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It was a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon. They drove for an hour. DeAnna was wondering where they were going and who they
were gonna meet. It had to be better than where they were with Frank. They finally pulled up to a large old home. It was in
the country. They went inside and her mom introduced her to Tony and his kids. Steve, Debbie, Tony, Jimmy, Judy & Alan.
They were Italian and Suiox Indian and the boys and big Tony all had long hair.
"Why don't you go outside and play with Judy?" Her mom said as DeAnna kinda hide behind her mom. "She's
one year younger than you. You two can have fun together."
"Come on! I'll show you my room." Judy said. DeAnna followed her upstairs. As you came up the stairs there was
a short wall round the stairs at the top. With beds on either side of the stairs. They walked through that room into another
bedroom.
"This is where me & Debbie sleep." DeAnna looked around. It was pretty nice. There was a window and she
walked over to it and looked out it. It over looked a pond outback. And a big field. DeAnna loved the view.
So the next day they moved in with them. There was a large walk in closet in the girls room. They put a bed in it for
her & Judy to sleep in. Steve painted a orange & black piece sign on the bedroom wall for us. We thought it was cool.
Her and Judy loved it!
The days seem to fly by. DeAnna & Judy did everything together. The house was so old & they told her stories about
Molly Churches. We had to just say M.C. or she would come to haunt you.
They had a cellar on the front porch which was screened in. The cellar was huge stones on one side. The other side was
just a dirt wall. They would have sancies down there. And all end up running up the stairs to get out of there. They were
always having fun together.
One day DeAnna and Tony came in from outside to watch tv and Steve came down the stairs from the bedroom.
"Tony, you're not gonna believe this!" Steve said. "I swear I just seen you go up the stairs. I was calling
to you and followed you up the stairs. But you were no where up there!"
"No way!" Said Tony. "We just came in from outside. You must of seen a ghost!"
"It looked so real! Wow that's scary!" Steve said. They all ran back up the stairs but there was no one up there.
DeAnna really liked Tony. They would sneak off and kiss each other. Steve & Tony would hang out together. Steve liked
the Debbie Vettis down the road. Tony would always try to make plays at her on the school bus. And wouldn't even sit with
her. DeAnna got tired of him flirting with her so broke up with Tony & went steady with a boy at school. Tony founded
out about it and was pist! He & Steve were the first on the bus. And when she got on the bus Tony started saying there's
the whore on the bus. Her last name was Horbacz, (w)hor(e)(on the) bacz(bus). This went on for days. She was getting embarrassed
to get on the bus in the mornings. She finally had it out with Tony one evening! He told her to break up with him. So she
did. And he quite calling her names in the mornings.
Some of them would play spin the bottle with some of the neighbor kids. DeAnna was nervous about kissing anyone but Tony.
But it was fun.
DeAnna would often write in the dirt outside T.M. + D.H. Jimmy liked DeAnna and he would go around changing the T to a
J. DeAnna told Jimmy that was alright because she told Tony she didn't write that because she never crossed her J's. Jimmy
was rather bummed out!
Someone was getting up in the middle of the night and was stealing all the twinkies & ding dongs. Big Tony was upset
about it. He found out it was DeAnna's brother Larry. And grounded him for it. Larry decided he want to live with their dad.
So he left to live with him. About a month later they had found out Little Larry was a diabetic and every morning had to give
himself shots. He had to practice doing on a orange before he could learn to do it to his self.
One night DeAnna had woke up to use the bathroom which was downstairs. She slowly tip toed down the stairs. It was rather
scary having to go through the big old house with everyone sleeping. It was so quite and dark. When she was done she ran back
up the stairs and into their bed. She crawled back into bed laying on her stomach and Judy woke up. DeAnna started telling
Judy she just had this weirdest dream and turned over on her back. And as she did she seen this black shadow leaning over
her. She screamed and pulled the covers over her face. She woke up Debbie, Steve, Tony and Jimmy. They all came running into
her room asking what was wrong. She came from out of the covers and said there was a ghost leaning over her.
"It was M.C.!" They Steve said. "It's Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas..... M.C.!" They all went back
to bed. DeAnna stayed up talking they were too scared to go back to sleep.
