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Tough as Nails

Chapter One

Have you ever met someone so royally screwed up that they could lie and cheat without feeling any ret? Well, if you haven’t - allow me to introduce myself My name is Brittney Dale and I try hard not to blaain, I can’t really take all of the credit myself either

My mother was, for lack of a better word, a whore for Chaos Theory, the local motorcycle club She used to tell me stories from before her dark days - stories ofer I liked to live in that fantasy, but as I got older I began to realize it was all a lie

I eventually found out who my father was His name was Billy and he was one of myher pregnancy, he drove her to a women’s shelter and that’s where she lived for the nine months she carried nancy, though I didn’t believe that for a second It was aarms

After I was born, s and she started wandering fro tricks to try and keep us off the street For years that’s hoas We wandered fro on park benches Soet us a hotel room for the week I remember how much I loved that I would sit in the hot bath water until ry red It was the only time I felt clean in those days

I never went to school because we never stayed in one place long enough for the government to catch up with , we took off to another city We spent h the Deep South until we eventually made it to Tennessee

When we started living in Nashville, I was only about nine According to o away for days and leaveI could I would go to the local grocery store and take what I needed No one really suspected that a young girl was co to their store to steal, so it was always rather easy to just walk in and grab whatever I wanted

The day I was caught, was the day ed forever One of the stores I’d been frequenting finally caught onto me and the store owner snatched my arm and called the cops When I explained the situation to the police, they started snooping around While they never foundsituation and took me into protective custody

I was put into the foster systeht years ofhow the first nine years were, that’s really saying so They never foundto navigate a system I didn’t understand with tools that weren't considered acceptable

My ry when I lied or stole There were no repercussions Noas suddenly living in a world with incredibly strict rules that I struggled to conform to

All of a sudden there was dinner time, bath time, and bedtime I couldn’t take three showers a day like I'd been used to doing, and I had to eat what the foster hory at dinnertime, I didn't eat until breakfast

Looking back on it, I understand that everyone did their best They were trying to provide structure and discipline, but that wasn't how I understood it You couldn't take a kid who'd spent their entire life trying to survive on their own and expect them to just assimilate That's just wasn’t hoorked

School was even harder I started going to classes that I didn’t really understand I was nine, so they put me with the rest of the nine year olds, but I hadn’t had any schooling up until that point I read at a very basic level and math completely escaped me Overall, I was far behind my peers and no one seemed to understand that it was because I’d never sat in a classrooht I was stupid or just a flat out bad kid I tried for a long tiave up