x
Most girls remember dolls, ribbons, birthday cakes.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtZcEx5EZ8Z
Me? I remember shadows.
How they used to move before the lights even went off.
How I could tell what kind of night it’d be by the sound of the door slamming shut downstairs.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYP9Qoz6eON
I was seven when I learned not all monsters live under your bed.
Some sleep in the next room. Some wear your mother’s perfume. Some smile in your face before they sell you out for a fix.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVawDiuZEce
They called it “foster care,” but I called it trading hands.
One dirty couch to the next. One man’s rules to another’s hands.
By nine, I’d already counted more locks than birthdays.
And by eleven—I stopped waiting on anyone to come save me.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb42rCaJNPf
I started learning passwords instead.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjOMEzxwWW
I’d sneak into libraries and watch YouTube tutorials on coding, pretending it was just curiosity.
But truth was, I wanted something no one could take from me.
Something stronger than fists or fear.
Information. Power. Silence that listened to me for once.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaMTsrIRzP
That’s when Nova Rae was born.
Not the broken girl with scars under her sleeve.
But the ghost who could follow the money, the threat, the lie—and make it all disappear.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9WUE8tlPoe
People look at me now, and they see the gloss, the glow-up, the girl with the clicks.
But they don’t know about the girl who had to hide her tears under fluorescent lights in shelters.
Who kept a blade under her tongue and code in her bones.
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzpCC1fq1Zw
I don’t want your pity.
Just remember—
Pretty doesn’t mean untouched.
And loud girls like me? We learned to scream because no one ever listened when we whispered.
I was twelve the first time I hacked someone.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz7rw2IQJP1
Not for money. Not for clout.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcBmjFMD5W7
For survival.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdeAcyz3TID
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNTWbeLIRwc
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNhDBM3RwyX
Miss Laney—my third foster mama in two months—had sticky fingers and a nastier attitude.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQyQXBXjjIG
Kept her fridge locked, her mouth mean, and her eyes on my clothes like they were her property.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ189tfQ3nUF
She’d smile in front of the caseworker and say I was “adjusting just fine.”17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhY17sgnWsR
But the minute that door closed, I was back to being her little maid with a mattress on the floor and bruises she said I earned.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ74X85vDqUT
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpPhrE7wvVK
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEiORtPTBa3
I’d had enough.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtbckJm4YxH
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GIbEmzTa3
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaSy4csF8oJ
She had this dusty old Dell laptop she guarded like gold.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmq9b0MdIDa
She’d always log into her food stamp portal in front of me—bragging about how much she’d get “just for feeding little street rats.”17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhlJvXjD0Yt
Except she never fed us. The cabinets stayed empty.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8DYzNBObUk
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeV6PQeuCKs
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPST76C1xju
One night, while she was snoring off boxed wine and bitterness, I snuck into the kitchen.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXbezXir2x1
Took her laptop. Sat on the floor with a flashlight between my knees.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNLvCJ0Jfs6
Heart pounding. Hands shaking.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42uXe3Rvar
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnO015CtN5l
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LhTkiO9J0
She used the same password for everything—Laney1234.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd4qBTt9Onn
Too easy.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtthlsTaFV
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFjgMPTo2i
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhr4xhsN4pl
I clicked into her account, found her full name, her case info, and her EBT card ID.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbPt7CmAhmG
Felt like God when I figured out how to reroute that whole deposit.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTC3L79nKs
Transferred every dollar to a new account linked to a prepaid card I’d watched a kid at the shelter set up earlier that week.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIegQtLT7Mi
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmEyY9gRi05
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScQCGIug7C
I didn’t stop there.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmemIVkXnu
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP95BqX2Ukl
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJYzuuOecil
I forwarded her entire search history—every sketchy ad she posted, every complaint the other kids had written about her but never submitted—to her case manager’s inbox.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMJk8hMsHk0
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMOXzaUpDpc
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUUGzpPqHu
Then I put the laptop back.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyhYo1pfmi1
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzm05geTBvR
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBy9V6EnHq8
The next morning, she cursed the devil into the floorboards trying to figure out why her card declined.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYCxjMA1zU
By that afternoon, a social worker was knocking at the door.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡURziC4pOq8
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUpHfB4pnR
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN69zM805E7
I didn’t smile when they pulled me out of that house.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3Sto1URZk
But inside?17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcHuT2x6Ia
I was lit up like a sunrise.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT0PlRQtHQP
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxbknlOz6C
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ7ucXnGqg0
That was the day I realized something.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL3y4cyMiwq
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyQfz4ieR7N
17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9Cf5RKB1W
I didn’t need to fight with fists.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡreqTKG95qk
I had keystrokes.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTnARQS9lll
And people like Miss Laney?17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxp5luiAy0
They had no idea what a girl like me could do once she learned the system.
