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Micah had her hair pulled back in about three different pig tails; that was the minimum amount needed to keep all of her hair out of her face. Beyond that nothing was really remarkable about her at the time. Blue jeans with pain stains, one in the shape of her brothers hand on her bum, under which she'd had a blue bruise for days. They were ripped all the way up to the back of her knee on the back seam. She wore a grey tee shirt that was permanently sweat stained and had a neck line that was forever stretched so that it fell down one of her shoulders. Under that tee shirt she had her white wife beater, equally as stained. On her feet were what used to be white trainers, but were now dirt-stained to a dingy brown.

And Micah was doubled over with her torso inside of a dumpster behind a local bakery and her feet waving around in the air.

Why?

Christmas, of course! She had been kicked out of her house for looting her family for things for the food and clothing drive this city was holding. Her argument was so solid, too! But we don't need all of these things! They just ripped the donations from her hands and sent her out to collect things like everyone else. And so here she was, elbow deep in trash, chasing down an unopened and totally usable can of baking soda.

Micah's head popped out of the dumpster when she was addressed, body balanced on the edge of her dumpster by her waist. Her golden eyes scanned the line of her vision for a moment. Nothing. Going lower she finally saw the little girl with the big green eyes and the short brown hair. She grinned as she continued to balance, legs wiggling to keep herself perpendicular to the rin of the dumpster.

"I'm... well I'm..." Micah looked back into the garbage curiously. How exactly did she explain this off? Well, nothing like the truth. Micah smiled back at Minny and chirped, "Well dear, I'm looking for treasure." She hopped down from the dumpster and brushed herself off.

"Not treasure for me, mind you," she continued, rubbing the grime on her hands off on her jeans. "Treasure for others. Wanna help me?"

"People who have nowhere else to look," Micah answered simply. She held Minny's waist to keep her steady. "Look there," Micah reached in and retrieved the can of baking soda she'd been chasing so recently. "It's unopened, unscathed, and still useable." She turned the canister over and over in her hands, inspecting it for leaks and breaks. "Stores and restauraunts will throw away good stuff because it has a little defect. Like this can has a small dent in the side. So they can't use it. But someone else can." Micah tossed it into the burlap sack to her left. "So we'll take it to the food and clothing drive box at Tony's Library. The people who really need these won't mind a dent."

Micah jumped up, taking her perch back up and leaned into the dumpster. "Less work and rejection than asking others for donations. It's like recycling."

Micah inspected the can of frosting before Minny bagged it and nodded in approval. "There are tons of things like there all around the city. Vendors can't sell them or use them." She pulled a jar of peanut butter from the rubbish and stuffed it into the bag along with the baking powder. "And if we look behind clothing shops, we'll probably find stuff with minor rips and tears. Still useable, just not viable for sale." Powdered milk, in the bag. Egg nog, not so much. And what was that? Micah lifted her hand out of a pool of goo with a look of disgust. "Just... be careful where you put your hand," she warned, shaking it off. finally she resigned to just wiping it off on her leg. She next pulled out a bottle of cleaner and turned it over in her hands.

"Do they take cleaner," she asked the girl. She watched her for a second and then remembered the initial question. "Oh, oh yeah. My name is Micah. I'd shake your hand, but it's got stuff all over it."

"Well yes. Of course that makes sense." Micah dove after a can of condensed milk, almost losing her balance and falling head first into the garbage. She righted herself and tossed the can into her sack. "But what doesn't make sense is throwing all of that stuff away. My point is," Micah had to pause to dive back in, reaching for a jar of olives. It was just barely out of reach. Maybe if she just... wiggled her hips... just a little bit... Micah's fist closed around the jar in success. Micah put her weight on the olives to try and adjust herself back to a suitable balancing position, which turned out to be a horrible idea. The jar had been sitting on something slippery and slid out, her hand still around it, causing Micah to over correct and plummet into the garbage with a squeal.

