Chapter 2 Summer

Chapter 2
School's Out

    When I pull into the stall, the nerds that hang out on the grass between the parking lot and B-building are gathering their guitars and manga books, adjusting their black clothes and heading off to class. That means that the bell has just rung.
    Rayna takes her time, seeing as she’s not the one who has to make it to the other side of the school and up four flights of stairs in four minutes.
    I throw her the keys to her car with a quick “bye” before I hurry quickly up the hill and into the nearest entrance. The halls and completely packed and it’s pretty damn hard to be polite while shoving my way through the hoard of students. Jeez, why couldn’t they just expand the fricken school of give us a few more minutes to get to class? Was is really that difficult?
    I’m on the other side of school and turning the corner onto a landing to head up my last flight of stairs when I crash into someone hard. I stumble back, feeling the ache on my left cheek which I probably hit on the guys shoulder.
    “Sorry! Really sorry!” I blurt as he readjusts his backpack which had slumped off his shoulder during the crash. And then I recognize him. “On second thought, I’m not sorry.”
    It’s Jake. My best friend’s--not Rayna--cousin. He’d be joining us on the trip to the beach house this year. He’s a Sophomore like us, but more mature than most of the guys I know. It may not seem like it because he‘s so fun, but if you spend enough time with him, you figure it out. He’s the party type, like his cousin and me. I’ve known him as long as I’ve known his cousin and we have this good banter.
    “Ouch, that hurts.” Jake says, trying to feign a look of hurt, even though he can only grin.
    “Suck it up.” I call back over my shoulder as I head up the stairs.
    Jasmine smirks at me when I make it into class a fraction of a second after the bell rings.
    “Shut up.” I tell her grinning as I pass by her then take my seat in the back of the room next to Aimee.
    Mrs. Thomson, our psychotic English teacher had moved Jas because together, Jas, Aimee, and I could make more noise than the rest of the class together. We weren’t exactly best friends. Jas and I had met last year when we sat next to each other in Social Studies and French, since then, we stick to each other as much as possible in class, but not outside of school. Aimee was in our French class and she was an almost best friend. We talk about everything and can talk on the phone for hours and, most of the time, she hangs out with my group of friends, even though she mostly only talks to me, and that’s where it ends since she’s not allowed to go out.
    I would talk to Aimee, but Mrs. Thomson had put the tests for our finals on the desks before the bell had even rung. She’s giving us directions now and after two minutes, she commands us to start.
    The test is pretty easy, but it’s 155 questions on Romeo and Juliet and fifty questions about whatever else we’d learned. It takes nearly an entire hour for everyone to finish before we can move seats to talk to our friends for the last hour of class.
    When the bell finally rings, I say bye to Jas and Aimee and I head to the courtyard where I usually hang out with my friends. Most of recess is spent signing yearbooks. Everybody is looking for everybody so they can say goodbye.
    “Where’s were you guys this morning?” Holly asks.
    Holly Anderson is my best friend of all time. Yes, it’s weird, we have the same name--or almost. Hers is just Holly and mine is Holly-Maria. It’s the reason we became friends.
    I’d walked up to her on the first day of kindergarten and introduced myself and she’d looked at me with a huge-a*s smile plastered on her face and said, “My name’s Holly, too!”
    That was eleven years ago and we’d been connected at the hip since then, even though we’re almost exact opposites. She’s tall and sporty and strong rather than just skinny with pathetic excuses for muscles. She wrestles with her cousins and older brother and plays softball, volleyball, and soccer rather than just doing pilates and riding horses. She screams just because she feels like it. She doesn’t like ice in her drinks, likes coffee more than smoothies. But when you put us together, it’s like unleashing a hurricane of madness.
    Those are my mother’s words. That’s how she described what she thought this summer at the beach house would be like, having Holly and me together for the entire break. Holly and I, in contrast, know that it will be wild on both of us and we’re taking bets on how long it’ll take for one of us to get pissed at the other.
    “Rayna decided to take forever and a day to get ready.” I say and Rayna shoots me a dirty look, but I ignore her.
    The fifteen minutes of break are filled with last laughs and talk of summer plans.
    Rayna, of course, is just staying at home. Sara and Kate will be playing softball, Alyssa is spending time with her boyfriend and Aimee is staying home. Part of me wishes that they could come to the beach house with us. Holly and I would make it a summer that they’ll never forget and none of them doubt that, but their plans are already made. Also, I have serious doubts that Sara and Kate will let Holly, Aimee, and me get away with drinking or smoking without giving us hell before, during and after.
    We all say goodbye to each other when the bell rings, signaling the end of recess.
    Last period of the day.
    I’m nearly bouncing in my seat all the way through my Geometry finals, the only means of distraction is Kate who sits behind me and Gavin, the funny asshat that I sometimes consider my friend. We have a love-hate relationship in a friendly way if that makes any sense. We make each other’s lives fun and can piss each other the f**k off and want to rip each other’s throats out without any long-lasting hard feelings.
    And that love-hate relationship entertains me until the final bell rings at twelve thirty.
    There were screams and whoops and cheers as students burst out of their classrooms, pumped up for summer and I can’t help but grin as I walk through the hallways.
    School’s out.

Reviews

[Prateeksha Khot]

another lovely chapter from you. enjoyed reading it. Nice work. Now I am off to read the next chapter.