ground, but Anna had it pretty much perfected. 

Picking Pooka up, she put him in her bag as well, the dog laying here happily, his head sticking out of the unzipped big pocket watching as Anna stepped out onto the slanted few feet of roof ledge, taking careful steps, and when she got to the edge, looked below to see the trampoline in the backyard. Mrs. Graven had bought it to make it seem like she was a caring caretaker for the government officials that did the yearly review but this was only time Anna ever used it. Grinning to herself, she jumped down from the second story, landing on the trampoline and crawled off, heading as quickly as she could to the front of the house and to the side walk. She laughed to herself, walking backwards down the sidewalk as she looked at her foster home in the distance. he continued to walk like this, taking Pooka out of the bag, when she ran right into someone, making her stumble slightly, falling down on the ground, Pooka still in her arms and the two very disorientated.

She looked up at first to see a very angry looking man standing there, and she was ready to pretty much get yelled at and cussed out as was normal for her to hear, when the expression on the man changed and suddenly he was helping her up, apologizing and asking her if she was alright, "Ummm....I'm fine. It was my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going." Setting the dog on the ground and connecting his leash to his collar the pup was not very fond of the man, even growling a few times in his general direction. The pup never liked strangers anyway, so this was something Anna ignored, "Sorry about that. I'l watch were I'm going next time." With that, she was going to walk around him to continue her walk, ready to put some distance between her and the foster home in case Mrs. Graven came out and happened to see her down the street.