Nick decides to hit the streets -- he can't bear the thought of sharing his mother with her new husband and the baby on the way. Isn't he enough for her? Thinking his mother no longer cares, Nick takes refuge in an abandoned house, where he meets Luther, a curmudgeonly street person. An unlikely friendship develops between the pair, prompting Nick to study street people for a school project. When his essay ends up on the front page of the local newspaper, both their lives are changed. The Runaways is a coming-to-terms-with-life novel that shows how running away is never the answer.