There’s No Place Like Home

by

“may*star”

Setting:

On one side of the stage there is a small sterile looking room with two beds and two sets of shelves. There are 3 white walls, the wall towards the back of the room contains a heavy door with a small window in it. The glass of the window is shatterproof. One of the other walls has a window that does not open. This window is also made of a material that cannot be broken. The walls are bare. The beds and the shelves look like a dorm room. The beds are made neatly, military style. There is nothing in the room other than about 3 stuffed animals and a set of pajamas on one of the shelves. When this room is lit, the rest of the stage is dark. And vice versa. The other side of the stage is very plain and contains only a basic table, a basic chair and some black theatre boxes.

Characters:

Starr: {2 identical actresses will be needed to play the part of Starr because Starr often needs to be on stage in two places at once.}

She is a 15 year old foster child. She had really long hair and blue eyes. She is wise beyond her years, yet too trusting. She is nice, sweet, compassionate and caring. She is creative and a writer. She makes her own clothes. She has always hung out with the so called ‘bad crowd’, the Goths and the punks so on, but she has remained true to herself. She has never done drugs or had sex even though all her friends have. She has pretended to smoke and she has done some minor shoplifting. She gets close to straight A’s in school and she has depression, but hides it around her foster parents so that she is not put on meds.

Faith: a girl who has been taken away from her parents because her dad molested her. she has a sister named hope and a brother with a normal name. she seems friendly and undamaged.

Scott: Starr’s boyfriend from ages 14 to 15. Starr loved him with all her heart, but he was younger than her and didn’t really understand what love was. Starr attached herself emotionally to him when she had no one else. They were best friends. He played roller hockey at the time they were together.

Stern looking woman: A staff member that works at the modern day orphanage called orangewood. She is white and about 50 years old with dark red hair. Very conservative clothing.

Group home staff member: a tall emotionless African America man. He is much like a robot. Cold and heartless. Sometimes he laughs, but he is still colder than ice. His wife is the same. Together they are the perfect pair of robots.

older woman: Starr’s foster mom at one time. She is white and about 58 years old. She has a slight southern accent and a fluffy orange blonde perm. She is cold are uncaring also. She has lots of foster kids so that she can get lots of money. She makes the kids wear thrift store clothing and will only buy junk food and frozen food. She refuses to buy fresh fruit because she’d rather not spend that much money on the kids.

staff members: people that work at Orangewood Children’s home.

social workers: a man and a woman

principal: a man with dark hair, about 6 feet tall or shorter.

Mary: a conservative looking woman.

kids: just 3 people, no speaking lines.

man: a school worker, (can reuse a staff member actor for this part)

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SCENE 1

(Lights up on the plain side of the stage)

Group home staff member: (calmly, coldly) Starr, will you come here please.

(Starr walks across the room to the Group home staff member)

Starr: Yes?

Group home staff member: (pointing to a pair of shoes) Will you please put your shoes away?

Starr: (politely, truthfully) Excuse me Aaron, but those aren’t my shoes.

Group home staff member: (Calmly, emotionlessly) Starr, you are arguing. You need to say “okay” and follow instructions.

Starr: But they aren’t my shoes!! How can I put them away if they are not mine!?????

Group home staff member: 2000 negative points for arguing. Remember how we follow instructions Starr? We say “okay” and then we do the task. Saying anything other than “okay” is considered arguing. You can put those points down after you put your shoes away. Starr, please put your shoes away.

Starr: But I told you, they aren’t mine!! I can’t put “my” shoes away if they are not “mine”!

Group home staff member: (disgustingly calm and cold) You’ve earned another negative 2000 points for not following instructions. You may write those points down now, along with the others you earned for arguing.

(Starr pulls a “point card” out of her back pocket and unfolds it. It is the size of half a sheet of paper. Starr goes to the table and sits.)

Starr: May I have a pen please, Aaron?

(he hands her a pen)

Group home staff member: Okay, are you ready?

Starr: Yes.

(she puts her pen to the card, ready to write, Starr writes as he talks.)

Group home staff member: Column One: “Respecting Authority.” Column two: “didn’t say ‘okay’.” “2000 negative points.” Are you ready for the next one?

Starr: yes.

Group home staff member: Column One: “Respecting Authority.” Column two: “didn’t follow instructions.” “2000 negative points.”

Starr: (finished writing) okay, done. Please sign, Aaron.

(she hands him the card and the pen, he signs his name on each row.)

Group home staff member: Okay good. Now we are going to do a role-play. Ready?

Starr: Yes.

Group home staff member: Starr, please go get me some paper from Tina in the Office.

