Just like any other day, I was walking home after school with Mina and Anna. As we were complaining about our math teacher and going over all the homework he gave me, I saw my father outside our home, waiting for me. It was unusual finding my father home before 7 o’clock, he was always working until late. I said goodbye to the girls and ran to meet my father, but he didn’t have that same, happy expression he always had.  
“Come inside,” he quietly said, “We need to tell you something.”  
As soon as I entered the door, I saw three bags on the floor. My eyes teared up as I turned to hug Dad. I knew this day was coming up. Home was not safe anymore. With all the protests and violence going on, even being at home was not safe enough. Life had been very restricted, as a teenage girl, it wasn’t safe for me to even go out of my house after school, I couldn’t go anywhere alone past 5 o’clock. Many of my friends had already left with their families, nobody knew exactly where they went though, nobody said anything about their destination. It was too dangerous.  
“You know this is for the best,” dad whispered as I kept hugging him and crying.  
After some minutes, he managed to calm me down, and I went to the kitchen to meet Mom and Iva. I looked my sister in the eyes and could tell that she had been crying too. My mom ran towards me, hugged me and told me that everything would be okay. Lunch was silent, nobody tried to speak.  
“I suppose I should also pack my bag,” I finally said when I was nearly finished. 
“Yes,” my mom said quietly after what felt like a very long pause.  
I went to my room and saw a black bag just like the others on my bed. I opened my photo album, going through the pages, my mind going through all the memories. My 5th birthday, the day grandma came back from the hospital, my first day of high school, and so many more memories. That book was the first thing that went in my bag. Seeing the size of the bag, I knew I would have to decide on a few things I could get with me. I packed clothes that I saw first, as that wasn’t my main worry for now. But the thought of having to leave behind the house I grew up in with all the memories hurt me. After packing everything, I picked up the necklace on my nightstand, it was a necklace my grandmother had given me before she passed away. It was a necklace she had gotten when she was young, and she said it gave her good luck when she had it on. She said she wanted me to keep it and told me to hold onto it whenever things got tough. I quietly left my packed bag with all the rest and went into the living room where everyone was watching TV. I sat quietly and continued watching the movie they had started.  
“Remember when you and I would play right by that corner?’ my sister asked.  
My mom chuckled, “You were so tiny back then.”  
After a whole list of all the memories we had in this house, I heard a knock on the door. It was our neighbor Mr.Frickle and his family. I heard my dad telling me to come inside. We all sat on the couches, as Mom brought out some cookies. I felt dizzy, thinking about having to leave home. 
“What are we waiting for?” I asked, I had realized the Frickles were coming with us, but I still wasn’t sure why we were still sitting in our living room.  
“We are waiting for the sun to set,” Dad replied, “we will leave in about 30 minutes, when it’s darker and right before the protests start again.  
It felt as if time wasn’t going by. When my dad finally said it was time to go, I made sure I had everything I needed and said one last goodbye to our house. We each carried our own bags to a car Mr.Frickle had found for us. We squeezed ourselves into the 5 seats of the car and we started driving.  
“Lina, wake up, we’re here” I heard my mother’s voice. I had fallen asleep right away.  
We all got out of the car, picked up our bags and started following Dad. I had no idea where we were or where we were headed to. My dad started walking towards a forest, we were following a path that had been made. 
I caught up with him, “Where are we and why is there a path here?’ 
“Our old friends who have already left the country made this path because they knew more people would want to escape. This path takes us to the border but through a mountain, we can’t have them see us crossing the border,” my dad explained.  
I continued walking close to him, when I heard something move. Everyone stopped and fell silent. We saw a guard some meters away. My dad gestures everyone to sit down quietly so we wouldn’t be seen. We all did as he said and didn’t move. I was scared to breathe, I didn’t know what would happen to us if we got caught, but I knew it was something terrible. As soon as I thought we were all safe and the guard was leaving. Iva’s foot slipped, and it made a noise in the bushes. We all stared at each other, I could see the scared look on everyone’s faces, and I knew that there was nothing we could do. It was sure the guard had heard it, and we couldn't hide anywhere. Trying to run was stupid, they could catch us in a minute.  
“Who’s there?” I heard a deep voice yell.  
