Chapter 1

Five teenage boys stood in an abandoned parking lot that was their usual after school hand out. The parking lot was surrounded by many side streets, occupied by stray animals and homeless people.

“Hey, Jack, Nate, you guys coming or not?” a tall seventeen-year-old boy called back as he walked down one of the many ally, toward the a corner, running his fingers through his slightly wavy red brown hair as he walked.

"Yeah, we’ll be there in a second, just let us finish this really quick,” Jack said, holding Leo against the brick wall.

“Okay, just hurry up,” the boy said, sounding bored, he didn't care that Jack and Nate were beating Leo and Kenneth to a pulp, because actually, he really didn't care for Leo and Kenneth. He wasn't even sure why they were in the group.

As the tall boy walked around the corner he could see a girl, wearing a gray and black checkered school uniform, with a once white button up the front shirt, lying on her back on the pavement. As he got the rest of the way around the corner he saw an old homeless guy crouching over her.

“Hey!” the boy said, guessing that the unconscious girl didn’t know the homeless guy.

“No, no, everything is okay, this is my… uh… daughter,” the homeless guy said shifting his position and picking the girl up easily.

“Okay then, how are you paying for her private schooling,” the boy asked. The homeless guy’s expression changed and he turned and ran away from the tall boy.

“Hey, get back here!” the tall boy called, as he started after the homeless guy. He wasn’t sure what it was, but something compelled him to protect this girl. The tall boy grabbed hold of the homeless guy’s arm, causing him to drop the girl. The homeless guy, scared of getting arrested, or worse, left the girl and ran away.

Aaron walked over to the girl and lifted her up into his arms, noticing immediately how lightweight she was. He started to carry the girl back toward the others.

“Hey, Aaron, why did you run from us?” Jack asked, coming around the corner, to see Aaron holding the girl. “Who’s the chick?” He asked, smiling.

“I don’t know,” Aaron answered, starting toward his friend. “Hey, can you go start up my car?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jack replied as Aaron threw him the keys.

Aaron reached the others and his car in less then five minutes. If the girl didn't feel like she had been starved to death for who knows how long it probably would have taken longer. The girl should have weighed like 20 pounds more then she did, just to be on the low end of normal weight for a girl her height.

“Who’s the chick?” Kenneth asked, stepping toward Aaron, watching the girl closely

“He doesn’t know,” Jack growled, warningly, as he followed Aaron, watching him as he set the girl on the back seat.

“Nate, you brought your car, right?” Aaron asked as he walked around to the driver’s seat.

“Yeah,” Nate answered, still leaning against the wall, staring down at Leo, who was lying on the ground where Jack had left him.

“Hey, where are you taking the girl?” Kenneth asked, stepping toward the car.

“Nate, meet me at my house,” Aaron said, starting his car.

“Hey, I’m coming with you. I didn’t bring my car,” Jack said, sprinting over and getting in the passenger seat.

“So why’d you run from me earlier?” Jack asked Aaron as the car turned onto the crowded street that led to Aaron’s house.

“There was a homeless guy over her, when I found her. He took her and ran, I thought… I thought he was going to hurt her,” Aaron said, looking over at Jack. Jack gave Aaron the ‘Are you serious?’ look. Jack was very skeptical.

The girl in the back seat moaned as she regained consciousness.

“What the hell?” The girl said as she opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar place.

“Hey, she’s awake!” Jack said enthusiastically. The girl sat up swiftly.

“What’s going on?” the girl asked. “Who are you?” she looked around. “Who am I?” she asked softer, coming to a realization.

“We were hoping you could tell us,” Aaron said, looking back at her in the rearview mirror. The girl stared back at him, fear shimmering behind her clear silver eyes as she did. She sat back in the seat.

“Who are you?” the girl asked, levelly, rubbing the back of her neck.

“I’m Aaron, and this is Jack,” Aaron answered, pointing his thumb toward his friend in the passenger seat. The girl looked at them, a concentrated look on her dirty, yet beautiful, face as she tried to figure out if she knew them.

“Do I know you?” the girl asked finally, when she couldn’t think of any past memories at all. She tilted her head to the side slightly, one of her eyebrows raised. Aaron saw her in the mirror and chuckled softly at her expression.

“Now, if I knew you would I ask who you were?” Aaron asked, smiling. The girl thought about it for a second, a look of concentration playing across her face.

“Well, you could be trying to trick me. You could be kidnapping me, but other then that, I guess not,” the girl said, looking down at one of her dirty, once white, tennis shoes. Seeing back writing on one of them she started to rub away the dirt.

“Where would we be kidnapping you from then?” Aaron asked. “What city are you from?”

“I don’t know…” the girl answered, scared, her voice trembling just slightly less then she was. “I don’t remember anything.

“What, you mean like you have no memories, just nothing?” Aaron asked, he could only imagine what it was like to not remember anything.

“Nope, no… nothing,” the girl said softly.

“So do you have any idea what your name is?” Aaron asked the girl.

“I told you, I don’t remember anything,” the girl said, she was starting to find the repetitive questions from this complete stranger…(or not stranger?) very annoying.

“No idea?” Aaron asked again.

“Addy,” the girl read the word off her shoe softly.

“What was that?” Aaron asked.

“Nothing,” the girl said, still staring at the word on her shoe.

“No, you said a name? What was it?” Aaron asked comfortingly.

“It was nothing, just something written on my shoe,” the girl said.

“What was it?” Aaron asked, still level, not showing if he was getting frustrated.

“Addy.”