Stay Courageous

Chapter 33

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Stella's POV

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I was glad to know everything was getting back to normal, as far as my friends go. Without my eating disorder and Zoe's self harm, there will basically be no more depression. I'm not going to say that we're both going to get better over night, but at least now we can have the support from our friends and family and we're at lest working on it. That's what really counts.

Even so, none of this stops the court day from coming, and, eventually, the day I leave for California.

The five of us that go to Sandhills High went back to school the Monday after Emily's sleepover, January fourth. Emily got the fourth off and went back on the fifth, the lucky duck. The day I had to go to court so my mother could fight for custody over me was January thirty first, and I had to mentally prepare for anything my mom could say to me from now until then. I know my friends will always be on my side, but I'm not sure they actually stand the gravity of the situation. When I announce that I want to go to California with my dad, my mom will hate me. She'll think that I don't love her at all, but I'm actually doing this all for her, in a sense. She's always going on about how my dad tore her away from her family, so once I go to live with my dad, she can go back to them, wherever they are. Come to think of it, I've actually never met any of my relatives from either side of my family. That seems a little strange, but maybe not so much will all the marriage problems my parents have had over the years. How should I know, fifteen year olds are too young to be dealing with all this stress anyway. I need focus on just one thing at a time.

Speaking of one thing at a time, school wasn't making that any easier for me. I was sitting in Spanish and Senorita Rojas was giving us yet another project to pile on top of all the other homework we had. Just peachy.

"...And each pair will create a poster board and an oral presentation on the province of Spain that I will select for them." The teacher grabbed a stack of papers that were obviously the rubrics for the project. I groaned inwardly as she began handing them out.

"Um, are you going to be picking the partners too?" Some jock in the back called out without raising his hand.

"Just for that, senior Jamison, I will be," now it was my turn to groan out loud, along with the rest of the class at this particular announcement. Who even was that that asked the question? I turned around to see, but all I saw was a mass of floppy dark brown hair. The boy had turned around to talk to his buddy behind him, but frankly I didn't care enough to actually find out who it was so I focused my attention back on Senorita Rojas. "Okay, so Walters, you'll be with Smith, Antonelli, you'll be with Epps..." I zoned out until I heard her read out my name, "and Ridley, you'll be with Mr. Jamison. Alright, you may start working on your projects now." The room bustled about with activity as all the students got up to go to their partners. Great, she paired me with the annoying bloke who'd asked that question! He was making his way over to my desk, I could now see some clear blue eyes underneath his soft, dark brown bangs. He was actually kind of cute, but jocks weren't really my type.

"Hi," he grinned and stuck out his hand formally. "I'm Dean."

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Zoe's POV

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