5 parts Complete MatureShe was the girl they left behind. Forgotten by the people who were supposed to love her most.
Mia used to shine. She was top of her class-bright, focused, the girl everyone expected to succeed. Intelligent, dependable, always a step ahead. But when her father died and her mom left with her younger siblings, something in her dimmed. The spark that once made her stand out began to flicker beneath the weight of survival.
She was sixteen, alone and broke.
When Mia lost everything, her best friends, the very ones who once promised to stand by her no matter what, walked away without looking back. They didn't want to be dragged down with her. Her downfall was inconvenient, and their loyalty was never meant to survive the fall.
And the final blow? One of them ended up with the boy Mia had quietly liked for years.
She didn't just lose her family. She lost her place in the world. Mia faded into the background-unseen, unchosen, forgotten. Until a new student transferred to Suncrest Academy.
Liam Alcaraz was handsome and hot. He was everything she wasn't: wealthy, magnetic, adored. But for reasons Mia couldn't explain, he only had eyes for her.
Everyone in school remembered her name. Whispers started. Rumors followed. Jealousy brewed in quiet corners and loud hallways. For the first time in a long while, people looked her way-not with pity, but with curiosity, envy, and something sharper.
But Mia didn't shrink. Not this time. Something inside her had shifted. She stood taller, spoke clearer, moved through the world as if it didn't owe her anything-and still, she would claim her place in it.
Not for them. Not even for him. But for the girl she used to be-the one she almost forgot. And maybe... for a love she never thought she'd deserve.
