My alarm wakes me up early blaring into my ears. I quickly get up and get ready and go down stairs. Mrs. Shaw is already up and has breakfast ready. I sit down and look around, "Where is everyone?"

"Oh Mr. Shaw likes to go on morning runs and Hayden went along so it's just us. Enjoy your breakfast dear and I will finish up here and we will leave to go into town alright." She starts cleaning up the table, placing dishes in the sink and rinsing them off before placing them in the dishwasher. "Oh, I forgot to mention, Mr. Dawson called said you should be there around ten today."

"Yeah, alright." I play with the scrambled eggs on my plate and manage to take a few bites of the bacon and toast. I'm suddenly not hungry, just thinking of them being there in that court room with all eyes on me made my stomach twist in knots.

I stand up and take my plate to Mrs. Shaw. I wasn't going to ask but then what could it hurt. "Mrs. Shaw can I ask you something?"

"Sure sweetheart anything."

"What's the story with Hayden?"

"Hayden, uh....well Star he is just a young boy trying to make it in this world. I can't give you details of his life, but I'm sure if he wants you to know he will tell you."

"Sorry for asking; has he lived here for a long time?"

"Well he has been here for a good eight years I believe. We adopted him about three years ago. Like I said sweetie if he wants to tell you he will."

"You take kids in and you even adopt a few, how many have you adopted over the years?"

"We have adopted five so far over the years, of course we have fostered over twenty or so, but many of the kids go back home to their parents or a relative will take them in. Some just didn't fit in with us and moved on to other foster parents."

"Do you think you two will ever adopt more?"

"I guess if we feel it necessary we would, never know what the future holds." She smiles and finishes up the dishes. "Guess we better be going."

"I know I really haven't said anything, but thank you for letting me stay here with you, it means a lot to me, I just wished..." I stop to stare out the window, watching the neighbor kids playing on the swing set. I thought of my family.

"Wish what Star?"

My eyes start to tear up, "That you and Mr. Shaw could take all of us in. Not just me, but Storm, River and Dawn, like when all this is over. They're going to separate us, I just know it. No ones gonna take all four of us in," the tears really come down then, "I'm never gonna see them again am I?"

Mrs. Shaw comes around the counter and over to me, embracing me so close to her that I can smell the faint smell of her shampoo that lingers in her hair. I can't remember a time that someone held me this close and how good it felt to just being held. I cry for a few seconds and she hands me a tissue.

"Sweetheart, I can't tell you how all this is going to turn out. I haven't a clue, but let's get through this first alright then we will see what we can do." She hugs me for a few more minutes.

Mrs. Shaw would make an awesome mom, why because she actually listens to you and she feels your pain and doesn't make judgment of who you are.

I go back to room to finish up getting ready and then Mrs. Shaw drivres me into town to the court house. When I walk into the main lobby, Storm comes dashing out of the court room. When we our eyes meet each other we run into each other, embracing each other so tightly that I can barely breathe.

I whisper in his ear, "Storm is it actually you, god I miss you so much." The freaking tears, by now I should be drained but nope here they come again.

"Star, it's all gonna be all right you will see. Not much longer and we will all be together again." He holds onto me for dear life. Funny how my little brother still trying to sooth everything over; I should be the one comforting him, but as usual here he is.

Mr. Dawson comes up next to me and nudges my arm, "We gotta go, tell Storm goodbye."

I don't want to tell him goodbye, I don't want to let him go. I want to believe Storm, that all of this will be over soon and we will be together. I really want to believe that but I know better there is no way in hell that it's ever going to happen, not unless by some miracle of God is on our side.

This day in court, is just like the day before asking the same freaking questions as if I was going to change anything that I had already said.

Afterward I go back to the Shaw's. Tonight at the Shaw's is family night. Family night consisted of Pizza, a game, then a late night movie with buttered popcorn and other snacks. Participation is a requirement. The only good thing to come out of this night was the fact that I could actually be in the same room as Hayden.

"Pizza is here!" Hayden yells when there is a knock at the door.

Mr. Shaw gets up and pays for it, then carries it back into the room. The scent taked me back to that first night that Jackson had bought us pizza. This time though there was not one slice of pepperoni. I had requested for a ham and Pineapple and the other pizza was a loaded veggie with cheese. They had also ordered breadsticks, wings and cinnamon bites.

While eating the Shaw's talk about their day, then they ask Hayden how his day was. He rolls his eyes. "Just another day, spent most of my time in my room writing."

