Heartstrings

Some stories aren't written in ink, but in scars-hidden beneath sleeves, folded into silence, strung between chords of a weathered guitar.

At sixteen, Jazzerine "Jazz" Pavone is no stranger to the ache of survival. After fleeing a childhood home steeped in shadows, she found fleeting warmth in the Chevalier household-only to watch it be ripped away in a night soaked with screams and silence. What was left of her heart, she buried deep, wrapping herself in barbed wire and calluses.

Now enrolled at Aurelia Academy, Jazz walks the halls like a ghost in her own skin. She doesn't speak of the past. She doesn't play for crowds. Her guitar is her only confession booth.

But music has a way of finding cracks in even the thickest walls.

When she's drawn into a student band, the rhythms she's avoided begin to echo again. Not every note is healing-some dredge up ghosts, others light sparks she isn't sure she wants to feel. Between discordant memories and unexpected harmonies, Jazz must confront the question she's buried for years:

Can broken strings still make music worth hearing?

Heartstrings is a coming-of-age story about grief, resilience, and the quiet rebellion of choosing to heal-even when the past never asks for forgiveness.