Starr: Okay.

(Starr goes offstage and comes back with paper, she hands it to Aaron.)

Group home staff member: (still with a cold, calm, fake voice) Good Job. You’ve earned 1000 positive points. You may write those down now.

(Starr sits down and begins to write what he tells her)

Group home staff member: “Respecting Authority.” “Role-play.” “1000 positive points.” Okay, we’ll do another role-play. Let’s do one for “Boundaries”. Ready?

Starr: Yes.

Group home staff member: Okay, you are at school and a boy tries to hug you. What do you do?

Starr: You back away and leave the situation as quickly as possible. When you get home, you tell a staff member and self-report about the incident.

Group home staff member: and why is it important to self-report?

Starr: because someone else may have seen and misunderstood and told the staff and then you guys would think that I was hiding something if I didn’t tell.

Group home staff member: Good Job. Now read from the book about “boundaries.”

(he hands her a thick book the size of text book, open to the page she needs to read from.)

Starr: (reading aloud) Boundaries. Step one. Imagine big circles radiating out from your body… (she starts laughing) hahaha. Circles radiating out from your body?! (she makes circle gestures in slow motion, making fun of the book) You’ve got to be kidding me! This book is insane!

Group home staff member: Starr, that is not appropriate behavior.

Starr: Sorry Aaron.

(there is a knock at the door, Starr gets up and goes to the door, the Group home staff member goes too. Starr opens the door.)

Starr: (in a very fake voice and holding out her hand) Hello. My name is Starr! It’s nice to meet you!

(she firmly shakes hands with the lady at the door.)

Group home staff member: Hello Mary, just one second. (turns towards Starr. He still uses the calm fake voice..) Starr! You did a good job! “Getting along well with others.” “Shook hands with and Greeted Mary.” “1000 positive points.”

(Starr struggles to write down her points without going to the table.)

Starr: Please sign, Aaron.

( she hands him the card and pen and he signs)

Group home staff member: You still are “in the hole”. You do not currently have your privileges. Here’s some paper. (he hands her the paper he’s been holding) You will earn 250 points for each role play you write. Do one on “boundaries”, two on “getting along well with others” and two on “respecting authority”. They should each be one page long. Let me know when you are finished.

Starr: “Okay.”

(Starr goes to the table with the paper and begins to write. Aaron and Mary exit. Starr sits there writing. Time passes. The lights fade.)

SCENE 2

(Lights up on the small room on the other side of the stage. Starr sits on one bed. Faith sits on the other.)

Starr: yeah, so that group home was probably the worst place I’ve ever lived in.

Faith: wow, I bet!

Starr: and if we didn’t get up and go to the door and shake the people’s hands…even if it was just out own friends…and even if we were in the middle of dinner or something, we would get negative points!

Faith: that’s terrible!

Starr: Oh! And we would get negative points if we didn’t have our point cards with us at all times!

Faith: that is so inhumane!

Starr: They made us ask to eat, ask to go to our rooms, to go to the bathroom, to go outside…and when we did go outside, we had to stay near the house and they would check on us.

Faith: that’s even worse than this place! At least we don’t have to ask to go to our rooms!

Starr: yeah…and this place was on the outs so we got to wear our own clothes, unlike here, but there was a dress code! Can you believe that?! and we weren’t allowed to wear 2 piece bathing suits or tank tops, or skirts or shorts that were shorter than a certain length, we couldn’t show our stomachs either…it was insane…

Faith: god that sucks, sounds like the military or something…

Starr: yeah and we still weren’t allowed to go out with our friends like normal people…

Faith: what do you mean?

Starr: well…. We couldn’t just go to people’s houses or anything….couldn’t just get up and go to the mall….and of course couldn’t go in their cars! But you probably know how that works already…

Faith: yeah, it was like that in my foster home.

Starr: yeah.

Faith: I wanted to see my old friend, from when I lived with my parents…and we used to go out all the time together, but they made my friend’s mom get fingerprinted and all this stuff, just so that they could come pick me up for a few hours! It was crazy!

Starr: yeah, that’s happened to me. Only no one was ever willing to get fingerprinted, so I just lost contact with all of my friends, and just anybody I ever knew.

Faith: that sucks. This fucking system is sooo lame…

Starr: yeah, seriously!

Faith: oh but, so how was your group home different from the foster homes….you know, with the friends thing?

