so i left mary and mama and went out on my own. i didn't really know where to go, but i knew that i had to go somewhere. i wandered around for a little bit, but it got dark and i couldnt' see anymore so i cuddled up in a corner and fell asleep. i stayed that way for a couple of days, but then i had to go back to school. it wasn't that cold out and i learned later that that was a blessing in itself. i went to school to finished up high school, nobody there knew whre i was living, nobody cared. i was never a real social person and nobody gave a damn about me. then, my senior year i met a guy that i had seen on the streets a few nights in a row and he was in my class. his name was jason. the two of us compared notes on the best places to sleep and keep warm without having to go into a shelter. jason was amazed at the fact that i hadn't needed to sell myself to survive, but a school lunch and breakfast can go a long way in a single day. we were together almost every night and day that year. and people started to notice us, which i hated, but jason protected me. especially from people who decided it would be funny to pick on the "mouse". jason and me made it through senior year and graduated. our senior pictures were even taken together, the class president insisted that she pay for it, she was gonna put it special in the year book. well i wish i'd never let her do that. never never never. this is what we both found in the yearbook in the spring...
real nice wasnt it. well jason and i didn't care at the moment, well i did, and he got really mad, but we both promised each other that we'd show them. that's when i went to work. or tried to. i was taking free lessons at a dojo in the city, and the instructor wanted to hire me. so i accepted. but since i wasn't quite eighteen, he said he needed my mama's permission. i refused. but instead of firing me, he taught me until i was eighteen and then i was free to make my own decisions. he taught me everything and jason learned as well. but jason was starting to crack. it was getting colder out and the body heat i provided wasn't enough for him. jason started slipping deeper and deeper the higher and higher i went. and then, that's when the real trouble started.