Gia moved her purse strap higher up on her shoulder. She looked upon the small, gray building with eager eyes. First Hope was not a large, rambling center filled with screaming teens, but rather a rented home. The porch was sagging, window-shutters were torn and broken, and the front lawn was matted with weeds and tall grasses alike. The outside did not fool Gia, though, for she felt that some hidden treasure was tucked away inside the walls that she wanted to find.

Gia walked up the old gray wooden steps and onto the porch. She took hold of the rusted golden door-knocker and rapped gently against the front door. After a few moments of waiting, Gia lifted her hand to knock again. She was startled when the door opened before she could.

A short, plump African-American woman appeared in the doorway. Her gray-black hair was pulled back into a small, tidy bun, and a small pair of bifocals rested on the bridge of her nose. The eyes inside of the bifocals were dismal brown. "What do you want?"

The harshness of the woman's voice dampered Gia's spirit for a moment. Remembering the treasure she'd come to find, Gia straightened up. "I am here to speak with Mrs. Gloria Jackson."

"I'm her."

"Oh...um...I..." Gia stammered. "I'm here to apply for a job."

Despite trying to keep a stern look on her face, Gloria couldn't help but to let her right eyebrow raise curiously. "A job?"

"Yes, ma'am," Gia went on eagerly. "You see, I saw in the paper that if First Hope didn't receive anymore volunteers, it would shut down. I came here to volunteer, and could help you get in contact with others who would gladly offer their time and services."

Gloria's gaze softened. "Oh, child, you're too late."

"Too late?" Gia choked out.

"Yes, we closed the doors of First Hope yesterday afternoon. We simply couldn't keep it up any longer."

The words rang in Gia's ears. Silently yet painfully, Gia felt her dream slipping away from her.

Karen walked down the pier. The sun was shining brightly down upon her, and the wind was blowing her hair into her face, but Karen didn't mind. It was comforting to have a place to go where no thought was required...only feelings. The loss of her relationship with Carson, no matter how many times Karen denied it, had taken its toll on Karen. The sense of betrayal and hurt ran deep, leaving scars that would not be healed no matter what her future held for her. Junior high romance wasn't supposed to be serious, or so her mother said. Karen, on the other hand, had felt differently about it. Carson was someone special who brought light into her life. She needed someone to stand with when she broke up with Zach earlier, and eventually to ward off his attacks. Karen shuddered at the thought of the events of the summer before. As the wind licked at the waters of Lake Destiny, Karen decided then and there to finally move on with her life and into a life without a relationship. She was so busy looking into the blue horizon that she never noticed someone joining her on the pier.

* * * * *

Tanner gazed out at the small white fishing boats. His mind immediately began formulating a painting in his mind. Tanner shook his head to get the image out. No, he thought, I can't keep doing this. A jet skier caught Tanner's attention. How he longed to ride the waves as the swimsuit-clad man did on the water. He had been told that his mother loved the sea as if it were human. His mother. Tanner's jaw tightened and his body tensed. His mother had died when Tanner was only a toddler of four. Most of his memories of his time with her had floated away into history's lost pages, but the few he still had were faded and wilted. Nevertheless, he clung to them as if his life depended on it. It was the love for his mother that kept him going.

Tanner noticed a young woman with shoulder-length brown hair lingering towards the edge of the pier. Her light blue windjacket floated away from her back. Combined with the effect of her thick, rippling hair, she looked angelic. Tanner thought of his mother. He was stunned when the girl turned around.

* * * * *

Karen eyed the tall, slender boy suspiciously. His olive skin had a rich tint to it when the sun hit it, and his face had a square, hard look to it. For a moment, Karen felt a fluttering of her heart, but she quickly pressed it down firmly. She wasn't going to go through it again. Noticing that it was one of the students who had arrived from Midway Academy, she decided to introduce herself to him. Karen walked towards him.

For a split second, Tanner's eyes opened wide in shock. The girl turning around had been enough to startle him, but now that she was working her way towards him...Tanner tried to figure out something to say. When she reached him, he cleared his throat and said simply, "Hello."

Mel ran into the driveway and into the garage. "Don't you dare touch her!"

Chantal's eyes flew over to where Mel was standing. Her look of shock was quickly replaced by rage. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Mel, blaring and undaunted at first, was taken aback by her sharp words. He looked at her with pain in his eyes. "What?"

"I asked you a question, Mel!" Chantal replied, glancing over at her father quickly to make sure he wasn't making a move towards Mel.

"Who in the he** is he?" Jim roared.

"He's my...my friend, Daddy. I was just ushering him out," Chantal shot a furitive glance at Mel.