Starr: oh yeah…where was I?…if we made like 10,000 points every day for the whole week…actually, it was more than that, it was like 25,000 a day maybe…I don’t remember …but yeah, so if we had enough points, we could buy “free time 2” which was 4 hours of going somewhere by ourselves. And it had to be used all at one time. And they had to drop us off and pick us up, of course we weren’t allowed to ever spend the night or go to parties or anything like that. And we had to be home by like 9 or 10pm.

Faith: wait so you only got 4 hours a week total?!

Starr: yep.

Faith: and only if you made enough points?

Starr: uh-huh

Faith: what happens if you didn’t make enough points?

Starr: then you didn’t get to go out! Silly.

Faith: well, I mean, that’s just not right!

Starr: yeah, ya think?

Faith: and I thought my foster home was bad! But we didn’t have to have point card things or anything like that….thank god!

(the lights quickly flash off.)

SCENE 3

(Lights up on the plain side of the stage. Starr is sitting on a black box. The Group Home Staff Member is sitting in a chair behind the desk. She has her point card out. The Group Home Staff Member has a binder full of papers open on the desk. )

Group Home Staff Member: (coldly as usual) Alright Starr, your total for the week is 74,000 points. You’ve earned your privileges for the week.

Starr: what does that mean?

Group Home Staff Member: it means that you can now buy free time 1 this week. this means that you now have the ability to purchase your right to watch TV, to hang out in the living room, and other common areas of the house. You will be allowed to talk to the other girls and to talk on the phone. Actually, since you’re new here, you will not be able to have phone privileges.

Starr: why not? That’s not fair!

Group Home Staff Member: Because, like we’ve already told you, new children are not allowed to use the phone for the first two months they are here at boystown.

Starr: I know, I know, but why? That’s not human! I want to talk to my mom! She doesn’t even know where I am!

Group Home Staff Member: calm down Starr. These are the rules. There are no exceptions. Your social worker will let your mother know that you are alright. I’m told that she is not allowed to know where you live anyway.

Starr: uh, yeah, but I always give her my address anyway! I don’t care if you guys think she’s going to kidnap me, she’s not going to! And she’s had all my addresses for like the past 4 years! She’s never shown up at any of my places either. She’s not dumb! She knows she’s not allowed to. She just writes me letters….

Group Home Staff Member: Starr, you are not allowed to give your Mother your address, you know that…

Starr: well then you have to let me call her!! she’s my mom! It’s my right to use the phone! Freedom of speech! You can’t tell me I can’t talk!

Group Home Staff Member: Stop arguing Starr. You’re about to earn negative points…

Starr: okay.

Group Home Staff Member: good job saying “okay” ! you’ve just earned 1000 positive points! You can write those down in a minute. Let’s finish totaling up your card for the week. First.

Starr: okay.

Group Home Staff Member: now, did you want to purchase free time 1?

Starr: um, what happens if I don’t?

Group Home Staff Member: Well, then you won’t have your privileges and you will have to sit at the kitchen table all week. You will not be allowed to talk to any of the other girls, watch TV, or hang out in the living room.

Starr: okay, yeah, then I guess I have to buy that then!

Group Home Staff Member: (he writes in the binder) Alright, that leaves you with 6,000 extra points. What else would you like to buy? There are candy bars, shampoo, allowance, free time 2…

Starr: free time 2? Is that what the other girls were talking about, where you get to go out for 4 hours?

Group Home Staff Member: Yes.

Starr: Okay, I want to buy that/

Group Home Staff Member: Okay. (he writes in the binder, then stops and looks up) Actually, you know what, I’m sorry, my mistake, You don’t have enough points for that this week, what else would you like instead?

Starr: oh. Umm…I guess allowance.

Group Home Staff Member: Oh-kay (he writes in the binder) Alright, you now have $5. We will keep that for you in the office.

Starr: I can’t have it now?

Group Home Staff Member: No, here at Boystown, you are not allowed to have money in your possession, or you will receive negative points.

Starr: what?!?! Why?! What about if I need to take money to school for lunch or something?

Group Home Staff Member: Well, we sign you up for the free lunch program, so you don’t need money.

Starr: okay….but why aren’t we allowed to keep our own money?

Group Home Staff Member: well, it’s a risk. If we allow you to possess money, it would be easier for you to run away…

Starr: oh yes! I’m going to run away with 5 dollars! I think I’ll go to France!

Group Home Staff Member: Starr, this is not a joking matter.

Starr: (mechanically) okay Aaron.

(Starr gets up and starts to sadly walk offstage)

SCENE 4:

(Lights up on the small room again)

Faith: (horrified by the story) wow. All I can say is wow. That sucks! I’m sorry you had to go through that!

(Faith hugs Starr)

Starr: Thanks sweetie.

