The sun had barely risen into the sky when an alarm clock dramatically rang through the tiny apartment room Natoya had finely decorated to her standard. It had been two weeks after Natoya's father had won the custody battle. Now, instead of being able to spend the entire day at the park, talking to her newfound friends Jess and Andre, she'd have to instead sit through eight hours of boring lectures.

She looked down at her watch to check the time—7:30 AM. She hung her head and took a deep breath before quickly shooting up and walking to the bathroom beside her room. For the first time, she didn't have to remove her shampoo and conditioner from her toiletry bag. She changed into the clothes she had set aside for this morning. She took a shower, sped up while she stomped down the stairs, and quickly opened the door to enter L.A.

The streets were as busy as she expected, and the wind was brisk and sweet. It carried a small cloud of cigarette smoke a few blocks down until it finally dispersed. she speed-walked down the street, trying not to get trampled by the stampede of people going to, and from work. Then, she boarded the 18 Commerce CTR, looking for a place to sit.

Opposite where she was standing, holding onto the rail of the bus was a light brown, curly-haired boy holding the hand of two little versions of himself, one a boy and the other a little girl.

"... Andre?" she asked softly as the bus quickly took off, and gravity pushed her into an unsuspecting man who looked quite startled- then angry.

"Yo. Leave the girl alone; she didn't mean to." She felt Andre grab her hand and pull her away from the man. He stared at her menacingly before he turned away again.

"You alright?" Andre asked, looking down at her with a soft smile.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." She laughed, and then for a moment, she caught the eye of a little boy staring at her, almost as if he was copying the man she had bumped into.

"Oh, yeah. Natoya, this is Dominic and Mileva, Dominic, Mileva- Natoya."

"Andy talks about you a l-"

"Alright then-" Andre covered Mileva's mouth and she looked at him with a playful smile. He returned the smile, almost looking flustered. His broad, green eyes stared into her brown, and it almost looked like the two colors were mixing- like a jungle or forest.

"Don't mind her.." Andre slightly laughed to ease the awkwardness.

The bus ride took another 4 minutes, stopping roughly 5 times, though she wasn't counting.

"So... she gotta drop them off, but they can walk the rest if you'd like?"

"Is it far?" she asked with a slight concern.

"Oh, no, not at all. She normally walks there anyway." Andre laughed; it was almost contagious, and she caught myself smiling at his laugh and his kindness. She could feel myself growing increasingly grateful that she had him here to help me.

Andre and she walked down the street, Andre was holding both of his little sibling's hands. We passed a fast food place with cars lining up its entire drive-through, it almost looked new, as if it had been torn down and rebuilt only last year. We passed a bus barn, with a parking lot filled with buses of all different conditions. she followed Andre into a red brick building with a banner titled "ENROLLING NOW!" right below it was a phone number to what she assumed to be the elementary school his little siblings would be attending. "MONARCH FAMILY LEARNING COMPLEX" with a bit of design, four puzzle pieces with stickmen drawn inside them.

I watched as Andre dropped his siblings off and began to follow him down 7th Street. she couldn't resist watching him as they passed the elementary school.

"What's wrong?""Aha." Andre laughed and shook his head. He looked forward, focused on road they began to walk down. "They just grow up really quickly.""How old are they- if you don't mind her asking?"

"Yeah, no problem. Dominic's the middle child. He's..." Andre hung his head back as he did the mental math. "Eleven-years-old. Mileva is just a few years younger than him, at seven."

"And you're fifteen."

"It's sort of a long story,"

"I'm not judging, don't worry." As they walked down, she offered him a soft smile and placed her hand on his shoulder blade. Banners lined the street post and graffiti lined the walls of nearby buildings as they approached Roosevelt High School.

"This way," Andre led her down a separate street, and a chain fence separated them from what she figured was the high school she was soon to attend. The wall was covered by green plastic, and a sign attached to it by plastic strips warned anyone who did not have the administration's approval before entering the school's grounds.

"W-What are you doing?" she stuttered as he put his foot onto the fence.

"Jumping it, c'mon." My eyes widened as he began to climb over the fence. Andre looked back at her as a car passed and offered his hand to help her up. She looked between him and the fence, then took his hand and quickly climbed over the fence alongside him.

