"Zoella Starr is the kind of girl who was always smiling and laughing. If you are falling down, she won't hesitate to pick you right back up, no matter who you were. She is the kind of girl to say sorry when it wasn't her fault. Even when she felt terrible, she never let anyone know, and hid behind her perfect smile. Zoella is afraid to love, because she has already lost so much. So don't think for one second that she isn't hurting. She was there asshole, I bet you can't even feel half of the pain she is going through right now. " Zoella's best friend, Remi, screamed. Zoella stood there, watching her best friend defend her against Zoella's own family. They blamed her for The Wave. They blamed her for surviving. Placing a hand over her forehead, Zoella thought about what had happened so unfairly to her. The odds of getting killed during your vacation are very small. We automatically program into our minds that we can't be that one out of 50,000. That we are invinsible. Now let me tell you, there's someone out there that has to be that one person. And to be honest, I never saw it coming. I never saw that my perfectly planned vacation with my mom, dad, and boyfriend was going to be the worst days of my life. I never planned on that lousy one out of 50,000 become reality.
Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option.
*****
Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her...
Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault.
[[word count: 50,000-100,000 words]]