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One

"No!" Zena yelled.

"You're a minor. You have no choice. I didn't want it to come down to this, but we're moving. I can't stand this house without your mother in it, and you could use a change of scenery too," Dad insisted.

Her father's words rang with the final death knell to her senior year dreams.

No prom queen. No cheer squad captain. No one to do her homework for her. No boys begging for her to go out with them. Everything was going against her.

"But I could stay with Sara. Her mother has already said it would be okay." She couldn't quite keep the whine out of her voice.

"No. I haven't paid much attention to what has gone on in your life, but I'll make sure your mother's last wishes are honored. You heard what was in her will. And what's worse, she added the rider at the end of your junior year. She knew what was going on."

Zena cringed. Mom was an easy mark. Or at least she thought so. When she sat in the lawyer's office with her cousins, aunt and uncle and the rest of the family, her mother had called her out. From beyond the grave she struck back. The video Mom recorded would live forever. She could still hear the words and see the horrified expression on Stella Henderson's face as she scolded her.

For my daughter. There was a long pause as her mother shook her head. You will inherit the estate your great grandmother left for me. But there is a condition. You will move to New Hampton, New Hampshire. You will live there for a year. If you are of age and over 25 and you can make it through that year, then you will inherit, and you can do whatever you wish.

If you are still under your father's guardianship, and still the self entitled bully you have shown yourself to be, then you will move no matter where you are. I don't care how you whine and complain. If it means you miss a year of college so be it. I want a complete break from your surroundings now. You have become everyone's nightmare. I know you think I haven't noticed. I hope both you and your father will find a way to change your lives for the better.

Her cousins smirked. The twin boys hid their faces behind splayed fingers. The oldest, a girl, let out two snorts before her mother shook her shoulder to stop her. Aunt Priscilla's face was tight with disapproval.

Uncle Stanley said, "It looks like Stella has the last word after all." He didn't look happy about my inheritance. He looked like he was ready to kill someone.

Dad looked grim and then said, "I'll do it. I've been a pretty much absent father. Zena has run wild. No more." Dad glared at Mom's brother.

The lawyer let the rest of the tape run while Zena sat tapping her foot. She had to see Sara. There had to be a way to stop this. She and her bestie could find it. Sara's Mom knew how important senior year was.

Dad's final words to the lawyer chilled her to the bone.

"I'll be selling our home. Will you be able to take care of the paperwork?"

He was going to do it. Wreck her life. How dare he?

Uncle Stanley and Aunt Priscilla stomped out, pushing her cousins ahead of them. At least there was one good thing. She never had to see them again.

And he did dare. He asked the university for a sabbatical. He even started inquiring at the college in New Hampton about taking a tenure position there. Him and his damn mathematics doctorate where going to take her away from everything she'd worked toward through all her high school years.

On top of it, Uncle Stan filed a protest in probate court. He wanted to contest the will. Their lawyer said he didn't have a prayer, as all of his family were specifically mentioned by name. Her mother made her disgust with her brother quite clear. She called him a money driven, two faced manipulator and left him nothing at all. She wasn't any better when she referred to Aunt Priscilla or her cousins Jane, and her twin brothers Earl and Edwin.

She stormed into her stripped bedroom. All of her clothes were in suitcases and packing boxes. Her hairbrushes and curling iron would go into the last of them when she got up in the morning. Even the mirror on her vanity was already protected in a special blanket ready for the movers. She grabbed her laptop, flipping it open.

She sent her BFF an email, inviting her to a Zoom call. How embarrassing. Maybe Sara would have an idea. Maybe her BFF would be able to save her senior year. She hoped Sara would join and didn't ignore her. It would figure, everything else was going wrong.

When her friend's face appeared, she spewed it all. Not stopping until every last despicable thing her father said was out of her system. "You've got to help me. It's going to be the worst."

"Zee, it isn't the end of the world," Sara soothed.

"It is. Dad took away my credit card. He took away my cell phone! I mean I'm on Zoom for crying out loud. The only reason I still have that is because I might need it for school with Covid and all." She had to say it again. It still wasn't possible. It couldn't be for real.

Zena's lower lip pouted. She'd practiced the look along with hurt puppy dog eyes until she mastered it. Drama was her best thing. This was the year everything was going to be normal again. And Dad was moving her away.

"Zee, that look doesn't work on me. Remember, best friend. I'll always look out for you, but I learned something this summer."

"What, it was awful with you away. What did you learn?" Zena didn't like the look on Sara's face.

"I love you like you're my sister, but I don't agree with bullying anymore. I was on the other end of it this summer. The camp where I was working? The one Mom insisted I would go to? The one where she worked every summer, from the time she was sixteen? She sent

me there. Once I learned to work with the team and to help rather than take, it changed me. You need to learn that too. I'll be here to talk to, but I'm not going to help you get out of this."

"God, I hate you! You're in cahoots with them!" Zena closed the Zoom call and threw herself on her bare bed. For a split second she thought about slamming her laptop into the wall, but there wasn't time to replace it.

All the pretty pink comforters and bedding were in a box by the door. She couldn't even wrap herself in the goose-down blanket she loved and pull it over her head. The queen sized bed was the one piece of furniture in her bedroom they hadn't packed yet. She only had a sleeping bag to stay warm in. She didn't even know they had one until it appeared on her bed that afternoon. Hot tears of frustration wet her pillow as she pounded her feet into the mattress.

Her life was over.