Kenzie's Time to Meet the World

~37~ There's Always Hope and Goodbye For Now

After Zay had calmed me down, he escorted me to the nurses office. The nurse called Mr. Matthews in, and Zay explained the situation to him. After Matthews heard the whole story, he insisted that I call my dad and go home.

Zay went to get my stuff from my locker, while I dialed my dad's number.

"Hey, kid... how can I help you?" He answered, just like he always did.

"Dad...?" I said shakily. "Can you pick me up from school..."

"Are you okay? What happened?" He asked quickly, and I could hear him getting into his car.

"I-I had an anxiety attack at school... Zay found me... Mr. Matthews said that I should go home..."

"I'll be there in a few minutes, kid. I'm going to let Katy know." He said, before hanging up.

Zay came in and helped me grab all of my stuff, before leading me to the waiting area, and sitting next to me. Mr. Matthews had given him a pass so that he could help me.

"Everything going to be okay?" Zay asked, rubbing circles on my hand.

I shrugged. "We'll see."

"Kid?" My dad's voice rang out, panicked as he turned to me.

I let go of Zay, embracing Shawn tightly. "Can we please get out of here?"
~~

"So," Shawn started as he pulled into our apartment's driveway, "Wanna talk about what happened at school?"

"Today was yearbook day." I said softly.

"Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?" He asked, confused.

"It would be... if I didn't get 'most likely to disappear'."

Shawn's face fell, and an angry look formed on his face. "What the hell." He then looked me over, pulling me into an embrace.

I looked up at Shawn, taking a deep breath. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, kid." He said, his face evidently full of concern.

"How did you do it?" I fiddled with my fingers. "How did you keep going even when there was so much shit thrown at you?"

Shawn looked unprepared for my question. "Well... I guess you find people. You stick to the people in your life that do care for you. I may not have had my parents, but I had Cory. Find your Cory."

"Maya and Riley." I stated simply. "Maya and Riley are my Cory."

Shawn gave a soft smile. "You are so strong, kid. You have been through hell, but you're still here. You still have people that care about you. Maya, Riley, the Matthews, Zay, Lucas, Farkle... me.

Stay with those people. Let them help you, let them care for you and never push them away. There's always hope... you just have to look in the right places."

And the more I thought about it, Shawn was right. It seemed like it had been ages since Riley, Maya, and I had decided we wanted to make the world ours... Since then we had been through so much. But we were still there. We were still growing and learning and becoming new people.

And... that's okay. Making the world yours is a process, and it's not always going to end when we think.

I guess what I'm saying is that, while this feels like the end, it isn't.

It's just the beginning.