Quick A/N: I would like to give a disclaimer that this story takes place in Poland, so there'll be use of Polish language here.

Hips swaying to the rhythm, I danced and spun my skirt around, feet treading ever so lightly. The soft whisper of the violin, the the gentle touch of the tambourine, with the bouncing of the dombra, and the sound of a man singing, I've never felt any lighter and higher on heaven. Arms swaying freely, hair in the wind, I felt like the star I was, dancing with energy and joy.

People around stopped to watch the girl dancing on the street. A woman and her children were walking by. One child looked at me in awe and grabbed her mother and pointed. The mother looked at me in disgust and started walking away, dragging her children away.

"They're gypsies. They'll rob us blind."

Then a man in a suit stopped to look at me. With him was two men and a girl. The man stared at me with piercing eyes in curiosity. He tilted his head, and looked slightly amused. I turned my full body to him and he looked really interested.

I never broke eye contact with him, and he didn't stop staring at me. He eventually bent down to put a dollar note in the hat, and I couldn't help but feel pleased for myself. This handsome suited stranger handed me a dollar for the performance. The girl looked at me in curiosity and the two bigger men behind them were also suited wearing sunglasses, so I couldn't tell what they were feeling.

All seemed to be going well, until I saw two policemen marching towards us, splitting the crowd. I gasped, and knew this was time to run. My brother also saw them and stopped singing, and the others started to bail. I started to sprint, realising that I forgot the hat with all the money in, so I turned and ran back to pick up the hat, still full, but when I looked back up, I saw them towering over me, with a strong glare in their eyes.

"Lookie here, a gypsy," one of them sneered. I clutched the hat to my chest and tried to turn on them when they held me back.

"Where'd you get the money, gypsy? Did you steal it again?"

"This, is hard earned money," I growled defensively. They both just chortled.

"Dirty thief," one started to tackle me. I kicked him in the groin and he double over in pain, I took this as a chance to run, but the other stopped me.

"Leave her alone!" My brother swung on him with his dombra and the policeman yowled in pain and my brother took my hand and we sprinted.

The two policemen yelled after us and started to chase after us. I barely looked behind me but I could see the two men being stopped and wrestled by the two big men in the suits and I got a glimpse of that handsome stranger.

As we stopped by a dark alley, we were all short of breath. I was mostly surprised we didn't have to run so far. We were all used to running from the police. They didn't like us so much and we were always stopped by them so they could check through our bags to see that we weren't stealing anything or if there was some other dodgy things. The policemen weren't the only ones who looked at us like this: people in general would see me and give me a dirty look. I would go into a store, and the storekeeper would ask a staff member to keep an eye on me, in case I would try to steal. I was accused of doing witchcraft in the streets and dealing other things. The comments I received in school weren't subtle either. It was either a side-eye, or a comment behind my back. It seemed that one of the teachers were immune to this, and just treated me like a normal human being.

"Anita, how much did we earn?" One of the performers asked. I put the hat out and started counting the coins and the two notes. "25 zloty, altogether."

"We made a lot more than usual, today," my brother Lorenzo smiled at me. "Ah, 25 divided between four people... Would that be, somewhere around 6, something?"

"How about you can take the notes, we can take the coins?"

"Both notes are worth 20..." I realised, when I read the numbers on them. "How about you take one note, we have the other, and our fair share of coins?"

The two looked at each other for moment, then shrugged. "Okay, deal, then."

After the exchange, they headed their ways, and we headed ours, to our home.

"Ah, what a day, eh, siostra?" He stretched his arms. Lorenzo was my big brother. He always had a laid back and relaxed personality no matter the situation, but he always looked out for me. He was darker-skinned, with hazel-green eyes and jet black hair, like me. His face was mostly a smug expression, especially when we just ran from the police. He loved to mess with them, knowing that they thought that he's up to no good.

Suddenly he pinched my cheek. "Ow!" I swatted his hand away.

"You have really chubby cheeks, siostra," he teased.

"Shut up!" I prodded him on his arm.

"You mad, sis?"

"No!" I felt my face got hot. He chuckled.

"I really miss teasing you,"

"Oh, really?"

"Yes,"

"You, smug little-"

"I'm not exactly the little one here, am I?""

He laughed out loud when he saw how heated I was getting and started to run. "Get back here!" I ran after him.

Our parents weren't home yet when we got in the house. I breathed a sigh of relief as I put the hat with the coins on the table.

"I want to buy some junk with this, " Lorenzo mumbled, while staring at the money. "You think I'll be able to?"

"If you can run fast enough from the police, yes," I grinned. "Just put it in the drawer, when you're done with it."

I rushed to my room and flopped onto the bed like a dead fish. I've been working all day for this. All I wanted to do is fall into a deep slumber. After our parents arrived, we counted how much we had.

"Enough, but not enough for a proper home," My father said.

"I'm impressed with you two,"

"Yeah, we make a good team," Lorenzo smiled.

My mother smiled her warm smile. "Don't worry, we're progressing. Put it all in the drawer!"

After a long, happy dinner, I was in my night dress and was laying in my room, eyes glued to the ceiling, thinking about my whole life. 16 years old living here, I was surprised we got lucky enough for a good education. My parents weren't exactly rich, we were never rich, but we lived a good life in the countryside before we were forced to move without any warning. Since it was difficult to get jobs for the family, my parents had to move around a lot, while we started street performing for some coins before landing in Krakow. I still work two part-time jobs as a housemaid and a waitress at a bar, and I'm getting minimum wage from those two jobs, but my favourite job was street-performing, dancing and singing, it's easier and more fun to wear those sparkly skirts in public.

Travelling around the world made me feel I've seen life flash before my eyes before it started.

I felt my eyelids getting heavy before fatigue caught up to me and I felt asleep.

Tomorrow was a school Monday.