Chapter Text
El was deeply conflicted. Getting into one of the top state colleges had always been her dream, and now the door was finally open—but not like this. She refused to humiliate herself or take a spot out of charity.
“Honey, just think about it,” Joyce urged. “You have every right to this. Maybe fate is giving you a chance none of us ever dared to dream of.”
Once, her name was Jane Ives, living with her mother and aunt before life took a sharp turn. Her biological mother was struck by an incurable illness and declared unfit to raise a child, while her aunt decided she would be better off in adoption.
That was how, at just eighteen months old, she ended up with Jim and Joyce Hopper—the two people she now called Mom and Dad.
They gave her a new name, El, and raised her with endless love. But with her father working as a small-town sheriff and her mother as a retail clerk, paying for her dream college was simply out of the question.
Yet, a glimmer of hope remained. They had recently been invited to join a support program for orphans that offered a reserved, subsidized spot. Even though El hated the idea at first—mostly because she didn't view herself as an orphan—she couldn't deny it might be her only way in.
“Okay,” she said, turning to her mother. “I’ll do it.”
“That’s my girl,” Joyce smiled, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
“The journalist doing the piece on these kids will be here on Friday. I’ll call her right now and tell her we’re in.”