A Leap of Faith

Chapter 1

    Amy woke up to the sun peeking through a cracked and broken window onto a battered wooden floor. This was how she always woke up, but she could never rid herself of the element of surprise that came with seeing the inside of a ramshackle hut first thing in the morning.

    It wasn't always like this. She used to have a much nicer life. She used to wake up to Devin bouncing on her bed while she was waiting for breakfast to be served, a smile on her face.

    She deserves so much better than this, Amy thought, remembering her many narrow escapes from the law, But no matter. I can push through, I always have. She turned over, quickly shaking Devin awake.

    "Come on sleepyhead, time for breakfast!" She called as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, putting on a mask of confidence despite her earlier thoughts. "We don't have all day, come on!" she repeated when Devin only groaned and flipped over.

    "Leave me beeeeee. I'm tired," Devin moaned, making a puppy eyes face.

    "Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Amy replied after looking at her sister, "You're not allowed to make that face! It's illegal!" she joked, turning her attention to the loaf of wheat bread in the makeshift log cabinet. Her four year old sister had the most annoyingly perfect begging face that you just couldn't say no to.

    She'll be excellent at scrounging around for resources and money someday, Amy found herself thinking, when she immediately cut off the end of that thought. Nope. She won't have to do that by the time she'll be old enough to learn. I'll have us out of her by then, Her head said, desperately begging her subconscious not to argue or she'd probably have a fit.

    Amy had always been a 'get it done yourself' kind of girl. She hated nagging others about her problems, she presumed that they meant as much to them as their problems did to her, which was usually not at all, unless the person was a close friend. So, she was always burying the part of her that showed weakness. No one will show pity if there's nothing to be pitied for. No one needs to know about her unstable living conditions or anything else. No one had to know about the building pressure rising up and up and up.

    It was getting harder every day, though. If she hadn't been careful, she could have been arrested trying to take the loaf of bread that she now held in her hands, let alone the amount of pick pocketing she had done in the past three years. And on top of it all, there was Devin. Devin was a constant reminder to keep pushing. Her positive energy always gave Amy the strength she needed to move on.

    But then there was Devin's education. She was four, most children her age would have already started preschool. There was no way that the meager amounts of cash that the two received from Amy's escapades could ever afford that. But it wouldn't stop. Then there was kindergarten, first grade, and the second grade, going all the way up to twelfth grade. And eventually there would be college. And the same went for Amy herself. When the two had lived luxouriously, she had always been far ahead of her studies. Though she never would admit it, she needed to start up soon again if she wanted to stay that way. She had taken many textbooks and such, so she was able to keep up well on her own, but she would be the first to admit that she needed tutoring from professionals soon.

    Devin's stretch-squealing snapped Amy back to reality. She hopped over her little sister's sprawled out form on the ground and started up a fire on the pile of wood in the middle of the room where there was a hole in the roof. Taking out a scrap-metal drying rack that she had made, she carefully placed it over the fire and two slices of bread on top of that, which would hopefully turn into toast.

    Devin squealed again, begrudgingly sitting up and dragging her feet towards the bathroom area to get herself ready. Amy watched her go in, extremely grateful that Devin was potty trained now. The diaper-changing had been torture, though it was nothing compared to the actual potty training. It worked out eventually, Devin was thankfully a fast learner.

    Amy turned her attention back to the toast, which was beginning to become golden on one side. She stuck her hand near the slices and flipped them over, letting the other side get warmed up. Once they were finished, she grabbed an unburnt stick and flicked the pieces off of the metal plate, catching them in one hand with precision that only years of practice could give.

    Alright, let's get through another day.

    Author's note: So this chapter was again shorter than I would usually do, and also was a bit more of a filler chapter so you can sort of see what Amy's home life is like, but I'll get to the action and adventure in the next few chapters, along with meeting a mysterious someone that may or may not become a very close friend of Amy's... Anyway, tell me what you think!