Ever-Changing World of Friendships , livre ebook

WestBow Press - Sue Norris Janetzke

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

80 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

In this novel, the second in a series, a high school junior encounters a new set of difficulties in school, romance, and friendship and must choose whether to look to God for help.

Last year was a whirlwind for sixteen-year-old Serena, when she and her family moved for her dad’s new job. She was angry and unhappy, and it took her some time to accept the move as part of God’s plan.

Now she’s more settled and happier in her new home—but her junior year still begins with challenges. Her two best friends Tom and Shauna, are still in the picture, but he is away at college, and she is still healing. Serena has work and a new volunteer interest in the Center, and school classes bring their own complications. She faces confusion about romance, school, and more, and only time will tell whether she’ll continue to rely on her belief that God has a plan—or turn from that, make her own decisions and face the consequences. If she takes matters into her own hands and succumbs to peer pressure, she may wind up making choices she’ll regret.

In this novel, the second in a series, a high school junior encounters a new set of difficulties in school, romance, and friendship and must choose whether to look to God for help.

Sujets

Young Adult Fiction

God's plan

Mental confusion

Informations

Publié par	WestBow Press
Date de parution	30 décembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781664284388
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

EVER-CHANGING WORLD OF FRIENDSHIPS

Sue Norris Janetzke

Copyright © 2022 Sue Norris Janetzke.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8437-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8436-4 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-8438-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022924100

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/30/2022

This book is dedicated to my parents who taught me about God’s love and grace, and to my husband, our children, their spouses and grandchildren who taught me to love unconditionally.

Thank you to three special friends; my dear friend since the age of our story characters, Pam Parrott Harry, who assisted with critical editing, and to Jamie Losche, a beloved friend and collogue’ who along with her daughter Jordan Losche, read Serena’s story from a mom’s and daughter’s point of view helping me to make Serena come alive.

CONTENTS
Chapter 01 A Healing Summer
Chapter 02 College Life
Chapter 03 The Game
Chapter 04 The Accident
Chapter 05 Morning at Northern
Chapter 06 The Scare
Chapter 07 Too Many Questions
Chapter 08 Junior Year Is Here
Chapter 09 The Center
Chapter 10 Classes, Life, Changes
Chapter 11 Rah, Rah
Chapter 12 Home, Center, School, Practice, Repeat
Chapter 13 Overwhelming
Chapter 14 Tryouts
Chapter 15 Musical Practice
Chapter 16 Something’s Up
Chapter 17 Prepping for Thanksgiving Break
Chapter 18 Thanksgiving Break
Chapter 19 A Full Plate
Chapter 20 The News
Chapter 21 Plans Revealed
Chapter 22 Northern, Practice
Chapter 23 Counseling, Practice
Chapter 24 The Break
Chapter 25 New Year’s Eve: It’s Showtime
Chapter 26 Spring
Chapter 27 Homecoming

