WATTPAD BOOKS EDITION Can she be herself in a one-size-fits-all world? Lori Palmer is the new girl at Bay Water High, where students prize glossy hair, beach bodies, and school spirit above all else. She misses her old school―where her talent as an artist carried more weight than she does―and longs for her old family life, before her parents got divorced and her mom reinvented herself. So Lori decides that the only way to survive the rest of the year is to blend into the background, but her plans go awry when she discovers that the most popular (and hottest) guy at Bay Water High, Jake, is a volunteer at her brother's school. When her brother befriends Jake's sister, Lori is suddenly thrust into his unfamiliar and exhilarating world of water polo, parties, and stargazing. But with her relationship with her mother deteriorating, old anxieties resurface and Lori finds a new artistic release that unknowingly ignites a powerful movement. When the authorities start asking questions, Lori realizes that finding her voice might have gotten her into a world of trouble...but sometimes standing up for what you believe in is as important as standing up for yourself.

Some say it's a gift. Others say it's a curse.

It was LA in the year 2O21. A new underground theme park called "The River Styx" had just closed down. "Too many mysterious deaths and unethical methods to get people to visit it," the official inquiry had reported. Only a chosen few had managed to make the dark journey down 'hell's river" before its demise, and Angel would be one of them. It was her obsession about the attraction--and her own mysterious connection to it which finally got him to take the voyage. Looking back, it was that first day in the photo lab, while trying to get the young model's image more metallic on the screen. That's when Angel suddenly appeared to him in the flesh--her face next to his in the blue light of the monitor. So what was it about this girl, he wondered? Why did she so obviously seek him out romantically as one of the few to take that mythological journey? He would only learn those details while navigating the subterranean river with her--an answer to forever disturb his soul? To secure an e-book of this short story, go here: https://www.amazon.com/author/califia.montalvo