"Chantal..." Mel choked out. Her careless use of the word "friend" had ripped his heart out of his chest.

The look on Mel's face made Chantal instantly regret what she had said. For a moment, she took a step forward as if to go to him, but a look from her father stopped her in her tracks. "You have to go now, Mel."

"Don't tell me you don't know what he was about to do to you!" Mel cried out. "He was going to hurt you Chantal."

"You stay out of this, boy!" Jim growled, balling his fists.

"You don't tell me what to do and I'm not your boy!" Mel snapped at him in fury. "You're the one that has caused Chantal so much pain over the past few months. I care about your daughter, Mr. Lowell, so if you want to hurt her, you have to go through me!"

"I can take care of myself! I've done it all my life!" Chantal yelled staunchly. "I don't need anyone to look out for me!"

"Get in the house," Jim's voice was low and commanding.

"Daddy..."

"I said get in the house!" Jim's voice was louder. He never took his eyes off of Mel.

"I'm not afraid of you, sir," Mel met Jim's gaze squarely. "If there's one thing my mother taught me, it's not to be afraid of anything."

A smirk curled up the corners of Jim's mouth. "What a wise tramp your mother must be."

Mel, acting on his instinct, rammed into Jim with his shoulder. "Don't you ever talk about my mama!"

"MEL!" Chantal shrieked. "Get away from here before he can get up!"

"The he** I will!" Mel began kicking Jim in the stomach. He wasn't prepared for Jim to grab him by his foot. Mel fell clumsily onto the cool concrete of the garage floor. "Crap!"

"Don't you ever come up into my house and disrespect me like that! I oughta..." Jim raised his fist into the air.

"Yeah, and if you do I'll have you arrested for child abuse," Chantal's voice boomed over them all. When Mel looked up, he saw a Chantal he'd never seen before: tall, terrible, and dangerous-looking.

"Thatagirl," Mel muttered under his breath.

"I am sick and tired of having my friends run off by you, Daddy. I am tired of always having to make up excuses for what you do to all of us."

"I'm only trying to protect you, baby!" Jim moaned pitifully. His drunken rage was beginning to wear off, revealing a more vulnerable, sensitive Jim. "I'm not trying to hurt you."

"Whether you're trying to or not, you are! But no longer will I remain silent. I think it's time to pay for the pain that you've caused all of us."

"Just let the guy go, Doug. We don't have time to fight," another paramedic mumbled to his co-worker.

"But what about policy, Len?"

"Policy isn't going to save the life of this girl. Now come on, let's go," the guy named Len jumped into the back of the ambulance.

Doug stared at Trace a while longer before gesturing towards the open doors. "Let's go."

Trace eagerly sprang into the back. He never noticed the doors closing behind him. He cupped Kim's face with his hands, looking tenderly at her closed eyes. "Together we'll stand, Kim. It's always been that way, it always will be."

"If you're going to stay in here, you're going to have to stay out of the way," Doug said irritably, checking the monitors for any signs of change.

Trace opened his mouth to retort, but thought about it and quickly clamped it shut. "Fine."

Trace began to think about his relationship with Kim. He felt that he hadn't dedicated enough time to her, and this was his punishment. He thought of all the times he could have told her how much he loved her, how much she meant to him, but he couldn't because he didn't want to seem awkward. He thought of all the times he could have hugged her, but didn't because he didn't want his friends to see. Trace thought of all the million and one times when he could have done something to show his appreciation of her, but didn't. He buried his head in his arms.

"God, why are you doing this to her? She never did anything to anybody! I'll do anything, just don't cause her anymore pain!" he cried out bitterly.

He felt a gentle hand on his back. He looked up, and into the warm eyes of a woman's face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that outloud."

The woman chuckled. "If only all men could be like you. Don't worry about confessing your feelings. In the end, you'll find out that it'll help your relationship more than you can imagine."

"But how? Every time I try, something comes along to screw it up! I feel like a total klutz when it comes to relationships," Trace groaned, lettings his head fall back along the side of the vehicle.

"Give it time. You're still young. You need to explore all of your options and not be closed-minded. If you have genuine feelings for this girl, this is a better time than ever to show her. Prove to her that you're not going to betray her. Prove to her that you care," the woman turned back to Kim.

"Prove to her that I care," Trace repeated to himself. "I don't care what the cost, I'll do it. Kim is going to be blown away by the idea I have. It'll show that I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

"Please, Mrs. Jackson. Don't do this yet. Give it a little time. We can put it back on its feet," Gia pleaded, only seconds away from getting on her hands and knees and begging.

