⠀⠀Kalani's sitting on the couch in her living room when the front door opens. Her mother, Cara, steps inside, her youngest son, Jake, on one hip and her middle child, Mikey, in tow, clad in his new school uniform.

⠀⠀"Hey, sweetie," Cara coos in a voice too sugary sweet for Kalani's liking. Every time her mother talks to her, it's like this now. It's as if she's afraid that if she uses too harsh of a tone, Kalani will shatter into a trillion pieces. "How was your day?"

⠀⠀She places Jake on the ground, and he immediately hobbles away toward whatever toy is appealing to his three-year-old brain. Mikey runs off to his room.

⠀⠀Kalani shrugs. "It was alright."

⠀⠀"Did you see any of your friends?" her mother intrigues.

⠀⠀"Yup."

⠀⠀"Well, what did they say to you? Were they excited to see you?"

⠀⠀Kalani shrugs again. "I didn't really talk to anyone."

⠀⠀Cara scrunches her eyebrows together. "Why not?"

⠀⠀"I just didn't want to," Kalani grumbles.

⠀⠀"Kalani..." her mom begins. "We moved all this way to give you a new beginning. You need to at least try. This is what you wanted."

⠀⠀Kalani stands up from the couch so she can look at her mom. "This was not what I wanted. I said I wanted a fresh start to please you, and this is not fresh. This is bringing me back to a place where everyone knows me as someone that I'm not anymore. They all looked at me all day and wondered why I wasn't the girl I was when I left. If you really wanted me to start over, you would've taken me to a place where nobody knows me. You made this move for you, not for me."

⠀⠀Cara's jaw tenses, and she blinks hard. Kalani presumes she's trying to hold back tears or is trying not to scream at her. She knows this whole ordeal has been hard on her mother, but she's just so angry at her. She's angry at her for trying to help her. She didn't want help. She didn't want to be saved. She didn't want a new beginning. She wanted everything to end.

⠀⠀She knows she shouldn't hold a grudge because her mom was just trying to help her. Kalani is her daughter. Cara isn't just going to let her go without a fight. She just can't seem to help being angry at her.

⠀⠀"Did you take your pills?" Cara asks, her voice cracking a little bit.

⠀⠀Kalani sits back down. "Yes."

⠀⠀There's a long silence between the two of them as Cara fiddles around in the kitchen and Kalani pretends to watch whatever is on the TV.

⠀⠀"I'll try, Mom," Kalani says. "I'll do my best to try."

⠀⠀Does she have any intention of trying to talk to her old friends? No. She's just trying to please her mom because she knows she is trying to do what she thinks is best for Kalani. If it'll put a smile on Cara's face, she will claim to try to start over.