In between

Chapter 1

'Meow'. It's the sound of the stray cat that has been around all my life. I called her Daisy. I don't know why but this cat finds me every time even though I change my place of residence about three times a year. 'What do you want? Can't I just sleep, please? It's hard to fall asleep when you have no bed.' Daisy doesn't even care. Even though she is a stray cat people still feed and pet her. Just because she is cute. Sometimes I wish I was a cat. But I must accept that I am human. Anyways. I should get up and find someone who is willing to keep me in his or her house. Ugh. How would someone even think about adopting me when I smell like trash. I should shower. But I can't sneak into the school's shower at the sports building. Right now, they have holidays. So where should I go now. Let me see how much money I have left. Well never mind. It seems like I forgot my stuff when I was hiding in school. Why didn't I shower when the school was open? Well seems like I must ask strangers. This will definitely be a bad idea, but I should care about my appearance. Maybe they feel pity and swear to me that they will care about me. Like all the others. At the end they throw me out. Just like a little kid who doesn't want to play with its toy anymore. At least I have a warm bed, water and food for a couple days. I am on my way now to ring at all the houses but there is a huge poster in the middle of the way. It says: 'I offer you a room for free. Instead, I need your help.' Sounds good to me. There is no price on the poster. So instead of ringing without a plan I head to the house of the person that did this poster. It is about two kilometers away. But I don't care. If I can get a room, I'll do anything. While I'm walking, I think about who this person could be to write this poster. And what help this person needs. What if I can't do the work. I shouldn't think about it. In a few minutes I'll find it out. Maybe the person is rich. I mean this person offers a room for free. Maybe this person is a very lonely one that has lots of rooms. Wait I forgot that I still smell like trash. I should go to the drugstore and drown myself in those testing products. I won't be clean, but this horrible scent will be gone for a few hours. Should be enough until I can take a shower. So, what scent should it be. Maybe a flower scent. No. I should take a decent one. Fresh breeze. Sounds fresh to me. It smells decent. Before I spray this on me, I look around so no one will ask me why I am using this amount of spray. No one is there. I should spray now. Oh no! The bottle is empty. Ok. What should I do now? Use the other ones? I can't mix the scent. It won't make me smell better. So, let's put the test sticker on a different bottle with the same smell. Nobody is going to notice, right? Ok no I should use it and head out. I smell nice now. That's enough. Now go outside like nothing happened. Nobody is going to notice what I did a few seconds ago. 'HEY!', shouted an employee. 'AH!', I answered. Sweat is running down my skin. Did she notice it? Oh no this is not good. My breathing is probably way too loud. They will notice. 'Can you tell me where the toilet paper is?' Did she really need to shout this loud? I thought she noticed what I was doing. But she didn't. 'Umm. I don't work here. But I think it is over there.' She gives me a confused look. 'You're not Sahra? Oh sorry! I must have mistaken her for you. Are you ok though? Your skin is pale and sweat is running down your face.' Now she looks worried. Will she notice. Don't think about what I just did. The more I think about it the more I start to panic. 'I think I am fine. But thanks for asking.' I gave her a smile so she would leave me alone. But she won't let me go. 'Wait here for a second. I'll grab you a bottle of water. You really look like someone who is about to be unconscious.' She starts to run. It doesn't even take a long time and she is back. 'Here take it.' I can't take this. How should I pay this? My money is at school. 'You don't need to worry. This is on me.' Is she able to read my mind? No way. She would have known that I just did something that wasn't very legal. 'Thank you, a lot.' I take the bottle and leave the store before someone decides to tell the employee what I did. I am now on my way again. I won't stop now. Who knows how many have shown up at the place of this person. The later I arrive the lower is my chance to get this room. I want this room. So, I need to be fast. No one can stop me at this speed. Ok maybe my stamina can stop me. Luckily, I got this bottle with water in it. I drink a good amount of water and keep going. No one can stop me now! I just need to run. Run as fast as I can. And here it is. After a while I am here. In front of me is unfortunately not a huge house. It is a flat. I shouldn't have built my hopes up. But I take it. All I need is to introduce myself. That's it. So, I press the button that says: 'Press here if you need a free room.'