Reality Check

Reality can shatter in a matter of seconds. Ten to be exact. In ten seconds, 16-year-old Priya watched her first love Dimitri get fatally wounded. Yet, while Dimitri's life slipped through her fingers, she was the one hospitalized. Why? Because Priya has schizophrenia. And Dimitri never existed. While Priya is still mourning her loss and understanding her diagnosis, her clinical team decides she needs to learn to be a "normal teenager" to find her footing in reality. So, they give her a checklist-for-success and send her off to the vultures at the start of her senior year. It's a good thing her best friend Elli is an expert teen and can show her how to be that normal teenager. Because of Elli, Priya starts crossing off items on her checklist, from going to a party, to going on a date. However, as Priya experiences real-life to the fullest — the good and the bad — she finds herself on loose ground as she's constantly tempted by her old life. Can Priya manage to stay grounded in the real world or will she fall back into the one she made up in her head? Content Warning: This story contains themes of severe mental Illness/severe mental health symptoms, instances of alcohol use/abuse, and mentions of suicide and suicidal ideation