Faith: wow, I hope I don’t even get put in a place like that! I’d kill myself for sure!

Starr: yeah, well, anyone can end up there. They just throw you wherever there’s room, ya know?

Faith: yeah, true.

Starr: oh and they would make us sit at that table, in absolute silence, to study. You weren’t even allowed to cough almost. It was the kind of silence that almost pierces your ears….(pause) I used to do my homework with music on…I always had music on, I had my room set up so that the radio came on with the lights….music was everything to me……. I can’t do homework with music on anymore….I can’t even think with music on now….I almost stopped listening to music there…they never let us have any free time to hang out in our rooms, and they censored what we listened to…

Faith: I think I’d rather live in hell than in that place!

(A stern looking woman looks through the glass window in their door. she opens the door and comes into the room a little, she holds the door open as she talks.)

Stern looking woman: (harshly) Girls, you need to be silent during shift change!! If I hear you talking again you are going to have to stay in your room for an additional hour. Do you understand that?

Faith: yes.

Starr: okay.

Stern looking woman: In addition to that, you have both earned a red for today. If you talk again it will be three reds and you will put on basic for a day.

(the stern looking woman exits. It is silent for a moment and then the girls go back to talking, but this time they are quieter.)

Faith: What! A red! But I never get reds! God, I can’t wait to get out of here!

Starr: yeah, seriously!

Faith: I can’t believe that! A red just for talking!

Starr: whatever happened to freedom of speech?!! I swear this is not America!

Faith: tell me about it. And we will get on basic, just for talking? That’s so lame!

Starr: being on basic is like being in prison…sitting at a desk all day and having to sit with the staff at break at school while all the other kids get to walk around….and I hate how they make us wear those disgusting pink hospital pants and those baggy pink shirts, they are so ugly!….

Faith: at least we’re not boys! They have to wear hot pink pants from the 80’s … that’s even worse!

Starr: very true. Can you imagine how embarrassed they must feel having to wear pink pants in front of the other boys?!

Faith: I wonder if the other boys make fun of them…

Starr: hmmm…I never thought about that…

Faith: they probably do!

Starr: maybe.

Faith: oh I am SO mad that I got a red! It’s so not fair!! I’ve had like nothing but greens this week! And you know how hard that is!!!!!

Starr: ALL greens? Wow!! That’s amazing! How many people did you have to kill to do that!?! (laughs)

Faith: guess the staff just love me! Hehe

Starr: I guess so!! I try my hardest and only get one or two greens a day, the others are always blues of course. I rarely get all three greens! And you’ve gone ALL week with 3 greens every day?!?!

Faith: yep!

Starr: wow! Well then you’ll get the honor room for sure!

Faith: that was my intention! But now I have a red!!

Starr: oh yeah….but maybe they’ll make an exception since the rest of your marks are greens?

Faith: I don’t think so…you get one red and no honor room. No exceptions.

Starr: aww… poor thing

Faith: There’s gotta be some way to convince the staff to take away my red!

Starr: you know they don’t take away reds!

Faith: I’ll find a way to make them! I have to have the honor room! I’ve worked so hard for it!!

Starr: oh well I hope you get it!

Faith: (pause) soooo…yeah…anyways….how did you get into the system?

Starr: well, when I was 11 years old, we had just moved into some new apartments, so there were boxes of stuff all over the house. My 3 year old brother and I would dump all the stuff out of the boxes while looking for things. My poor mother was left with all the mess.

Faith: you horrible little children! (laughs)

Starr: anyways, one day my mother said “clean the house or else you’re going to orangewood” and at that time, I had just barely learned that this terrible place existed, but I still didn’t quite understand it.

Faith: she was going to take you here?!

Starr: oh no, no, not at all. She wasn’t threatening me…

Faith: oh, I see….

Starr: Yeah, so the next day, for some reason social services came over to our apartment, they saw that the house was a mess, and decided that our mother must be neglecting us, even though the opposite was true! She was too busy spending time with us to clean the house! Anyway, they took her off to the hospital for “depression” and then because she didn’t find a place for us to go, even though they didn’t give her time to even try to find a place, they took us to orangewood.

Faith: oh wow that really sucks.

Starr: yep, and isn’t that creepy?!??! My mom was right, she said if I didn’t help clean up the house I was going to orangewood, and she was right!

Faith: she must be like psychic or something! Anyways, go on.

Starr: I was at school at the time, so they took away my little brother and then they came to my school and pulled me out of PE class….

SCENE 5:

( lights up on the other side of the stage. Starr is standing near the edge of the stage with a couple of other kids. A man gives her a pink slip of paper.)

man: Starr Grier, you are wanted in the office.

