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It was strange for Stella to be back at school after such a long winter break. She was still on Paris time, so her body wasn’t able to reset itself like she had hoped that she would be able to. Truth was, her flight had been delayed a few times and by the time she finally did arrive, it was so late (or early depending on how one looks at it), she couldn’t skip today, not when so many people -- and especially [i]one[/i] person in particular -- was dying to see her. So, she would force herself to meet them, regardless of how much like death she felt.

As she made her way to her locker and checked her reflection in the mirror that hung on the inside of her locker door, the brunette couldn’t help but lament on her conversation with Chrissie. In addition to looking absolutely dreadful, the way things were left between them, the things left unsaid, and thoughts left to linger about, Stella felt a rare emotion crawling inside her body. Her gut tightened the minute she thought about Chrissie, the minute she revisualized Chrissie’s voice as she told her about Paris, how she seemed to disapprove of Carter, how she wanted Stella to betray her feelings for Carter, how she wanted Stella to have a night that the brunette knew would have been magical.

And all of that made her...It made her...It made Stella angry. How could Chrissie suggest such a thing? How could she take something Stella had been dying to confide to her about since setting foot on that plane and counting the hours (at least those she remained conscious during) so she could talk to her? Stella didn’t have a lot of close friends. She was friendly with the vast majority of people but her closest friends -- the ones that remained at King’s -- they were in so few numbers. Mac moved back to California and Georgie, though she was great, she wasn’t Chrissie.

[color=pink][b]“Fuck!”[/b][/color] Stella’s internal ire boiled over to the point where she shouted and slammed her locker shut, alerting some nearby and she collected herself immediately. Holding her shoulderbag close to her, Stella decided to make a beeline for anywhere that wasn’t near the prying eyes of those around her. 

Her display of unusual anger was surprising in a lot of ways but mainly for Stella herself. She didn’t know what to feel in all honesty. She’s always felt strongly one way or the other, but it’s always been with a positive outlook on life and to others, too. Some saw it as being too cheery, which she totally understood but she never let what people like Marisol Castillo would say about her. She always viewed that everyone deserved a hug or a friendly smile their way. And it wasn’t like she had changed overnight, but that part of her was being run out of town by the unexplainable bitterness she couldn’t shake off. It was like everything was telling her to scream as loud as she could, say whatever came to her mind, and throw caution into the wind about how it made her seem.

At some point, Stella soon found herself close at the entrance and she saw Carter talking to Chrissie. Immediately her mind went to Paranoid City and all hell broke loose internally. Eyes squinted and she tried to focus on trying to hear them, but with the hustle from the other students nearby and everyone chatting, she couldn’t hear a single thing either of them were saying. 

[color=pink]“What could they be talking about? Why are they even talking in the first place?”[/color] 

Stella wanted to move closer, she wanted to see if there was anything she could hear and she almost did, but then Chrissie turned around and started walking in Stella’s general direction. In a cowardly effort, she turned around so her cousin didn’t see her. Even when the coast was relatively clear, she was overcome by existing emotions and her paranoia-curiosity that she had to go up to Carter, which she did and she made an effort to wave to him, smiling as she had always done.

[color=pink]“Hey, Carter!”[/color] She hugged him. [color=pink]“I hope your break was good to you,”[/color] she said, easing her way to her real motives. [color=pink]“So, uh, I saw you talking with Chrissie just now. It looked pretty intense. I hope she didn’t say anything that got you [i]too[/i] annoyed.”[/color][/indent][/indent][/color]