Free Southern Attraction by Tracy Kauffman Page B

some of her previous teachers and coaches from Manhattan and asked for their help.  She called some of her friends’ parents that had plenty of money and asked for donations of money and clothes.  She called Larry, her parents financial advisor.  She asked him to spread the word of the town’s disaster, hoping to bring in more donations.
                  She contacted everyone that she could think of that could provide some type of contribution to the cause.  She called people until six o’clock that evening.  She was emotionally drained and exhausted, but wanted to go to the hospital to visit with Stephanie and Jake.  After eating dinner that Ms. Thomas had cooked, she told Mick, in private, she was going to the hospital to visit with some friends.  She didn’t want Shawn to overhear what she had said, because she wanted to go without him.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Thirteen
     
                  Heather spent an hour talking with Stephanie about what she had done that day and about how Shawn had opened up to her about his feelings toward her.  Stephanie wasn’t surprised at what she said, because she had suspected it already.  Shawn had become a new person after Heather came to town.  He wasn’t the same smart alec, distant guy that he once was.  He tried to make friends with people he had never spoke to before.  He seemed to have a heart that he never allowed anyone to see before. 
                  “I think he’s a good guy deep down and I’m happy for you,” Stephanie said.  Deep down Stephanie envied her friend and wished that she wasn’t so attractive and appealing to boys her age.  She couldn’t stand the fact that boys were ensnared by her good looks.  Stephanie was somewhat jealous of her.
                  “Whoa, wait a minute.  I didn’t say that I felt the same toward him.  I just said that he told me that he likes me.  I don’t know how I feel about him, yet.  I told him that I needed some time to decide about my feelings toward him and I wasn’t ready for a relationship.  This disaster, that we all went through, did a number on me.  I want to have time to calm down and sort out my true feelings,” Heather replied.
                  “I understand completely.  You never really understand your true self, until something like this happens to you.  Maybe that is why God allows us to go through things like this.  It gives us some perspective about who we are and what really matters to us.  I know that my dad meant a great deal to me and I wish I could have told him that,” Stephanie said.
                  “Stephanie, your dad knew how much you cared about him.  I believe you made a good point and I believe you are right.  I never really understood who I was until this happened.  I didn’t care about anything before but myself.  Now I know that there are more important things in this life, than us and what we want.  There is a greater purpose and it is up to each one of us to figure it out,” Heather replied.
                  “So what are you going to do now?  I mean with Shawn and how to decide on what you really want,” Stephanie inquired.
                  “I am going to take things slowly. I know that when it is right, I will know it.  I feel like I want things to come naturally and not forced.  Shawn told me about his feelings toward me, it pressured me to some degree, for some reason. I don’t know if that meant that I don’t feel the same way toward him or that I just need more time to sort it all out.  I did tell him that I would make tell him about my feelings towards him, when I knew what they were exactly.”
                  “Is there someone else that you think you might like?” Stephanie inquired. She noticed that Heather talked to Jake during school quite a bit.
                  “Maybe, but like I said, I