Chapter 146 - The Quiet After the Storm

The week after the magazine's release was a strange, quiet period of adjustment. The storm had passed, leaving behind a new, altered landscape. Thea walked the halls of Northgate High not as a ghost, but as a person. The whispers had faded, replaced by nods of acknowledgment, small, shy smiles from students she had never met. Her story, once a source of shame, was now a source of a quiet, shared empathy. She had become, in the small, insular world of their school, a symbol of resilience.