There had always been a sort of calm in driving for Ariana. Ironically enough, there was something about leaving Point A to go to Point B on her own that was satisfying. Maybe the fact that she didn't have to follow her mom's every move when she was in the driver's seat. Or that should could drive to her favorite spot, a nearby park, Northview Park, when her mom had 'one of her days', as she became used to calling them.

Today was one of those days, it seemed. It started off like every other:

Ariana woke up and headed towards her bathroom, still practically asleep. She was like a zombie when she woke up, grumbling and hungry. The substantial, tangled mess of her chestnut colored hair and raccoon eyes, with smudged day-old makeup, wasn't a new sight. She wasn't exactly one of those girls with a night-time skin regime.

She calmed the mess on top of her head, fixed her makeup, and put on her usual, being either some sort of  floral dress with a cute sweater or jeans and a tank top, at least for the summer.

Ariana wasn't a nerd, she wasn't a jock, but she wasn't popular, either. She would come to call it the in between. Moving every few months didn't help. She was just pretty enough to be friends with the 'popular crowd' but that wasn't what she wanted. She was average in school; no C's or D's floated on her transcript amiss her countless AP classes and irrelevant electives, considering different schools had different kinds of credit options for graduating.

Ariana just went with the flow, keeping to herself and whatever small group of friends or friend she had at the time. That was perfectly okay with her.

Right now, Ariana and Samantha Rivers lived in Charlevoix, back in Michigan for the first time since the incident. It was a beautiful, lakeside city with waters that were clearer and deeper than Ariana's own blue eyes. They've been there for approximately 104 days, not that she was counting or anything.

"Mornin', mom," Ariana smiled as she went into the kitchen for her daily brown cinnamon off-brand pop tart and half cup of coffee her mom brewed a few hours before. Her mother was on her phone doing who-knows-what, per usual.

That was one thing. She kept to herself to, but in a way that made Ariana believe she didn't even want to be bothered; so she scrolled through whatever she was doing on her iPhone to avoid conversation, it seemed.

"Hey, honey," an uninterested Samantha replied.

That was all she needed as her cue to find something to do that day away from the house. It was in her voice, the way she spoke some days.

To a bystander, that encounter might have seemed harmless and unimportant; but to Ariana, it meant a whole lot more.

Jason Sellers was to blame. Ever since her mother's failed relationship with Jason, she hasn't been the same.

The bruises, the fights, the screams, and the blood. It all comes back to Ariana so easily. A four-year relationship gone wrong and Ariana was punished for it every day. No wonder her own father walked out of her life when she was 11. Who would have wanted to be a part of this family? I certainly had not.

But there was no point dwelling on that now, four years later.

"I'm going to go to Jewel's for a bit, to try to relax before school starts up again next week. Love you," Ariana attempted, silently hoping she would still be there for that to happen.

Silence. Funny, that used to be her own tactic.

Jewel Baker was one-of-a-kind. She was also almost 100 percent, completely opposite of Ariana. Where Ariana was reserved and had nothing on her friend when it came to looks, Jewel was quirky, loud, stunningly beautiful, and funny. Jewel was a hard-to-miss kind of girl.

"Hey, what's cookin', good lookin'?," shouted Jewel outside her bedroom window when she noticed Ariana's evident arrival (her lifted, white diesel truck was hard to miss, as well).

"it's one of those days," Ariana said giving Jewel a knowing glance.

In the 104 days she had been a resident in the city of Charlevoix, she has been a second, and very welcome, household member at the Baker's for about 100 of those days, which she was eternally grateful for.

The first four days consisted of Jewel being the president of Ridgemont's welcome committee, literally, for Ariana during her first week at school. They hit it off the minute they had a real conversation, one that didn't involve where the lunchroom was located or how to get her locker open without the combination.

Unsurprisingly, if one knew them, it was about boys. They had similar taste in men and had experiences akin to each other, meaning they were non-existent.

"Hey, that's okay. Let's go to Northview and wait for the boys," beamed Jewel. Ariana smirked. Her best friend got so genuinely excited when she would be able to watch the attractive majority of Ridgemont High School's basketball team play on the court at her favorite park shirtless.

The two girls weren't really friends with that crowd; they just had a mutual understanding that every weekend from one to three, the girls watched and 'the boys' played.

'The boys' were: Tyler Harding, blonde, muscular, and charming; Ian Thompson, the red-headed, goofy one that always had a smile on his face; and most importantly, Justin Wright.

Justin Wright was unarguably the cutest boy Ariana had ever laid her blue eyes on. He was built, but not in an over-excessive way. It was more like he had naturally perfect arms and chest, but it probably wasn't natural.

His messy, ashy blonde hair, green eyes, and white-toothed smile had been enough to do just about all but make Ariana faint at the sight of him the first time she saw him at Northview.

She liked to think he was there early waiting for her. Wishful thinking.

"When will I ever be able to talk to him? I can't just watch him make shot after shot on this court until I inevitably move again," Ariana said.

Jewel, with her wide smile, and a little bit of smeared red lip gloss, she noted, reassured her.

