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.
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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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUAQgmBnTt9
Not for money. Not for clout.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbqymH1qYsY
For survival.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡguXvH8Y2ij
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWKFJbFIO04
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7I0MMcH08A
Miss Laney—my third foster mama in two months—had sticky fingers and a nastier attitude.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlIMZKV7nwc
Kept her fridge locked, her mouth mean, and her eyes on my clothes like they were her property.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6NMPHBEif2
She’d smile in front of the caseworker and say I was “adjusting just fine.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjzRCUrHexv
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhyqrw80uLh
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I’d had enough.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWGE4DBOk3A
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF81xT1CKFu
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmBs8CTjSo1
She had this dusty old Dell laptop she guarded like gold.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2zSBzAX9E
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.”21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtdrV3pekc2
Except she never fed us. The cabinets stayed empty.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiYoX5NfJsa
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOSRzJlH53
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One night, while she was snoring off boxed wine and bitterness, I snuck into the kitchen.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnSgbc81wr9
Took her laptop. Sat on the floor with a flashlight between my knees.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJqcq4lJSAW
Heart pounding. Hands shaking.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg0Id3C1NhK
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She used the same password for everything—Laney1234.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuSh6pKatPc
Too easy.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTtM8AUwtUx
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDoTkdmPDVX
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKoDPg9Dgek
I clicked into her account, found her full name, her case info, and her EBT card ID.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcVjiDrIF3O
Felt like God when I figured out how to reroute that whole deposit.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDo5DemnVM
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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNww2J1EUdR
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I didn’t stop there.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡizQ8piD62t
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSocdnqldwS
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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.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfJMjlKzNMH
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbHzPgfxyY
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Then I put the laptop back.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlImK6bL6iC
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2kE7gAtBab
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The next morning, she cursed the devil into the floorboards trying to figure out why her card declined.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqav3Gr9lyv
By that afternoon, a social worker was knocking at the door.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzufAfHPDo
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I didn’t smile when they pulled me out of that house.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEk2VcarOpx
But inside?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡumYHhurLry
I was lit up like a sunrise.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡquSLTFfUEk
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That was the day I realized something.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAnzIRJovfr
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc6oFpYDsBE
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I didn’t need to fight with fists.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblKkH3h5I6
I had keystrokes.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVpNhYnttaS
And people like Miss Laney?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBjSgrGR96
They had no idea what a girl like me could do once she learned the system.
