Giselle's POV

"Are you going to open up your letter?" asked Ava as we sat outside for lunch. Ricky would soon be making his way out to us.

"I don't know. I didn't think Stanford would get back to me this early." My appetite was disappearing with the nervousness inside of me. "Do universities usually respond this early? It can't be good news if they get back to you this early. Can it?"

She took the envelope out of my hands. "OK, how about I open it and read it for you? Would that calm you down a little?"

My head nodded. "I think so. Go for it. I'll close my eyes and take a deep breath."

And that is exactly what I did as Ava slowly opened the envelope. I could sense the nervousness in her heart that she felt for me. It took longer than I expected for her to actually say anything which led me to open my eyes.

"What's the word girl?"

With the deepest breath she ever breathed, some words came out of her mouth. "You weren't accepted." It was as if one of her own family members had died. She handed me back the letter as I looked over it.

"That can't be right. Maybe you didn't read it right."

My eyes raced through the letter several times not wanting to believe the news I just received. Ava eventually stopped me and took the letter out of my hands.

"Giselle, I read the letter right. You weren't accepted. I'm sorry." I was about to have a heart attack. Tears were slowly coming out of my eyes. It felt like a boy somehow broke my heart. I didn't know how to feel or respond. "Are you OK dude." I wasn't and I couldn't really hear her. With many heavy breaths, I began to feel dizzy.

"What's wrong babe?" asked Ricky who appeared with his lunch in his hands.

"She didn't get accepted," whispered Ava.

With a hot quick second, he found himself sitting next to me with his arm around me. My head soon found itself on his lap. I couldn't say anything. In fact, it took twenty minutes for me to get myself together. Once I had myself almost together, I found myself running to the office of my guidance counselor. My feet had the feet of a roadrunner.  Ava couldn't keep up as she tried to stop me, not knowing what I was doing.

"What the hell? I didn't get accepted! "What the hell?" I screamed as I barged into his office while he was eating his lunch.

The smile he had while eating his pizza soon ended as he put down his plate and pulled out a seat for me. He looked at the letter I handed over to him. "Giselle, I'm so sorry..."

"No!" I interrupted while not sitting down. "It's not fair! I didn't get in. What the hell am I going to do now? You're the guidance counselor. You tell me."

"Sit down Giselle!" An angry face took over his once happy face he had a minute ago. I listened and sat down. "OK, so you didn't get in. It's not the end of the world. In my years here, students have gotten rejected all the time and managed to still go to school after graduation. It's part of life. There are still plenty of great opportunities. I don't know if you realize this, but did you know as of right now you're the Valedictorian?"

For some reason, this news helped calm me down. "I guess I didn't know that."

"Well, you are. And Elizabeth Jay is currently in second place. It's going to be hard for her to beat you, but it is possible. And as it stands right now, Elizabeth doesn't even want to go to college. She's talking about taking a year off. Getting rejected isn't the worst thing."

"I didn't tell you this, but I also applied to Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. They rejected me pretty quickly."

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you're aiming too high. There are plenty of good colleges in our state of California." He pulled a few brochures from the drawer and handed me a few. "Why don't you take the time to look over these. I know you took a tour already, but it wouldn't hurt to take a couple more. Come to me after the Thanksgiving Weekend and we'll talk."

To say the least, the rest of the day sucked. Elizabeth Jay was in two of my classes. For whatever reason, all I could do was focus on her and not on anything else. What did she have that I didn't? I honestly never thought she was that smart. It seemed like she was pretty stupid when I had her in fourth grade. Maybe she was still stupid if she wasn't planning on going to college. How could she not be going to college? What the hell was wrong with her? My eyes watched her paying attention to the teacher. Being the smart student she was, her pencil was getting a good workout in as it was getting down all the notes it could.

"Giselle, could you please tell us the answer?" asked my teacher who walked around the classroom with a textbook available in hand.

Caught off guard. How could this be happening? Elizabeth probably knew the answer because she was smart. "What page are we on?"

"Giselle, you seem to be off today? Is there anything wrong?"

I wanted to announce that I hadn't gotten accepted. I wanted to scream it to the class. And yet, maybe that wasn't a good idea.

"Things are fine I guess. I don't know."

"OK, I'll come back to you. And please turn to page two hundred." Our teacher walked towards Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, perhaps you could tell us the answer."

...

Me and Ava hung out after school which hadn't happened for a long time. She ended up taking me to this frozen yogurt place that I had never been to. Daniel was also there. Sara for whatever reason couldn't make it.

"Elizabeth is so much better than me. Why do I even bother?"

"Elizabeth is just Elizabeth" declared Daniel. It's her choice not to go to college next year. She's got a future of ahead of her just like you. And plus she's actually pretty cool. You should actually talk to her sometime. She used to be in Cross Country before she twisted her ankle."

"OK fine. I'm sure she's a cool person, but what if my future isn't all that great?"

"Didn't your brother not go to college?" asked Ava causing a light that went off in my head. "He works at Wells Fargo and somehow managed to afford the house you both live in. He seems to be doing well for himself. At the very worst, you could end up working at Wells Fargo or even some ghetto bank downtown. Banks pay good money."

She was right. I did feel a little better inside. At this moment, I was not going to my dream college, but I guess I could always work at a bank like my brother.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to comment, vote, and share.

Next Chapter: Liam discovers something SHOCKING! This could change everything.

Can Giselle still have a great future?

What should Giselle do now?