Unprotected

It’s Stella’s sixteenth birthday, and she’s determined to prove that she’s old enough to make her own choices — even if everyone around her thinks otherwise.

Her first plan is simple: use her birthday money to get the tattoo she’s been obsessing over. But when best friend Ingrid starts questioning whether she’s making a mistake, Stella’s frustration quickly turns into defiance. One bad decision leads to another, and before long her birthday is heading in a very different direction than she imagined.

A sudden confrontation with her mum pushes Stella out of the house and into the company of Ed – a classmate she usually finds irritating, but who turns out to be surprisingly easy to talk to when no one else is around. As the night unfolds, boundaries start to blur, choices become more impulsive, and Stella finds herself caught up in something she may not be as prepared for as she thinks.

By the next morning, the fallout has already begun. Friendships feel different, trust is tested, and Stella is forced to confront consequences she would much rather laugh off. At the same time, tensions with her mum continue to build, leaving Stella caught between wanting complete independence and secretly needing someone to understand her.

As the people closest to her begin questioning her choices, Stella has to decide whether she is finally ready to listen –  or whether proving everyone wrong matters more.

And one decision she makes before the episode ends may be harder to undo than anything that came before.