From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 4: Little More Time

Now that Jordan is on his way back to LA, Simone can focus all of her energy on figuring out how to get her life at Bringston back on track, or together... or whatever. In less than a week, she's felt every feeling that she can imagine. Shock, grief, guilt, and confusion all want to consume her, but she doesn't have the time to allow herself to feel it all. Right now, the best emotion she can attack is grief. Losing one of the biggest reasons that she decided to enroll in Bringston and move all the way across the country is something that Simone never thought she'd have to go through. Amara has been one of Simone's safest spaces on and off campus. Simone wonders what it will be like without Amara around so much. Since Amara is leaving Bringston at the end of the semester, Simone has to learn to accept a new reality. The best way she feels she can do that is by focusing on the positive.

Simone gets her friends, students, faculty and staff to record themselves speaking about the great impact that Amara has had on their lives while they have been at Bringston. Once Simone has compiled all of the footage, Nate, Keisha, and Marcus join her at Amara's for a brief celebration in Amara's honor. After seeing the video, Amara becomes overwhelmed, but she is not happy. She feels as though she is undeserving of the praise she has been given. After Marcus pulls her to the side for a moment and provides her with encouraging words, Amara shares the truth about her prior arrest with the girls.

Amara explains that she was arrested along with an old friend for breaking into a medical facility that had been over billing minority patients. They wanted to get proof that the facility was overbilling patients, but got caught before they could share their findings. At that time, the president of Bringston made a deal with the facility to not press charges in exchange for their silence on the matter. Both Amara and her friend were suspended from school for a semester... but the patients that had been taken advantage of never found out what happened to them. While Amara had been able to find a way to maintain her freedom, many other people weren't fortunate enough to have someone looking out for them. That is why Amara felt so undeserving of all the praise that she received. The girls let Amara know that even though she made mistakes in her past, it was still to work in favor of the greater good, good that she continues to do. She should accept her flowers while she's able to receive them. They all join in for a group hug before Marcus has to go.

Marcus heads back to campus to finish preparing for the showcase. While the rest of the baseball team is gathering in the gym, Damon is finally able to catch up with JR about the conversation that he had with Celine. Damon explains that Celine claimed to not know Xavier and that the moment he brought Xavier up, she got very cagey and left abruptly.

JR places his hand on Damon's shoulder saying, "Maybe your dad got it wrong bro. He does have Alzheimer's, so maybe he just thinks that she looks familiar."

Damon responds, "Well can you just talk to your mom and see if she'll be a little more open with you about whatever seemed to be bothering her? Maybe she knows something."

"Look, the last time I got caught up in my family drama, I damn near burned my whole life down and I can't risk that again. I'm gona help you find some answers. Right now, with the whole divorce thing... my mom is fragile. Can we just give her a minute and focus on the showcase?"

Damon responds saying, "That's fair." Damon and JR dap each other up and Damon chuckles. "Besides, you're really gona need to focus cause Santiago ain't giving up that catcher spot without a fight. He's pretty good too."

While the boys are getting ready to head out to the field, Simone, Nate and Keisha are all catching up with one another. They haven't had a chance to really talk about what's been going on with them since Jordan showed up. Like always, the girls want an update on Simone's love life.

Simone: "How are things going with you and Cam? You didn't really say much after you saw him yesterday."

Keisha: "Things aren't the best, but I don't really wanna talk bout that. You know what though... It's crazy that we still don't know who leaked that mug shot of your aunt."