Hey, I’m Francisca and I grew up in a trailer with my mom. We both slept on mattresses next to each other. And because my mom didn’t have a job, we were both dirt poor.
At age 13, my body started to change and unfortunately, my mom didn’t like that. She often accused me of trying to seduce her boyfriends, even though I wasn’t even interested in boys back then.
It got so bad that she forced me to wait outside the trailer while her boyfriends were visiting her, which meant I sometimes had to wait outside all night long!! Even when it was freezing. And we were living right next to a big forest and one night a bear wandered out and started walking right towards me.
I was petrified and ran into my mom's trailer so I wouldn’t get eaten by the bear. Unfortunately, as I ran inside, I interrupted my mom kissing one of her boyfriends. She got really angry and said “You little witch, you wanna steal my boyfriend again! You will regret this!”I told her there was a bear outside, but she didn’t believe me. And then she did something horrible. She called the cops and told them to pick me up and bring me to an orphanage.
I had always tried to be a good daughter and always followed my mom’s rules, so hearing her say she wanted to get rid of me, broke my heart into a million pieces. All I wanted, was her to love me, but instead she made me feel like I was some trash she had to throw away.
I arrived at the foster home the next morning. It was strange and scary.. A lot of the older boys were staring at me and I felt vulnerable because I had no one to protect me.
Then I was sent to a dorm room with lots of other girls and they instantly made it clear that I wasn’t welcomed. On my first day, when I went into the laundry room, someone locked the door behind me, which meant I was locked in there for 12 hours. There was no toilet, so I had to pee into a bottle. It was horrible!
After one of the supervisors opened the door again, I immediately called up my mom and begged her to take me back. I told her I would do anything, even live outside the trailer in a tent if I had to.
But again, she didn’t care, and her voice sounded so cold. She said “You got what you deserved for trying to steal my boyfriend from me!” and then she hung up.
When I got back to my dorm room, one of the girls pushed me against the wall and said, “You won’t survive with that pretty face very long. You have no idea what we will do to you.”
Well, that was the tipping point for me! I grabbed my bag and ran out of the foster home and decided to go back to my mom’s trailer park. But I knew she wouldn’t just take me back, so I cut off all of my hair and shaved my eyebrows off.
When she saw me, she asked what had happened and I told her the other kids had beaten me up and cut off my hair. I secretly hoped she would d feel sorry and take pity on me!
But she was drunk and called the cops to bring me back to my foster home. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy because I had cut off my hair.
I knew I wasn’t safe at this foster home unless I made some friends. But who would wanna be friends with me?! I didn’t have anything to offer.
But then two girls started fighting each other. One of them was much stronger than the other one, but the weaker girl had lots of friends and together they were able to beat up the stronger girl. Afterward, they stole her necklace even though the girl screamed it was the only thing she had left of her mom after she died in a car accident. She was crying like crazy, trying to get it back, but the girls wouldn’t give it to her and then they ran away.
