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"IT'S COLD," Noelani watched herself say on an old Snapchat.
The video was taken almost two years ago, recorded by Noelani's mother.
It showed Noelani on a secluded Hawaiian beach, in a black bikini, with a couple of red plumerias tucked behind her right ear.
She was grinning from ear to ear, her feet in the ocean.
"Mom, it's cold." Noelani repeated in the video.
"Stay a little while longer, I'm taking a picture." Noelani's mother, Anela coaxed.
Noelani stood in the ocean, smiling for a what she thought was a picture.
Noelani watched the smile drop off of her face in the video, after a few more seconds.
"It's a video, isn't it?" Noelani shook her head, stepping towards her mother, her arm outreached for her phone.
And then the video stopped.
Noelani clicked the power button then let the phone slide from her hand onto the shelf in her locker next to her car keys.
Alejandro had gone out while she was at the party a couple days ago and bought her a 2019 SUV.
Not that she didn't appreciate the car, she did, but Noelani would give it all up in a second if it meant that she could go home.
Noelani glanced around the gigantic brick building that held Napa Christian, her new high school.
Around in the hallway were other students walking in groups, talking amongst each other or leaning against their closed lockers, still on their phones.
Her phone beeped with a text.
'Go kill 'em, kid! You got this!' - Mommy.
Noelani read the text message for luck a couple more times before closing her locker and beginning to stroll down the hallway to her study hall.
Through the windows on the walls, Noelani could faintly see her father's truck parked in the spot reserved for the principal and she thanked all her lucky stars that she had made the decision not to ride with him this morning.
Being known as the principal's daughter isn't the reputation that Noelani wanted to start with.
Noelani entered the classroom numbered '108', running her eyes over the beige walls.
