Prologue

Wednesday, September 17, 2020

Bird land, San Diego

"Alright everyone, get to your cells, it's time for bed."

You might be wondering who said that and where I am. Well, I'm currently in Juvenile prison, and the man who spoke this is an officer who works here. He's just being nice to us because today is one of our last days here. Tomorrow morning we say goodbye to this trash and leave.

Loren Sanchez, that's who I am. I've been in Juvie for 7 years. I came here at the age of 10. The police got sick and tired of having me come to jail every week for something that I did, so they decided to put me in Juvie, a detention for me, or as some people would put it, 'to think of what you've done'.

Even though I'm getting out tomorrow, I'm not exactly free. I was told that I have to acquire an ankle monitor because they still don't trust me for all the things I've done. I've been to jail about 10 times, starting from the age of 7 up to the age of 10, and that's when they put me in Juvie.

10 times, yes that's a lot, but I was born to be bad, I'm not one of those girls who dress up like Barbie and act like an idiot, speaking of that, I haven't said a word since I was put in this dreadful place, never. Not even a simple hello. I guess being here kind of, I don't know, changed me a bit.

I wonder how Amelia is going to feel about this. Amelia is my best friend, she's been there for me since kindergarten up until now, she basically knows everything about me, even how I look. The thing is I don't like showing my face to people or to...myself, you see, I had a twin sister who died in an accident, including my parents. I don't like looking at myself because it always hurts to know that she looked exactly like me. But if Amelia wasn't there, I probably wouldn't even be alive.

~*~

'BAM' that's what I wake up to every morning, a hit on my cell door. Today isn't any different from all the other days, except for one thing, I'm leaving today.

"Everyone start getting your stuff ready, we're leaving in an hour," one of the officers said.

I eased myself away from the bed, getting to my feet, but then stood watching my suitcase for a moment and groaned. I hate packing...

I started gathering all my stuff and shoved them into my suitcase.

"Loren do it properly," Officer Jones told me.

I groaned once again. Officer Jones was here with me since day one, he's probably the nicest officer from all the others, though he always tells everyone to do things properly when we're doing it wrong. It's annoying, yes, but I got used to it after a while, seemingly because I was here for 7 years.

As I was told, I started folding my things neatly and put them into the suitcase.

Once I finished doing so, Officer Jones said, "Alright everybody, time to go. Bring everything that you brought from the first day you came here, I don't want to see anything left behind or else it's going in the bin."

We all nod and start to form a single file line while following the officers who will be travelling back with us. We reached the outside of the building. I breathe the fresh air and crack a faint smile. I can't wait to go home...

We all get into a bus and sat on our designated seats. The vehicle makes a 'roar' sound as the driver turns on the engine. He presses down on the pedal and off we went to the airport.

~*~

An hour later we reached the airport. We all sat at the waiting area waiting for our flight to be called and as expected it did.

My destination is LA and I'll be living with my uncle and aunt. Though they probably won't pick me up from the airport, most likely because they're billionaires. They own a huge successful company which gave them millions at first, but soon became billions.

"We will be landing in LA in 5 minutes, please buckle your seat belts and wait to be landed," the captain said on the speaker, interrupting me from my thoughts.

A few minutes later we landed and everyone started clapping and cheering as a sign of safe landing.

Officer Jones says "Alright. Frederick Johnson, James Putri, Camila Ray, Tye Querre, Angie Chi, and Loren Sanchez, please follow me so we can exit the plane."

We all nod. We get up from our seats, get our stuff and follow Officer Jones. I walk out and Officer Jones says, "Have fun Loren, it was nice knowing you. I hope to never see you in Juvie again." He laughed and waved. I smiled and waved back as a sign of goodbye.

I lift my right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot until I see a tall and buff man who might be a security guard who works for my uncle and aunt, holding up a sign that says, 'The Spencer's' I walk towards it. He holds up his hand telling me to stop.

"ID please, I need to make sure you are Loren Sanchez. Order from the Spencer's," the man said, who I assume is named Gerald by the name tag that's gripped to his suit. I nod and give him my ID.

He says, "Alright, come with me." He hands back my ID and I follow him.

We walk out of the airport and into the parking area.

I haven't seen a lot of expensive cars in a while, many different types of brands, I even saw a Lamborghini, cool. Guess being in Juvenile made me forget how things were.

We kept walking until we stopped at a long black car. He opens the door for me. I breathe out the air that I didn't know I was holding in, put my suitcase down and got inside the car. Gerald closes the door and puts my suitcase in the trunk of the car. He made his way around the car and got into the driver's seat and that's when he was completely gone, seemingly because there's a black wall in between us.

The car started moving, which caught me off guard and caused me to fall. I groaned.

Damn that hurt.

I held onto the edge of the seat and pulled myself up carefully. When I was fully on the seat I made sure to hold onto it so I don't fall again.

This is going to be a long drive.

~*~

The car stopped for a second. I opened the window and stuck my head out to see why. I realized that we stopped in front of two gate doors which were starting to open slowly. When they opened fully, we drove through them and they soon started to close once again when we made it through. We drove around a beautiful fountain then stopped when we made half the turn. Gerald got out of the car and opened the door for me. I got out and once again he went around the car and got my suitcase. I put my head down and started walking, but then stopped when the concrete changed into something different. I looked up and saw a huge mansion. And I mean HUGE. You may be thinking that I saw it already when I stuck my head out the window, but I didn't get that much of a good look at the house until now. It was built beautifully, it looked like a palace. It had a gorgeous blue roof and it had gold outlining the walls from the outside.

I let my jaw drop while I stared at the house. Gerald came, still holding my suitcase in his left and used his free hand to lift my jaw back up. He gave a small chuckle and said: "Welcome home, Miss Sanchez."