"Child, there's nothing I can do. The city's shutting us down, and they should be tearing down the building any day now. Tell me, then, what can we do?"

"Fight them!" Gia blurted out. A look of question crossed her face as soon as the words came out.

Again, Mrs. Jackson's eyebrow raised. "Oh really? How do you propose we do that?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure if we think hard enough we can come up with something. Are you about to give up a place that holds so much promise, that helps so many young people?"

"No!"

"Are you ready to have some of the young lives of this community destroyed because they have nowhere to turn during bad times?"

"Of course not!"

"Then we're going to have to fight the city, and we're going to have to fight them to the finish, Mrs. Jackson! It's time to give breath to the dream again!"

Gloria laughed heartily. "Such big statements for such a small person."

Gia's eyebrows slanted and she looked at Gloria seriously. "I may be young, but let me tell you that there isn't one other person in this town who wants so much to help others my age than myself!"

Gloria's head tilted to the side a little, curiously. "And just why is that?"

Gia shifted uncomfortably. "I have my reasons."

Gloria shrugged turned towards the inside of the building. "Would you like to come in for some tea? I know you probably don't enjoy tea very much, but..."

"Oh, no! Don't get me wrong, I love tea. It's just I have to get back to my dorm to finish up a few things. It was lovely talking with you, Mrs. Jackson. I look forward to working with you in the future. We can keep this alive, but only if we stand strong together. The dream will not die."

"Hello," Karen responded. All of a sudden, she felt large and klutzy. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her windbreaker. She noticed that Tanner's eyes were looking past her and out into the lake. "I'm sorry, am I disturbing you?"

"No, no. Well...not exactly, anyways," Tanner fumbled for the right words. "I just came out here to think."

Karen nodded slowly. "You're new here aren't you?"

Tanner looked down at the wooden planks of the pier. "Yeah."

"Hey, that's cool. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Tanner looked up in surprise. "Really? I thought you came over here to rip into me because I was from Midway Academy."

"Look, I'll be honest with you. I'm not too terribly thrilled that some of my closest friends were exchanged for some people I don't even know, but I'm not going to hold a grudge against you becuase of it. What happened happened, there's nothing I can do to change it. Unlike some, I won't tear you to pieces."

"Yeah, I heard some kid got in a fight with my friend, Kendall. I can't believe someone would fight another because of where they're from."

"Maybe you don't have all the facts," Karen replied defensively. "Brent isn't the type of guy who goes around picking fights. He may have been provoked."

Tanner stood up to his full height and looked down at Karen with eyes that were beginning to fill with anger. "Well my friend isn't the kinda guy who goes around provoking people. You don't know anything about him!"

"Nor do you of Brent!" Karen shot back, her cheeks flushing with fury. "Don't just sit up there and judge him!"

"Practice what you preach! You've never known Kendall and probably never will, so just lay off!"

"Why did I even bother to come over and say hi? I should have known you'd just act immature about the whole situation. Forget I even came," Karen began walking back towards the beach.

"With pleasure, your majesty!" Tanner yelled after her. He wheeled back around to face out towards the sea again. "The nerve of that girl!"

Despite his harsh words, Karen stayed on Tanner's mind for the rest of the day.

"Don't you threaten me, little girl!" Jim's anger briefly returned.

"She's more of an adult that you'll ever be!" Mel shouted.

"Stay out of this, Mel! This is between my father and me, so I'd greatly appreciate it if you left," Chantal pointed towards the door of the garage.

"I'm just trying to help."

"Thank you, but you've helped enough. Now please, just go!"

Mel got up from his spot on the floor and walked slowly towards the door. He paused momentarily to look back at Chantal with saddened eyes. She quickly looked away. Mel resumed his exit. "I should've listened to my mind instead of my heart. Chantal doesn't want my help and she never will. Why do I bother? It seems to me as if she'd want me to help her make him pay for everything he's done to her family. I know I'd want to make my..." Mel's voice trailed off.

Walking back down the stone walkway, Mel thought of his own father miles and miles away. The mere thought of him made Mel's forehead wrinkle in disgust. No, my situation is different. My dad isn't even around to cause problems. He does it from his little apartment in goodness-knows-where. If Chantal knew...but no, this is one burden I'll have to carry myself. My family problems are my family problems, not hers, Mel paused as he realized that he was doing the exact thing that she didn't want him to do to her.

As Mel made his way towards the main street that would lead back to his dorm, a strange thought occured to him. If I help Chantal, though, will I end up helping myself as well? Will I be able to get rid of the demons in my own life and leave behind all the pain?

Only time would tell.

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