"My point is," she growled, standing up, knee deep in garbage and smelling pretty much the same way, "that we shouldn't have to do this." She waved the jar of olives around to prove her point and flicked a banana peel off of her shoulder. "Minny, why don't we go over to where the clothing is. I think we've pretty much picked this dumpster clean."

Evidently getting into the dumpster was must easier than getting back out. After attacking the edge of the dumpster from three different angles and falling back into it in three different ways, Micah settled for the most undignified. On her tip toes Micah pressed her waist to the edge and pushed with her feet, balancing on the edge like she had been before. Tipping forwards she slid out of the garbage, scraping her elbows on the way down. Damn, she cursed to herself. Those just healed.

"Well," Micah grunted, hoisting her sack up over her shoulder. "I'm much bigger than you are." She grinned at Minny, dirt-stained face shineing despite the grime. The bag jingled with the many items as she shifted, adjusting the load on her back. "The clothing store itsn't that far from here, but try and keep things on the down low." She winked lightly at Minny. "What we're doing is technically illegal." did it dawn on Micah that she probably should not to include small children on her petty thefts? Nope. It was for a good cause after all. Besides, what officer would write up two kids looking to help thier fellow man?

"As for the way I look... just say I got into it with someone. I'd rather be written up for fighting. It's easy enough to explain to my parents." Another wide grin at the memory of her temper. "Don't worry about it though. No one is likley to stop us while we're walking there. We'll just have to quiet once we start working."

"Only if you lose," Micah said wryly. She knew that for a fact. Very seldomly did Micah ever win a fight, and even then it was usually due to some fluke like a distraction or a sudden pain she did not cause. She winced at the idea and then dismissed it. She didn't like dwelling on her own failures. She preferred instead to ignore them, letting them rot in the secret corner of her mind the rest of the things she ignored went, like due dates and promises she didn't want to keep. Besides that, with Jett's help and now Kyndall and her classes, Micah would be in tip top fighting condition in no time. While she may not be sure who's sides' butt she'd be kicking, she'd be kicking someone's butt and kicking it hard soon. A wicked grin spread across her face as she thought about it.

Needless to say, the idea of such awesome sucess put Micah in a very chipper mood. She giggled a little to Minny and mussed up her hair with the cleanest hand as she passed, tossing the back over her shoulder.

"Let's go kid. the longer we stay here, the more likley it is that we'll get caught." Micah didn't look back to see if Minny was still coming. If the girl had guts enough to go dumpster diving with her, than Micah shouldn't have to look out for her. This cearly wasn't one of the coddled little things she baby sitted every day. That ebign said, if Minny needed Micah to play mother than she would. In a heart beat. If Minny began to bleed from thier adventures it was straight abck to Micah's for disinfectant, a bandaid, and some cookies. End of story.

Micah tossed her bag over her shoulder, exiting the alley like it was nothing. That was the trick to not gatting caught, acting like you weren't doing anything wrong in the first place. Hopefully the littler girl would follow her lead and just be cool too. Granted "cool" was hard to do when you pretty much reaked of garbage and looked just as bad. Minny wouldn't be nearly as bad, but just hanging out with Micah would make her suspicious. Still, worst case scenario they were labeled homeless and left alone. Maybe they would make a couple bucks. People were really into giving this season, and giving a dollar to the homeless was just what they needed to ease their guilty minds.

"If your bag gets too heavy, feel free to let me know, dear. Clothing tends to add dead weight really fast. And the bag could really hurt your back if you don't let me know right away." She grinned down at the child brightly, white teeth standing out against her dirty cheeks.

Micah wasn't kidding when she said the clothing store was right up the street. A few yards and Micah was wuietly pushing Minny into the alley, trying to make it look as not-sketchy as possible. And that was not an easy task. Micah gave the crowd a once over, to make sure theyweren't being followed, and snuck back into the shadows of the alley.

"Alright, see those plastic bags over there," Micah asked, pointing to the immidiate left, "those are full of slightly damaged clothing."