Headcanon #3: A Coyote's Guide to Hitchhiking
After running away from home, Grace had to decide where she was headed next. But the thing was, she was only thirteen and had no money or means of transportation- besides her feet. That's when she got the idea to hitch a ride on some truck and have that take her from town to town until she found somewhere to stay. And she didn't really have to worry about any truckers trying to take advantage of her or kidnap her. She'd just flash her fangs and whip out her claws if needed. She could protect herself.
She spent the majority of the following year to year and a half hitching rides across the country, staying no longer than a month in any given small town or city in her path. She developed the habit of becoming a bit of a pickpocket, stealing only what she really needed to get by. It wasn't until she was staying in a suburb outside of Indianapolis that she started to feel more at ease about being a runaway.
She was about fourteen and a half at the time; and she had been in the suburb for about two weeks when she was walking late at night and heard a scream coming from an alleyway. Curiosity got the best of her; and she decided to check out the noise, ready to hurt anyone who tried to attack her. In that alleyway is where she met Mia, another runaway- but she was human- who was currently being jumped by one of the suburb's street gangs. Grace acted immediately, attacking the gang- injuring most of them but accidentally killing two in her rage. She then turned to help the girl who was terrified of her and kept asking if she was going to kill her too. Reassuring Mia that everyone was okay, Grace helped her up and to a safer location.
That night, the two became reliant on one another. They even started traveling from town to town together. Grace would protect Mia from the gangs and other dangers of the street; and in return, Mia would keep Grace's werecoyote form a secret. Whenever it was the night of the full moon, Grace would run off into the woods, first making sure Mia was set up for the night before she left. And in the morning, the two of them had a meeting spot where- if one of them didn't show up- the other would panic and go on a frantic search until they found the missing party.
The two girls stuck together until that fateful night in western Pennsylvania when they were separated. But that, is another story.