"Ariana, you're beautiful. Take your time with it. If you don't want to talk to him knowing, and risking, that it may end, then that's your choice," Jewel said. "But, don't leave this town with any regrets, I'm serious, or else I will not be the maid-of-honor at your guys' wedding."

Ariana rolled her eyes. Jewel always knew what to say, which, even as cliche as that sounds, is true.

If Ariana didn't want to talk about something head on, she would find a way to make Ariana understand what she had to do, like when Ariana's mom had disappeared for a few days at the beginning of summer, Jewel drove her to a "secret location" that ended up being a surprise picnic in her own backyard. Jewel had driven for over an hour, talking to a blindfolded Ariana through her problems, while she concealed the fact she was just driving in circles around the neighborhood to end up in the cage-sized grassy area that Ariana's apartment building called a backyard.

"You're right, as usual."

This made Jewel smile. She loved being right, it was what made her such a good friend; she was always certain in what she said.

"Now let's go cheer on our boys," Ariana said with forced confidence.

Ariana and Jewel spent their last few days of summer the same way they spent the first part of it: going to Northview, without speaking to Justin, tanning on Jewel's extravagant back porch, and lounging in her Olympic-sized in-ground pool, as well.

Most importantly, Ariana was staying as far away from her mother as possible.

The start of a new school year could only mean one thing to Samantha, and Ariana hoped that maybe, if she didn't hang around her to long, then she wouldn't have time to plan a move to who-knows-where.

"So...," a suspicious Jewel said.

They were currently driving from Jewel's house to stop by Ariana's to pick up her bathing suit to spend yet another day poolside with her best friend.

"So what? What's wrong with you?," Ariana wondered.

"It's just, you always say the end of summers and the start of new school years is about that time for you guys to, you know, leave," Jewel said.

Ariana got sad for a moment. She was right, she knew she couldn't avoid the facts.

This happened a lot for Ariana. She lost best friends as often as some girls bought new shoes. It wasn't new for her. Ariana has trained herself to let go easily, to not hold on to people to tightly; but there was something about Ridgemont, something about Jewel, and something about going to that park that made her hesitant about forgetting this place.

Normally, she just let leaving happen. What could she do? Stop her mother from leaving? She was only a teenager, after all.

Not this time, though. In October, only two months from now, Ariana would be turning 18. Maybe, just maybe, she could convince her mother to hold out for that much longer, just long enough for Ariana to make her own choice.

"Jewel, I don't want you to worry," Ariana grinned. "I may have a plan. I'm not going anywhere."

*******************************

Walking into the front door of Ariana and Samantha's temporary apartment was a tad frightening for Ariana. She feared to hear what  her mother may say to her every night when she comes home from a carefree day spent with Jewel.

"Mom, are you here?" shouted Ariana into the house. There wasn't much furniture, well, actually, there wasn't much proof that people really lived there except for the little food in the fridge and one photo that hung on the wall next to the front door, a photo that her mother couldn't bring herself to get rid of.

She shrugged when she heard nothing in response and led Jewel upstairs to her bedroom.

The room sort of resembled a shed with purple walls. Boxes were still full and unpacked, and she only kept one or two blankets on her mattress, which lacked a frame since it apparently became to much of a hassle to move after the last house in Florida.

"Maybe if you guys unpacked, you would have more of an incentive to stay," Jewel attempted, looking around warily at the sad excuse of a teenager's bedroom.

It was a lot different than Jewel's own room, where she had been an inhabitant of for 17 years. On the walls were hundreds of pictures of her and her friends since pre-k. Cute, girly decorations and crafts that Jewel was known to sometimes take on hung all over the place. Her Teen Vogue bedspread matched perfectly with her white, leather bed frame, and a full mirror covered one entire wall of her room, which behind was her seemingly endless closet stuffed full of clothes that she's had her entire life.

If one looked closely at the paint, the different themes that Jewel's parents had painted her room throughout her childhood could be seen.

Winnie the Pooh when she turned five, horses (because she wanted to be a farmer) when she turned nine, and plain Tiffany Blue for her high school years where she had decoration freedom.

It made her said, Ariana could tell, that she had never had that, the stability of staying in one place, with always moving from place to place.

Once Ariana grabbed her new, white two-piece bikini, they headed back out to Jewel's brand new blue Ford Focus, a gift from her parents for her 17th birthday.

Ariana and Samantha shared the diesel truck that they've had ever since Jason left and didn't take his truck with him.

Right on cue, the heavy roaring of the engine was heard  as Samantha pulled into the driveway right in front of Jewel and Ariana.

That's weird, Ariana thought, she never goes anywhere.

As Samantha exited the car in her normal sweat pant, t-shirt combo, Ariana noticed something, a book or a brochure of some sort, in her hand.

'Financially Efficient Ways to Plan your Next Move!'

Seriously? Not now,  was all Ariana could think as she hurried to the front seat of the Focus.

She didn't even bother to wave or say a word to her mother right then.

She heard Samantha yell something her way as they pulled out of the neighborhood, but she didn't want to hear it at that moment, or maybe ever.