Starr: (to herself) oh no…I have a really bad feeling about this.

(Starr walks over to the desk. The principle is sitting there, behind it.)

The principle: Starr? Sit down.

Starr: ok

(Starr sits in the chair that is on the front side of the desk)

The principle: you’re going to Orangewood.

(Starr is too shy to say anything. The principle gives her a stale Butterfinger. She slowly eats it. He leaves her alone.)

( Two social workers come into the office and lead Starr away.)

Social worker: come with us.

(they exit)

SCENE 6:

(lights up on the small room again)

Starr: …they had my brother in a car seat in the backseat of their car. He was barefoot with pajama pants and no shirt. It was a cloudy cold day and they didn’t even dress him before taking him from my mom! Can you believe that?!?! Now THAT is neglect! They are the ones that should have had their kids taken away from them!

Faith: that’s dumb. I swear these people are no better than anyone’s parents, they just take us from one bad place to another, and then we are even more screwed up in the end!

Starr: yep. Lovely isn’t it?

Faith: anyway, go on with your story…

Starr: okay, and so then they took me here of course. I was terrified. They took me in through that side door and then checked me for bruises, and tested my blood to see if I was under-nourished or anything. They separated my brother and I and took me to junior girls …I think I was the oldest girl there…no one else was 11, but I was too young or innocent to go in with the older girls. Anyway, they took away all my things, my backpack and my clothes and they made me take a shower with cheap shampoo and cheap soap, and they gave me stretch pants and a baggy shirt to wear…I remember how terrible it was to have to wear there ugly clothes…back then the clothes

Were even worse than they are now…

Faith: that’s gotta be pretty bad then!

Starr: anyways, they told me that said I have no bruises or signs of neglect or abuse or anything and that I could go home in 3 days…

Faith: oh yeah?

Starr: yeah and then I had to talk to a social worker person and a court person lady who took my picture and stuff. A few days went by, and then I got a new social worker and they said that I would be going home in two weeks instead of the 3 days.

Faith: something similar to that happened to me.

Starr: they didn’t let me see my little brother because I guess the kids he was in with had chicken pox or something like that and so they were all in quarantine.

Faith: wow that really sucks. I don’t know what I would do without being able to see my brother and sister.

Starr: you’re lucky that you 3 all came here together. You get to see them a lot more than I ever saw my brother…I didn’t see him for so long at first that when I finally was allowed to see him, I rarely did, because I wasn’t used to it, and they kept me so busy with meaningless activities…and I had my little friends…

Faith: yeah I know how that is.

Starr: anyways, so that two weeks kept turning into more and more time and it had been months … they let me see my mom finally…my brother and I went to visit her at the hospital. She seemed fine. Then they let her out but made her stay in a board and care home or something like that.

Faith: god, the state even controls the parents too?! Yay for America! Land of the free!

Starr: yeah, tell me about it. So anyways, we started to get one hour a week visits with her. but they were monitored. I have no idea why, it was the stupidest thing ever. I think maybe they thought that she was going to kidnap us or something.

Faith: that’s just crazy! And if she did kidnap you, then so what?! She’s your mother for god’s sake!

Starr: anyways, so I ended up being stuck here for about 6 months total…I used to count the days on a piece of paper…I’m not exactly sure, but I want to say that I was here 133 days…that’s the last number I remember at least. So then I was finally released, but it wasn’t to home, they put me in an Esh home for awhile.

Faith: an Esh home? What’s that? I haven’t heard of that one before.

Starr: almost no one has…E S H …Esh, it stood for “emergency shelter home” and it was basically just a short term foster home. Kids were only supposed to stay there for about 2 weeks…but you know me and two weeks! I ended up being there for about 3 months! The lady was kind of nice, but her own kids, who were adopted ones, were vicious… they were so mean and spoiled…first they used to torture this girl named Michelle, but when she left they started to be mean to me instead….once they screwed my alarm clock all up, and they stole some of my clothes…

Faith: I hate when the girls do that.

Starr: yeah, but then they moved me out of there…they let me go look at a real foster home to see if I wanted to move there…I said “no” … I hated it, but they moved me there anyway.

Faith: aw, that sucks

Starr: yeah it did. I think I ended up living there for a little over two years. And the lady would only buy junk food… she was too cheap to buy fruits and vegetables ..she bought Pepsi and chips and these brownies that came in a box and just all these over processed sweets and junk food and ice cream. I used to eat ice cream sandwiches for breakfast!

Faith: hey, what are you complaining about? That sounds like heaven for children!

