I was awaken by the sound of a buzzing alarm clock. My father had set it the day before. He said that he and my mother were tired of getting me up so early. I didn't know if they had jobs, but I assumed they did. Everybody has to have some way of getting money.

I climbed out of the bed and gave Jack a quick pet as I got up. "I can't take you today," I told him. "I need you to stay here. You need to stay safe, and I don't want to get in trouble again."

I repeated everything that I had done the morning before. This time I added giving Jack a bowl of food and water for the day. I even took him outside for a few minutes to do his business. Once I was completely ready, I grabbed my backpack and headed for the door to wait for the bus. When I was about three steps away from the front door, I heard a yell.

"Grayson, what are you doing that is making so much noise?!" my wannabe father yelled.

"Getting ready for school," I said.

"And why would you do that?" He had slowly come toward me. It looked like he was drunk last night, he was hung over.

"I gotta go," I said as I saw the bus nearing the house.

"You can't," my father insisted. "It's Saturday."

"No it's not. Yesterday was Monday. Today is Tuesday. I have to go. The bus is almost here."

"I'm done with all of your lies. I know your mother and I can have issues from time to time, but that is no reason to be running away."

"I'm not running away!"

"Then why are you trying to leave for school on a Saturday?!"

"It's Tuesday! I have to go! The bus is here!"

I put my hand on the door's handle and began to turn it. I felt a big hand grab my shoulder and pulled me away. My freedom was gone. I was so close. I wasn't going to have my chance. I wasn't going to get to see Drake, Armen, and Mia today. It was all over.

My so called father whipped me around and and got all up in my face. His breath smelled awful, I wanted to puke. He grabbed the collar of my shirt. "I want to love you but I can't if you keep behaving this way," he said. "What are we gonna have to do?"

"You're gonna have to let me go so I can leave and never come back because you all are horrible parents and I don't want to ever love you. If I told you why I have to go to school so badly, then you would laugh in my face." I said everything without thinking.

"You shouldn't have said that. You should not have said that."

I felt his huge hand slap my cheek. It burned, he hit me so hard. I almost started crying, but I had been through worse. He then hit me again, with three times the force. I did start crying. It burned, I screamed.

"Go to your room and stay there," he said. "It's Saturday. You know my rules about Saturdays."

He gave me a push and I slowly walked to my room. I immediately picked up Jack and hugged him when I got in there. I had to get out of there. I had to get to school. I put Jack in my bag again, I wasn't taking chances. I opened the window in the room and carefully set my bag down outside. I followed, closing the window just as quietly as I had opened it.

I looked around, trying to find a way to school. The bus was gone and I didn't know the way. I went to the front of the house, as well as checking on the so fort of Jack. I looked around some more and saw a boy and his mother next door, about to get into their vehicle. The boy started to motion for me to come near. I walked through the yards separating our houses and joined him.

"Missed the bus again?" his mother asked. I nodded. It wasn't quite daylight, hopefully they wouldn't notice where I had been slapped. It definitely bruised.

"Come on, we'll get you there." The boy said. I normally wouldn't do something like this. There was always a risk. But I had to get to school. I climbed into the vehicle with them, happy that I had found a way out. Hopefully they wouldn't see my bruise or had saw me climb out my window.