Jade

"Hello madame?" Alison stopped a woman walking across the street. "C-can i have some money please?" The woman flipped her blonde hair and looked at her in disgust.
"Can you go to school please?" She snapped before walking off.

Alison sucked in a breath and walked to a man who was handling a few bags. "Excuse me sir, can i have some money please?" The man sighed angrily, yet he looked at her with compassion.
"Here." He handed her 5 dollars.
"Thank you so much."
"Yeah yeah wadever." He waved her off and went on his way.

She continued this routine until she had about $50 stashed in her jeans pocket and walked about 5 blocks and began begging again. Teenagers laughed at her, some gave her a single dollar, adults scorned her, older folks looked at her with sad eyes. She had to endure this all day, for about two weeks now.

Begging on the streets didn't get her much. Alison had no place to stay, no food to eat, no clothes to wear, other than the clothes on her back. But what she did have was her head screwed on straight, and from her first night out on the streets, she was thinking of a way to get back her dignity.

This lifestyle only got her about $100 a week if she was lucky enough, and most of that money went to food and water. This was her third week out on her own. A Monday morning and she decided that today was the day she started the tough journey back to civilization.

She dug into her pocket and fetched the old, dingy wallet she found near a garbage can not too long ago. $120 was what she had. For two week she begged and saved until she had $120. Believe me, that was a lot of money for her. Time to go shopping.

She walked and walked until she found the huge sign that read Walmart. She walked in, the cold air conditioning biting at her skin through the worn t-shirt and short-skirt she wore, and her old slippers weren't helping any.

The first thing she went for was a bag. Not a very big one, but a bag none the less. She walked down the huge aisles scanning the various bags it had. She had to be reasonable with her purchase. She saw small, cute hand bags for about $10 dollars. No, she needed a book bag at least.

She say a plain black, boding looking back-pack for $30. It looked durable enough, and with the right amount of care, it would last her. She picked it up, $90 to go. Next in line, clothes.

One flower patterned t-shirt for 3 dollars. A plain black jeans for 5 dollars, a pair of socks and a sneaker for 20 dollars. $62 dollars to go. Next up, hygiene.

If her period came and she wasn't prepared...welll let's not think that. "Let's see..." She muttered. "O.B. tampons." She frowned. She never used tampons before, only pads..but they were cheaper. She grabbed two boxes of tampons for $10 and a small travel pack of panty-shields for 3 dollars.

$49 dollars. A bottle of cheap perfume that smelled okay....$10 dollars. A travel toothpaste toothbrush, $10 dollars. $29 remaining. She frowned again, before sighing and replacing the perfume for an even cheaper one.....$5 dollars.

"Okay...I have a bag, a t-shirt, a jeans, socks and shoes, toothpaste and toothbrush, perfume, tampons and panty shields...panties!" She quickly walked down the clothes section and walked until she saw a small box-set with three panties that looked about her size. $4 dollars.

She had a faint, weary smile on her face as she headed to the cashier and paid for the items. After everything was given to her in a plastic bag, she walked out the store before placing all the newly bought items inside the back-pack, and saving the plastic bag for dirty clothes.

She hit the roads once more, this time with a bag on her back and 30 dollars to her name. She looked into a food shop at the clock. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Soon enough she'd have to look for a place to stay.

On her first night on the streets, she was lost and didn't know what to do. She had met another homeless guy who just lay in front of a store on a large piece of cardboard, and he was kind enough to rip off piece and offer it to her. While she spoke to him, he was telling her that just two night ago some thugs broke into the building, which made her even more nervous.

She politely excused herself and ran as far away from there as she could, until she came to a wide open parking lot to a mall, where she stayed hidden in a corner and spent the rest of the night with her eyes wide open, constantly checking her back.

The day after that, she observed how people begged and eventually followed, earning very little money. When night approached, she walked around a residential neighborhood asking people to sleep on their porch steps. Of course most of them turned her down, until she came to this one man's home and he allowed her to sleep there, but she could hear him locking up and securing his doors through the wall. But that was her night routine from now on until she could think of something.

By the time she reached a peaceful looking neighborhood, it was about 7 almost 8 in the night. Knock knock knock. "Excuse me!" She called from the door of a large white house. A relatively young woman with a little girl, no older than 5, came to the door. "Hello good night. I have no place to go. Can i please sleep on you front porch."

The woman watched her skeptically. "Why would you want to do that? What's wrong with the streets?" Was she serious?
"It's scary out at night and very dangerous. Please let me sleep on you front porch." The woman scrunched her nose upwards before asking.
"Is that it? You don't want anything else?"
"No mam, nothing else, just somewhere to stay out the night."
The woman nodded slowly. "Alright. Just don't cause any trouble."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The woman waved her off and left, while Alison made herself as comfortable as possible on the cold concrete porch, using her new bag as a pillow.

That night was particularly cold and Alison found herself shivering in the cold air. Her life had gone to shit in no time at all. But she put up with it. "One day..." she promised herself. "One day."

Notes