Where do I belong? By Kennedi Bates

Where do I belong?
By: Kennedi Bates

It was a windy day when the man crossed the road and when into the bus station. He didn’t know what bus he should take or even where he was going, but all he knew was that he had to get far away from here. Then he made his decision. A bus that said Atlanta Airport on the top of it approached and stopped at the station. The man looked at the house he had just come from across the street, waved goodbye and got on the bus.
When he got on the bus he paid and sat down in the back. He made sure the bus driver wasn’t paying attention, and then he took off his coal black hat, his brown fake mustache, and his fake glasses he had found in his room. Wait, he thought, his old room. The man was really a young boy, 14 years old to be exact, named Tom.
Tom looked around in his old backpack he brought and found his money he brought. One hundred and twenty seven dollars in cash and his emergency credit card he had gotten from his former parents last Christmas. All of a sudden the bus stopped, and when he looked out he was at the airport. Tom picked up his stuff, trying to figure out if he really wanted to run away or if he would just go home to his family. He got off the bus.
Tom didn’t have any another choice but to run away. He was an orphan that kept getting passed from family to family never having somewhere to call home. But this time it was different, the people he had left were wonderful and friendly. They were always treating him like family, but then something happened. Those parents got divorced and eventually they didn’t know what to do with him, so they said that they were giving him to an orphanage. Tom didn’t want to go back to the orphanage, not ever again, so he had to leave.
He was going to find his birth parents. Tom knew that they lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, because that was all the orphanage lady could tell him. He looked at the flights to Tennessee; there was one leaving in an hour and a half. The boy’s body filled up with joy and went over to the Information Desk to buy a ticket. The ticket was three hundred dollars. He looked at the price again and made sure his eyes weren’t messing with him. They weren’t.
He sighed and got out his credit card. After he bought the ticket, he went on the train to the gates. Tom looked at the gate number on the ticket, A18. He found the gate and sat down and waited for the attendant to call his zone. Finally she called his zone. He got up, gave the attendant his ticket and boarded the plane.
The plane finally took off. Tom was used to flying. He did it all the time, flying place to place, family to family. Tom got some cookies and ginger ale when they served snacks. He never figured out how hungry he was until he finally ate something. After that the pilot announced that we were arriving in a moment. Tom couldn’t even talk, he was so excited. He got his backpack and got off the plane once it landed. Tom didn’t have any baggage but he followed the Baggage Claim signs, so he could get a taxi to Chattanooga.
The taxi driver looked at him weird when he said Chattanooga, which confused Tom. He looked up at the airport sign. His heart stopped. He had bought the wrong ticket! The airport sign said Welcome to Tampa, Florida! Tom was in Florida! “Noooooooooooooooo,” yelled Tom at the top of his lungs. He got out of the taxi and went to the Information Desk to tell them what happened. He couldn’t believe he got on the wrong flight! As Tom approached the Information Desk, he looked outside. He totally lost track of time. It was all ready pitch dark out! The lady at the Information Desk told him that there weren’t any more flights until tomorrow morning, but he did have to pay for the next flight if he wanted to go to his birth parents. Tom couldn’t believe this. He sat down on one of the chairs and cried himself to sleep.
When he awoke it was morning. Well 5:00 a.m. The flight was boarding in ten minutes! He had to get that ticket! Tom went and bought the ticket. It cost more than before, but he had to buy it. When the plane started boarding he ran and got in line. The plane ride was short, surprisingly. When he got off he made sure the airport said Welcome to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It did! He was here! Tom could sense that his parents were here, he knew it.
When he went and got a taxi, he was overjoyed. The old taxi driver said that Chattanooga was not too far from the airport. He told the taxi driver the address he found to his parents on the internet. As they rode along, he thought of all he would tell him and how happy they would be to see him. Finally they arrived at the house. It was a new house, just made that year. Tom looked at it, examining ever inch. He paid the driver, got out and rang the door bell.
A lady that had the same freckles as him and same color hair opened the door. “Mom,” he asked. “Tommy?” She asked. It was her. They hugged, both crying. His dad came over and didn’t really know what was going on. “Robert, it’s him.” They all went into the house and talked for hours. Tom’s parents said they had to give him up at the time, because they couldn’t take care of him. They had always loved him, he’d always known that. Tom had a family and a home now. He finally found where he belonged.