When she was little, Alexis had it all. Rich parents who she believed in her heart loved her more than anything else, a huge house, a Nanny to take care of her while her parents were at work, and anything else she needed or wanted. And then, one night that she thought would be like all the others tore all of that apart. Now, she and her mother barely make enough to stay alive, their poverty heavily due to her mom's nights in the bar, forgetting about life. Younger siblings come, then leave in abortion, through Alexis's mother's love life, and the one person she'd actually learned to trust again is newly dead by cancer. And her mother has just remarried the person she used to call "Daddy". Her only real friend is the razor that stays in her pocket or on her arm through the thick and the thin of life. Then, while her parents are on their honeymoon after getting remarried, with nothing to do and oblivious of the religion... or relationship... behind the bands she's going to see, Alexis goes to a little concert by the name of Winter Jam, with no real concept of what she's seeing besides a love of Skillet, a bare idea of Britt Nicole, and the songs she listens to by NF on her way there. When a chance meeting with a stranger turns into getting drug to the meet-and-greet line for a not-so-chance meeting with Colton Dixon, Alexis has no idea that it will change her life forever. But with a leading of Holy Spirit on his heart, and a glimpse of Alexis's arms under her sleeves burning in his memory, Colton finds it impossible to stand oblivious to the downward spiral he can see in Alexis's life. But it's a spiral she gave into long ago, and it will take every ounce of strength either of them has in them for Alexis to rise above the world and into the arms of Christ.

So, I have another Colton Dixon fanfic in the workings, but it's a little complicated for me to get started cuz it's gonna be a social media book, which I've never done before. Anyway, while I work on getting that started, I thought it might be fun to revisit my Rise characters one last time with some one-shots. I had several ideas that had never actually made it into the books that I want to be able to actually publish and then I also might play around with some alternate-ending stuff. Some are gonna be meant to be funny, some sweet, some sad. Lol, I mean the last one's kinda given with me, but you know, fair warning anyway. Anyway, I'm low-key excited about this because I think it'll be fun to do, and with a little less pressure than a full on book brings with it.

Three months after she started living with Colton and Annie, Alexis's life should be pretty close to perfect, if not very, very improved. And it is. But she can't shake the shadows of her past... the dreams, the cuts that still appear on her arms over and over again without Colton knowing, and everything else that won't let her have a moments peace... from her life. Hard as she tries, she can't seem to be the perfect Christian that she is convinced both God and Colton want of her, but she also can't go back to who she used to be. Ideas float through her head about not being at all anymore, and she can't believe that she's slipped that far again, and refuses to come forward to anyone who loves her, convinced that it will be the end of that. But as she keeps slipping, trying desperately to get back up without any help, it's getting close to a struggle between the Brand New Life that Colton is trying so desperately to show her that she can have, or no life at all. A/N: If you haven't read Rise, I highly recommend that you go back and read it first, or very little is going to make full sense.