Maria didn't remember her mother or her life in Roswell. She was afraid to go back. Her whole life had been spent hearing stories from her father about how horrible her mother was to them. She knew she couldn't go back there. She really didn't know what she was going to do.

She had her friends that were also on their own. Although they had been on their own since they were very young. Zan, Rath, and Ava. Lonnie lived there too but she never got very close with her. Maria would spend all her free time in the sewers playing with the three children. She had met them when she ran away from home at the age of seven because her father wouldn't buy her something. She was never allowed to tell anyone that they existed, but she never knew why. She simply always thought she was special, and they were her secret to keep.

But now, she was unsure of her future, whether it would be here in New York with her friends, or back in Roswell with someone she didn't trust.

"Baby, you ok?" asked Rath, her best friend.

Maria only shook her head and started to cry. She had known Rath for seven years and she rarely saw or heard him be sensitive. Rath came and wrapped his arms around her awkwardly, trying to comfort.

"It's gonna be ok, ya know," he said, patting her shoulder.

Maria simply shrugged. Maria looked around the room and saw her friends. Zan was sitting on his "throne", as he liked to call it, Lonnie was facing her also trying to comfort, and Ava was sitting in the corner reading.

Her friends always seemed to play the same roles with each other, but she never understood how they chose them. Zan was always the "king". He would sit on that throne a lord over everyone. Whenever there was a problem he was always the person who tried to correct it. Zan was one of her best friends, but it always made her angry when he would try to tell her what to do.

Ava, now there was a strange person. To Maria she was Ava, a friend who would do anything for her. But when they would go into the City she would see another side of Ava. Ava had a tendency to steal, although that was really the only way they could get food. But she would steal other things, like purses, clothes, balls from other kids. But she would also flirt with boys. Maria couldn't understand why. Later she would realize that Ava used her charms to get her things. With her looks men would buy her dinner, give her money, treat her like the queen she always claimed to be.

Lonnie was not someone Maria ever felt close to. Since the beginning when Maria started to come around Lonnie didn't trust her. Maria had tried, and so had Zan, to get her to come and talk to her, to get to know her. But Lonnie always stayed in the shadows, always stayed behind Zan.

Maria then turned and looked at Rath. Her Rath. He was the first that she had met in sewers when she had run away.

// Maria running down in the sewers.//

//Rath jumping out at her, tackling her to the mucky ground.//