"Rachel, wake up we are here." I heard Mike say and slowly opened my eyes, it was dark out side and there was only the light from the bus station lighting up the parking lot. We got off the bus and headed to the little café inside. With the little money we had left we bought some food and sat to eat.

"We need to find a place to spend the night." Mike said to me as I took a bit out of my sandwich and I just nodded. Mike picked up a magazine having to do with hotels in the area.

"We don't have money to stay in a hotel." I said my mouth still full with food.

"Eww swallow first." Mike said with a disgusted look on his face then laughed, " Who said we needed money?" I knew what he meant. We were going to find a cheap hotel and pick the lock and stay there for the night. Mike put the magazine down and sighed. " All the hotels in that mag are high class and to risky. There should be one down this road. I'll go ask." He said getting up and going to the counter. I stayed and finished my sandwich and soda. I looked out the window and spotted a car. They looked familiar but I couldn't see their face. I looked back to Mike talking to the clerk then back to the car to notice it was gone. I put it as my imagination playing tricks on me.

"Ok there is this place just up the road that is cheap. We can go there." Mike said coming back. I nodded and got up. We started down the road to the hotel. Once we got there Mike scoped out the hotel and since the doors to all the rooms were on the outside we could tell which ones were in use because of weather or not if a light was on. Mike walked up to what he figured was an empty room and picked the lock. He opened the door then waved me over. I ran through the parking lot to him and walked in the room. There was only one bed and the room was small but that didn't matter. It was warm and it had a shower. We kept the lights off because we didn't want to be caught. I told Mike I was going to clean up and he said that was fine. I grabbed one of the 2 changes of clothes that I had and walked in to the bathroom and since it had no windows I turned the bathroom light on.

I looked in the mirror and saw that I was a mess. There was dirt on my face and my hair was a mess. "Ewww, man I need to clean up." I whispered to myself. I went over to the shower and turned the water on. I got out of my dirty clothes then checked to make sure the water was just right. I stepped in and reveled in the fact I was able to take a shower. This was a rarity. I took the shampoo and washed my hair then rinsed. I looked down to see the dirt washing down the drain. I made a face and washed the rest of my body. Then I just stayed in the shower and let the clean water calm me. I must have been in there to long cause I heard Mike banging on the door.

"Hey are you ok in there?" he asked concerned.

"Yea I'm fine. Be out in a few minutes." I said back. I turned off the water and dried myself with the clean towels. I put on my stained yet newly washed clothes that I washed two days before at a restroom in NYC. I put them on then reached in to the pocket of the jeans I wore earlier and pulled out an old comb and brushed my hair. After folding my other clothes I walked out of the bathroom and put them in my bag. It was still dark in the room with the exception of a street light that was right outside.

"Get lost in there?" Mike teased. I looked at him and picked up a pillow that was on the bed and hit him with it. He looked at me shocked then picked up the other pillow and hit me. I started laughing and so did he and then we got into a pillow fight.

"Shhh." Mike said a few seconds later.

"What is it?" I whispered. He walked over to the window and looked out. I heard some voices coming down the sidewalk. They came closer and Mike told me to duck and I did. The people just passed by the door and kept going. Mike and I sighed with relief.

"We have to be quiet. We don't want to get caught. We should sleep anyway 'cause we need to be out of here before sun up." He said getting in to bed. I followed and surprisingly fell right to sleep.

--Next day-

I woke up to Mike shaking me telling me it was time to go. He was rubbing a towel through his hair. He had just come from the shower. We grabbed our stuff and left the hotel and the sun was just beginning to rise. We walked though town trying to find a way to get money for food and for two more bus tickets. But the town was too small and it would be a risk for us to pick pocket here. We walked in to a restaurant and Mike told me to wait by one of the tables. I watched him talk to the waitress then she left and a man came over and talked with him. A few minutes later he came back to me.

"Ok now the boss of this place said he would give me fifty bucks if I help him clean out the back room. He will also give us some lunch." He said smiling. I smiled too.

"Can I help?" I asked and Mike shook his head.

"You can't. He said he doesn't want you getting hurt." Mike stated.

"What do I do then?" I asked him. He then looked out the window and saw some kids playing soccer. He pointed out the window.

"Go be a kid." He said and I turned and looked at what he was pointing at then turned back to him and smiled. I turned and walked out of the restaurant and started towards the other kids. As I got closer I stopped and watched them play. I wasn't sure how to ask them if I could join in. one of the kids looked over and saw me.

"Hey, did you wanna play?" he asked and I nodded. "Ok you can be on our team since we are down a man." He said and I ran over and started to play soccer with them. I couldn't remember the last time I played a game. The last time I played with other kids I was 11 and Nick was still around. I enjoyed it.

I continued to play with the other kids till it had gotten dark. Since it was October it was getting darker earlier. I said goodbye to all the kids and headed back to the restaurant.

"Wow you got dirty." Mike laughed and I looked down and realized that I did. After playing soccer all day I guess that would happen. I laughed. "Come on lets get you cleaned up." Mike said and led me to the bathroom. I went in and cleaned up. When I came out there was some food at a table the Mike was sitting at.

"Here's dinner. I would have called you in for it before but I didn't want to ruin you fun." He smiled.

"Thanks Mike." I said and began to eat.

"I have enough for 2 tickets to get us to north Georgia." He said looking at me. "The bus leaves in an hour." I nodded and finished my food. As we got up to leave the waitress came over and gave us a bag. "What's this?" Mike asked confused.

"Some food for the road." She smiled and winked at us knowing full well what we were doing and how we had no money to do it. I smiled and so did Mike.

"Thanks a lot miss." He said and she just nodded and we walked out and headed to the train station. When we got to the station my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see what was in the bag. Well there was 6 sandwiches and a 20 once bottle of soda but along with that there was a hundred bucks in cash.

"Mike look at this!" I said showing him the money.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"It was in the bag. Look there is a note with it too." I said then reading the note. "Here is some money to get you to Florida. I over heard Mike talking to you about it. Be safe. Margret." I finished. "It was from the waitress." I said to Mike.

"Well let's get a ticket to Florida then. What city was Nick in when you got the last letter?" Mike asked me.

"He was in Orlando. We can try the house the worst thing that could happen is that he doesn't live there any more." I said to Mike. He agreed and bought two tickets to Orlando. We were on our way. But was there trouble ahead?