Resolve

"Your kidding right?" Josh's face cringed angrily, "You better be joking."

He stood outside the house he had been living in for the last two years in a suburb of New York. It was a relatively small house, three bedroom one bathroom. It was owned by his foster parents.

Josh was fourteen, almost fifteen. Child protective services took him away from his mother when he was eleven. She was a drug addict, and didn't have good choice in men either. Josh still had scars from the beatings some of his mother's boyfriends had given him.

After he was taken away from her he had been moved around between foster homes for a while before one family finally adopted him. His foster parents couldn't have children for whatever reason, and they had been hoping for a baby to raise. But instead they had gotten stuck with him, and they had pointed that out more then once when they were angry at him.

"I'm not kidding Josh, we can't do this anymore," Steve was Josh's foster dad. He was a well built but gentle man. It was actually him who convinced his wife to adopt Josh, he'd been swayed by the stories about the abuse, "We can only do so much Josh."

"So that's it? You just leave me behind, throw me away?" Josh scowled at him, "You know I thought you were better then them. But your not, you rather just get rid of me too."

Steve sighed and put his hand on his forehead, "Look Josh, we just think you need a little something to knock some sense into you. We're not going to forget about you. We'll send you gifts and stuff and we'll visit. You just need a little extra discipline Josh."

"Discipline for what? What did I do wrong? Stick up for myself and other people?" Josh would have almost laughed.

Steve shook his head, "You know what I mean Josh. And it doesn't matter anyways, I've already signed you up. If you do well there after the first year or few months you can come back."

Josh spit on the ground beside himself, "Like I'll want to come back. Why would I? So that you can throw me away whenever being a 'parent' becomes too much for you? This is a joke Steve."

Steve ignored what Josh had to say and pulled a yellowish piece of paper from his pocket, "This is your bus ticket to Baltimore. The bus leaves in an hour and a half. That's how long you have to pack."

Josh sneered at him, "Fine you win. I'll go. I hope your happy with yourself man."

Josh walked past Steve into the house, not caring to hear anything else he had to say. Once inside he kicked off his running shoes. Then he walked through the kitchen and down a hallway to where his bedroom was. It was a relatively small room. Just enough room for his dresser and bed and room to walk around.

Josh opened up the closet and looked inside. He pulled out a Gap travel bag. He laid the bag on the floor and searched through the closet. Josh pulled out his favorite sweaters and folded them before stuffing them into the bag.

As he opened up some of the dresser drawers to find some more clothes his foster mother walked into the doorway. Josh heard her but didn't bother to turn around.

She spoke softly to him, "So Steve told you what's going on then?"

Josh still didn't turn around but spoke to her bitterly anyways, "Yeah, you plan to ship me away to military school because I'm too much trouble for you both."

Evette frowned sadly, "I'm sorry hun. We just can't help you anymore."

"Yeah whatever," Josh finished packing clothes into the bag and moved across the room to the nightstand near his bed.

She stepped into the room and stood behind him. "Please don't be mad at us hun, it's for your own good."

Josh stifled a laugh, "Steve already tried to sell me that crap."

Evette sighed, "Alright, but you know we love you Josh. We only want you to be okay."

Josh finished collecting a few personal effects off his nightstand and turned around, "Sure you do. Your doing a hell of a job of showing it." He walked past her carrying the Gap bag out of the room.

He walked back to the front of the house to the kitchen where Steve was sitting at the table drinking a coffee. He looked up at Josh, "Your all packed then?"

Josh nodded bitterly, "Yeah I'm all ready."

Steve stood up, holding his coffee mug, "Alright, so do you want a ride over to the bus station?"

Josh shrugged, "If you don't give me one I might miss my bus to hell so yeah, sure."

Steve sighed, "I'm sorry Josh."

"Don't be," Josh pulled his white sneakers on and opened up the door stepping outside.

After a minute or two Steve and Evette both came outside as well. Steve used to key pad to unlock his older Firebird car and Josh got in the back. Steve and Evette got in the front of the car.

Steve turned around to look at Josh, "Anywhere you want to stop? Need to buy anything or say goodbye to anyone?"

Josh shook his head, "No I don't."

Steve nodded and backed the car out of the driveway onto the road.

The drive to the bus station was quiet. Nobody really said anything and Josh was glad. He was sure Evette or Steve would be try to feed him that nonsense about how this was for his own good and everything but they didn't try to.

So Josh spent most of the ride thinking. Maybe he did deserve this, he wasn't exactly the straightest arrow in the world. But then again, everything things he'd done had been to help somebody else. It was selfless, so no he didn't deserve this for it. It was to bad nobody else understood that.

Eventually they reached the bus station. Josh stepped out of the green firebird onto the gray cement of the station platform. The bus station was a rounded building with buses scattered all around the nearby parking lot.

"So which bus is mine Steve?" He asked looking at the ticket, Josh had some time to get his emotions in check during the hour drive to the station. He figured he was going to have to go to this dumb military school regardless so being all bitter and angry at everyone and everything wouldn't do him any good.

"It's number one-twenty-eight Josh," Steve pointed to a bus on the other side of the platform. A few people were climbing on board already, "It'll take you to a stop about a block north of the school. You can walk the rest of the way from there."

"Alright," Josh said quietly, "Well see you guys later I guess."

Evette reached out and hugged Josh, "I'll miss you hun, I'm sorry."

Josh hugged her back, "No, I'm sorry. You probably don't have to many other options." He didn't completely feel that way but Evette was a terribly nice person and pretty much the only real mother figure he had ever had.

After Evette let go Josh looked at Steve and joked, "You want a hug too?"

Steve smirked gently and gave Josh a quick hug for a moment, "You be careful Josh. I know you can take care of yourself, but try not to get yourself hurt mouthing off to somebody."

Josh grinned gently, "Like you said, I can take care of myself." He turned around and started walking to the bus, but Steve grabbed his shoulder.

"I almost forgot, here's something for you," Steve handed him a small stack of paper bills, "there's five hundred dollars there. it should be enough for anything extra you need. We've already paid for your meals and stuff at the school but you know."

Josh smiled, "Thanks, I'll be sure not to blow it all in one place."

Steve nodded, "I know you won't. Now hurry up or your going to miss your bus."

Josh nodded and pocked the money before turning back around and walking to the bus. He handed his ticket to the driver who clipped it before handing it back to him. Josh walked to the back of the bus and sat down in an empty seat three rows from the back.

There wasn't too many people on the bus, many ten or fifteen. But apparently everyone was there because the driver said they were going to begin leaving.

Josh looked out of the window at the bus station. Steve and Evette were standing there waving at him. The bus began to pull away and Josh waved back to them. As the bus reached the end of the stations parking lot a began turning onto the road Josh watched as the couple waved one more time before turning and walking back towards their car.

Josh signed and reached into his travel bag. He pulled out his MP3 player and put in the headphones, turning on some loud rock music to drown out his thoughts.