We walked past a shed and entered the concrete building, where several kids were being dropped off by their parents early. she looked at her watch; it was 7:50 a.m.

"I would take that off if she were you," Andre warned, motioning to the watch. she looked back at its silver plate and didn't need further explanation. This didn't seem like the school that would help against thievery, especially if one wasn't smart enough to dress appropriately. she slid the watch off and was about to put it in her backpack before Andre motioned for her to stop.

"I'll give it back to you after class, a'ight? It's safe with me. Trust me."

His words hit her like a truck, and she couldn't help but feel myself be pursuaded. she softly nodded and handed her watch to him, looking him in the eyes as she did. she don't even know how she was trusting him this much. That was her dad's watch- he could steal it and never give it back, and it would be all her fault.

Andre tucked the watch into his backpack. she studied him to ensure it wasn't put in a place that would break. He then offered her a soft smile and began to walk her into the main building.

I was hit with the smell of perfume and cologn.

"Bless you," Andre said as she suddenly sneezed. she covered her nose to try to stop, but it only made her sneeze again. "Bless you," Andre said with a bit of a laugh."Thank you," she laughed. Andre motioned for her to follow him, and they approached a receptionist lady standing behind a glass.She looked old. And not the type of old that you see in movies. She had wrinkly white hair and didn't even know hair could be wrinkly. Her face looked like a paper that had been folded infinity too many times, and she had glasses that didn't fit her face in any way-shape or form. But it wasn't her looks that made her ugly..."What." She said in an annoyed tone. "Don't you got somewhere to be?""She's new. She doesn't have a class schedule." The older lady rolled her eyes and began flipping through files. Andre looked at her with pity, then looked back at the lady.

"Name and grade?"

"Natoya Los. Tenth." The lady shuffled even more through the papers, letting out a huge sigh as she continued growing more dramatically. Then, she must've found something because she pulled out a file and began pulling papers out of it, stringing them along the already-messy desk.

"Here."

"Is that all she needs?" Andre asked."Ugh. Yes, now get out."Andre took the paper and handed it to me. It was ugly cyan paper with the school's logo stamped in the back. The tables were lined with Monday through Friday and periods 1 through 6, with a lunch period in the middle. The design was terrible, as the background for the lunch column was black with black letters, and she could barely see what time it was.

"11:14 to 11:44." Andre suddenly said out of nowhere. "Don't worry, it's easy to memorize."

"Says you." she laughed, then looked at her schedule. My smile faded into a frown as she saw the words printed on the first column. "Algebra, 8:30-9:15."

"What's wrong..?" Andre asked as they began walking down the hallway.

"What did you say that one guy's name was? The one that almost failed an entire class because he had a monotone voice?""Mr. Mornthorn- do you have him?" she looked up at Andre to see a smile slowly grow on his face. she slowly nodded which only made him smile more. "At 8:30?""Yep..."

"You loser."

"Don't you have him too?" Andre was still smiling, even though they would both suffer in his class. In fact, this seemed to make him even happier.

"Well, at least she can show you to your first class," Andre said optimistically.

"Woo hoo." she said in an exhausted tone.

Andre and she walked into room 110, seeing a few other students scattering around as they struggled to find a seat. she followed directly behind Andre as he walked to the last aisle in the back with two open seats.

"Welcome, " said a voice as he entered the class, two kids shoving past each other as they entered not two seconds later. "If you are on this list, this is your class. Please find a seat."

He was another old man. His eyes had bags under them, and his glasses constantly drooped down his face. His desk was very messy and covered with school supplies. Then, he began reading names off the list.

"Adam Amber."

"Here." There was a long pause as he looked around the room, then back at his list and checked it off.

"Orion Burnest."

"Here."

The list went on and on. She let out a silent sigh as she waited for her name. But it never came. She looked back at her schedule and was in the right class. Even if she wasn't, there was no way he was teaching two courses at the same time.

"Andre Vincent."

"Here."

"Do she have everyone...?" There was a bit of silence, and she raised her hand to speak. He slowly looked over at her and blinked.

"No sir." He studied her for a long moment, and she looked at Andre nervously before looking back at him.

