x
Most girls remember dolls, ribbons, birthday cakes.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWRBGZginH5
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡup5NbOkYtd
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RvVxJdX90
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWhr3geNBs6
I started learning passwords instead.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqIiiHlzer
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡml5MLl1c7E
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq7nJLJqJEp
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.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3iBePyjDZh
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.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI86vAN93Il
Not for money. Not for clout.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsOqdQrgorv
For survival.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8n3xUoat5r
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16Io859VH2
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtr9n4D0l3c
Miss Laney—my third foster mama in two months—had sticky fingers and a nastier attitude.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkHIuv62jf8
Kept her fridge locked, her mouth mean, and her eyes on my clothes like they were her property.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ75SZ8jr8zW
She’d smile in front of the caseworker and say I was “adjusting just fine.”26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrPO3zy6AkZ
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.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkUDbkqgvEC
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡakl6F5GIUT
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpikxGlBq9
I’d had enough.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2Fs5dMEn4
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRfOhgZzNLe
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhFy3tZHwNz
She had this dusty old Dell laptop she guarded like gold.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWjHK1s6kx
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.”26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNd7afyd15
Except she never fed us. The cabinets stayed empty.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1fzojsCavD
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt0f95dcoMM
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfK4Z0IVOOq
One night, while she was snoring off boxed wine and bitterness, I snuck into the kitchen.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ia1y2v8Tw
Took her laptop. Sat on the floor with a flashlight between my knees.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRDvMyWKF1z
Heart pounding. Hands shaking.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSEGQCQSli
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxHF04VyYeH
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡok1eePwZin
She used the same password for everything—Laney1234.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLrYbv9BVr
Too easy.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgWldqBkGCJ
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡimKgQjdXm4
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMKF4hrO3lf
I clicked into her account, found her full name, her case info, and her EBT card ID.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTCwj2GlfL6
Felt like God when I figured out how to reroute that whole deposit.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5RIfsZTzQ
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.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8xghfzEPL
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6TbGsyXDzE
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31Y2oYPVTM
I didn’t stop there.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡisRGzj9LMu
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2lT5NcQUak
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSSte1Ol5KY
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.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6a1OMhQsGK
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKs7Oexhaq0
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6gldLdIFq
Then I put the laptop back.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2eW0LEKE1W
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhnesC2UjIY
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGZ1byHm51
The next morning, she cursed the devil into the floorboards trying to figure out why her card declined.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUBKNVwr88S
By that afternoon, a social worker was knocking at the door.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAJl1yJnz9q
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHDe2tTf9cy
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj2Bp6cSDp1
I didn’t smile when they pulled me out of that house.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXUqgiLxN8
But inside?26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNPumaHBjC2
I was lit up like a sunrise.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpEGa07iKCY
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RLp18DTMJ
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz1RcT6tMoo
That was the day I realized something.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwAkBRZO62H
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTbWHIycn4
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwOR3QzSnkB
I didn’t need to fight with fists.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGz0CmWczN
I had keystrokes.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0VlenyIZl
And people like Miss Laney?26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMt3oKZgHcF
They had no idea what a girl like me could do once she learned the system.
