Chapter 1: Prologue
Beep-Beep-
The constant sounds of LA traffic could be heard as Ari Matisse sped down the sidewalk, stepping over the slumped bodies and stretched out feet of those preparing to go to sleep in skid row.
The beautiful California sky was filled with a variety of colors as the sun set, and Ari was completely exhausted after waking up early to complete his homework, a long day at school, followed by a paid tutoring session in the library, and a shift at a restaurant.
Usually, he would follow it up with a different shift at a fast-food restaurant, but the manager had recently fired him for being late one too many times, despite the fact that it was because his bike had been stolen and the city bus was late to take him to work.
To be honest, Ari's life was full of difficulties.
He grew up in foster care, being passed from one family to another before being adopted by an old French couple when he was three years old.
He had lived a relatively happy life for 12 years until his adoptive parents died in a freak car accident due to a drunk driver, and he was thrown back into foster care and ended up with a terrible family with 10 kids.
At 16 years old, they kicked him out with nothing but the clothes on his back since they somehow used up all the insurance money from his parents' deaths without his knowledge, and he refused to let them use his own government assistance checks for their children instead of him.
Then his true suffering began.
He hadn't been able to find a place to live because he couldn't legally sign a contract, and couldn't stay in homeless shelters because he was underage.
Any not-so-legal room he tried to rent didn't work out because they wanted to scam him because of his young age, so Ari had no choice but to save his money while living in Skid Row, the largest homeless encampment in the city.