Starr: It was fun at first, but got old really fast. You can only eat so much junk food before you want to kill yourself!

Faith: good point. But wasn’t it better than the food they make us eat here?

Starr: yeah, I guess so. Anything is better than cafeteria prison style food!

Faith: have you heard that they really do feed us the same stuff as the prison?

Starr: yeah, I have heard that, I bet you it’s true.

Faith: I hate it so much here. I’ve been here for 2 months already. I can’t stand it anymore! Let’s run away!

Starr: oh I wish, but you know, if we get caught trying to run away, they’ll send us to juvenile hall.

Faith: yeah but we’re faster than that, they won’t catch us.

Starr: you think so? We’d have to run pretty fast and then jump over that stupid wall.

Faith: we could go at night, and sneak out maybe.

Starr: oh yeah, that will work! We’ll just sneak right out of the doors with the alarms on them, or better yet, let’s go out the windows that don’t open! We can brake the shatter proof glass while we’re at it! (laughs)

Faith: okay, okay, you’ve got a good point. I guess it’d be easier to run away in the day.

Starr: yeah, but I still think we’d get caught…

Faith: nah, we won’t get caught

Starr: um, well I don’t know…it’s kind of a lot to risk…

Faith: yeah, I guess. (pause) so , did you ever end up getting to go home at all?

Starr: nope. I’ve been in the system all this time. It’s been over four years now.

Faith: so you still get to see your mom and your brother?

Starr: my brother actually just got adopted. Against my mom’s will. So we don’t get to see him anymore. And I actually haven’t seen my mom ever since they put me back in here.

(lights black out)

SCENE 7:

(Starr is running around the room crying and screaming. The older woman is seated on the black box, watching her.)

Starr: It’s not fair! I want to go home! I’m not supposed to be here! This wasn’t supposed to happen to me! I was happy! My life was perfect! Why can’t I go back to my mother?! She was a good mother! She never neglected me or abused me or anything! Why can’t I go home?

(the woman just looks at her. Starr is hysterically crying.)

Older woman: you know Starr, they wouldn’t have taken you away from her if she hadn’t have done something wrong.

Starr: (angrily) BUT SHE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!

Older woman: she must have. You’re here, aren’t you?

Starr: but she didn’t!!! tell me then, since you get to read all the court papers, what did she do wrong???! Why am I here?

Older woman: well, it doesn’t say.

Starr: that’s because she didn’t do anything wrong!!! And the social workers keep telling me that I’ll be able to go home, but WHEN? How much more of this hell do I have to live through? I want my mom! I WANT TO GO HOME! (she is still screaming and crying)

Older woman: (mockingly) oh, poor baby!

Starr: (in tears) you could at least let me see my boyfriend! Do you know how it feels to have no one that loves you? Do you know how it feels to have no one that cares?! Do you know what it’s like to have no one to hug? How it feels to come home from a bad day at school and have no one to cry to? No one to love you. No one to care…no one…(gets more hysterical)

Older woman: (coldly) stop crying and go do the dishes Starr.

(Starr starts hitting her head on the wall)

Starr: please! At least let me see Scott! Why can’t I see him?! You have no reason to not let me see him! Why must you take away the only thing I have?! The last thing I have… everything has been taken from me…I’ve lost everything…my mom, my cats, my brother, my house, my friends, my childhood, and now you won’t even let me see Scott?!!

Older woman: we’ve been over this already Starr.

Starr: but WHY? You never told me why!

Older woman: yes I did.

Starr: no, you didn’t!!!

Older woman: (sternly) Starr.

Starr: alright, if you’ve given me a reason, then what is it?

Older woman: I’ve already told you.

Starr: well why can’t you tell me again? Why can’t I see him?

Older woman: because I said so.

Starr: but that’s not fair!! He didn’t do anything wrong! It doesn’t make any sense!!!! (she is still hysterical)

Older woman: Starr, we’ve already discussed this. I said no, and that’s final.

(Starr runs off stage crying. The older woman slowly walks off stage.)

(lights black out.)

SCENE 8:

(It is a different day. Starr comes on stage with a letter she is writing and a pen. She reads the letter out loud.)

Starr: Dear Judge,

I would like to go back to my mother. She was a good mother and never harmed or neglected my brother and me in any way. Please let me go home! My mom was a good mother…she never said bad words and she didn’t do drugs or anything. She gave us love and cared about us. We always had food and a roof over our heads and we had clothes, and everything we needed…

(she sits down at the desk and starts writing more. The lights fade to black)

SCENE 9:

(lights up on the small room again.)

