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 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'll still have to do summer school, but at least I'll pass this year with the rest of my grade.

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 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 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. Staying here is my first choice, I still don't think Stef and Lena will go for it, so I'm not getting my hopes up."

"Well how about this, we ask Stef and Lena tonight, they'll probably want to take the weekend to discuss it. And then depending on their answer, 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," She tells me.

"Callie, I-"

"No, seriously, it's not worth it, Gracie. Because at this point it's us or her." I take a deep breath; I could never make that decision. How do I choose between the family I've dreamed of my entire life and the girl I'm falling head over heels for? 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 and the others to come and tell me what Stef and Lena have to say. Brandon came over from his dad's 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 creaky step.

"So, you're all on the same page, you want us to foster her long-term?" Stef asks.

"Yeah, we've talked about it for a while now. She needs a family, and we can be that for her," Jesus fights for me.

"She's comfortable here, and she's never had a place where she feels safe. We like having her around, she already feels like one of us," Mariana speaks up.

"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 for me. She gets how scary it is to never know if you're going to be sleeping in the same bed every night. Or even you get a bed.

"Yeah, we know, so we were hoping that you could maybe consider adopting her?" Jude sounds hopeful.

"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 give her that," Callie says. "Will you at least consider it? Please." They're 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 go silent. "Yes, we'll talk about it and let you know at the end of the weekend. 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. That's a good sign.

"Yeah, I couldn't help it. It sounds like they might go for it. I just don't what I'm going to say to Sophia if Stef and Lena agree to this. I don't want to hurt her."

"She'll be fine, you know she just wants you to be happy. This is so exciting, I'm 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 schoolwork, it's promising.