x
Most girls remember dolls, ribbons, birthday cakes.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I started learning passwords instead.
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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.
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8sBqQWYCL
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.
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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.
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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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1SSiFZe5ZY
Not for money. Not for clout.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ08Jwv0B8bn
For survival.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEQjDSsm9dT
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVx0HTbezqg
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULOk1gacSU
Miss Laney—my third foster mama in two months—had sticky fingers and a nastier attitude.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxCG9dqy2C
Kept her fridge locked, her mouth mean, and her eyes on my clothes like they were her property.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8BCRuISpCm
She’d smile in front of the caseworker and say I was “adjusting just fine.”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SrE6aibTq
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq4svIOldmg
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I’d had enough.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgqUoq9iuK1
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCeQkMT0vJg
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GDIgKA54y
She had this dusty old Dell laptop she guarded like gold.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡshsltmLznx
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.”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoGv3TuFtfg
Except she never fed us. The cabinets stayed empty.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8RAWSYinVX
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVKDjEyog2k
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlucFHlL0E
One night, while she was snoring off boxed wine and bitterness, I snuck into the kitchen.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdBqmJSGxqQ
Took her laptop. Sat on the floor with a flashlight between my knees.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO6mIOZkr0V
Heart pounding. Hands shaking.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNFCMoAZSxZ
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSZX6EK42w
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiajvejJzwt
She used the same password for everything—Laney1234.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoqOCXep6mv
Too easy.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOm9ZMdRwP
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTiU1x6phjI
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBgZ33ErRpC
I clicked into her account, found her full name, her case info, and her EBT card ID.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgMfSKeBTw4
Felt like God when I figured out how to reroute that whole deposit.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡahzthT29hB
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDRM7dxoF8B
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCuVRzQdf4s
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I didn’t stop there.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXqVLIIZZrN
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Y9HxUi6eo
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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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKtQA4fTzsf
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW4uIhM1h6Y
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Then I put the laptop back.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPoIubLmPb5
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4b0jkRnOyk
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR95yxccJUw
The next morning, she cursed the devil into the floorboards trying to figure out why her card declined.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWewSneKk6Q
By that afternoon, a social worker was knocking at the door.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmkoBgBQqIl
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmI2dgxrUI8
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I didn’t smile when they pulled me out of that house.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEsxYSB2dns
But inside?52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡelGNTKvV2P
I was lit up like a sunrise.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPgeRINzCay
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY55Rgy3DGA
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ncYIrphnn
That was the day I realized something.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeiz6Xa87ko
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiK6zdlYVMn
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyTKgiKYgVd
I didn’t need to fight with fists.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9BUzrnmP0j
I had keystrokes.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtNv8AYSgSV
And people like Miss Laney?52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLBdQqj0qOZ
They had no idea what a girl like me could do once she learned the system.
