Page 66 (1/2)

But Smith never looked away from Serena "Is it really, Serena?"

She sed hard "No" Sean ran a thurounded "I love books I love to read them, and maybe one day I’ll write them, or teach about them, or help people find infor toto find out That’s why I enrolled in Stanford this year, which I love And even though I don’t know if they’re going to agree to let o beyond this first probationary quarter to make me a permanent student, I can’t leave in the middle of the quarter" But that wasn’t the full truth "I don’t want to leave school, not now, or after the quarter ends I’m so sorry--I know this will probably cause all sorts of proble to do the movie anyway, because I don’t want to disappoint you But I don’t want to be an actress"

"Of course you do!" Genevieve exploded "This is what you’ve been working for your entire life!"

Serena knew she needed to say no again, but if it had been hard to bail on Smith Sullivan’s movie, it was a thousand times harder to finallyback to , her heart was racing, and her breath was co way too fast

"Serena"

Sean’s voice was soft, but fir panic at least long enough to turn to face him When she looked into his eyes, she saw not only love, but a reminder of the love he’d come from "All of the answers are there inside your head, your body, your heart," his mother had written to him "And I promise you that your choices will always be supported by the people who love you exactly as you are: Strong Sht," she finally said to her o, this was exactly what I’d worked toward But I rong to keep going when I kneasn’t what I really wanted I don’t want to act or ain"

Valentina and Smith both stood up "We’ll leave the three of you alone for a few minutes," Smith said As they walked past Serena, Valentina ave her a thumbs-up

Serena already knew the Sullivans were nice people, but after pulling out of their movie at the lastcompletely supportive of her in ways she’d never expected anyone to be At least, not until Sean and Abi had shown her what true friendship, and love, was all about

"Look at what you’ve done! Do you kno hard it’s going to be to get theain once you come to your senses?"

Finally, Serena snapped "I have come to my senses!" God, she didn’t want it to be like this, didn’t want to stand here yelling at her et a grip and so more by the second, Genevieve turned on Sean

"This is all your fault!" Herfire "She was never headstrong like this, never would have dared yell at o back to , I’d support her" Sean held her close with an arm around her waist, his voice raith e to hold back "If she wanted to be an actress, I’d support her But if you’d listen to what she’s been saying to you, you’d know that she doesn’t want either of those things"

"How dare you speak to hter as if you know her better than I do!"