"Are you the new student?"

"Yes sir."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Welcome to Roosevelt High School... Make yourself at home."

He went back to his clipboard and appeared to be writing something. She lowered her hand and looked at Andre in embarrassment.

"Today they will be covering functions. What are functions? Kaitlyn."

Everyone in the class looked at a blonde-haired girl who almost looked like she had shrunk in her seat. she almost felt comfort because she wasn't sure how to answer. Andre leaned over and whispered into the boy's ear beside him, who leaned forward and whispered into Kaitlyn's ear.

"It's when a number is paired with another number in a range," Kaitlyn replied quietly. She watched as Andre dug his hand into his forehead and slid it through his curly brown hair. She then caught him looking at her, offering a split-second smile before he looked back at the board.

"Almost. A function takes an input, and gives an output. We will explore how to graph, analyze, and create different types of funcitons."

After Mr. Mornthorn's class was finally over, she felt like a part of her life had been sucked out of me. Mixing stuff she didn't understand with a monotone voice at 8:30 in the morning was precisely how Andre had described it- gruesome. she was starting to understand why the previous class had failed.

The rest of the classes weren't bad. she grew fond of Mrs. Kresh, who taught the English class. The unit was on proper essay writing, something the class had apparently done during the first week of the year. However, too many kids weren't submitting proper essays.

"Alright, that's the end of our lecture today. Please note that tomorrow's assignment will follow the proper essay format. She wants five pages of double-spaced words, 12 point font, Times New Roman."

A loud groan was heard across the class, and she picked up her backpack to look at her schedule for her next class.

"Hey,"I looked up and saw a blonde haired boy with brown eyes staring down at me.

"Hello.." she said, and side-stepped to walk past him.

"Not so fast, you're the new girl, right?"

I stared at him for a long moment before rolling my eyes. She wasn't fond of the boys back at her old school who forced girls to do what they wanted, and she wasn't about to go down that rabbit hole again. She shoved past him and continued on with her day. She heard him yelling behind me.

I walked to her next class, History. I'd quickly walk up to the second floor and navigate for the history class. Finding the classroom would take her quite a while, as the public school was large and crowded. I'd soon figure out the reason why—the classroom number 215 was, for some reason, between 201 and 205.

I entered the classroom and looked around at the 20 kids staring back at me. She made eye contact with Andre, who motioned for her to sit beside him. She quickly shuffled past a few desks, setting her school bag between her and him.

The teacher looked to be in her 40s. She began the lesson as some students continued entering the classroom. I took her books out and listened to the lecture.

After a few more hours and a few more classes, Lunch had begun. She found Andre heading down the opposite side of the hallway from me, and he gave her a look that said everything she needed to know. We were both hungry.

I was never a fan of school lunches, but they did have an athletic period, and she was going to make sure that didn't mess her up. Andre and she stood in a line as kids came and left with lunches. she stood in between him and another random kid.

"How's your first day been so far?"

"Boring."

"Kids here being alright?"

"The majority are, there are a few that are stuck up."

I glanced back at Andre, who looked almost as if he was sort of annoyed, but the look quickly left his face. We slowly made our way to the front of the line, and in front of them were the cafeteria ladies, filling the trays with a slice of pizza, a small carton of milk, and some brown beans.

"This school's got some pretty rough food." she heard Andre sigh behind me. she laughed as she waited for him to take the lead on where to sit.

"So.. Natoya?"

"Yeah, what's up?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you wanted to, y'know, get together sometime to study?"

I looked down at the cafeteria food and noticed a small worm slowly leaving the beans. She pushed the tray aside. "Yeah, sure, after school, you and she can grab some pizza or something," she said with a bit of a laugh. Andre looked at her plate, and he must've noticed the worm because he, too, pushed the tray away.

"And maybe you could give her a bit of a tour," I'd laugh, thinking back to how she was almost late for her history class due to it's strange placement.

"Deal." He stuck out his hand and she shook it. The rest of lunch was relatively chill, they spent most of it on our phones and then walked together to our next class, biology. There, she focused on the lesson and followed along with her notes. Andre seemed rather bored, and compulsively threw tiny bits of paper here and there across the room. Our teacher was an older man who believed in note-taking and quizzes rather than hands-on learning. She struggled to stay focused in her remaining classes as the day ended, until finally, it was time for athletics.

