Life can only get so hard when you’re living on the street.. Your struggles are primarily based on where you’re going to sleep, what are you going to eat, and who can you trust. For Veronica there was the added hardship of doing that but for two. Growing up in the streets of Paris, wasn’t for the weak willed especially for two girls. The two of them bounced around from foster home to homeless shelters to the beds of kind strangers. Yvonne being the eldest bore the burden of working many jobs and doing anything she could to provide for her younger sister. This lead Yvonne down a path that most don’t tread and one that most don’t stray from.

Even though she was at a disadvantage, Yvonne had a few tools at her disposal. She was smart, resourceful, young, and beautiful. When dealing with the criminal underground those were each good traits to have. While her sister had a roof over her head and a food on the table, Yvonne would slip away to try and keep up the illusion of safety and consistency even if at the expense of her own well being. When she was fostered and forced to go to school, rumors spread quick about Yvonne. To the boys she was ‘easy’, ‘fast’ and ‘would do anything to make some cash’. To the girls, she was ‘a dirty skank’ ‘a disease infested whore’ and a ‘Boudin’. While she was in school Boudin LaRue might as well been her actual name. She garnered sympathy from the adults around her which was always cause for more rumor. One particularly venomous rumor was that she was sleeping with a few boys and the physical education teacher. In truth, he and his wife offered her a spare room for her sister when they were in the middle of relocating. However, the weight of a rumor goes far, especially when you already have a reputation.

The kind man was sentenced to prison and Yvonne never went back to highschool.

Yvonne’s adult life was in her opinion a lot easier. She found a small place she could call home, enough room for her and her sister to live comfortably and quietly. Her landlord never asked where the money came from and she had acquainted herself with a trustworthy dealer who she would often run with. Yvonne made sure that her sister never had that veil lifted over her eyes, she tried her best to preserve her innocence, and in truth, Yvonne had felt like she had done her best for the young girl. Yvonne could be for her what no one was for herself.

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Yet there was an anxiety brewing within her.

How long could she keep up the facade? When will she inevitably be caught? What will happen to her sister? Where will she go? Who will take care of her? What if she gets caught up in something she can’t escape from? What was best for her?

“What is best for her… and me?”

That thought plagued Yvonne’s mind for a very long time. Her tact and cunning solved the three major problems of a street kid… She knew what she was going to eat, she had a comfy place to sleep and she had people she could trust. However, raising her sister to be better than her and their futures were both unfamiliar territory. An insurmountable challenge with no solid solution.

As she sits in her apartment, her mind wanders while staring up at the blue sky. Her sister is there doing her homework for the day on the kitchen table. Yvonne reflected on her experiences and the things she had to do to get to this point and came upon a realization.

Being a street kid is so much easier than being a good parent.