At a young age, Jamie Davis ran away from home. He actually only ran away for a day, but he stills reflects on these times. Jamie is the kid to always do his homework days before the due date. He always respected his parents and never disobeyed them. He was spoiled as a kid who got anything he wanted.Jamie moved around a lot so it was hard making friends. His family had finally settled down in Chicago, which is where he met his two best friends, Oliver and Alex. Out of the friend group Jamie was considered to be the put together one and knew what he wanted to do for the future. He wanted to start his own clothing business and he expected to be a millionaire by his 20s. Alex always thought he had enough time and when Jamie would ask him, Alex would immediately switch the topic. He didn't even know if he ever wanted to go to college. Alex knew that he wanted to be a millionaire as well but had no idea when or where to start. Oliver would stare blankly and start pacing around back and forth with just the thought of the future. 

     They all became friends in 11th grade when they had a biology project and were partnered up together by their teacher. Jamie would always sit alone in that class so he was excited to be paired with new people to meet. When being partnered up Jamie was asking them tons of questions. Alex always gave a one word response like he had no interest because he had never really been the social type. Oliver on the other hand is extremely extroverted and liked meeting new people. Jamie never really had friends so he was excited to meet them. Jamie was continuously smiling while Alex and Oliver were extremely weirded out by him. 

“We can meet up at my house after school tomorrow.” Jamie said. Oliver and Alex just agreed because they thought they could just get Jamie to do all the work. It was the next day after school and both Oliver and Alex headed to Jamies house. Once they arrived they were in shock with how gigantic Jamie's house was. It looked like it was a mile long with perfectly cut trees. They slowly walk to his doorstep still looking around. After this project all three of them started to become friends. 

       It was the first night of winter break, they all hung out at Jamie's house, played video games and were planning to stay the night. It was around 1 am when Alex dropped his controller and wanted to do something exciting, so he proposed an idea for the three of them to sneak out. Jamie's face went blank and he immediately switched the topic back to mario kart.

“How are you not getting sick of playing this?” Alex said. Jamie was indeed very tired of playing Mario Kart but he would much rather play than sneaking out. 

“ We can do something else if you want,” he replied.

“Like I said we should sneak out,”Alex said.

“ We can go watch something in the TV room.” Jamie said

“ We definitely should sneak out tonight,” Oliver said. Jamie never really had friends and he just made new ones. He didn’t want to risk losing them so he felt pressured to say yes. Alex started to brainstorm ideas on how they should sneak out. 

“Could we walk through the front or back door?” Alex says.

“No way we have security systems installed throughout the house.” Jamie said

“How about the window?” Oliver said. Jamie laughed it off and looked at Oliver who looked like he wasn’t joking.  

“You know what, that's not a bad idea.” Alex replied. Jamie was waiting for one of them to say that they were joking but it seemed to be that they weren’t. Oliver and Alex then check the window to see if it's safe enough to go down from. Jamie looked down from the window and looked at them.

“Are you sure it's even safe to jump from here?” Jamie says. 

“We will see,” says Oliver. Alex and Oliver started laughing by seeing the look on Jamies face. Jamie was as still as a statue hearing this and he couldn’t believe any of this either. 

“What if my parents find out?” Jamie says

“They won't, we'll be back in time by then.” Alex said. At this point Jamie gave up trying to convince them to stay since their minds were made up. 

“Who wants to go first?” Oliver asks

“Definitely not me.” Jamie said.

“ I guess I’ll go.” Alex said

“Should we put a mattress before climbing out?” Jamie said.

“You clearly have never done this before.” Oliver said. Which is true but Jamie, just like usual,went along with what they said. 

   They each climbed out of Jamie's window one by one. First, Alex climbed out and then Oliver. Jamie was frozen. He felt like he was disrespecting his parents. Both of them stared at Jamie. Finally, 

Alex said “Are you gonna climb out?”. Jamie was thinking to himself how he would have loved the idea of staying behind but clearly he couldn’t. He slowly climbed out of the window but landed head first into his perfectly cut bush. Jamie was already upset since he fell  but realized he ruined his jacket his mother had just bought him.There were a few pieces of dirt on his shoulder. He felt like he was going to puke under all this pressure to stay cool in front of them. They all finally started heading to the local 24 hour diner also known as “Dennys'' which was a few minutes away. 

It had been around 10 minutes of them walking but none of them knew where they were. Alex checked his phone to find directions but there was no signal near them. Jamie completely lost all hope and started to wonder with Alex and Oliver. This is when Jamie really started to panic. He had never done anything without his parents knowing. Oliver had spotted a gas station in the distance and they all headed towards there. Jamie rushed inside to find any signal on his phone. 

“I think this is enough for one night. Let me call my parents to pick us up” said Jamie. Alex and Oliver both looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. “You’re not being serious right?” said Oliver. Jamie had a blank look on his face and threw out a fake laugh. “Of course I wasn’t being serious, what's the plan now?” Jamie replied anxiously. “Let’s go over to the diner and then we can go back” said Alex. Jamie really wanted to go home immediately but he just went along with Alex’s plan. 

The three of them started walking towards the dinner and Alex was completely silent the entire time there. Jamie noticed but was too angry to say anything. Oliver was checking behind him the entire time almost if someone was following right behind them. Jamie was on the verge of tears so the entire walk was basically silent. Once they arrived Jamie could barely even eat because he was so stressed. Alex on the other hand was starving and so was Oliver. Alex ordered a stack of what looked like 10 pancakes. Oliver just ordered fresh orange juice. As they were waiting for food they were each waiting for someone to break the silence in the room. Alex then proceeded to say “Are you not getting anything Jamie?”. Jamie was thinking how he could even have an appetite for what just happened so that’s exactly what he said. 

