The basement was cold and wet, but that didn't stop my father from making it his 'home away from home' as he called it. He was a scientist, but, not the scientist you would expect him to be; he was more like that mad scientist you see in the cartoons. Anyways, I understood why he delved so much into science; my mother left him and I when I was six months old. The basement with his equipment is where he could forget about everything and focus on his experiments and inventions. I thought he was a really great scientist, that is, until they took him away.
One of our neighbors had reason to believe he was doing illegal experiments on animals and they thought it to be an 'unhealthy environment' for me. I disagreed and tried to battle them, but who would believe a fourteen year old over a thirty four year old? So, for a year I have been in foster care and my father has been suffering, needlessly, in a mental institution; Holly Hill to be exact. My father kept his experiments top secret and I wasn't even allowed to look; once he yelled at me for the entirety of the evening for delivering a drink to him. He said that "I almost saw one of his most secretest inventions" he then continued with "If you saw it, I would have to kill you, and I don't want to do that to my only child!"
He was joking, of course, but I've always wondered what he was doing. I would hear sounds similar to explosions and then hear joyous laughter; I would then assume his experiment worked. My father had short black hair and glowing green eyes, he didn't have any facial hair; mostly because it would catch on fire if something went wrong. He was tall and lean, quick witted, and of course, brave. Who would be in the same room with a live hand grenade, willingly?
On May 4th they came for him; they held me and dragged me to a black suburban whilst they put him in a white car, he went willingly and I did not. The only way they could get me inside the car was to drug me, with a woozy head I woke in foster care; I closed myself off and wouldn't talk to anyone, until I met Penelope. Penelope is a short, blonde girl with shimmering brown eyes; Penelope's mother was a 'woman of the night' and her father was a drug dealer, she came to the foster home on her own accord. At lunch I was alone when she came up to me and sat in front of me, a glittering smile plastered on her face. She then stuck out her hand and told me her name; along with the parameters of why she was there.
I hesitantly shook her hand and answered "I'm Percyla, my father was taken to a mental hospital and my mother left" Penelope sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, why was your father taken to a crazy house?" She asked setting a small, red lunch box on the table and taking a sandwich out from it.
"He was falsely charged with experimenting on animals" I answered as my brown hair fell from its ponytail I had banished it to.
"Oh, he was a scientist! I do love science!" Penelope said, she got excited and started to talk about what she liked and disliked. Penelope was a chatter-mouth and I thought she would never shut up, but she was good company. We left lunch and walked outside where children were playing football; but they were playing it wrong. In order to get Penelope to shut up I asked if we could play, and they answered warmly.
"Get lost, girl!" One of them shouted, he was the one holding the football. He was no more than eight, he had blonde hair and green eyes and a tongue that wouldn't stay in his mouth. "Football is a man's sport! No room for ladies!" He yelled with laughter. Then a tall man stepped forward, he had dark brown hair that almost looked black with blue eyes, he had a lean figure and wore a grey jersey with the white numbers 11 on it. He looked the age of Penelope and I.
"Let them play, and you" He said pointing to the kid who held the football, he then took the football "Women can do whatever they please, including play football" At hearing this the eight-year-old gave an exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes; the man gave him a small smack on the back of his head. The man walked over and apologized "Sorry about my little brother, he learns too much from the television. Any who, my name is Carter and that little brat over there is Gavin" Penelope and I introduced ourselves and Carter handed me the ball. "You wanted to play, right?"
I took the ball and watched as they all got into defense positions. Carter was the first one I had to get the ball around; I placed the football on a small, yellow stand and walked backwards a few steps. I smiled at Carter and he winked at me that was followed with a confident smile; I ran up and quickly lifted my right leg up, connecting with the football. It shot out of the stand and flew above Carter's head, finally sailing through the two yellow prongs and landing outside of a wire gate that enclosed the back of the foster home. Carter stood before me in awe; he then began to laugh and looked back at me.
"You have a very, very nice kick!" He said as we all watched Gavin retrieve the ball and throw it to his brother "I know who I'm picking on my team" he muttered to me with a smile. Ever since our first meeting, Carter and I have grown to become great friends, we were inseparable. The foster home has started to fall into ruin and the staff have turned venomous; they started to separate the boys and girls, Carter and I rarely ever saw each other. Soon, the foster home fell into such disrepair that they decided it was unfit to live in. So, they packed us all up, and moved us, well, tried to anyways.
Penelope and I had enough of those people and we made an escape plan. If one of us were caught the other would continue to freedom and help the other as soon as possible. We shared this plan with Carter and Gavin through a series of notes that we passed to one another at lunch, and through his friends. When they were moving us into the busses, Penelope, Carter, Gavin and I would hide in the bathrooms until the buses were out of sight. The staff always did a head count when the bus was already on the move, so when they were counting, we would be long gone.
When the day came we acted as if everything was normal. But, as they were herding the children onto the bus Penelope and I escaped back inside; bags and all. I had a small, blue suitcase that wasn't hard to carry, but Penelope had a large, zebra print suitcase; this was troubling to carry. As we passed the boys bathroom I knocked three times and a few moments later I heard three returning knocks, this meant Carter and Gavin were in place. Penelope and I hurried into the girls bathroom and squatted on the toilets holding our suitcases to our chests and trying not to breathe.
Soon we heard a woman come into the bathroom and yell "hello!" thankfully, Penelope stayed quiet. As the door opened I heard the slosh of water beside me and I cringed, hoping the woman didn't hear; sadly, she did. She shut the door again and asked if anyone was there, Penelope remained quiet and didn't make a sound; I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them to find that the woman had stopped before my stall. I saw two black Nikes at the bottom of the door, I gave a silent gulp and prayed to every god that I knew the name of that she didn't find us. For, we would surely be in a world of trouble if she did.
My prayers, for me, were answered; but, Penelope was in trouble. The woman walked from my stall to Penelope's and tried to open the door. She found it was locked and looked through a crack between the door and the side of the stall, she gave a cry of exclamation and quickly slithered underneath the stall; like the snake that she is. I heard Penelope whimper and try to get away, but the woman was too fast; I heard Penelope cry in pain and I heard the woman laugh as she unlatched the door to the stall and strolled out. The woman was pulling Penelope by the ear and hand; this angered me.
I stayed quiet and watched helplessly as Penelope was pulled to her bane. The door opened and closed for the final time and everything went quiet. After a few moments I heard the engine to the bus start and I soon heard the engine noise dissipate until it was inauiditable. I quietly walked out and knocked on the wall between the boys and girls bathroom three times; I waited, but there came no sound from the room. My heart jumped to my throat and I peeked outside to find that the home had been deserted.
I picked up my suitcase and walked over to the boys bathroom, only to find that it too was deserted. My thoughts instantly went to Carter, had they found him whilst Penelope was being taken? Was I the only one to escape? I sighed and started to shake, not from cold, but from fear. How was I going to make it, all by myself?
I then turned back towards the door and to my surprise I saw Carter, holding my suitcase. "Carter!" I cried and ran to him, hugging him tightly. "But, how?" I asked looking up at him. He smiled.
"I'm more sneaky than you think" He replied, then his smile was replaced with solemnness "Sadly, my brother didn't make it. By the looks of it neither did Penelope" I agreed and he said that it was time to go. We quickly walked out and ran for the back door; Carter held both of our suitcases so I ran ahead of him. They left the door unlocked and made it extremely easy for us to run, thankfully we were both quick on our feet and made it at least two miles before we heard the rumble of the engine of the old bus again. We only ran faster, not in any particular direction, we just wanted to get away.