The First of Many

If you grow up in the foster care system you get used to living in a lot of different places but, never getting to make it a home. Mostly you're forced into the nearest public school system, go "home", and become nonexistent. It's been a norm in many foster kids lives through the years. Including that of twin sisters, Wendy and Jennifer Goodman since they were seven. Their parents had a lifetime wish to live in every state in America before they died. The twins loved it, to them, it was like a never-ending vacation. They got to see more of the nation they live in than the average child. Granted they can't really remember much of what they did since it stopped in a small Ohio town in January. The family was on their way home from a night out when a snowstorm hit out of nowhere. The twins were orphaned that night after their car was hit by another. They had no relatives to take them in, both grandparents were dead before they were born and their parents were only children. The twins were put into the system. Stuck in Ohio having to fight every day to stay together in the god awful system that is foster care. It was a blessing that Wendy and Jennifer were identical twins. Social Services can sell that to foster parents more than they can fraternal twins or other siblings.

Since that unfortunate night, Jen and Wendy have been all that the other has in life. Most foster parents didn't like them because they never interacted with the other children. They kept to themselves and rarely talked or talked for one another. Their many foster parents found it unnerving and asked for them to be removed. When asked by their social worker after their 4th home in five months had kicked them out, Wendy answered for both of them, "It's a twin thing." So they got moved around a lot. But when you spent the first seven years of your life moving around it wasn't all that different for them until they were told they weren't allowed to explore the new town they moved to, that there would be no fun little adventures and trips like there was with their parents. At most, they got to see from the house to the public school and back. The twins slowly came to realize as they grew up that life had cheated them out of a happy life with a family that loved them. At the age of twelve, the twins had given up hope that they would find the forever home that they had heard over and over in every home they entered. Together they decided that they only ever needed each other and together they were going to continue what their parents started. When they aged out of the system they were going to pack up their little amount of stuff into a car and drive. Head in any direction and make their way around the nation. They were, after all, used to having limited material so living out of a car wouldn't be too bad. And who was there to miss them?

So for the next few years, they searched online finding chat rooms with other foster kids and websites detailing how to survive in the real world after getting out of the system. They this information to good use. When they were 15 they convinced their foster parents at the time that the school implemented mandatory tutor sessions for anyone not in the top 25 percent at the school. They were actually in the top 15 but it was the only lie they could come up with to be able to get jobs without getting in trouble. They started working under the table at the diner in town. Jen would help in the back washing dishes while Wendy ran food out to tables and bussed them.

That's how it's been for the girls for the last three years. Every town or city they moved so they would make up an excuse on why they weren't coming home after school and work any odd job they could. Only a couple of time did they have to split up and get different jobs. The first time when they were 17, Jen worked at the library stocking books while Wendy worked at the coffee shop a block over. It wasn't a big deal to them, just the longest they were ever away from one another for longer than a couple of minutes. They got good at hiding money from some of the not so good foster parents, but since they weren't spending any of it, it became too much to hide. So Wendy decided to talk to their social worker about how they would go about setting up their own bank account. He told them that because they were wards of the state that social services were able to do that for them. He and the bank teller were surprised at the amount of money the twins had saved up from that first year alone. With both of us working from 15-25 hours a week and not spending much it adds up quick. He asked us what we planned on doing with it all. "No one wants us and in two years we become adults and will be kicked out of the system. This is how we survive while completing a dream that was taken away from our family." Wendy told him. He didn't ask any more questions.