"Are you ready to try again today with Stella Gracie?" Monica asked Gracie the next day.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Gracie sighed. "I just don't know where I went wrong."

"It's not your fault Gracie." Monica reassured her caseworker.

"I know but still…"

"Don't give up Gracie. And remember God is with you." Monica reminded her. "Now I think you should go because Stella's getting ready for her jog." Gracie groaned but got up from the bench.

"Wish me luck!" Gracie joked knowing perfectly well Monica didn't believe in luck.

"Very funny Gracie!" Monica called after her.

"I know right?" Gracie started to smile but then quickly looked away. "Bye!"

"Hey its you!" Stella greeted Gracie when she caught up with her.

"Hey its me!" Gracie smiled.

"Do you remember when you said if I ever wanted to talk, I could talk to you?" Stella started.

"Uh-huh." Gracie nodded. "Ready to cash it in?'

"Yea." Stella replied. "I feel sort of bad for blowing you off yesterday."

"No problem." Gracie shrugged. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Tell me about your family." Stella prompted.

Gracie froze. "Um…well…you see… um." She stuttered.

Stella shot her an understanding look . "It's okay Gracie. That was a really random question."

"Do you want to tell me about your family?" Gracie asked after a few minutes of silent running.

"There's not really much to tell. I'm an only child, I live with my dad, and I have a pet fish." Stella informed her.

"What about your mom?"

Stella stopped running. "She's…"

"It's okay." Gracie told her.

"Thanks." For the rest of the jog Stella and Gracie talked about other things, things that didn't involve Stella's mother. Even though they didn't speak about her, Gracie's still couldn't help thinking about Stella's mysterious mom.

"Hey thanks for talking with me." Stella said when they had finished running.

"No problem." Gracie replied trying to catch her breath.

"Hey this is a random question Gracie but, would you like to come over to my house?" Stella asked.

"That sounds like fun!" Gracie told her. "I've never actually been over to someone's house before."

"Really?" Stella replied.

"Really." Gracie shrugged. "I'm pretty new here."

"Well my dad is going to pick me up in like three minutes. Do you want to ride with us?"

"Sure let me just tell…" Gracie paused trying to think of the best way to describe Monica. "My friend. Be right back." She told Stella before making her way to Monica who was sitting on the swings.

"Aren't you a little too old to be playing on the swings?" Gracie greeted her supervisor.

"And aren't you a little too young to be an angel?" Monica retorted.

"Oh wow make comments about my age, soooooo original." Gracie said rolling her eyes. "Anyways Stella just invited me to go to her house and I wanted to know if I could go."

"I guess that would be okay if its for the assignment then it would be okay." Monica told her. "Do you need a ride?"

"Um no actually Stella's father is driving us." Gracie informed Monica.

"Okay well have fun." Monica told her.

"I will!" Gracie chirped. "Bye!" With that Gracie skipped over to Stella. Monica just hopped Gracie knew what she was doing.