Denise was only two years old and used to cry alot. Big Tony couldn't stand it and he would beat her to try to get her
to shut up. DeAnna would run up to her room and cry. She couldn't stand to see him do that to her.
One day in school it was the end of the day she was waiting for the bell to ring to go home. All the sudden her and her
brother Bobby was called to the office. That was strange. She didn't know why she would be called to the office.
Her and Bobby sat in a chair waiting to see the Principle. Then they were called in to his office. Family & Children
Services were there to take them away. Big Tony had beat Denise so bad she was in intensive care. Their mom had said she fell
down the stairs. But the doctors said that it would of caused all that damage.
So they were taken away to a juvenile home. It seem to take hours to get there. DeAnna was nervous. She didn't know what
to expect. When they got there she was put in with the girls and Bobby was put in with the boys. They were in the privilege
one because they didn't do anything wrong. It was their parents. There was about 20 other girls. Once she got settled they
took her to give her a tour of the other building. For the ones who did something wrong and were in trouble. It was rather
spooky. They were in little rooms with bars on a small door window. It looked like a jail. She was told that if she got into
trouble she would be sent there. DeAnna knew she didn't want to end up there.
Some of the tough girls would pick on all the new girls. But she was wearing a Levi jacket so she didn't get picked on.
The said she was "cool".
Every morning they rode a bus to the school even though it was just across the street. Classes were three different grades
together in one room because there was so few children. And whenever you did good instead of a grade you were given a star.
After so many stars you were given candy.
Weekends were boring and long. They had a tv room and games to play but could only go outside when taken with a guard.
The yard was a huge chain link fence with bob wire at the top around it.
Some weekends they would take them roller skating or out some where. But it wasn't often.
One weekend her dad came to visit her. She was so happy. When she walked into the room her dad walked up to her giving
him a hug.
"I love you DeAnna." Her dad said as he handed her a bag from McDonalds. They sat down so she could eat.
"I love you too dad. I'm glad you came to see me."
"You know you can leave here and come live with me." He said as she inhaled the burger, fries and a milk shake.
It had been a long time since she had one. Food there was ok but there's nothing like a good burger and fries.
"I know. But I really like living with all the kids. He hasn't hurt any one else."
"Well, I guess I understand. But really wish you would come live with me at grandma's and grandpa's. They would love
to have you."
"But I really love being with mom. Sorry dad."
Time seemed to fly by and soon it was time for him to go. DeAnna went to her room and layed in bed she really felt like
being alone.
Winter was coming and it started to snow. At night they would all laying in bed talking. They were in one room with 10
bunk beds for them to sleep in. They would sneak up and go into the bathroom with a mirror. They would get the light to reflect
off the mirror out the bathroom window to the boys building. And the boys would do the same.
One night they were all laying in bed talking and the girl in the bunk above DeAnna said something about wanting one of
the icesciles hanging outside.
"You do?" DeAnna asked.
"Yea! I love ice."
"Well, open the window. I'll get you one." DeAnna said getting up out of bed. The girl opened the window and
DeAnna jumped out and broke off a icle. All the sudden a light was shinned on her from the boys building. DeAnna knew it wasn't
from a mirror.
"Hurry up! Get back in here." Some of the girls called to her. "The phone just rang and they're coming
to check on us."
DeAnna handed in the icle and a bunch of girls pulled her in through the window. They all jumped into their beds just
in time. The door opened and a guard was walking through their room shinning a light on them all.
"No, their all here." The guard said into a walkie talkie. And left the room.
"Boy, that was close. Your crazy girl." One of the girls said to her.
"Yea, but thank you!" The girl in the top bunk said as she chewed her ice.
Sometimes they would all get up in the middle of the night and sneak into the kitchen. They'd get into the big freezer
and take a box of ice sandwiches. They get back to the room everyone would take one and then put it into a pillow case
and stick it out the window. They'd close the window on it so they would have ice cream any time they wanted.
They one day DeAnna was told to pack up. They were sending her to a foster home. She had been there too long and they
needed more room for new girls to come in.
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