Well here we are! Life is replacing Living is Hard, it's not violent like Living is Hard and won't be as boring. So here I start.

It was my faraway dream that would probaly never come. I could never reach out and grab it. It was a fast car that always drove away from me, that I would never get closer too. My dream was friendship. I had no friends; nobody liked me. They thought I was insane, a stupid, crazy person. But it wasn't my fault. I was born kind of insane. My name is Ron, and yes, I'm a boy.  Let me just get this straight. I'm crazy. I have no friends. I'm stupid, ugly, and I'm lonely. And, I reaallly don't want to be that way. Crying is the thing I do most. At night I sit up on my bed, and I cry myself to sleep, looking out the window at the moon and stars, the only things that I feel don't run away from me. Sure, I'm crazy, but people treat it like a crime, and that makes me mad.

And yesterday was a good day but ended as the worst day of my life, when I got a new neighbor. He would be going to my school, and he didn't have any friends. I had ran to his house and knocked on his door and said, "Welcome to the neighborhood!"

"Wow," he said. "Nobody has ever welcomed me. I'm a little insane, and I mean it. It's not a joke. I don't have any friends, so no one ever welcomes me. Well, nice meeting you! Bye!"

"That went by quick," I thought. "Wait! You are exactly the kind of person like me! I'm a little crazy too! I have no friends!"

"I don't believe you," he said. He started to cry. "It's not nice to joke around, in a mean way! I know you aren't crazy! GO AWAY!" He slammed the door in my face. I ran over to my house, feeling nervous, I grabbed the slip of paper that was from the last time I went to the doctor and ran back to his house. I ran up the steps to his door, breathing hard, and knocked. Three knocks. I could hear footsteps running to the door. The door opened and the boy stood standing there.

"I told you to go away," he said. "What do you wan't? And whats that?" he asked grabbing at my paper. His eyes scanned each word carefully and he looked up at me and said the best words anyone had ever said to me, "We are alike."

For the remainder of that day we sat talking in my backyard, and I got to know all about him. We were both 13, and cryed a lot. That was all there was to it. Nobody liked him either. Oh, and his name was Jack. It had been about 3 hours when my mom called out loudly (so the whole the neighborhood could hear it) that it was time for dinner. I said bye to Jack and ran to my mom.

"Mom!" I yelled. "Guess what! I made my first friend! His name is Jack and he's crazy too!"

"I'm really sorry honey," she said slowly. "But, Ron, we're moving."

"Honey, I thought it would be a nice surprize," she said trying to calm me down. I just ran down the hall and slammed into a wall. Anything in my view, I slammed my foot into, I kicked everything I could reach out to. Screaming I ran at the wall and banged my head. I felt a lump appear. Suddenly, I slowly just stopped. I don't know why. Taking a deep breath I tried to think what was happening to me. I screamed. And I screamed a horrible scream. My mom covered her ears; I could see neighbors coming out of their houses and looking around to see what happened. Whatever went wrong next, I wouldn't know. Because then, I felt sick and dizzy, my stomach felt like I swallowed a bullet, and slowly a pit of black darkness formed all around me. I fainted.

When I gained consiousness, I was in my moms car. I looked in the back, there were a bunch of suitcases. A single tear rolled down my eye and fell off onto my lap. There was something different about this place. I don't know what. I thought I just felt homesick. Slowly I gained my voice, and took a deep breath.

"Where are we moving to?" I asked in a nervous tone.

"New York City," she said. "We got a very nice apartment downtown."

That enlightened me a little. I had never been to any big citys, definetely not lived there. It might be cool. Big citys always interested me. Hope started bouncing up through my body, like a spring. A new start might be waiting for me or I might just end up the way I was before- lonely. Loneliness was the thing I liked least. But maybe there was hope. Or maybe not. I fell asleep.

I awoke with my mom saying something to me.

"Honey!" she said excitedly. "Honey, we're there!"

I sat bolt upright. My eyes wandered out of there sockets and seemed to go off on there own looking at the people, buildings, statues, and everything else. We parked in a parking ramp and got out.

"This is our appartment parking ramp," she said. "The apartment is the big building outside."

We got our luggage and payed a guy to pull it into the building. My mom and I ran down the steps of the ramp and stood in front of our apartment building. It was amazing, it reached several hundred feet into the air like a big tree reaching towards the sun. I hadn't noticed but a guy was coming towards us. A big grubbly guy, wearing black pants, a black leather jacket, and a hat that left a shadow on his face. He tapped on my moms shoulder.

"Hey!" he said. "Hows it goin! I was just wonderin!"

He put a gun up to my moms head.

"Run honey run!" she screamed. The man shot at me and missed. My legs wouldn't move me, it was like they were stuck to the ground with super glue. But then I ran. I ran fast away, as far away as I could. I heard a bullet shot, followed by a womans screams. My moms screams. I heard her body drop to the ground. I looked back; the man was gone and my mom.... was dead.

I was alone, with no home, in New York City.

