It took a lot of hard work and a lot of late nights, but I got caught up in almost all of my classes. I started off with all the classes I find most difficult, that way the work got easier and easier. Taylor and Jude came and helped out with some of my essays and Mariana helped me with my science coursework, she's completely up to date with all her classes, she said helping me was fun for her. I'm pretty exhausted but now that I've finished everything, I get to have the weekend off before I go back to school. Things might actually start to feel normal, I can't help but get my hopes up a little. It helped to think about Rachel, the teddy bear she gave me has been sat in the corner since I got back from the hospital, watching over me. I can't wait until I see her again, or even hear her voice. I know that she hurt Callie, but she wouldn't have done that unless she felt really threatened, I mean, her life's not great either, it's understandable to make a few mistakes. I just wish everyone else would give her a chance.

Callie decided to let Mariana move into Brandon's room because she's the one who always has her boyfriend over and stuff, so she's officially moved in there now. The room feels a lot bigger without my old camp bed taking up the entire bedroom floor.

"How's your stomach?" Callie crashes on her bed after a long day.

"It's good, it's almost completely healed up now, and the pain's gone. I can go back to school on Monday and get back to normal. Plus, we get our phones back tomorrow." The first thing I'm going to do is call Rachel as soon as I can.

"Speaking of normal, have you thought more about what you're gonna do, you know like who you're gonna live with?"

"Yeah actually, I mean I've thought about it, I haven't made a solid decision, though. But I'm definitely leaning more towards staying here."

"Well how about this, we ask Stef and Lena tonight, give them the weekend to think about it, and you can decide on Monday if you want to stay or not?"

"Yeah, yeah that sounds like a good plan." "You're sure?"

"Yeah, I want to be with you guys."

"We want you here too, but there's just one thing. You have to forget about Rachel,"

"Callie, I-"

"No, seriously, it's not worth it, because at this point, Gracie, it's us or her." I take a deep breath, I could never pick. So, my only option is to lie to Callie.

"Okay, yeah it's over."

After dinner, I go up to my room while and anxiously wait for Callie to come and tell me what they say, Brandon came over to be there too. I can't handle not knowing so I decide to go and listen in on their conversation. I stand on the stairs making sure to avoid the creaking step.

"So, you all want her to stay with us?" Stef asks.

"Yeah, we've talked about it for a while now. Plus, she needs a family, and we all work really well together." Jesus says.

"Okay, well then yeah, I guess that's fine, but you kids should know that she could be taken out of this home at any time, you know what the system's like," Lena says, she sounds genuinely upset that that's the case.

"Yeah, we know, so we were hoping that you could maybe consider adopting her?" Jude has a lot of hope in his voice.

"Adoption?" Stef sounds pretty shocked, "I don't know that's a pretty big decision, and Gracie's fifteen now, she probably doesn't even want to be adopted."

"She does, seriously, she wants- no she needs to be safe and loved and we can be that for her," Callie says, "Will you at least consider it?" They're really fighting for me to stay here. There's a pretty long silence. Then the others start begging Stef and Lena.

"Kids!" Stef raises her voice, they all immediately stop talking. "Yes, we'll talk about it and let you know at the end of the weekend." They all rejoice and thank them. "But no pestering us, no begging and don't tell Gracie, we don't want to get her hopes up." It's a little late for that, my hopes are pretty high. The kids all start to come upstairs so I have to hurry back to my room, so they didn't know I was listening, but Callie spots me just as I'm getting back into bed.

"You were listening huh?" She's smiling a lot.

"Yeah, I couldn't help it. It sounds pretty good, though. I just don't what I'm going to say to Sophia if Stef and Lena agree to this."

"So, you would definitely wanna stay here if they say yes?" I thought about a little more and it doesn't make sense to move in with Quinn's, I'd have to move schools and then I'd be even further behind and I'd have to move all my stuff there and it's just an unnecessary hassle. Plus, I like it here, this family means a lot to me.

"Yeah, I guess so, I mean what kind of idiot would turn this down? I just hope Sophia's not too hurt."

"She'll be fine, you know she just wants you to be happy. This is so exciting, I'm really happy for you Gracie." Callie hugs me.

I feel great, the anti-depressants have been working, my stomach is better and everyone around me is happy too. I think staying here will be good for me, I might even get to go to college, that was never an option before, I thought I was going to end up working in a low paying, dead-end job living in a tiny, rat-infested apartment and honestly... I thought I would end up having ended my life by the time I'm twenty-one. I have a future and judging by the way Lena looked when she checked over my school work, it's a promising future.