I was trying to hold my tears back not to make a sound. Nobody made a sound. We could hear the steps of the guard through the fallen leaves in the forest. He was getting closer and closer, I felt as if he could see us. Suddenly, I heard a bark out of nowhere. Just before getting close enough to see us, the guard turned his head around the dog.  
“Get out of here,” he yelled at the dog. He scared him with a rock and turned back to where he was walking towards in the beginning.  
I was so grateful for that dog; I was sure everyone was. You could see the look of relief on everyone’s faces. We waited until we couldn’t hear the guard’s steps anymore until we got up and started walking again.  
“Watch your steps,” my dad whispered, “we can’t make a noise again.” 
Shaking our heads, we all started walking again. We kept walking for what seemed like hours, stopping when we heard steps. I started feeling hungry to the point where I couldn’t even properly walk, Annie had fallen asleep and her father was carrying her, and Iva could barely keep her eyes open, my mom was holding her hand to make sure she didn’t fall. Suddenly I saw some lights from far away, as we got closer to the light, I could see the border, guards on duty, cameras everywhere. My dad stopped, we all looked at him.  
“We are at the border now, we are very close to being safe, but this is the hardest part. We all need to be careful and quiet, if they see us there’s nothing we can do,” my dad then turned to look at the border.  
He and Mr.Freckle looked at where the guards were and whispered something together; I couldn’t hear what they were saying. They turned to us and gave us a sign to follow them. We kept walking through bushes, it was so dark I couldn’t even see where I was going.  
“Hey, you,” we heard someone yell, “stop right there!”  
At that point I thought we were caught, there was nothing we could do, with so many guards around. Surprisingly, the guards started running in the opposite direction. They had caught another group of people trying to escape, just like us.  
“Quickly! Run while they’re distracted.” Mr.Freckle said.  
We all did as he said and started running. We ran and ran until we couldn’t see the lights of the border anymore.  
“We did it!” I said enthusiastically, still trying to be quiet just in case. I was happy that we had crossed the border, but I still was afraid of getting caught.  
We had crossed the border, we were safe now, in a peaceful country, but still not home. My parents both had a smile on their face, I could see they felt relieved. We now needed to find my dad’s friend. He would take us to his house until we found a good place to stay in. Soon enough, we saw a car parked. My dad’s friend came out of the car and greeted my parents.  
“Oh, Lina you’ve grown so much since I last saw you. I suppose you don’t remember me, I’m Mr.Frank, an old friend of your parents.” I was happy he introduced himself and didn’t just expect me to remember his name since I met him when I was a baby like everyone did.  
We all got in the car, he started talking to my parents, asking how it had gone. I could barely keep my eyes open. I fell asleep and only woke up to bright light the next morning. I looked around me, my sister and Iva sleeping. I got up and I could hear voices. I opened the door and saw everyone sitting at the table, eating breakfast.  
“Just in time, we were about to eat breakfast,” my mom said.  
I looked around the table, there were two new faces, the woman, who I assumed was Mr.Frank’s wife and a boy around my age. The woman was very nice to me, she introduced herself and her son and made a space for me around the table. The son on the other hand didn’t say one word the whole time, he only looked down at his plate and when he was finished, he quietly left the table.  
His mother turned to me, “Don’t mind him, he’s just shy in the beginning. I know you will get along well. Why don’t you go hang out with him, he’s outside in the garden.” 
I nodded and did as she said. I found him outside playing with some kittens.  
“Are they yours” I asked.  
“No,” he replied half-heartedly, “they just stay here sometimes, I don’t think they have an owner.” 
“So, what grade are you in,” I wondered how old he was, he seemed my age.  
“Tenth, you?” he replied shortly.  
“Same” I replied, “maybe we’ll be in the same class then, when I start school.” 
“Cool,” he said.  
That is all the conversation we had that day. I felt as if he was annoyed by me, so I didn’t really open another conversation with him. I tried helping around the house while my parents looked for a new house for us. It had already been a few days since we had gotten here, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. My parents came home for lunch, saying they had found the perfect houses for us and the Frickles , they were two apartments next to each other, only a five-minute walk away from where we are staying now. I was happy to know we would be getting our own house now. That afternoon, Bruno came and asked me if I wanted to see the school, being me, of course I agreed. I couldn’t wait to start school again, but I would have to wait another week until we got everything sorted out. Bruno and I got along together surprisingly well that day, and we kept talking for the next few days. Maybe I had just made a new friend in this unfamiliar city.  
