Esmeralda jolted awake to the sound of a siren. When she got her bearings a few seconds later, she realized it wasn't a siren; it was the alarm on her phone.

"Make it stop," Holli whined from somewhere else in the room.

Esmeralda blindly swiped the screen on her phone until the alarm shut off. With a groan, she rolled onto her back. Her incredibly sore back. She had slept on the floor of Holli's bedroom, next to the only wall with an available outlet.

"What was that?" Holli grumbled.

"My alarm to wake me up for school," Esmeralda replied, feeling exactly zero motivation to go to school.

"Ugh."

Esmeralda heard Holli rifling through junk gathered on her bedside table, followed by a whirring sound as the blackout curtains slowly opened. Esmeralda pulled the blanket over her head to block out the light.

"Are you really going to waste your time at school today?" Holli asked. "I thought you were going to the studio with me." Today Holli was going to her first modeling shoot and had asked Esmeralda to go with her since Esmeralda had modeling experience.

Esmeralda lowered the blanket and faced her friend. Holli was now sitting up on her bed with her sleep mask pushed up on her head. "I never said I would go. You decided I was going with you."

Holli pouted. "Please? I need your help, Essie."

Esmeralda felt a pang of unwelcome sadness hearing the nickname Phoebus used to call her. Esmeralda had spent the weekend going to clubs, parties, and lunches with other dancers and models. For the most part, she had been successful in keeping herself distracted with people and alcohol. But, each morning she woke up and was immediately assaulted with thoughts of Phoebus- and even Jasmine- and the loneliness that came with knowing she couldn't see or talk to them. Every morning she was tempted to text them and she had to remind herself that they're the ones who hurt her. It was hard accepting she had to cut them out of her life, but it was necessary.

Of course there was still the issue of having to see them every day at school.

"All right, I'll go with you today," Esmeralda conceded. It wasn't an issue if she wasn't at school.

"Smart girl. Going to this shoot could do more for your future than listening to lectures you'll never apply to your real life."

"I'm pretty sure my parents would argue going to school would be more advantageous since it'll help me get into college."

Holli rolled her eyes. "Please. People go to college in hopes of getting a high- paying job. You already have a high- paying job. And you'd be making even more money if you were doing it full- time."

Esmeralda couldn't argue with that. The money had been really good when she was working for Tzipporah full- time over the summer. It was proving more difficult to find good jobs now that she had to work around her school schedule. Living in Andalasia was a bit of hindrance, as well. While Andalasia wasn't far from L.A., where most of the work was, it would certainly be a lot easier if she was living closer. Especially since her agent, Chel, also lived in L.A.

Almost everything about Esmeralda's life would be easier if she dropped out of school.

XXX

Ariel wasn't as nervous as she thought she would be. This was the last place she wanted to be, but she wasn't nervous. So, at least she had that going for her.

Captain Amelia cleared her throat. Ariel's first weekly meeting with Captain Amelia technically started ten minutes ago, but Ariel hadn't said a word. It wasn't that she was nervous or uncomfortable with talking to Amelia, she just didn't want to. Her father was forcing her to go to these meetings and she was hoping if he saw they weren't helping and she wasn't making progress, he'd no longer make her go.

"We don't have to talk about what happened, Ariel," Amelia said. At the beginning of the meeting Amelia told Ariel she still didn't know what happened, but Ariel found that unlikely with the way rumors spread through this school. "We can talk about whatever you want. Everything we talk about stays between us and never leaves this office."

"Won't you be reporting everything back to my dad?"

"Yes and no. I will let him know if I think we're making progress, but I won't be giving him any specific details," Amelia explained. "I'm a high school guidance counselor, not a therapist. I'm not going to tell you what to do or give you advice unless you ask for it. And I'm not going to tell your father- or even Principal Clayton- anything you don't want me to. I'm here to guide and help you, Ariel; not your father. This is about you, not him."

"Except he's forcing me to be here, despite what I want."

"He said he's worried about you."

"Well, he's not. He hates me because I got an abortion and he's pawning me off on you so he doesn't have to deal with me."

"Maybe," Amelia said with a shrug. "I don't know your father and it's not my place to assume what anyone is thinking or feeling or what their intentions are."

Ariel noticed Captain Amelia did not seem surprised when Ariel told her she had an abortion. Either she was really good at hiding her emotions and keeping a poker face or she lied at the beginning of the meeting.

"Do you want to talk about the abortion, Ariel?"

"No."

"Fair enough. Would you like to talk about the incident with your locker?"

Which one? The word murderer spray- painted across it? Or the bloody baby dolls stuffed inside it? "No."

"All right, then. Is there anything you do want to talk about?"

"No."

Captain Amelia nodded. "I guess in the future I'm going to have to stay away from yes or no questions."

Ariel didn't say anything to that. They both stared at each other for a moment until Amelia broke eye contact to look at the clock hanging above the door behind Ariel.

Amelia looked back at Ariel and said, "I suppose if it's what you want, we can spend the last five minutes of our meeting sitting in silence."

And they did.