Faith: and you’re still here, in the system, so apparently that letter did nothing for you.

Starr: yeah , but it actually did get me unmonitored visits with my mom…

Faith: oh that’s cool!

Starr: they were still only an hour a week, and it was only me that got to see her without a monitor. My brother still had to have monitored visits. So it actually ended up splitting us up more…we each saw my mom separately …and I started seeing my brother less and less…

Faith: aww that sucks then.

Starr: and then somehow they ended up ending our unmonitored visits: …and so then we were back to monitored visits but without my brother…it sucked…..

(pause)

Starr: sooo…do you still get to see your parents?

Faith: ummm, well my dad is in jail for drugs right now and no one knows where my mom is so…I get to visit my dad at the jail every once in awhile, but that’s about it.

Starr: I see…that too bad.

Faith: yeah but it’s okay, I don’t really care…my dad’s a fucking jerk anyway, I hate him…I’m glad he’s in jail….

Starr: oh? Why do you hate him?

Faith: he… well…. Nevermind. I just do.

Starr: oh okay.

Faith: so ….this place blows. I’m sick of being stuck in this tiny room. Let’s run away now!

Starr: are you being serious?

Faith: yeah, totally.

Starr: well…I don’t know

Faith: oh come on, don’t be such a chicken!

Starr: it’s risking a lot to run away … last time I ran away I was really lucky … they didn’t put me in juvi or anything….

Faith: yeah? You serious? YOU ran away?

Starr: yep. I ran away with Scott.

(lights fade to black)

SCENE 10:

(on the other side of the stage, Starr climbs out a window onto the stage. Scotts helps her out. Scott and Starr are “outside” in the dark. They both have backpacks that are stuffed full of clothes and things. They walk to the edge of the stage and sit down. Scott hands Starr a pair of rollerblades. They both put on their skates)

Starr: you know, I wouldn’t be running away if you weren’t. it’s a stupid idea. I always said that if I was going to run away, I would need a car first, and money and somewhere to go, and it would be all planned out.

Scott: yes I know…you told me that when we were in our tree.

Starr: I’m only running away because if you are not here, then I have no reason to stay here. The only reason I’ve stayed at this horrible place for so long is for you…because you are here…and I don’t want to leave you…I love you…

Scott: I love you too.

Starr: so where are we going to run away to?

Scott: I don’t know…

Starr: well maybe we can go to my old apartments, maybe I can find someone I know there…I haven’t been there in over 3 years…but it’s the only place I know of…I can’t remember where any of my old friends lived or anything…it’s been too long….

Scott: okay, sounds good to me… where are your old apartments?

Starr: umm…in garden grove…

Scott: oh wow, that’s far…do you know how to get there from here? I only know how to get there on the freeway, and we can’t exactly rollerblade on it!

Starr: yeah, I’m pretty sure I can get us there. I took the bus with my mom back when I was 11, so I know orange county pretty well…

Scott: okay cool, lets go then…

(they get up and skate off stage)

SCENE 11

(lights up on the same side of the stage. Scott and Starr come back out on stage, slowly, they look worn out and exhausted, almost on the edge of death. It has been 12 hours, they have rollerbladed about 20 miles. They have their skates off.)

Starr: my feet hurt…

Scott: that sucks that your mom’s friend wouldn’t help us out….

Starr: yeah I know…that’s so dumb …I didn’t know that he had gotten trouble for taking in a runaway before…how strange…now where are we going to go? This was your idea to run away, you should have had a place in mind, other than someone’s work…did it ever occur to you that people aren’t at work everyday? You should have checked to see if he was working…

Scott: yeah I know…I’m hungry…I’m going home.

Starr: WHAT?!?! You can’t just go home!! You’ve got to be kidding!

Scott: I’m serious. This fucking sucks, I’m hungry and I want to go get some food. Let’s go home now.

Starr: (yelling, frustrated, shocked, upset) I can’t go home! I risked my whole life to run away with you! I can’t go back!! This is for good! This is forever! There’s no way I can go back! They’ll send me to juvenile hall! Or a group home or something! I can’t just go “home” like you … it’s not my home, it’s a foster home…I’ll be kicked out…

Scott: oh

Starr: I can’t ever go back…this was a choice….to run away forever…there is no going back! You can’t just leave!

Scott: but I’m hungry..i’m going home…

Starr: (upset) do you not get it Scott?!! I ran away just for you! I risked everything for you!! How could you do this to me?! I thought you loved me!

Scott: I do you love you. I just want to go home.

Starr: but you can’t! where will I go?!

Scott: I don’t know.

Starr: Scott!!!!!!

