When Justice woke up, his surroundings were unfamiliar to him at first. *Oh right* he thought to himself, “This blows.” He finished out loud. Now comes the embarrassment.

Justice had been in JDH more times than he could remember. Every time he was there, someone, he or the other guy, got hurt. It would always start innocently enough. The rest of the boys would start to pick on Justice, and he would smile and join in with them. “That the best you got?” he’d say and come up with, one of a dozen, better insults that he’d heard before, and make fun of not just them, but himself too. He never took himself that seriously.

This would of course anger the boys for some warped reason, pertaining to, taking the fun out of torturing him. This of course would lead to innuendos about his sexuality and masculinity. Justice would say something like “That’s not what you implied when we were snuggling up together last night.”

That’s usually when the punches started flying.

After his third trip here, the facility director decided that for everyone’s safety, he would be transferred to the girls’ wing. He didn’t mind actually because he knew he could take them. The girls treated him nice, usually, but he got teased a lot for being forced to wear the pink scrubs that were available on the girls’ side. He thought it was goofy that they couldn’t just walk 2 halls over and get him some blues, but, whatever. Something about quick counts and visual accountability in case of a fire drill.

Once the girls were done in the shower, they were locked back in their rooms till breakfast and it was Justices turn. After his shower he had to surrender his street clothes and dress in the scrubs. Thank goodness they had the sense to get him boys’ underwear, even if they didn’t fit right. Then it was to his favorite meal of the day. Any meal.

Though, on the boys side they knew him as Justice, due to snoopy girls who cleaned the admins office and saw his middle name, on the girls side it was…..

“Faith! Your back!” exclaimed an excited teen as she ran up to hug him. Her name was Katie Summers. She was an inch taller than Justice/Faith, about 5lbs heavier, with red hair, and cute freckles under her stunning green eyes. “What did you do this time?” she asked with a mischievous smile. “Come on, spill it.”

“Honest I was framed!!!” he declared with mock outrage.

“Uh huh. Framed for what?” she asked as the other 10 girls gathered around the breakfast table in curiosity. Half didn’t even know who this seemingly new girl was.

“I merely felt the need to liberate a helpless comrade from his totalitarian dictators.” He reasoned with a chuckle.

“For crying out loud, Faith, this is somehow about twinkies again, isn’t it?” asked a giggling Katie

When he smiled and nodded all the girls started laughing. “Geez, your weird, you know that, Faith?” Katie asked.

He, of course, agreed readily. Justice didn’t mind weird. “Weird is good”, was his mantra. That and “da da da dat da da…UNDERDOG!!! (Or maybe it was Mighty Mouse. He got those mixed up)” but he thought it best to keep that one to himself. There was such a thing as too weird.

Looking upon Katie and seeing her laugh at his absurdness, he realized how much he missed her. She was the first person he had ever agreed to run away with. Not, mind you, because of romantic feelings, for her anyway. They kissed once. She said he kissed like a girl, and that was pretty much it as far as he was concerned. No, she was like a sister to him, not that he wanted her to be, considering he was still crushing on her. Summers and Winters, what a pair, they’d say. They got caught, of course. Eventually, when they were hungry enough, most did. Katie thrived better with structure, anyway. She was smart and knew how to play the game inside, but couldn’t handle the hungry feeling of her stomach for very long, on the outside.

“So you got a plan yet?” asked Katie.

“A plan?” asked Justice coyly.

“Come on, Dork-a-saurus Rex, stop playing coy.” She said rolling her eyes.

“Jeepers Katie, I’ve been here less than a full day…….OF COURSE I have a plan.” He announced confidently.

“Ooooooookay? Well, what is it?” she asked.

“Ok, so here is what we will do. We go up to the “Screw” with the keys. You, then, drop your scrub top and distract the “Screw”, while I sneak the keys, and tada.” He finished with a wave of his hands.

“Uh, Faith? You do realize that the “Screws” on this side, probably aren’t interested in what I have under my blouse.” She said, rolling her eyes and giggling. She was a tomboy so she usually had a pretty good sense of humor about her breastesses.

