Molly's Life Part 7- Hello Real World!

Apparently, dear reader, I have lived what the folks here call a sheltered life. Ironic since I am now in a shelter. This lawyer they gave me is a bug eyed idiot. He says he doesn't want my case anymore because I am a know- it- all on the phone, then in person he HAS to be my advocate and then decided he wants to keep me on as a "client"? A likely story, my dear reader! How much do you want to bet that the judge told him man up and stop being intimidated by a 14 year old?

Ok let's backtrack a bit. DHS stepped in and file charges on my parents. Apparently all the stuff they have been doing is emotional and physical abuse. So that is that right?  No! I had to go before a judge with them there and testify about it. Well I didn't even get to testify. I still have no clothes here so I had to borrow a sweat suit for court. It was stained so I turned it inside out. The judge was SO mad at me. My dumb lawyer told me not to say a WORD unless he told me to say something. Then the judge starts asking me direct questions and I look to the lawyer to see if I should answer and he just stares at me with those big bug eyes not even giving me a hint as to whether I should answer! Can you believe it? So I hesitated long enough that the judge let me off the hook and set the next court date to give DHS time to gather evidence. My dad looked mad at my mom, and my mom looked mad at me. I kinda feel bad for dad; he didn't really know everything that happened at home. he really did work a lot and then mom harped on him the second he got home about all kinds of dumb stuff about me or things he buys or whatever when she spends a fortune on her hair and stuff every month. Plus she wears sooo much makeup and that is expensive! I am never going to wear that much makeup.

Ok so anyway, my thirty days at this shelter is up so they dropped me here at the DHS offices. No one has even come to talk to me about what they are going to do with me or where I am sleeping tonight. I’m sitting here with my backpack and a trash bag of belongings. I am so glad it is a Friday so I don't have to worry about missing school tomorrow. There are a lot of parents here. I wonder which are the good ones here trying to help kids who have been hurt and which did bad things to their own kids. 

The kids at the last shelter weren't too bad. They have so many stories to tell.  If you are reading this, you should know that for every story like mine, there are 100 more to tell that may never be told because not everyone keeps diaries like mine. 

There is James whose mom was killed by his stepdad but everyone thinks she fell down some stairs. His stepdad is a cop and no one would listen to him so he ran away and was at the first shelter for a couple nights. He was scared to stay any longer in case his step dad is still looking for him. I snuck him my toiletries when he left figuring I can get more and played lookout while he grabbed some food from the kitchen for his bag. I was sooo scared. I never break the rules but no way was I letting him leave with no food. It is bad enough it looks like rain. I begged him to stay a couple more days. The shelter lets you stay 7 days as a runaway or 30 if you are in "the system" like me.

Then there is Rachel. She has a boyfriend who is 25! She sneaks out a lot on her "leave" to see him. She has been at a lot of places and keeps running away. normally I would write her off as a defiant kid who needs to grow up but then she starts to talk about how bad her dad beat her and how he’s the one who taught her about sex but only wanted it for himself and she showed him by getting this boyfriend. And I can't help but see the pride she is hiding whatever she really feels about it. it slips for just a second, but not long enough to see what lies behind the pride. So many writers have said the eyes are the window to the soul, when I met Rachel I realized they were right. Rachel’s window has a near perfect curtain of pride and bravado that barely ever flutters away.

So many more stories to tell dear reader, and right now, my parents don't look all that bad. But here comes my caseworker... hopefully they found me a place to stay tonight.