She quickly gave that up when she started having relations with Ray, Starr's boyfriend. .
Starr knew just what was going on and began drinking again. One night, she came into Astrid's room and shot her. Astrid went to the hospital, near death, but she survived. .
In the book she was then sent to Ed and Marvel Turlock with their 3-year-old child, Caitlin. It was clear that she was only wanted for baby-sitting and chores. Astrid was miserable but she met their rich next-door neighbor Olivia Johnston. .
Olivia was a beautiful, black prostitute and she introduced Astrid into her world. Still, Astrid gets mauled by a couple of dogs and earned herself horrible disfiguring scars on her once-lovely face. .
Soon Marvel, a hard-core racist, found out about Olivia and Astrid was sent to Amelia. Amelia kept foster girls to get the money and improve on her house but she only fed them once a day, if that. .
Astrid and the others were starving. She managed to make an appointment with her new caseworker and was taken out of that house and went to stay with Claire.
In the movie, Astrid never even went to Marvel's or Amelia's houses, she was sent stay at MacLaren Children's Center after Starr shot her. It was as bad as you can get and fights occurred hour. .
At Mac it was kill or be killed, but finally, Astrid got a new foster home with Claire and Ron Richards. They were rich and Astrid was treated well. Ron was never home, but Astrid and Claire became close.
They both were a little family and Astrid finally felt at home and loved. Ingrid was terribly jealous, and she wrote to shy Claire, wanting to meet her.
At the prison, Ingrid "had a talk- with Claire and found out that her marriage with Ron was falling apart. Soon after Ron told Claire that he was going to divorce her and that night she commited suicide. .
Astrid was destroyed for Claire was the first person who truly loved her. She was sent back to Mac where she ignored her former friend, Paul.