The Country Boy and The City Girl

Daniella's POV

"Danni!" my mom shouted from the kitchen. "You're going to school! Don't try and get out of it."

I groaned and rolled over under my sheets. I really didn't want to get out of bed today. Or tomorrow. Or next week. Or maybe the rest of my life. But I had to. I couldn't let Amber scare me off any longer and my mother made it clear I wasn't missing prom.

"You can't hide in your room forever, honey," my mom sighed as she flipped the last chocolate chip pancake. "You're better than that."

I sat on the bar stool in front of the island she was cooking on. "I just want to go home. It was stupid to think I could fit in here."

She tried to give me a sympathetic smile as she patted my hand. "High school is just high school. If it helps, you and Jason probably would have split up going off to college anyway."

I frowned and pushed her hand away. "Thanks," I said dryly. "Way to cheer me up."

"Don't take this out on me. I know you're angry but think about where you really need to be directing it towards..."

I glared at the plate of chocolate chipped, pity filled breakfast. She only made pancakes like this when she had to tell me something I didn't want to hear. I refused to listen or give into the sweet bribe she tried to pass off. I didn't want the "it'll be okay" speech because, right now, it wasn't. And I don't know if it ever will be...

My phone began buzzing and I hit "Decline" when Kent's name came up on the screen. It still hurt to think of him and he had called three times this weekend. I was too broken to hear what he needed to say anyway...

"I'm going to be late," I told her in a solemn tone. I picked up my purse and walked out the door, leaving the pancakes cold and untouched. Eating comfort food was the last thing on my mind right now.

***
I sat in my English class, yet again receiving glares and hushed insults behind my back in all directions. I looked over at Mac and tried not to frown as she and Amber exchanged conversation. She wasn't even aware of me.

"Daniella?" Mr. Nathanael called from his paper covered desk. I got up and went to him, knowing what this was going to be about. "This poetry contest could give you a scholarship to any Kentucky college you want-"

"But not the University of Kentucky," I interrupted him. He sighed and nodded.

"True," he agreed. "Maybe not any college, but most of them for sure. Western Kentucky, Louisville, Eastern, and some others. There is a lot of promising opportunity here. Why don't you take your paper home, make it longer, add in more emotional connections, proofread, and then get back to me so we can enter it?"

"But Mr. Nathanael," I sighed. "A third grader could have written a poem better than mine. Why enter it in a poetry contest just to be made a joke out of?"

He took off his glasses and folded his hands in front of him on his desk. "It was raw, yes...But it was honest and from the heart. That is what makes a great poem. Don't sell yourself short."

"Well the person who I wrote about is out of my life so...don't be expecting anymore genius," I muttered under my breath. He returned his glasses to his face and handed me my papers.

"Just think about it."

I nodded, returned to my seat, and gathered my things, heading to my next class.

Jason's POV

"When you said you didn't do relationships anymore...What did you mean?" I asked as we rode in the police cruiser down the highway. Cassie exhaled heavily and gripped the steering wheel.