(Henderson, NV) — Melissa Duran plans to be back at Green Valley High School today, despite being kidnapped this past weekend. The 17-year-old teen tells KLAS-TV, quote, “being sad and being all broken isn’t going to help anything.”

Duran says she was getting ready for school Friday morning, when a man came to her door and threw sand in her face before she was forced into a getaway car.

The teen says her captors demanded a ransom, and threatened to kill her. She didn’t give up hope, after hearing an AMBER Alert about her disappearance on television. Duran’s family say the two suspects in the kidnapping had worked for her father’s landscaping firm and were recently fired.