Chapter 1

This car ride seemed to last forever. The only sound that could be heard was the rain hitting the windshield, and an occasional crack of thunder. I sat next to my agent as we made our way to the next shitty place I'm supposed to call home. This is much like every other place I have gone to. Pretend to smile and be happy that they are giving you a place to stay; but once you mess up they get rid of you, every time. When I was younger going through the system was tolerable. I stayed at a house for a year before something happened, be it the parents were going to have their own, or that they had to move away due to business, and instead of going through the trouble of adopting me they left me once again. At first I thought it was me, that I did something wrong, that I was the reason why no one wanted me; but as I got older I realized that wasn't the case. Even when I was on my best behavior people just tired of me real quick. It's like getting a puppy. At first you love it, give it the love it needs, but as soon as you grow tired of it or it did one thing wrong, and off it went.

The last family was one of the best I was with, they already had 3 other kids that they were fostering each one of them really nice. I was the oldest at the age of 15, the youngest being 12. All of the kids there got along great, and the parents were very nice. They always tried their best to keep us happy and gave us a lot of things. Sadly it didn't end well for us. We all went to the same school, except the youngest, being only in the middle school. We were very overprotective of each other, always looking out when someone wanted to pick a fight with one of us. Which happened that day. We always met up with the youngest, Mina, at lunch since we were in separate buildings but on the same campus. When we got there, there were a few girls picking on her, telling her the reason why she was not with her real family. They said it was because they hated her. Of course that didn't set well with us older kids, because obviously we didn't get a choice on being in the system or not. So we stood up for her by explaining that these moronic girls didn't know Mina's parents. That her parents actually had a big heart, and would have loved to have kept her, but couldn't due to the fact they had died. Which was true, based on what she had told us, her parents died in a car accident. The girls were not happy with the fact that we showed up, but instead of instigating a fight right then they walked away.

It was after school when the real shit started, these young girls had older brothers, and they were not too happy with the fact that we told their sisters off. Of course we tried to reason with them, telling them that their sisters had started it. However, they didn't believe that their sweet loving sisters could ever have done such a thing. It only escalated from there. Me and the other two older kids that I lived with, Jean and Mikasa, yelled at them that this wasn't the case. We tried to explain that they were making fun of Mina for being alone in this world with no family, but they didn't care. The brothers got tired of our shit real quick and gave Mikasa a shove. That lit Jean and I real quick. We did not liked that they even dare do that to her. This action on their part started a full on brawl.

Of course those bastards won. After all, it was 2 against 5. We ended up with pretty nasty abrasions. Of course by the time we got home our foster parents had already heard what happened, and of course they didn't hear our side of the story. They believed the shit that the other parents told them, just as most parents do. It was bad for us after that, they didn't even give us a chance to explain what happened before they called our agents to come and get us. We were whisked away in a blink of an eye. Sadly that included Mina, who had to go through yet again the system. We only had a moment to say our good-byes to each other and forever to hope that we would run into each other again. We all hoped that it wouldn't be in the system, or if it was that it would end on a better note then what happened this time.

That puts me here now, sitting in this quiet car on my own in the middle of the night. Heading to the next place that I'm supposed to call home. For however long, before they too grew tired of me and move to the next eager puppy waiting in line for a chance at a nice home. I sighed, not knowing where we were going at this time of night. I mean most of the time you meet the next home in the morning or afternoon, never this late. Granted, if it hadn't been for the fact that we had made a quick trip to the emergency room to make sure that nothing was broken, and that I was clear to travel, we would have been on the road a lot quicker.

I glanced at my agent, Petra, who was watching the road intently. She didn't even try to make friendly conversation like she usually does. She cast her gaze my way as if she felt me watching her.

"Eren, I know you have a lot of questions at the moment, but can you please hold them till we arrive at our destination?" She asked in her calm motherly voice. I mean, sure I would have saved my question, but that was only if I knew where in the hell I was head to.

"Can I ask one question?" I asked.

"I know what you're going to ask, but the answer is no. I am not going to tell you where I'm taking you just yet. It will be a lot easier to explain what is going on once we arrive at our destination." I sighed and nodded at what she had just said, knowing that when Petra said she wouldn't explain, she wouldn't explain.

"Okay I won't ask that. Rather, how much longer till we get there?" I asked as a yawn slipped past my lips. The hours spent getting transfer papers filled out, at the hospital, and now this drive were getting to me.

Petra gave me a smile, "it will be a little while longer, go ahead and rest. I'll wake you up when we get there." I felt my heavy eyelids draw close as soon as her lips uttered for me to go to sleep. No longer able to fight off the growing sleepiness I cast a quick glance at the clock, 10:30. I promptly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

"It's alright Petra, let him sleep. It was a long drive after all," I heard a deep male voice through the haziness of sleep. "You should stay here as well, seeing how late you two got her. I mean, it will be better in the morning to explain what is going to happen. Also, it gives you a chance to introduce him to everyone." I tried to tell them I was right here and that I could hear everything they were saying but all I could manage was, "nrum."

"Hey eyebrows quiet down, the brat is starting to wake up." Said another voice in a kinda of board tone.

Petra sighed, "I guess you're right, I'll let him sleep. I might as well stay here since the likelihood of getting a room anywhere else at 12:30 would be a lost cause."

"Then it's settled," said the first voice, and with that I felt someone pick me up from the car and carry me to God knows where. Honestly, I was far too tired to protest and quickly slipped back into my deep dreamless state of exhaustion.