Valentina Marie Wilkerson

December 12th, 1985.
16 years old.

Female

║ Likes and Dislikes ║
+ R&B music
+ Singing
+ Basketball
+ Spicy foods
+ Staying up late and playing video games.
+ Math
- People (most of them, anyways.)
- Crowded spaces
- Most country music
- Gossip
- Having to wake up early

Valentina and Malik were born in Brooklyn, New York, just three minutes apart. From the very minute they were born, the twins were neglected. Growing up in the hood was hard, especially when their father was a cold-hearted drug dealer, and their mother a prostitute. They had to look after each other as they grew older, and learned to take care of themselves. By four years old, the twins knew how to steal their food from local grocery markets, and by the age of eight they were shoplifting things they needed from other shops. Their parents were never around much, therefore they did not have much guidance. As a result, the twins did poorly in school, and eventually fell into the wrong crowd of people. By the time they turned twelve, the twins were selling drugs behind their middle school and participating in other illegal activities with their crowd. Valentina had always been good with numbers, so she handled the money while Malik did the dealing.

Val was thirteen years and three months old when her mother's "man" touched her for the very first time. It was two o'clock in the morning, the twins had been sleeping, when the much older man came home from the bar. Drunk and violent, he made his way into Val's bedroom, and forced himself on her. She tried to push him away, which resulted in him blacking her eye. This continued on for several months before Val finally worked up the courage to tell her school counselor. CPS was called, and just a few hours later, Val and Malik were taken away.

From that point on, Val and Malik have bounced from foster home to foster home, none of them ever being a good fit. Over the course of three years, the twins have been in twenty different homes. Unsure of how to cope with her pain, Val turned to weed and alcohol for happiness. This, however, only brought her temporary happiness. "Once the high is gone, the depression hits." She's been hospitalized once before after getting drunk and attempting suicide. Now, sixteen years old, Val is three months clean. She'll drink a beer and smoke weed every now and then, but tries her best to stray from the "hard shit." She now lives in a home in Minnesota, while her brother is in a group home in Ohio. They call each other every night, mostly so that he knows that she is alright. "I don't know how I'm going to manage without him by my side."