Project Runaway

Introduction

Charlie Baker's P.O.V

Sarah sat in the middle of my bedroom floor, thinking of every possible scenario for Project Runaway, while I sat on my bed,  thinking of ways on how we were going to escape and where we would go. It was the summer of 2012 and Sarah said we should leave sometime in 2016, when we were both seventeen years old and had our drivers licenses.

    Sarah was a perfectionist, she didn't want a single flaw in Project Runaway. Neither did I. She wanted to go to a city in California, where it was large and overpopulated, which made sense. She also mentioned "new identities." She said that as soon as we left we needed to dye our hair or get piercings, pretty much just change completely. I wasn't against the whole new identity thing but I wasn't thrilled about California, or year round heat. I liked more cooler seasons, like autumn and spring.

    "How does Vegas or L.A sound to you?" Sarah asked.

    "Either one sounds fine, both are far away and pretty popular."

    Sarah quickly wrote down what I said, both being overpopulated, which Sarah already knew. I still wasn't sure about Vegas or L.A, but I guess it made sense. More crowded cities, like Vegas and L.A, made it more difficult for police or parents to track you. And on top that, we were going to "change". New identities, if we didn't want to get caught and taken back home. Which we didn't. In more populated cities, you could just disappear into the crowd and never be seen again. 

    "We should leave one day after school, having everything beforehand already packed and ready that way we could just not go home and like...disappear," Sarah said, putting the cap back on her Sharpie. I could tell that she was excited about leaving, even if it was in four years.

    "Sounds like a good idea, but wouldn't our parents like know?" I asked her, worrying that when the time came, our parents would have already figured it out. Then we'd be in trouble.

    "We've got four years ahead of us, Charlie. That's plenty of time to fill in the holes of Project Runaway," She said, writing down whatever idea had popped in her head.  So, in four years, 2016, we were leaving. Just getting in a vehicle and driving far away and never coming back. Leaving behind the horrors of our daily lives, we would be free.

And we both longed for freedom.