Scott: what?

Starr: you can’t go home!!!

Scott: well I’m going to.

Starr: please Scott, don’t do this to me!! You can’t just leave now!! We already ran away! You can’t go back! You just can’t do this to me! We were supposed to be in this together, you and me…

Scott: yeah but I’m hungry and we don’t have any money and I want to go home to eat. I’m going now, you can do whatever you want…

(scott starts to walk away)

Starr: Scott please!!!

(Scott keeps walking. He doesn’t turn around even to look back. He walks offstage. Starr is crying)

Starr: Scott!

(she ends up going after him. Lights fade off)

SCENE 12

(lights up on the small room)

Faith: that is so fucked up! I can’t believe he did that to you! What happened when you got home?

Starr: well, since I had been gone for less than 24 hours, it wasn’t so bad…my foster mom was already planning to replace me…you know, so that she wouldn’t lose money…she told me how she was going to get a baby and not another stupid teenager.

Faith: she was going to replace you that fast?!

(Faith starts to braid Starr’s hair)

Starr: yep. And so anyway, the social workers came and talked to me, and it was a big mess and stuff. But they let me stay. But my foster sister who had done the same thing as me was sent to a group home, so I was just really lucky…

Faith: and so then what happened with you and Scott? Did you get rid of that idiot?

Starr: well, me being dumb and overly loving, I totally acted as though nothing had happened and we continued our relationship just as before.

Faith: I would have never talked to that boy again! That is pretty stupid of you…

Starr: so anyway, after that whole thing, I was REALLY grounded from him…before it was just a kinda thing that was supposed to go away, but after that I wasn’t even allowed to leave the house for months.

Faith: dude, that blows.

Starr: he’s actually the reason I’m here this time.

Faith: oh yeah? How so?

Starr: well, after awhile, I was finally allowed to go outside and play again, so I would go down the street and pretend to be at this girl Stacy’s house, and I’d really see scott instead… he lived right next to her …and one day I got caught at his house and that was it…they canceled my birthday party and made me pack up all my stuff and sent me here.

Faith: where’s all your stuff? Did they bring it all here?

Starr: no, they were going to, but my grandma came and took it for me.

Faith: well, that’s cool…why don’t you live with your grandma?

Starr: because I’m waiting to get my mom back.

Faith: ohhh

Starr: and if I go live with her, I’ll never get my mom back, the court will just forget about me and I’ll be stuck wearing stupid department stores clothes and ribbons in my hair for the rest of my life…

Faith: oh, yeah , that’s not good. Well I hope you get your mom back!

Starr: yeah, me too. Thanks.

Faith: sooo…you wanna run away? I promise I won’t leave you like that jerk did. We’ll be in it together the whole way. You and me forever until we turn 18!

Starr: really?

Faith: yep.

Starr: (pause) ok, let’s do it. Let’s go right now!

Faith: okay, I’ll go get our shampoo and stuff, you pack our stuffed animals.

Starr: okay.

(Faith opens the door and sticks her head out)

Faith: (calling to the staff) may I please use the restroom?

(the other side of the stage lights up. The entire stage is lit now, for the first time. the staff are seated at the desk on the other side of the stage)

Stern looking women: (dryly) yeah, sure.

(faith walks out of the little room and goes to the staff desk. Starr is getting their stuff packed in the other room)

Faith: Starr is planning to run away. And she’s trying to get me to come with her!

Stern looking women: (still dryly) oh really now?

Faith: yes.

Stern looking woman: (to the other staff members.) go get Starr. We need to talk to her.

(to Faith) well, good job. Thanks for telling us. I’ll take away your red. (she gets out a binder and a green pen) you have made 3 greens for the day. Wow, you’ve made nothing but greens all week long! That’s amazing, no reds and no blues. All greens! Looks like you’ll be moving to the honor room for the week.

Faith: I’ll get to watch TV in my room and listen to the radio, this will be great!

Stern looking woman: yes, there’s even a VCR in there. We’ll move you in there later today after the group meeting.

Faith: okay cool!!!

(The staff members bring Starr out.)

Stern looking woman: Starr, I see that you are planning to run away. You know this is against the rules. You will be on basic for three weeks now. (one of the staff members hands Starr a set of pink clothes) I’ll be calling your social worker. (to the staff) take her to the isolation room.

Starr: but…but….

(the staff members lead her away)

(black out)

This story is based on a true story, although it is not even close to the *whole* story and the scenes that *are* included are not quite in chronological order. The character Faith is fictional. She represents the types of people you encounter as a foster child, and not just one specific person, which is perhaps worse...