Danica says goodbye to one of her most trusted friends.

"… and a digital copy of all your necessary documents have been forwarded to your personal email just in case you lose these physical original copies."

Danica smiled. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Clarke. It's been fun around here."

The older woman smiles and waves her hand at her, "Oh stop, it was a pleasure being your guidance counselor. You'll manage just fine over there in Tokyo, hm? Always remember to take breaths, you can call me if the girlies are a little too much to talk to."

Danica takes a good look at her guidance counselor, a constant friend over her academic career at Rosewood New York Academy since she enrolled in middle school. When she was younger she had these incessant anxiety attacks, to which Mrs. Clarke had a hand in subsiding. Since then, Mrs. Clarke became one of many mother figures in Danica's life, next to their head housekeeper and her older maid.

Danica chuckles and nods. "Only when you're awake, which will probably be in the early mornings for me."

"I can't believe you finished your finals early and passed with flying colors."

"Part of the grind…" Danica says, fake enthusiasm as she continues, "the grind that pushed me to work harder and smarter to make Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley understand that I am not a mistake my father made."

Mrs. Clarke sighs at the thought, knowing how overbearing her grandparents are before she speaks again, "… how's your daddy, baby? You aren't still icing him out, are you?"

"It's… hard." Danica admits. "Trying to get comfortable with him… it isn't his fault, I know." she rubs her arm, looking down. Alistair had been consistent with bugging her assistant with her activities, calling and basically hyping her up. It was a little weird at first, but she's gotten a little fond of how her father was reaching out.

"Mhm. I hope you two can have that quality bonding time over there. Your father always did have your best interests at heart, you know he calls your homeroom teacher and me tryna get the scoop on your life?"

Danica fixes her bag over her shoulder, humming softly. "Sounds just about right…"

"And how's that life plan going? Are the followers pouring in?"

"A million and counting. Business is booming." She laughs, waving her phone as Ms. Clark giggles along.

"Mm… to think that you did all that while hiding behind nerd glasses and being your own superhero in the day. If TV taught me anything, it was a smart move to fly under your family's radar to start your own brand."

"You can take that up with the entrepreneurs' program, Mr. Ross did me a favor, hooking me up with that social media manager, and we barely have to meet in person." She smiles as she throws her backpack over her shoulder. "I'll see you around, Mrs. Clark."

"Mm, it's Simone to you now, baby. Feel free to call me on the weekends, and say hi to the roses when you see them again!"

"Love you Simone!" She laughs as she skips out the hallway.

The sun was setting over the campus buildings, the halls were loitered by kids with evening classes and just coming out of their day classes, students paired up for their finals project and study groups huddled in circles out on the greenery. Danica would look at them and smile, thinking about how her friends were no longer confined here, all away on their own business like how she thought she would eventually. But she didn't.

Last year Danica had decided to take a shot and shadow her father, take a walk around the company without being snuck in on her school break days. Her grandparents were not happy, finding a child in a sea of employees despite the experience giving her insight. As if they didn't want her peeking into their secrets like some thief. Mrs. Kingsley made a scene and slapped her face, calling her some brat who was intruding on her father's time. Before Alistair could catch her, she ran to her car, sitting there in tears before the driver entered and silently drove her back to campus early. There her little rose flowers fled back to her, tackling her down and comforting her with food and television.

Instead of watching she'd been in her own head, simmering in fury as she silently pictured the map of the rest of her life and the look on the Kingsleys face when she eventually–hopefully–succeeds.

"Ready to go, Ms. Kingsley?"

She snaps out of her thoughts, looking up as her kindly driver opens the door of their car for her. Behind them a truck passes by, with the driver slowing down and waving, clarifying with her before they drive away and Danica turns her attention back to the driver with a smile.

"It's Danica, Mr. Reynolds. Be careful next time or Mrs. Kingsley will have your head."

"I'm sure gonna miss driving you around, little one." He chuckles as she steps in, closing her door. "Do enjoy yourself over there, miss."

"I'll pay for you to visit. We need to show you real sushi and not the ones from the gas station. Even supermarket sushi there is good."

"Yeah?" He laughs, driving out of campus. "You're finally free, little rose."

"No, just moving to a different rose bed."