Andre and she walked outside the school to the field house, where a large group of students were walking. When they arrived, he seemed to be conversing with the P.E. teacher, who looked at her and walked over. She showed her into a separate room, where she looked through a few boxes and gave her a medium-sized T-shirt and shorts with the school logo and "ATHLETICS" written on them. She took them and quickly ran to the locker room to change.

The P.E. teacher seemed to also be relatively new to the school this year, as she was taking the class a lot more seriously than some of the other students might like. The first part of the class was a separate boy and girl workout, where they lifted weights and did cardio. Then, halfway through the class, the teacher let them have some fun with a game: dodgeball.

Andre and she were on opposite teams, which sparked a bit of competition between me, though she could see it in his eyes. He wanted his team to win. The game went on for a few minutes, she threw a ball at a girl and got her out, he threw a ball at a boy on her team and got him out. she shot a ball at a guy on his team and another guy on her team threw a ball at a blonde haired boy that she slowly began to recognize as the boy from her English class. He made eye contact with her and she dodged the ball he threw in her direction.

Then, she made eye contact with Andre, and instantly threw a sharp ball at him. Andre ducked and smiled. "Whoo! Hot shot Natoya!" He laughed as he picked up a nearby ball.

"Just for you!" I'd shout back and grab another ball, throwing it at another kid. she narrowly dodged another ball as it was shot directly at her head.

I heard Andre laugh and looked over at him just in time to see him rewinding a ball to throw at an unsuspecting sophomore. she laughed as the boy buckled back and slowly got off the court.

People on her side were slowly getting out, which took a toll as they also struggled to get people on Andre's side out. she upped her game and quickly began throwing balls, grabbing them from the floor, and tossing them at other kids. This must've caught the attention of the blond boy, as he suddenly threw a nasty headshot at her from the other side of the court.

The ball slammed against her head, and she stumbled back. For a moment, all of her senses felt disoriented. Then, she heard the P.E. coach blow a whistle. she shook her head, got onto her hands and knees, and felt a hand grab her arm to help her up.

"Natoya... Are you good?" Andre asked. She looked at him, blinking a few times as she tried to refocus her vision.

"Yeah.. she guess karma's a bitch, huh?" I'd laugh, trying to grab her head. "I'm good."

"Hey," she heard Andre speak. His voice had changed from his usual soft tone to a stern, vexed tone. It reminded her of how her father spoke between her mother and me: "Watch out who you're throwin' those balls at."

"Shut up Vincent."

"Yo. Back off, " another boy said, joining her and Andre. She looked over at him. He had dark brown skin that matched his eyes and curly black hair.

"Yeah, shut up, Boyle." A girl chirped in. She looked between the three, then focused on Andre as she steadied herself.

"Whatever... It was just a joke, pushover.."

I grabbed Andre as he suddenly looked like he was about to rush over at the blond-haired boy. Boyle. "Those assholes. Are you alright?"

I nodded and massaged her temples with her thumbs. "I'm good, don't worry about it." I'd softly punch his shoulder and then walk to the locker room, splitting ways with Andre and his friends as the girls walked into the girls' locker room and the boys' other.

***

"I wasn't going to throw a ball at you, but it was self defense."

"It was not self-defense!" she shouted playfully as she leaned into Andre. He scoffed and put his arm over her shoulder, and she felt her heart skip a beat.

"Look her in the eyes and tell her you weren't going to throw that ball in her face."

I looked Andre in the eyes, and she couldn't help but feel a smile grow on her lips. He rolled his eyes and shook his head as they stopped beside his little brother and sisters' elementary school. Andre went inside and picked up his little siblings. She waited outside, looking around the area as groups passed by. She could feel myself growing anxious as some older boys walking home from school stared in her direction.

"Alright, let's go home." Andre tapped on her shoulder and she quickly followed him and his little siblings to the bus route.

"Andy says you come from France," Mileva said as she let go of Andre's hand and grabbed mine instead. She looked up at Andre, who shrugged and continued walking.

"That's right."

