Aiden is sent to Hawaii to stay with his father, whom he has never met. But when he arrives there he discovers there is no one to meet him. He has no money, and his mother and stepfather do not want him back. Devastated at their betrayal, hungry and heartsore, he walks away from the airport in a random direction, only to be beaten up and have his belongings stolen by vagrants. But Aiden is a fighter. The next morning he determines to find help, and on his way he sees three children being attacked by dogs. He jumps in to save them, and the consequences of this act of bravery leads him down a brand new path. Aiden soon learns that he can choose his own family, and that his past need not always define his future.

Dog Days

I didn’t know what to think; so I thought I’d shove Sol a good one and get him the hell away from me, which I did, and all he did was kiss my nose and crawl back to his own bed, sighing in loud and semi-faked ecstasy. I wanted to kill him. And the nurse. And then maybe myself, later. Why do these things always happen to me? Oh yeah, people here think I’m a mature adult, don’t they. Now I was going to have to hold my stomach to keep from laughing out loud. Silent giggles can be terribly painful.


When the nurse came back in, he told me his name was Todd and that he’d be our nurse for the day and he was glad to see…he couldn’t finish. “I have to change your bandages. The doctor will be in later and just rip them off again, but oh well. He’s the boss, right?” Apparently I wasn’t going to be killed or thrown in jail or have this non-incident put in the newspaper.


“Nothing happened,” I muttered stonily.


Todd was really surprised. “Why not?” he asked, losing all sense of professionalism.


Chapter 17