28,704 words in with just over 8 days to go : )

Now that they were in their apartment, there was no need to go to grammas. There was no crisis to get her there. In fact, it was really good for her father. He could come and go as he pleased since he had handed over all the responsibility to Jainnie. Everything he needed was in place. It worked for him. Jainnie started to feel trapped, though. She needed those crises to get her free. As each day went by, she felt more suffocated. She plotted to runaway. One day, she convinced her friend, Lisa, to join her in leaving their respective unhappy lives. Lisa was her only friend from school. They bonded since Lisa was willing to risk being late for school in order to wait for the candy shop to open. They would buy cinnamon oil and toothpicks and sell home-made cinnamon sticks to their fellow classmates for cheap. They were in business together. They both lived with their respective single parent and hated it. Lisa confided in Jainnie about her life at home. Jainnie didn’t disclose as much information about her life but made it clear they were in the same boat. Jainnie and her father lived across the street from the Little Sisters of the Poor. Jainnie and Lisa made a plan to runaway from their horrible lives. Certainly they knew they could make money. They had already proven that. And they had both survived in their own private hells up to this point. They knew they could make it work. On a Sunday afternoon, they left. Jainnie’s dad was passed out on the couch with the Lucille Ball show blaring in the background. He wouldn’t come around for a long time but Jainnie left through her bedroom window just to make sure he wouldn’t wake amidst her escape. Lisa met Jainnie at the corner outside her and her mother’s apartment. It took Jainnie an hour to walk to Lisa’s neighborhood. She could taste her freedom with every block she walked away from twenty-ninth street place.
They had planned only so far, though, in that they agreed they could survive and they would do it together. Past their declared self-sufficiency, however, they didn’t have a solid plan. Jainnie had more practical experience in the world and in actually being outdoors at night. She had been prepared and she wasn’t frightened. As is got darker, Lisa began to panic. She was also getting hungry. Jainnie was serious about this running away business but she soon realized her partner was in over her head. They hadn’t gotten very far past Lisa’s apartment, when Lisa realized that she didn’t really have it so bad at home with her mom but Jainnie was confident and convinced her to continue. Lisa’s nerve faded, though, with the sunlight. Jainnie understood her friend and tried to comfort her. Jainnie led them to the chapel in the Little Sister’s of the Poor, where it was quiet and Jainnie could think. Jainnie thought Lisa would feel safer there too. As they sat behind one of the pews, they wondered if the sisters would let them live there. They could explain their situations and certainly they would be welcomed to stay. The Little Sisters of the Poor was a place where the elderly were cared for, fed, and looked after because they had nobody to do it for them any longer. Jainnie and Lisa couldn’t see, with the exception of their being nine and ten years old, why their situation was any different.