...

"ELEANORA MARICRUZ MARTINEZ," HER mother began.

It was then she knew she would be killed.

"Okay," she said as she raised her hands in an attempt to defend herself," before you get angry, I want you to know -"

"Four days?" her mother screamed," you couldn't even last for seven without causing trouble?"

"To be fair," Ella said," it wasn't completely my fault."

"Don't you take that tone with me," her mother warned," I've been called away from an important case to come here, because apparently my daughter couldn't keep herself from not beating up someone for four days again!"

"It's actually quite difficult -"

Her mother groaned exasperatedly.

"Do you even know how normal people live?" she said.

"In all fairness," Sebastian said as he stepped between them," she was apparently ambushed by some guys."

Her mother froze in her tracks, eyebrows shooting in the air.

"My daughter was what?" she said.

Sebastian immediately tensed up, his posture betraying his nervosity as he looked guiltily at his mother. "So, I accidentally forgot to mention that to you. The teacher told me when he called."

"Is this true, Eleanora?" her mother asked as she turned her attention back to her daughter.

Ella awkwardly fiddled with the big hoops in her ears, before nodding.

"Kinda," she trailed off.

"Where's he?" her mother said curtly," I want the perpetrators' full names and faces. I'll make sure they'll never see the light of day again."

"Well, don't worry about that," Ella said," the main guy behind it is hospitalized, so I got my revenge."

"You hospitalized him?" her mother asked.

Although the question wasn't asked with any particular emotion, Ella couldn't help but feel like every answer would be like treading on a landmine. But before she even had to think any longer, Levi already saved her from having to reply.

"No," he said," I did."

Her mother looked at Levi, noticing him for the first time now. Ella had to give it to him though, he wasn't even flinching under her mother's stare, one which was rumored to have made people cry from the mere intensity alone. She didn't doubt it. Her mother might look pristine and elegant in her well-fitted, navy dress and classic bun, but she was also one of the most terrifying people on the planet, that Ella was sure of.

It was why the woman was her role model.

Her mother raised an eyebrow then, her face as dangerously calm as always.

"Did I give you permission to speak?" she said.

Levi blinked in confusion and her mother continued.

"I thought not," she said, before turning her head towards Ella again," who are they? Other students?"

Ella nodded, sure that if she told her mother she had slept with them in one tent the past four days her chances of survival would become exactly zero.

"Yeah," she said," just other students. We've become friends."

She urged Levi to speak with a quick slap to his arm.

"Uhm, Levi Peterson, ma'am," he murmured," nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Alexander Farrow," Alex hurriedly added.

"William Tyler, ma'am," Will said, his cheeks tinted a stressed red.

Her mother coolly watched them, before looking away again. Ella had to suppress her sigh of relief at the apparent approval for now. If she hadn't been so stressed with her mother's current mood, she would have laughed at their awkward introductions, all three of them uncomfortably shifting on their feet as they watched her mother.

Four notorious delinquents who were cowering in fear at the sight of a middle-aged woman.

Then again, Sebastian was a boxing champion and he had been stumbling over his words when he had spoken earlier. It didn't take a genius to see her mother was truly a force to be reckoned with.

It had been quiet for a while now, her mother's lips pressed into a thin line. She seemed to be thinking about something and Ella wondered whether that meant any good for her. The silence made her extremely uncomfortable, but she didn't dare utter a single word, unsure how far she could push her mother anymore before she snapped.

"Eleanora," her mother finally said.

"Yes?" she hurriedly replied.

"I had been dead set on directly sending you to a nunnery," her mother said," but this does change things a bit."

Beside her Alex choked on air, coughing quietly in his arm as he tried to recover. A worried frown had taken over Will's face, but it was Levi's gaze that was burning a hole in her head with how intensely he was staring at her.

"A nunnery?" Will pleaded," please don't do that, ma'am."

"He's right," Alex added," Ella was just protecting herself."

"She was doing a fine job of not fighting the other four days," Will agreed.

A single look from her mother shut them up and Ella silently accepted her defeat. Her mother wasn't one to change her mind so easily, even if she had said the circumstances were different than expected.

"What about you?" her mother finally said," you've been quiet all this time."

Ella knit her eyebrows together, but realized seconds later her mother wasn't talking to her. She turned her head to the side to look at Levi, his face his usual impassive mask.

"What about me?" he said.

"You're friends with my daughter, right?" her mother said," what are your arguments for why I shouldn't send her away? Do you have any?"

"Well, excuse me for speaking rudely," Levi began," but I don't think you need any other reason. It's blindingly clear she would be unhappy there and that she didn't do anything wrong."

"You're quite the bold one," her mother said.

Levi lowered his gaze respectfully, softening the harsh edges of his words. Her mother's gaze remained on him a moment longer, before flicking back to Ella.

"You've found better friends than I thought, Eleanora," she said softly.

"That's what camping together does with people, I guess," Ella said.

Her mother smoothed the imaginary wrinkles on her dress out, before spinning on her heel and walking away. Ella followed, confused, Sebastian and the guys trailing behind her.

"Mom?" she called out weakly.

When her mother didn't reply, she hurried over towards her, almost struggling to keep up with her fast pace.

"You're being sent to St Joseph instead of a nunnery," her mother said," I don't want to hear any complaints. It's non-negoti -"

But before she could even finish her sentence, Ella already squealed in delight. She hugged her mother, happiness overflowing from her lips as she pressed them on her mother's cheek.

"Really?" she gushed," thank you!"

Her mother rolled her eyes, but didn't pull away from her daughter's hug. Her features softening when she looked down at Ella, at those all too familiar eyes, and a ghost of a smile graced her lips.

"Your father and I went there in our youth, you know," she said softly, so only Ella could catch her words," it may not be the school with the best reputation, but he loved it."

She looked around the forest, a certain nostalgia on the strong woman's face that broke Ella's heart.

"We went to the same camp once," she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Sebastian and the others had finally reached them, though they kept a safe distance between them and the revered judge. It was the first wise choice she had seen them all make. Her eyes wandered towards her mother's car, just a couple feet away, and her mother followed her gaze. The question in Ella's eyes was silent, but she answered it still, walking towards the car to give her a last moment with her group. She turned around to look at her daughter one last time before stepping inside though, her words a threat Ella knew she wouldn't fail to follow the next time.

"If I hear of you causing any trouble there," she said," you will be singing prayers within a couple of days, Eleanora."

"I know, mamá," Ella said as she flashed her teeth at her mother," thank you."

"That Peterson kid ain't half bad," her mother said as she looked at Levi bickering with Alex behind her.

She couldn't help her smile from widening this time, nodding as she spoke.

"I know," she said.

When she turned around, at the forest she had gotten so used to, the people she had gotten to know so well over these last few days, that smile faded though.

It was time to say her goodbyes.