CHAPTER 01
A Healing Summer
W hat a summer I have had! Has it only been three months since I completed my sophomore year? Moving here to Grand Rapids, Michigan, at fifteen, just a year ago, I hated it and felt depressed. I was determined to be miserable, and for a while, I was. There was so much drama that fall, with trying to make new friends and starting to date. Dating caused a multitude of other problems, most notably falling in love, losing that love, and then finding a best guy friend for life, Tom.
It was difficult getting adjusted to this place, but after gaining some courage, I tried out and got a part in the high school musical. All the things I thought I was missing here, I wasn’t. My dance lessons, back before we ever moved here, helped as I made the cheerleading squad too. I began to learn about friendship and what a true friend should be like. I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself and began to meet people, see the good in this place, and make another good friend, Shauna. We have been inseparable ever since.
Soon I will be starting my junior year, and I just turned sixteen. The summer is nearly over, and I have been busy. I even completed and received credit for an online required government course. I aced it!
I am proud to say that I have done a little growing up since my sophomore year when I was angry about everything. My best girlfriend, Shauna, and I did this growing up together. Shauna is my neighbor, fellow cheerleader, and confidante. She is beautiful on the outside, has long, blonde hair, is physically fit, and looks good in everything. More importantly, she is honest, caring, and would stand by me always, as I would for her. She is beautiful on the inside too. Throughout this adjustment, I learned a lot about myself, my family, standing up for my beliefs, and how to be a supportive friend.
Shauna and I continued throughout the summer with our volunteer work we started last year at The Center. This is a safe place with a professional atmosphere where men, women, girls, and boys can get expert help with problems of all sorts at no cost. We are there, with the help of experts, to listen and help others, especially teens who may have experienced trauma. This gives a troubled teen a listening ear of someone their own age.
We have been trained to listen and to be compassionate without judging or giving advice. Dealing with the trauma from last year with Shauna, she and I decided to do some volunteering there after they helped her. Now don’t get too concerned because we are under the watchful eye of adult psychologists and trained counselors who are on call for these young people; The Center just calls on us to listen with and support them as we are allowed. We had to sign a binding contract of privacy, and our parents had to cosign since we are both under eighteen. It states that no matter what a person confides in us at The Center, we can tell no one outside of the adults in The Center who are in charge of them. We have been volunteering here two days a week all summer, and I am going to miss it when school starts.
Some good things have come out of this volunteering. Shauna has been on the pathway to self-healing, and helping others has helped her to grow and heal. After an issue where a boyfriend took advantage of her, she has taken a while to feel safe again. Both of us are considering going into the field of counseling, psychology, or something similar as we find this work of helping others very fulfilling. We hope to continue to volunteer, maybe once a week or once a month in the school year. Schedule to be determined later. We have also decided to petition the counseling office to see if we can get credit for the volunteer work as an elective class and continue it all year. I assume we will need to do a paper of some kind, have our “bosses” from The Center sign for us, and maybe do a presentation of some sort. Credit or not, we plan to continue supporting The Center.
Along with that, we both got part-time jobs at the mall. Bloomgardens, where we both work, gives its personnel a 10 percent discount on clothing, and we love to shop there. This makes it hard to save money sometimes, but we got some excellent purchases to wear to class. It’s fun that we wear the same size and can trade clothing sometimes. We have grown as good friends. Bloomgardens is considering keeping us on interchangeably, as we both cheer and often can’t work after school. I will certainly try out for the musical again too. We have been able to cover for each other. Since it worked out so well this summer, we will try to continue doing it during school. Time will tell.
Dating hasn’t been something we have done much of. Shauna has not wanted to date at all. After her trauma with her then boyfriend, Allen, she has not wanted to be alone with any guys or go out on any dates. Her parents have stepped up to be there when needed. Mental healing is happening as I hear that bubbly warmth returning to her laugh. She is dressing more like she used to, wearing makeup, and looking as good as ever. She is coming around and has even started to act interested in practicing cheers with me.
I haven’t dated much at all either. I miss Tom, my best guy friend, so much I could cry all the time. He graduated from East and is at Northern Michigan with a scholarship to play football. At the end of the school year, we decided we loved each other very much but were too young and too good of friends to hurt each other by actively being in love . Instead, we admitted that we loved each other deeply, were confidants and best friends, and would keep in touch. His first football game is in a couple of weeks, and I get to ride up there with his parents to see it as a friend. I can hardly wait.
His calls and texts have sounded like he likes it there, is enjoying the team, and is prepping for classes. Our visit will be overnight, at a motel with his parents, and then home. They are so awesome to take me along. I think it is his and my parents’ way of letting us keep in touch so we don’t go over the deep end and elope or do something foolish. I appreciate that all parties are supportive of our friendship. Ours is a friendship for life, and I don’t ever want to take a chance of losing it as we almost did last year.
That is another story. We started as friends and then fell hard for each other; things could have gotten out of control, and they almost did. It happened after the cast party of last year’s musical, Babes in Toyland . We had the lead romantic parts opposite of each other in the same cast and had been seeing each other under the guise of practicing our parts, so we were spending a lot of time alone together but not actually dating.
Because of our growing love interest in each other, we went to the cast party together as our first real date. We left the party early, both still on a high of excitement from the show’s success.