We finally moved into our new house on Saturday night. Everything was settled. It was a small house, I had to share a small room with my sister, but it was still a good house. On Sunday, the Franks came over for lunch. Bruno prepared me for school, I was finally going to school on Monday. He got me all the supplies and prepared me for what it would be like. That night, when I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept thinking about the new teachers and students, I wondered if they would like me, if I would have a hard time catching up, and if I would leave a good impression. I held on to my grandma’s necklace, hoping that everything would be fine tomorrow.  
When I walked out of the door, Bruno was waiting for me. We walked to school together, he was doing a good job trying to calm me down. As I walked into the door of the classroom, the teacher came to meet me.  
“Hi, I’m Lina,” I said quietly. 
“We are glad to have you here Lina, you can go sit next to Bruno,” the teacher said after I had finished introducing myself to everyone.  
It had already been almost two months now since we came here, it was already winter, the temperatures were below 0, and there was snow everywhere. One cold morning, while getting ready for school, I noticed my mother looking more tired than usual, she could barely stand up, her eyes looked tired, you could notice she was sick. This went on for almost the whole week, everyone kept telling her to rest, but she refused to. When I came back from school, she was making me lunch, and I could hear her cough getting worse and worse.  
“I made you-” she couldn’t finish her sentence, she collapsed to the ground.  
“Mom!” I screamed and immediately ran towards her.  
My screams had been heard across the hall and Mr.Freckle came running. He helped me take mom to the hospital, where we also met my dad. I sat down, waiting for the doctor to tell us why my mom was sick, I walked around the hallway, looking at my dad, then the clock. Finally, I saw the doctor and ran towards him, feeling like he would tell me everything was fine with my mom. I didn’t hear what I expected or what I wanted to hear.  
“You wife has pneumonia,” the doctor said, “she is in a critical stage because she has neglected it, so it has developed more. It would be best for her to stay in the hospital for some days.” 
My heart sunk when I heard those words. I didn’t want to leave her at the hospital all alone, I wanted to have her home with me. The next few days, we went and visited her every day after school, my dad and Mrs.Frank took turns staying with her. I missed her so much. On Friday, we got told she could come back home if she continued to look well. On Thursday night, I fell asleep holding tight onto my necklace, hoping that my mom could come home the next day. After school, Bruno and I ran to the house as fast as we could. I was imagining her face, on our couch, when she saw me coming through the door. I would run to her and hug her so tightly. Slowing down, I knocked on the door and saw an unexpected face. Mr. Frank opened the door, I looked at Bruno, confused. His face wasn’t as cheerful as usual, so I figured Mom hadn’t come home from the hospital yet. I dropped my bag and went inside, finding Mrs. Frank crying. I was also sad that my mom hadn’t come home, but I didn’t know why Mrs. Frank was crying so hysterically. Amay’s dad came out of his room, the look on his face was terrible. I had never seen him like that, nothing compared even to his look when we had to leave our home.  
I ran towards him, “What happened? Why are you all so sad?” 
“Honey, I don’t know how to tell you.” he could barely speak, “Mom passed away this morning.”  
I ran to my room and fell on the bed, crying. I couldn't believe it, she was getting better and better. My mom couldn’t have left me alone. All these thoughts made my stomach hurt. My father came to comfort me, saying that it would get better and that he would always be there, but his words didn’t help much. It didn’t change the fact that my mother was now gone. What would I do without her? I felt my grandmother’s necklace on my chest, I was mad. Mad at the necklace for not helping no matter how much a wished, mad at myself for not staying with my mother at the hospital, mad at the world, for being so unfair. I screamed with all I had, I wanted to scream forever, until there was no voice left in me.  
Well, my dad was right. Losing my mother is the hardest thing I went through in my life, but it did get better. It took time for me to go back to normal again. But with my friends and family, I got through it. Here I am today, one of the best doctors in the country, I have started my own family with Bruno. My sister is graduating university next week, and my dad retired and finally happy. It was hard, very hard, but somehow, I got through it. I look at the sky from time to time, hold onto my necklace and know that my mother is proud of me.