I wonder what he writes about, is he a poet, a song writer, a story teller...I like watching him eat, but I try so hard not to stare at him. They brake my thoughts, "How was your day Star?"

"Same as yesterday, they keep asking me the same questions over and over. Just a boring day." And then that's when I remembered Storm, "Oh I got to see Storm this morning. I would say that he looked good so I guess he is being well taken care for, however I can see it in his eyes that he is sad. I can't wait till this is all over." I try to pretend that I was well. The Shaw's didn't need my trauma and definitely not Hayden. Everyone is quite for a while and then while they were cleaning up the dishes, Mrs. Shaw hands me a jar with paper clippings inside.

"What is this?" I ask amused.

"Well its pieces of paper with names of games. See we can never decide what to play and instead of arguing over something so silly one of us pulls out one piece and whatever is on there is what we play for the night. Since it is your first game night with us we want you to pick the game."

I look into the jar; of course I couldn't see what was written on them so it wasn't like I could cheat, besides more than likely I have never played any of the games anyway. I mean it's not like we had board games at home; we were doing good to have a book or even paper to write on.

I reach into the jar and pull out one single slip; I open it up and read it aloud, "Jenga!" Whatever the heck that is. Hayden rolls his eyes, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

So here's how the Shaw's play Jenga. You stack these blocks into a tower, and at the end of some of the blocks there is a question mark and some with the letter D which is for dare. And there were a few with nothing on them. They considered these as a freebie. Mrs. Shaw explains that if you pull a question mark you have to read the question and answer it truthfully and if you pull out one with "D" you had to do the dare that was on the block. They played this way to get the kids to open up. It's supposed to be a fun game but at the same time I guess to help you emotionally. I don't know. Whoever makes the tower fall over loses the game and is out, then build it again until they have the one winner, so if you think about it we had to play three times to get one winner, YAY!

Mr. Shaw makes the tower and Hayden goes first, picking out a dare. "Walk and quack like a duck. Really, alright here it goes. No laughing!" He squats down and starts walking and then quacks three times. I tried so hard not to laugh, but it was kinda funny.

I pull out a question mark. "If you could have any superhero powers what would it be?" I thought for a moment, "Well I think I would want to be invisible that way when I wanted to disappear I could just think about it and be gone just like that." I snap my fingers.

The game goes on for some time and Mrs. Shaw knocks over the tower so Mr. Shaw builds it again and the three of us play. The second time Mr. Shaw knocks it over and that leaves Hayden and I to play the last round. So far tonight I ran in circles, barked liked a dog, walked backwards blindfolded and answered questions about my favorite color, book, person in the world among other questions. The last question made me knock the tower over. I think they knew that I meant to do it, but they didn't say anything. The question was, "If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?" I answer in a whisper, "everything!"

Here's the thing. There is not just one thing that I would change. The first would be to find away to make my daddy stay and not leave. Or maybe to make my momma happy so she wouldn't have to take that drink or get a high to be happy. Or make my family whole again. I know stealing was wrong but I wouldn't change that if it meant taking care of them. I guess the one real thing I would definently change would be Jackson, and even then I can't do that. Now if I had the power to be invisible, then maybe nothing would have ever happened, but I don't have that power and it did happen.

Since Hayden won the game, he gets to pick out the movie for the night. Mrs. Shaw went into the kitchen to make the popcorn. I can tell that Hayden would have rather been in his room but he manages to find one and smiles. "Hope you like cars."

Needless to say, I really don't have a preference in movies, because this girl never got to watch movies, it's not like we had cable or satellite like all the other kids in the neighborhood.

'The Italian Job' was the pick of the night. At first I was like really but then I got into it. There was this really cute guy that played in the movie, Mark Wahlberg and this other guy Jason Statham that got my attention. I actually got into the movie. By the time it goes off it'svgoing on midnight and I am getting really sleepy.

We all say our good nights and head to bed. This time I am the one coming out from the bathroom when Hayden bumps right into me.

"Sorry Star." He looks away quickly.

"It's alright, you said this would happen again," I smile. I try to go around him and we bump again.

"Sorry!" he shakes his head, and runs his fingers through his hair. "Please after you," and he stamds to the side for me to get by. I manage to get by him and push back all thoughts that are running through my mind.

When I get back to my room, I jump in bed like a little girl. My heart is beating so fast, my skin is tingling all over. I drift off to sleep and guess what I dream about...yep Hayden.