Jayden, a boy born in the late ’90s, grows up in chaos — both parents trapped in addiction, poverty, and neglect. Taken into foster care after a police raid, he’s separated from his younger sister Layla, a loss that leaves a scar he carries everywhere.

From there, Jayden is tossed through the foster system, group homes, and institutions, learning the unspoken rules of survival: don’t cry, don’t trust, don’t get attached. He builds walls around himself, and his reputation as an “angry, unmanageable” kid follows him from school to school.

At twelve, fighting and defiance put him on the fast track to juvenile detention. Inside, he meets Miguel, an older boy who becomes his first real friend. Miguel teaches him that not every battle is worth fighting, and that survival sometimes means keeping your peace. That friendship plants a seed in Jayden, one that stays with him long after release.

Later, in a youth institution, Jayden meets Malik, a boy with a calm, steady presence who pushes him to see beyond anger. Malik gives him a sketchbook, helping Jayden rediscover art as a way to process his pain. These two friendships become anchors in a life that feels like it’s always being ripped apart.

On the outside, Jayden struggles with freedom — curfews, probation, teachers who don’t believe in him, and peers who see him as nothing but “the foster kid.” But he also meets Tasha, a girl who shares his love for creativity and becomes a fragile, on-and-off connection throughout his adolescence. She sees through his anger to the quiet boy underneath, but Jayden’s fear of abandonment pushes her away just when he needs her most.

Now fourteen, Jayden finds himself caught between two versions of himself: the fighter the system keeps shaping him into, and the boy searching for something — or someone — to believe in. Every fight, every sketch, every late-night thought pulls him closer to a breaking point, where he’ll have to decide if he’ll keep letting the system define him, or if he’ll learn to write his own story.

The fight spread through school like wildfire.


By the next morning, everyone had seen the video — Marcus's smirk, Jayden's fists, the moment the teachers dragged him off. Phones lit up with whispers: "Foster freak lost it again."


In the office, his probation officer sat stiff in a chair, arms crossed.


"This can't keep happening, Jayden," Mr. Carr said. "One more incident and we're talking transfer. Lockdown placement."


Jayden's stomach dropped. He'd heard about those places — stricter than group homes, closer to juvie than a school. Places kids went and didn't come back from the same.


Back at the home, Mr. Ray, the director, made it clear.


"You're on thin ice. Another fight like that, and you're out of here."


Terrence grinned from the couch as Jayden walked past. "Thin ice, Scrap. Hope you can swim."


Jayden clenched his fists, every muscle begging for release. But the threat of "lockdown" hung heavy in his chest. He stormed upstairs instead, slamming the door.


Alone in his room, he ripped his sketchbook open, the fire-drawing still staring back at him. He added bars around the flames this time — thick, dark, unbreakable.


Then he scrawled across the bottom in angry, uneven letters:


They don't want me to change. They want me to burn.


His hand shook as he closed the book. He could feel himself splitting — half wanting to fight, half wanting to disappear.


That night, Ms. Delaney came to his room. She didn't scold. She didn't shout. She just sat in the chair by his bed, her voice low.


"You're angry. I get it. But you can't let them win by proving them right."


Jayden glared at the floor. "What's the point? They already decided who I am."


"Then prove them wrong," she said firmly.


He laughed bitterly. "You make it sound easy."


"It's not easy. It's a war. But it's your war, Jayden. And you can't fight it with your fists alone."


Her words stuck, but the fire inside him still raged.


Two nights later, Marcus's friends caught him behind the school gym.


"Thought you were tough," one sneered. "Without teachers around, let's see what you really got."


Jayden's fists clenched. The fire roared.


For a split second, he saw two futures:


Walk away, and live with the humiliation.


His heart pounded. His teeth ground together. He could almost hear Miguel's voice from juvie: Not every fight is worth your peace.


Chapter 38 - consequences