“Hmmm, good point. Well you should probably only show them to me, then.” He remarked jokingly…sorta.

Laughing, she responded with, “How will that help you get out?”, while pushing on him with fake outrage.

“Ooooooh, a plan for getting out….uh…hmmm. Well I won’t lie to you. It will be a lot trickier than your ingenious plan to take off your top, but give me time and I will come up with something.” He said smiling widely.

“Uh, the top thing was your idea, pervert.” She said between giggles

“Oh.” Justice stated with mock seriousness, but then continued with, “That’s ok. You know I don’t mind sharing credit.”

Still giggling, along with the rest of the girls , she responded with, “I don’t want credit for…….oh never mind.” She finished knowing that, like a bad Abbott and Costello film, this could go on forever if she let it.

Breakfast passed with wit and humor flying around the table. After breakfast, they were locked down again for an hour. Next was JDH’s version of school, for 4 hours, until lunch. Unfortunately for Justice, school was co-ed. Justice was not at all surprised to see Billy Williams here, again. He was a bully. A big, ugly, smelly, dark haired retard. Not mentally, socially retarded of course. At least, then, Justice could understand and let it go. But no, he was just mean. He also wasn’t surprised to hear……….

“Hey Faithie girl, pink really is your color.” mocked Billy, with a smile.

Billy just never learned no matter how many times Justice fought him, either by wit or force, Billy never fared well enough to confidently say he’d won. Justice was beginning to think that Billy was just a glutton for punishment.

“Oh Billy! You are so sweet! Just like last night when you bribed the Screw to let you into my room, ahhh so romantic!” he exclaimed and finished with a longing sigh.

The girls were laughing so hard, that several needed to rush out and pee. The boys were thrashing around on the floor holding their guts and snorting like pigs. Billy turned bright red and was seconds away from pounding Justice when Justice decided to push it too far by turning to Katie and saying in a whisper that everyone could hear………

“You know Katie, he’s actually a lot gentler in bed than you’d think.”

Then, it was on. Billy hopped up and rushed Justices desk. Justice was quick though and immediately hopped up and sidestepped, pulling Billy away from the desks. Billy came in hard, grabbed Justice and slammed him against the chalkboard. Justice saw this coming a mile away, though, and had lifted his arms above his head so as not to be caught in a bear hug. Justice slapped both of his palms against Billy’s ears. His immediate reaction to grab his ears had freed Justice.

Justice knew if he didn’t finish this, while Billy was dazed, it could turn out like last time when Justice ended up in the hospital. As Billy turned, Justice slapped him lightly across the throat. When Billy grabbed his throat and gagged, Justice, who did what it took to survive, punched him right in his “jewels”. As Billy bent, Justices knee connected to Billy’s chin, lifting his big, 6ft frame off the ground.

The whole thing happened in a matter of seconds, before the teacher could even do anything about it. She called the guards and had both of them put on lockdown, after a quick trip to the infirmary for Billy, of course.

He could expect to be locked in for 3 days, at least.

Lunch and dinner came in through a tray slot. He was really starting to miss Katie about now.

Finally, at the end of a very crappy day, yet also good as far as seeing Katie, Justice closed his eyes. It took him forever to doze off, though. Ironically, all he could think about was that, even though Billy was a douche, he hoped he hadn’t hurt Billy too bad. Not that he liked Billy in any way, but because Justice had empathy for all life. Bugs, birds, fish, furry things, humans, and yes even Billy, he supposed. He hated the way it made him feel when he knew he was responsible for causing pain.

Finally, Justice drifted off……..

****Dream World****

The Truck had come out of nowhere, it seemed. Justice looked on, horrified, as the truck smashed into the man/princess. It was then that Justice witnessed the strangest thing he had ever seen.

He saw and felt the Entity. She did not have form, but looked as a pink mystical aura. Justice felt that the Entity was in deep pain shadowed only by the fear of her predicament. She needed a vessel to survive, and not just any vessel. She needed an empty one. She saw a baby being left on some steps. As she floated over, she knew the baby would have a spirit of its own. She had to at least be sure though.

