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Chapter Two: Life on the streets

Life on the street was great. It may sound weird, but I loved it. I wandered around the first day, pondering on how I was going to get a decent meal. I had standards, I may have been living on the street but I was not going to eat from the garbage. I was doing a bit of pickpocketing the first day, and stole a granola bar, why that woman was walking around with it in her back pocket I'll never know. It made a decent breakfast and the wallet I snagged with it had a good bit of cash in it as well. It was a nice wallet as to, made of a nice black leather with the designing of a butterfly printed on the front. I tossed out the drivers license, the woman looked nothing like me so it wouldn't do me any good, and a few credit cards. There was a nice Starbucks gold membership card in there that I kept though, I used that for lunch.

I lived like that for several days, even pulled a scam in Olive Garden a few days latter. I sort of followed a family in and got my own table, my escort to my table didn't question me being there to much, but he did look at me funny more than once. I got my dinner and it was one of the best meals I ever ate, when it came time to pay, that was when it got tricky. When my waiter came after taking my dishes he glared at me.

"Did you enjoy your meal Miss?" He said, I could hear the strain in his voice as he no doubt thought 'There is no way she has the money to pay for this, who let her in here anyway?'

"The food was lovely sir, I'll be sure to recommend this place to my friends." I replied, my eyes scanning for a way I could sneak out.

"I assume you will be paying now?" He emphasized the word 'paying' as he glared distastefully at me.

"You know, I think I'll have another round of bread-sticks before I leave." I told him and waited for him to fetch it for me. He gave me an evil smirk.

"I know what your doing Missy and it wont work. As soon as I leave your going to bolt without paying, and I cant have that."

I pulled a few twenty's out of my pocket and waved them in his face.

"I have money you moron, now hop to it and get me my bread-sticks." He gave me one more distasteful look and walked away. He stopped by another employ and muttered something to him then pointed to me. I waved at him as he walked off. The employ was watching me attentively. An idea formed in my mind. I had the money to pay for the food if all else failed, but why pay when you and get it free? That motto had served me well so far.

The waiter came back with the bread-sticks and slammed them down on the table in front of me.

"Anything else I can get you." He asked me sarcastically.

"Yes, you can get me the manager." I told him.

He looked at me, and asked. "Why might you want to see him?"

"I have a complaint about the staff here." He glared at me once again and walked off to get the manager. The other employ was still watching me so I could have to make up a decent story instead of bolting like I was going to. I munched on a bread stick until my waiter came back, a man following him wearing a formal suite and a gold badge that said 'manager' on it.

"What seems to be the problem Ma'am?" He asked. He spoke formally and didn't make eye contact.

"I have a complaint about your staff." I told him. My waiter stiffens and he shoots me a hateful look.

"Since I got here, my waiter has been glaring at me whenever he was near me. He accused me of not being able to pay and watched me while I was eating. Not to mention he slammed my food down on the table and used a sarcastic tone whenever talking to me."

The manager looked a bit shocked, I was a seven year old sitting in Olive Garden alone and accusing his waiter of bad service and stalking. He looked at the waiter. "Is this true?" He asked. The waiter shot me a hating look and replied.

"It is not, I treated her like any other customer. It's true I had her watched, but that was because, frankly she looks like a street rat and I didn't think she had the money to pay. I didn't want her to bolt out of the restaurant without paying..." He trailed off.

"So you glare at all your customers and speak like their idiots?"

The manager took the waiter aside and started lecturing him. I took this as a good time to sneak out. The employ that had been watching me had left to help another customer so I had a clear exit. No one questioned me leaving and I simply walked out. As I was walking away I hear a cry "See I told you! She left without paying!"

I chuckled, it may have been a bit more work than I would have liked, but I got out with a free meal, and even snagged a few tips on my way out.

I was walking back to an old building that I called home, when a boy with snow white hair stopped me. He looked a bit like me, his clothes were dirty and his hair was messy. He looked a bit older than me, maybe eleven. He was thin and lean. Like he had been living on the streets most his life.

"That was clever how you distracted them in there, and you even made it out with the tips left on a few tables, not bad at all."

I starred definitely at him.

"I suppose you going to tell them what happened and get the police on me?"

He laughed and introduced himself.

"The names Snow, I've seen you around. You're rather good at surviving on the streets."

"My names Cinder, now was there something you wanted?"

He shrugged.

"I pulled that one a few weeks back, went to the bathroom and climbed out the window. That's why the waiter was so suspicious of you, I think they have a picture posted of me in there now. I checked the windows a few days ago, they're kept locked now."

"So you're like me? Living on the streets?"

"Yep, been living on the streets most of my life. Umm... I was wondering, do you wanna team up?"

The question made me pause. The kid reminded me of Brome in many ways, he even had the same lopsided smirk. Though I couldn't help but think the way he said "Do you want to team up" was one of the worst pickup lines I'd ever heard.

"Do you have a place to sleep?" I asked him.

"I do, its an old building. One of the walls fell down ages ago and no one ever goes in there."

I blinked in surprise.

"The one by the bay? By the china town?" I asked.

"That's the one." He said giving me a wink.

I shrugged.

"Whatever, lets get going. I'm exhausted."

And that's how a met Snow, we spent years living together, thought not all in that old house. Those were good days. And as stupid as it may sound, stranger danger and all that, I just instinctively trusted Snow. He wasn't like most people, maybe because he was young and lived like I did. And I never really asked, but I couldn't help thinking that, like me, he had chosen this life for himself.

Most mornings we would pick a few pockets and get some coffee at Starbucks, the gold membership card served us well for many years. For lunch we usually got sandwiches form one of the many restaurants scattered around. They grew to know us, most of the stores. Some of them were friendly and grew to trust us and almost seemed to think of us as pets of sorts. While others thought we were just street rats and threatened to call the police on us whenever we as much as set foot inside. Those were the fun one's, though. I didn't feel bad about steeling from them.

We were a good team, Snow and I. We looked like opposites, me with me jet black hair, and him with his snow white hair. We had a good living for many years. We had to move out of out house a few months after I met Snow, they tore it down. We moved into the top story of an old school. The ground floor was still used regularly but the top floor was deemed unsafe. It was easy enough to get to and the heating system still worked up there.

Things were going great, until we pulled a little scam and Snow was arrested.