“I don’t think you would have gone to the effort of getting the snake if it was stupid.”
Stella didn’t know why she was wasting her time reassuring him, but it distracted her from her own thoughts so she kept going. “What was the favor?”
Troy groaned and ran a hand over his hair.
“I come from a long line of doctors, you know. Since forever.” He rocked back on his heels. “But I want to be a musician. I asked for permission to pursue my passion.”
“What if you don’t get it?”
teralynnchilds.com
? Tera Lynn Childs
The Twelve Days of Stella
8
“I’ll pursue it anyway.” He gave Stella a helpless smile. “You can’t just ignore a passion.”
***
Stella considered Troy’s statement. You can’t just ignore a passion. He was willing to face his family’s—and his ancestor god’s—disapproval to pursue the thing he loved the most.
Her mom had felt that way about painting.
Stella wasn’t sure she had that kind of passion. For anything.
“Or who knows,” Troy said with a laugh, interrupting her thoughts. “I’ll probably chicken out and go to med school anyway.”
“No.” She shook her head slowly. “I don’t think you will.”
Not when he cared enough to bring a live snake to the pantheon temple.
He studied her for a moment, and she could practically feel his confusion. What was he thinking? For a brief instant she was tempted to let herself into his thoughts, but she steeled her resolve.
“I guess we’ll see,” he finally said.
They fell into a silence. Troy gazed up at the painting of his ancestor god, with a miserable look on his face. Stella stared blankly at nothing in particular. Suddenly, more than anything, she wanted to know what her passion was. She would be going off to college in a few months, starting her adult life, and she had no idea what she wanted to do.
“How did you know?” she asked.
Troy looked at her. “Know what?”
“That you wanted to be a musician,” she explained. She tugged nervously at the hem of her shirt, then caught herself and pressed her hands against her thighs. “How did you know you didn’t want to be a doctor?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, unhelpfully. “I guess I’ve just always known. I’ve always turned to music as my escape when everything else seems impossible.”
Great. She couldn’t think of anything she viewed as an escape. Maybe she wasn’t teralynnchilds.com
? Tera Lynn Childs
The Twelve Days of Stella
9
supposed to have a passion. If she was, wouldn’t she have found it by now? Shouldn’t she at least have some clue by now?
“You heading home?” he asked, clearly oblivious to her deflating mood. “I’ll walk with you and pop in on Phoebe.”
She nodded and they headed out of the temple. They didn’t speak. Normally Stella would feel compelled to make small talk, to fill the awkward silence. But right now all she could think of was finding her passion. It seemed like everyone but she had a passion. Troy had his music. Phoebe had running. Daddy had the school. Her mom had had painting.
What did Stella have?
***
“Troy!” Phoebe squealed as he and Stella walked through the front door. Then she noticed Stella behind him and frowned.
If Troy noticed her questioning look, Stella noted, he ignored it and flopped onto the sofa next to her. “Hey Phoebes.”
“Omigods,” Phoebe said, apparently forgetting her confusion. “You will never believe what I accidentally did today.”
As she explained the incident to Troy, Stella glanced around the room, confirming that there had been no Skittles recurrence in her absence. The thought reminded Stella of the jar on her desk, and she held back a smile.
“I’ll be in my room,” she announced, although she was quite certain neither of them would take notice if she autoported herself to New Guinea. Stella hated feeling like an outsider. She suddenly wished Adara had not gone home for the winter holiday.
She would just have to console herself with Skittles.
Pulling the door shut behind her, Stella kicked off her ballet slippers, grabbed the jar of candy, and sank into her crisp white armchair. As she sat there, popping Skittle after Skittle (wondering whether a single candy would be called a Skittle or a Skittles) and gazing at the quartet of portraits on her bed, a flash of light drew her attention to the door.
When she went to inspect, she found a folded sheet of notebook paper on the floor.
Scowling, she snatched it up and read the messily scribbled note inside.
teralynnchilds.com
? Tera Lynn Childs
The Twelve Days of Stella
10
You’ll find it, you know. Your passion.
You just have to keep an open mind.