Justice saw the spirit float over, to what he was beginning to realize, was him, as a baby. The Entity reached the baby and saw that the baby clearly had a spirit of his own. The note pinned to him simply read one word. Justice. The Entity….gave up. With all that had happened, all the pain and all the torment she had lost faith.

That’s when the most amazing thing happened. The babys spirit was filled to the brim with love and kindness. Because of this, his spirit reached out and embraced hers, whispering have faith, as he pulled her lovingly inside him. She was the one who had added Faith to his note.
****

Justice woke with a start. He didn’t know what to think. Obviously it was a dream, wasn’t it? Before he could ponder it more thoroughly, someone started to unlock his door. Weird. He hadn’t expected visitors for another 2 days. The door opened and the guard threw Justice the recently cleaned street clothes that he came in with.

“Get changed. You’ve got court today.” the guard announced.

“Court? So soon? Yup, I knew they were sweet on me, up there” replied Justice humorously.

“Don’t flatter yourself kid. Now get moving. You’ve got 10 minutes.” He said gruffly.

Justice was surprised to see Katie at the van. They hugged and discussed their court stuff with each other on the ride over. Katie hadn’t had a chance to tell him earlier, because of the fight. Justice came to find out that Katie’s year, for stealing a car, was up and she was going to court to find out what was going to happen to her next. He told her about running away and valiantly rescuing a twinkie. They were both puzzled by my extremely quick court date, though. It was rather odd.

“Ok, I got a plan.” announced Justice. “The driver and escort are dudes, so I think you should take off your top and distract me.”

“Uh…don’t you mean THEM, Faith?” she asked, confused.

“Ewww! Why would I want THEM to take their tops off?” he said with a wry smile and wiggling eyebrows.

They both started laughing and when she finally was about to respond, they heard….

“Uh…you two DO know that we can hear you up here in front, don’t you?” the escort said, chuckling.

They started laughing again. Twenty minutes later, they were pulling up to the family court building. Justice hated this place. It was musty and creepy. They took the elevator up to the 5th floor. The 5th was known as hoodlum court to the crusty old judges. Basically, kid criminal court. Once they were on the 5th floor, they made their way to the courtroom that they were assigned to, and sat and waited for their caseworker, on the bench outside the courtroom. They had the same caseworker, so it wasn’t unusual for them to see the same judge for the convenience. Oddly, she didn’t come, but a lawyer claiming to represent them did.

“I’m Frank Evans. I’ll be your representation for today.” He said motioning to shake their hands.

“Um… where is our caseworker?” Katie asked

Frank told them that she was overloaded with cases and since they now had representation, which she had approved of, he would handle this. They were confused as to why he would. He told them to be patient and everything would be revealed to them soon.

Justices case was up first. The Judge intimidated Justice with talk of hard time for troubled kids like him. Finally, thank goodness, it was Franks turn.

“Your Honor, the event that transpired can surely be chalked up as a desperately hungry child merely trying to eat. Can you not see that?” Frank said lightly, playing on the Judges emotions

“Uh…well…I…uh.” Was all the judge managed before Frank boldly cut him off.

He explained about a newly staffed and certified foster home that, with the help of the judge, Justice would be safe in. Frank produced signed paperwork and recommendations from family services and JDH all stating this to be Justices best option for a normal life. Justices head was spinning during all this. No one had told him a thing.

After reading the documents, the judge agreed. Justice was going to a foster home. Actually, Justice was thrilled. It was better than the orphanage. It was Katie’s turn next.

Again, surprise. Katie was being recommended for the same home.

The judge responded with, “Who exactly runs this home, Mr. Evans?” the judge asked.

“I do, Your Honor.” Said a woman in the back who couldn’t have been more than 25.

“You look a little young to run a foster home Mrs………? Step up to the front so I can see who I am talking to.” ordered the judge

Justice turned and saw a very cute, fiery red head moving up the row. *Devil Child!!!* Justice shook his head. Why had he thought that so loudly?

As she reached the front she announced, “Mrs……..Aldegard…Your Honor…..Mya Aldegard.