"Was it cold there?"

"Sort of."

"Was it smelly?"

"... Sort of."

"Did you like it there?"

"... Sort of..."

"Why did you come here instead?""I wanted to live with her dad.""Why did you want to live with your dad?"

"All right." Andre quickly interrupted before looking back at his little sister. She giggled and let go of her hand to catch up to her older brother. she smiled at their unique bond. It was something she had always wanted: a little sister or brother to hang out with. On one hand, she felt myself jealous, but on the other hand, she was grateful that her parents didn't decide to bring another child into the world.

Andre, Mileva, Dominic, and she all boarded the bus that drove them back into downtown L.A. she noticed that he held a sturdy stance so as not to get knocked over by the bus since he wasn't able to hold onto anything. she offered to take Mileva's hand. She seemed content with this and held onto her hand as she held onto the bus rail."Thanks," she read on Andre's lips as the bus took off. He held onto the railing as well. she looked out the window, mesmerized by the view of the train's reflections over a river, but it left as quickly as it came."Want her to walk you home after she drop these two off?" Andre said, breaking her focus on the window,

"I'd like that," she replied with a soft smile.

The train ride back was surprisingly peaceful. Instead of getting off at her stop, she watched Andre for the rest of the ride so that she would know when they were getting off.

After another ~ five minutes, the bus stopped, and she followed Andre onto the sidewalk, where he waited for everyone else to leave before he, I, and his two little siblings walked across the street.

His apartment building didn't look bad at all. It had a large sign that said "HUNTINGTON APTS " across the side of the building, and its walls were dark or dirty beige brown. she followed Andre into the building and up the stairs until they reached his apartment.

"Just wait out here a moment," Andre said, and she softly nodded. She caught a small glimpse of his apartment. It was, to say the least, cluttered and almost reminded her of her dad's house. Papers and cardboard boxes lay astray across the dirty kitchen, and trash almost fell out of the trash can. She quickly looked away so as not to embarrass him.

I waited outside his apartment briefly until things finally settled down. she heard footsteps before Andre left, closing and locking the door behind him. she looked up at him, almost admiring the freckles over his nose bridge. Andre had very roughed-up eyebrows. He never actually fixed them up, but they were very full. His curls looked similar to those of an ocean's wave, except darker and brown.

"Ready to go?" His eyes met mine, and she was able to get a closer look at them. They were green—an algae green—and they merged into a brown—not a brown similar to his hair, more like a dark aburn brown.

"Yeah," she replied with a bit of a smile. she followed Andre down the stairs and through the front door until he and she started to make our way down the familiar street to the bus stop. When they reached the intersection, they crossed and continued walking to her house.

"So, it's you, your little brother and sister and...?"

"My mom." Andre replied, looking down at her as she tried to make conversation.

"Dad?"

"Nope." Andre's voice lowered as he answered, and she nodded, putting the pieces together. His father must've left when he was younger. "He comes and goes every now and then."

"Do you visit him on the holidays or.." Andre laughed at this statement and shook his head.

"No, he never wanted anything to do with us."

"I'm sorry." she said softly, looking up at Andre who moved her to the other side of the street as they crossed.

"What about you?"

"Pretty similar, actually. My mom and dad got divorced when she was ten, she lived with her mom up until now."

"What happened?" Andre asked curiously.

"I ran away..." she explained to Andre the story behind why she had run away, including the coming back to her mom's house, the yelling, the plane ticket, and the friendly people she met along the way.

"Doesn't sound like it was unfamiliar territory." Andre said as they turned the corner.

"No, not at all. she always ran away from her."

"Do you normally take to running away from your problems?" Andre teased, lightly pushing her towards a building.

"Do you normally take to..."

"Uh huh?"

I rolled her eyes as Andre confronted her bluff, and looked up at the large apartment building in front of us.

"Well, she guess I'll see you at school tomorrow," she said, unlocking her arm with Andre while she backed into the door to her apartment complex.

"I'll see you then," Andre replied softly. she smiled and walked into the complex, sprinting up the stairs to her room.

I thought about the day's events until supper, texting Andre and Jess back and forth while she changed, showered, and ate supper.

So, this is what freedom tastes like?