I dashed into an alley and slammed my foot hard into a dumpster. I was panting hard, I could hear my breath. The day seemed warm before, was now icy cold. I felt my heart beating and I sat down. This couldn't have gotten worse. Alone, with nothing, at the age of 13, in New York City. That made me cry. I cryed hard and ran off farther down the alley. I passed one hobo, who woke up as I ran past, and fell back asleep with his blanket over him. This was life- the hard way. And it was me that had to experience it.

I bit my lip, and ran farther. Running and running and running. I searched the whole town for any safe spot to stay. I was now a hobo. So the first place I looked was alleys. I looked everywhere. How would I make money? Where would I go? Who would help? There was nobody I knew and whoever I came to ignored me. Then I remembered. It was a book I read. About hobos. Some hobos were street performers and others stole. I might do both. Whatever would keep me alive. Because that was what it was all about.

__________

At about 9:00 I found a spot to sleep in a area that wasn't too busy. It was a tucked away alley, with three gigantic dumpsters. The dumpsters were on wheels so I moved them around and formed kind of a hut with them. I faced them so I could open the lid of one of the dumpsters  to form a roof over my head. Plus, in the alley, there were places in the walls of the buildings that had old holes in them that I could put stuff in. Earlier in the day, I had been searching for hours to find this place. I found it at about 7:00 and explored town a little get a feel of where everything was. The spot where my dumpster was, was in spot that was downtown, but not very busy. It was a beat-up part of town, the sidewalks had missing chunks, the road bumpy and rough. But it was a nice, interesting place to walk around. I got to know the part of town nicely. When my watch beeped 10:00, I fell asleep. Tommorow was my first full day of life, in New York City.

I woke up at 7:00 and walked around. What should I do today? I was hungry and had no money. I had barely any food the day before. My stomach seemed to growl, and my pockets were emptied. Should I steal? My decision was made by a man walking by with a pocket full of money. I would steal.

The man walked by in a suit, as if he was going to a big meeting. But the only thing that mattered was his money. His wallet hung out of his pocket, completely open and available for me to steal. I rushed into the shadows of an alley and waited for the right moment to snatch it. I took off my shirt and wrapped it around my face to form a mask so the man wouldn't catch me. I peeked around the corner, the man was about 10 feet away. 10 feet. 8 feet. 6 feet. 4 feet. 2 feet. He was there. I snatched his wallet and ran. Looking back, I saw that the man hadn't even noticed. He stood stupidly, gazing at the clouds. I heard him say something.

"Looks like it's gonna rain!" he said to himself.

"What the hell?" I thought."Ahh Whatever."

I looked into the sky. It did look like it was going to rain. Well, now that  I had money,  I could buy a poncho at least. Now that I had money. I looked at the wallet. It seemed to be staring at me with mean eyes, it looked like it might bite me. So I growled at it. Roar.

__________

 I walked up to a gas station and entered the store. I looked around for a rain jacket. I asked the cashier if he had one and he pointed to where they were on a shelf. I walked over to the shelf and heard the bell ring on the door, which meant someone had entered the door. But then I heard a "click click". Peeking over the shelf, I saw a guy pointing a gun at the cashier.

"Give me da money," he said.

"I will! I will! I will!" the cashier nervously said.

He opened the cash register and handed the man the money. I snuck towards the back door of the place and opened the door. The bell rang. I ran.

I ran as fast as I could, there was nobody that could have run faster than me. Tears were pouring down my face, adrenaline raced through my body. I dashed to an alley and skidded to a stop behind  a dumpster. I peeked my head out. I saw the man come out of the store with the money. I didn't think he'd seen me. But I was wrong.

"Where are you!" He yelled.

"Well, that was a stupid question," I thought. "Why would I tell a guy with a gun where I am?"

The man started sprinting towards the alley. He would be there at any second. I couldn't ran away. So I opened the lid of the dumpser a little and climbed in. I heard his feet shuffle. Then, he sprinted away. I peeked my head out from the dumpster. My eyes searched the alley. Nobody was there but me. That was good. The man was gone.

Slowly, I climbed out of the dumpster. My body was covered in gunk. Gunk drooped down my only clothes. They were ruined. And I needed new ones. But the problem was, I had no money. What could I do? What should I do? What will I do? I spotted a small empty garbage can.

The next thing I new, I was banging away on the garbage can on a busy street in New York City. Clang, Clang, Clang, Clicka, Clang, Clang, Clang. I had collected $10.56. Well, that was enough for food. But my clothes were ruined. I carried the trashcan back to my little alley and hid it behind one of the dumpsters. On the way to the store, I saw a police car drive by and in the backseat was a guy with a bag of money....

When I arrived at the store, I bought a banana, a gallon of water, and an apple. I had 2.55 left. I chugged about a quarter of the gallon of water and chowed down the apple and banana. What next? I stepped out of the alley and looked around me.

The thing that stood out most, was a sign for a movie theater saying...