Tom sat at the back of the bus chewing his gum to the beat of the music that blared out of his headphones connected to his iPod.He stared out the wind...w seeing the same sights that he saw every singing week day afternoon. He let out a gentle sigh as he glanced across at the rest of the people in the bus, after checking out every single fellow passenger he turned his head to look back out the window. But, before his eyes had made their way all the way back to the window they stalled, to the. . something about her father, he thought ... hit home, and tears began brimming at the corner of the blonde's eyes. He hadn't the slightest idea of how to reconcile this situation peacefully, and it seemed to be reaching an ever nastier meltdown point. Reaching for his shirt, he ducked his head beneath it for a too-short time, and pulled it down, covering himself at least marginally.Fiona's yelling hardly abated, and she threw of something about " ... supposed to be my first" that left him. The sight of all the blood alone was--" EEWW," Madison wailed. "Stop!" Sorry! Sorry," Zack gave us guys-turned-girls sympathetic looks."Anyway, so after all that nonsense was through I became more and morecomfortable in Jess' body. I mean, let's be honest here guys. Which oneof us didn't have a crush on Jess growing up?" Guilty," I mumbled."Not me," Mason said proudly, folding his arms across his chest."Yeah, that's probably because you wanted to BE Jess," I teased, givinghim a playful. “I want to savor it. To remember the great Winter champion screeching like a scared rabbit and throwing herself to the snow on her belly over these!”The snowballs streaked at me.The old me would definitely have belly-flopped again. The old me was weak. She lacked confidence. She hated confrontation. But I had learned. A leader needed to be strong. Even when her instincts screamed at her to be weak. She had to project strength and confidence. She had to appear in charge.Because then she would.