"Put your hands up!" the cop shouted. My breaths came out short and quick. Trembling, I put my hands up. "The neighbors reported a break in. Do wewe live here?"

"No," I breathed, unthinkingly. Why didn't I just say yes? Dammit! I at least have the right to remain silent! My moyo was thudding in my ears; I couldn't think straight.

"Stand up," the cop said, still holding the gun in one hand. He walked over to me, and pulled me up. He patted me down, pulling out the money. It was a fairly large amount, so it was obvious I'd stolen it. "Put your hands behind your back," he ordered. I heard the click of the handcuffs. I whimpered. What a great day... I wanted to plead with him to let me go, but I couldn't.

He shoved me into the police car, even though I was cooperating. I rolled my eyes. He still had to look tough and make a scene. He alisema nothing throughout the car ride. I bit my lip. Paige was seriously going to murder me.

They put me in a cell, with a very tough looking woman. I gulped. She sat on the bench, arms folded, and nodded at me.

"What're wewe in for?" she asked. My eyes were wide with fear, and I sat on the other side of the cell.

"Uh... Nothing. It was just a misunderstanding," I alisema quickly. She nodded at me, then stared at me for the rest of the time. I tried not to notice, but it was really scaring me.

"You got one call," the cop alisema after an hour. He let me out of the cell, which I was very thankful for, and I dialed the nyumbani phone number.

"Hello?" Sage asked after a couple rings.

"Sage," I alisema quickly. "You need to tell Kirsten to go and get Paige. I need her to come get me."

"Where are you?"

"The police station." There was a long pause.

"Kirsten!!" she screamed at the juu of her lungs. The cop heard it too; he gave me a confused look.

"What," Kirsten sighed, answering the phone.

"Go find Paige, and have her bail me out."

"What, are wewe in jail au something?"

"Yes." Another long pause. Then she hung up on me. I bit my lip. Hopefully she did what I asked of her, and didn't think it was a joke. The cop placed me back in the cell. I sat on the bench, away from the freaky lady, and brought my knees up to my chest. I had a real bad feeling I just screwed things up even more.

I was at the jail for a couple hours, when finally Paige showed up. She looked so pissed, I'd rather hug Freaky Lady than go near her. Thankfully, Paige cleared it with the cop that it was my mother's boyfriend's house. She then lied and alisema she was trying to bring him money he had asked for, when he was out our house. So there was no bail.

"Then why didn't wewe say anything?" the cop accused me. I gulped.

"Umm... I was scared," I said, my voice shaking a little. At least that made it zaidi believable. He sighed, and then let us go. The police station is a little over two miles from our house, and it was late now, so we started walking.

"You are so..." Paige started.

"I was only trying to help!" I said.

"You're lucky wewe didn't make things worse!" she screamed at me. I cowered away from her. She was quiet after that. She sighed. "Mom's still not back." I whimpered.

"What're we going to do?"

"You are going home. I need to go back to work," she said.

"I hope I get that job," I sighed. "Then I can actually help."

"You do help," she alisema confidently. "You watch the kids."

"Yeah, but that doesn't do much. You're stuck supporting the family all kwa yourself, while Mom gets to go off and be a little kid."

"It's not her fault," she said. "She's just happy to have someone who actually loves her." I raised an eyebrow.

"You don't actually think he loves her, do you?"

"Yes. Why don't you?"

"I don't know. There's just something about him..."

"He just doesn't really like us. That's all that bothers you."

"Well, not all of it... But seriously. How many times has he been over to see Auburn?" Paige didn't speak. "Once. That's it. How can he not want to see his own daughter? wewe know he only wants her for one thing..." I shuddered.

"Well, there's nothing we can do."

"Yeah. So we're just gonna sit here, and wait for him to break her heart? Like they all did?" I countered. Paige didn't say anything. "Well, it doesn't matter," I alisema sarcastically. "It's happened before, so she should be used to it kwa now?"

"I never alisema that," she sighed. "I just... She makes her own mistakes. It's not our fault she can't learn from them." I shook my head. "Well, some good things from this are, we have a nice family. You, me, Kirsten Sage, and now Auburn." I pouted.

"Yeah, but sometimes... it feels like wewe guys aren't even my sisters. Sure, we have the same mom, but she's never around so it's like we don't even have one. We're all just... there. With no one but each other. And it's all so messed up."

"I know it is, but... At least we do have each other. We're there for each other. Otherwise, you'd still be in jail," she added at the end. I bit my lip, as my thoughts returned to why this whole siku happened. She patted my shoulder. "Hey. I told you. We're going to be fine." I sighed, then nodded. Paige had to go then. We parted ways a couple blocks away from home. I was terrified to walk nyumbani alone, but I didn't tell her. I didn't want her to need to walk me home, and plus I didn't want her to think I was a wimp.

I walked down the sidewalk, which seemed to glow from the moonlight. Almost no one had their lights on, so the mitaani, mtaa was very dark and intimidating. My moyo skipped at every little noise, which was zaidi than often the sound of me tripping over my own feet. I stopped for a moment, and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I just needed to calm down.

Just then, an arm wrapped around my neck, pulling me close to someone's body. I was about to scream, when a hand covered my mouth. I kicked and thrashed around, but the person was too strong. I felt a gun placed up to my temple. I froze, tears pouring out of my eyes, and onto the person's hand.

"Don't songesha au scream, au I'll kill you," the deep voice said.