      Oliver was passed out on his chair.

 “Why didn’t you say anything earlier to me?” said Alex. Jamie's jaw dropped and was just blank. He couldn't believe he had just said that. After gathering his thoughts he finally yelled “What else have I been saying these past two hours!” Just in time the food finally came. Alex went silent and replied with an apology. 

“Do you want to leave right now?” Alex said. 

Jamie rolled his eyes, “Well the food just arrived so do we really have a choice?” Jamie shook Oliver to get him to wake up. Oliver jumped like he had almost forgotten where he was. He grabbed his tiny cup of orange juice and slowly started sipping. Jamie felt bad for being rude to Alex earlier so he apologized to Alex but Alex just nodded his head as he shoved spoonfuls of pancakes drenched in sugar syrup. Oliver looked inside his empty cup trying to drink every last drop left. Alex put his head onto the table grabbing his stomach since he stuffed himself in less than 5 minutes. The waiter came by and dropped off the check. 

'`Would this be together or separate?” said the waiter. “separate,” Oliver said. Alex checked his pockets and nervously laughed searching for his wallet.  Jamie knew what was about to happen but he just stayed quiet. Alex had an awkward smile on his face and Jamie and Oliver glanced at each other both knowing what’s about to happen. “So I forgot my wallet at home and I was wondering if I could just pay you guys in at least maybe a week.” Jamie handed his card and Alex thanked him almost a thousand times. Oliver had his head on the table slowly drowsing back to sleep. The waiter came by and picked up the checks from Alex and Oliver. Alex then says “What’s the plan after this?’’. “What do you mean, what's the plan after this, there is no plan we are heading straight to home.” Jamie kicked Oliver this time for him to get up. Oliver woke up and his eyes were bulging out looking terrified. They grabbed their belongings and headed out of the diner. Oliver’s eyes were slowly shutting and his legs were trembling each step of the way. Alex turned around and saw Oliver could barely walk because he was so tired. They found a curb and started to walk to it. Jamie immediately sat down. Alex was staring at the concrete and started fiddling with his fingers. Oliver then gets himself up and they all finally start heading back.

 “Wait, where are we even going?” said Oliver. 

“Oh you’re right, let me check my phone.” Jamie replied. Jamie grabbed his phone but it wouldn't turn on. 

“That’s strange, it was charged earlier.” Jamie said. He shakes Alex to get his attention. 

“Can we use your phone?’’ Jamie says. Alex reaches for his phone and taps it to turn it on but unfortunately it didn’t. Oliver started hyperventilating and started walking into a random direction without Jamie and Alex noticing. Jamie and Alex realize a few seconds later that Oliver is missing. After what seemed like hours but was actually a few minutes, Oliver stopped and couldn’t recognize any of his surroundings. He turned around to talk to Alex and Jamie but there was nothing but piles of leaves all over the grass. Oliver starts screaming both of their names having a small piece of hope that one of them could respond. Meanwhile Jamie and Alex were in the complete opposite direction from Oliver. They started going to random places searching for Oliver and they somehow ended up back at the diner. They immediately ran into the diner and started to ask an employee if they had seen their friend and unfortunately they hadn’t. But, they did find Olivers phone which they took to give back to him. Alex guessed the password on the first try. 

“Of course his password is 1234.” Alex says. 

“Who should we call?” Jamie says

“We can call my brother and he's probably awake right now.” Alex says. Alex then types in his brother's number since he didn't want to call his parents to get him to pick both of them up. After about 20 minutes Alex’s brother arrives. They run inside of his car and Alex’s brother, Henry starts scolding them. 

“We don’t have time to argue right now because Oliver is missing…” Jamie says. Henry's eyes widen and start screaming even more now. 

“Where was he last seen?” Henry says.

“There was this curb we sat at just down this path.” Alex said. So, Henry went in that direction. It was dead silent the entire time in the car. No one really knew what to say nor did they have anything to say. They arrived at the curb and saw Oliver walking towards the same place. Henry parks his car and jumps out to signal Oliver. Oliver sees and goes running towards his car. Jamie sighed with relief. Henry then went on to drop everyone at their home. They first dropped off Jamie. All of them helped him climb inside of his window. In that moment Jamie realized how he would never go to that extent on trying to please everyone. 

They all started heading back to Jamie’s house. On the way back there was this homeless cat following them. Jamie stopped to see if its owner was around but there was no sign of one. Jamie saw the cat and immediately got excited and started chasing it around. Alex and Oliver turn around and have each other a look 

Alex and Oliver were confused why Jamie stopped. They just continued to walk without Jamie. Jamie glanced at them and didn’t try to stop them. Maybe it was the fact that he was starving because he didn’t get to eat at the diner, but he didn’t try to stop them. He picked up the cat and started walking with him. He reached home and saw that Alex and Oliver had already climbed back into his room. Jamie walked through the front door and forgot that the alarm was on. Both his parents run towards the door and look terrified. “Jamie what is going on?” said his mother. Jamie explained the entire situation and his parents were at a loss of words. Alex and Oliver went to the parents and said that Jamie was lying when he really wasn’t so Jamie kicked them out of the house but he of course gave them a ride to make sure they had gotten home safely. It was almost 3 am when Jamie was about to go to bed when his father stopped him saying “Why is there a cat in our house”. Jamie replied “This is our cat Declan.” His father gave Jamie a blank stare and replied” you can’t keep this cat.”. Jamie picked up the cat and his father was too tired to be paying attention to what was happening. His father just headed back to his room with no question and just went back to sleep. After this night Jamie realized how he’s never going to let anyones opinion impact him again.