Vanessa's Shoulder Angel Wins

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But then she gets another image in her mind of beautiful celebrities who have ended up dead from drinking and drugs—like Amy Winehouse’s corpse being rolled out in a stretcher. 

OK, drinking is not the correct answer. She knows she really needs to start studying for her math test the next day, which is what she planned to do before Mariah dissed her.

Vanessa makes a face at her shoulder devil and picks up her phone, scrolling through her favorite sites. The next thing she knows, her mom is shaking her awake. 

“What’s the matter with you? You’ve been asleep for hours!” 

Alarmed, Vanessa stumbles out of bed and starts hunting for her school bag. It’s already dark out.

“I gotta start my homework,” she mumbles, relieved when her mom leaves the room.

“That was a close call,” she thinks. How stupid to have guzzled that beer! Her mom didn’t suspect anything, but now it’s too late to study for the math test. She’s already screwed up!

“It’s not worth messing up your life over someone else,” she says out loud. Just because Mariah disrespects her does not mean she should disrespect herself and flunk her classes. Vanessa feels proud of herself for figuring this out. A little more grown up.