Imagine --
Zoe and Will
 You’ve living the American dream—good marriage, great job, nice house in the suburbs. You have two beautiful kids. Twelve-year-old Justine—pretty, sensitive, smart—is an A student, a year ahead in school. Your sixteen-year-old, Leah, is beautiful and popular, an ace soccer player, one of the best  high school athletes in the state. She’s got the whole world in front of her. She has only to reach out and touch it.
You push your children sometimes; you’d be first to admit it. You want the best for your kids. You want them to be happy, their lives to be easier, better than yours. You would do anything to help them succeed.
One night, your older daughter meets a drug-dealing high school dropout. And your nightmare begins. . .
Leah
You’re sick of being perfect, pushing yourself to work harder, do better, achieve—and for what? Nice clothes? A hot ride? A bigger house than your  neighbors’? You’ve seen what striving for stuff does to people—the cheating, the back-biting. It’s disgusting. You just want to be happy.
Since you met Todd, you’ve become stronger, more independent. Todd’s definitely hot, but there’s way more to him than that. He doesn’t judge you, doesn’t expect you to live up to some arbitrary standard. When you complain about soccer, admit you can’t stand the game anymore, he tells you to do whatever feels right. Forget what people think or what anyone says. If you’re not happy, quit. With Todd, you feel freer, more like yourself than you do with anyone else.
He’s right. If you’re ever to fly, be your own person, you have to quit trying to please other people. You have stand up for yourself, live life your own way. You’ve got to break free.
Follow Leah on Facebook, Twitter, and her blog.
Justine
You love Dog, almost as much as you’d love another person. But Dog is a dog. She could never take the place of your sister. When you were little girls, you and Leah were best friends. You played all the time. The younger sister, you were  always cast in the subordinate role—student, patient, the obtuse customer in your sister’s store. Once Leah started middle school, she wanted nothing to do with you anymore. You were a pest. Go away, she’d say, when she caught you loitering by her door. Finally, you and she have grown close again. She even told you you’re cool. A good kid! You can be trusted! Now your sister’s in trouble. It’s up to you to do something about it.
You fold your hands and lower yourself to your knees. Sometimes, your prayers go unanswered, and you wonder if God hears you, if He even exists. If He does exist, does He pay any attention at all? But then you open your heart and start talking, and your doubts disappear.
"Dear God," you pray, night after night. "Please. Take good care of my sister."
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Hope and Lupo |
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Todd and Leah's Friends |
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Jerry Johnson |
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The Town Cop Who Intervenes |
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