Chapter 1: School’s Out

School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

“School’s Out” by Alice Cooper

The tassel on Bailey Short’s graduation cap fluttered as I watched her give her valedictorian speech. I couldn’t figure out why little Miss Perfect Bailey couldn’t hurry up with it. She had been going on (and on, and on) for about twenty minutes. Yes, I understood that we were starting a new chapter in our lives, blah, blah, blah, but couldn’t she hurry it up a bit? I was sure that the rest of my class felt the same way.

The only thing I wanted was to get through my grad night so I could leave small town life forever. I wanted fame and fortune. I wanted to see what the world had ot offer me. As much as I loved Keene, I needed to get out there and experience something outside of New Hampshire.

My thoughts ran away with me as I imagined my life away from here. Maybe I’ll find a new special someone. Anyone would be better than—

“Go Bailey!” someone behind me cried loudly as clapping erupted everywhere around me, startling me out of my daze. The valedictorian had finally finished her speech. Geez Bailey, took you long enough.

I glanced at my best friend, Sydney Hunter, who was sitting in the seat next to me. “Thank Goodness,” I only whispered it loud enough for her to barely hear.

She tried her hardest not to crack a smile.

Bailey sat down and the senior class advisor, Mrs. Joyce, stood up, ready to give out diplomas. The first row of seniors followed as she began the long list of graduates.

Soon enough, it was my turn. “Aubrey Taylor.” I heard an insane amount of cheering, and a few air horns coming from the crowd. I looked to the rows of chairs and saw a small group of people standing up and cheering as loudly as they could. I smiled and waved at my small, but crazy group of relatives, as I accepted my diploma.

While descending the stairs of the stage, I paused to look over my family. My brother, Terry was easiest to see. He was a giant, especially with my two year old niece, Brooklyn, perched on his shoulders. She was waving her arms wildly, with a big grin on her face. Next to Terry was his wife, Lindsay. Barely visible next to Lindsay was the white curly head of my grandma. On Terry’s other side were my parents. They both had large, proud smirks that any parent would have in their situation.

I sat down and waited for the last person to cross the podium.

“I am now proud to present this year’s graduating class of Keene High School.”

I cheered as loud as I could and threw my cap up into the air. It was finally over. School was out. I was done with high school forever! My hat floated back down, and I jammed it back on my head.

I threw my arms tightly around Sydney. We screamed and clutched each other as we tried to jump in circles. It didn’t work so well. The space between chairs was too small, and we tripped, crashing to the ground.

Not long after our fall, three smaller people jumped on top of us, screaming. They happened to be Sydney’s five year-old triplet sisters, Dakota, Quinn, and Morgan. “You did it! You did it!”

Both Sydney and I reached up and began tickling the girls. They all squealed and jumped off, trying to pull us up off the ground.

When I finally got up, I was almost knocked to the ground again, Brooklyn grabbed onto my leg. “Auntie Aubee!” She cried as I picked her up.

“Brookie!”

I saw my family approaching.

My mom got there first, practically bawling. “I can’t believe you finally graduated high school.” She threw her arms around me, and the tears came.

I laughed. “Mom, get a grip. You don’t want to break me.” She finally pulled away. She was wearing sunglasses. She always did that when she wanted to hide the fact that she was crying. “You know mom, you don’t need to wear those. We all know you’re crying.”

She choked up a sob. “I’m not crying.” She ignored me and took out her handy dandy digital camera. “Sydney, Bree, get together, I need a picture of the graduates!”

I passed Brooklyn to Dad as my best friend and I put our arms around each other and almost fell over as we tried to give each other bunny ears. I hadn’t even seen it yet, but I was already in love with that picture. I decided that I would have it in a frame, sitting on my desk, bedside table, and, eventually my mantle, for years to come.

Mom laughed. “Do you think we could get a serious picture?”

We rolled our eyes. “Sure Mom…”

Sydney and I had been friends so long, that we both called the others parents “Mom and Dad.”

We took a more serious picture. I knew that from that moment on, my mom would have that picture on her mantle, next to the picture of Terry and his best friends. I’d spend high school looking at it, wanting it to be me. Finally it was.

This was it. Sydney and I were leaving on a road trip in two weeks. Who knew when I would see my parents again after that… In reality, I knew that I would see them at Christmas. I couldn’t see a reason why I wouldn’t go home for the holidays.

“I can’t believe my baby sis is finally a high school graduate.” Terry threw his arms around me in a congratulatory hug. “I really can’t believe you’re going across the country for school.”

I shoved him lightly. “I don’t see how you could have stood going to Keene State.”

“Two words: Cheap rent. Mom and Dad offered it, I took it. There was no way I was going to pay for housing.”

I couldn’t answer my brother, several voices were calling mine and Sydney’s names.

When I turned around, I could see the three other people that made up my close group of friends throughout high school. Kennedy Redfield was squealing, as she dragged Paul Weston and Trey Wyatt by the elbows. They were followed by their families.

Out of nowhere, each of our mothers seemed to have a camera in hand. The next fifteen minutes were spent taking pictures in every possible pose and combination of people.

When all the pictures were done, the Redfields, Westons, and Wyatts excused themselves. The plan was to separate for dinner, and then meet back at school for Project Grad.

Sydney’s mom put her arms around Sydney and me. “Well, my two lovely high school graduates, before you go and party all night at Project Grad, where would you like to go out for dinner?”

I looked at Sydney and said “Panara” at the same time she said “Armadillos”.

We burst out laughing. The two of us had frequented both Panara and Armadillos for the past 3 years, even more so when Sydney got her license.

Terry snorted at us. “Haven’t you gotten sick of it yet? You’ve been there practically every day since your sophomore year!”

“Panera and Armadillos get old?” I drew in a gasp as I placed my hand over my mouth with a shocked look. “Terrence Timothy Taylor. Take that back. We could never get tired of either one of them.”

Mom, having finally composed herself, stepped in. “Aubrey, Syd, don’t you think we could go somewhere a little nicer for your graduation dinner?”

Terry perked up. “Uno’s?” He looked hopeful.

I fought a giggle. It was common knowledge that Uno’s was Terry’s favorite restaurant. Most of the waiters there knew him by face, if not by name.

Sydney failed at hiding her giggle. “Haven’t you gotten sick of it yet?” She asked in a mocking tone.

“Ha-ha,” Terry scowled sarcastically. “Seriously though, sis, can we?”

“You sound like a ten year old begging his mom for a cookie.”

His wife, Lindsay, laughed. “Seriously Terry. Don’t you have a little bit more class?” Still smiling, she placed her hand in the crook of his elbow.

I had always thought that Lindsay and Terry were the cutest couple. To top it off, she went and messed up his curly brown hair. He backed off with a warning look. The look turned playful as he flicked her bangs.

I felt a slight pang in my heart. I really wanted a relationship like theirs. I wanted a Terry. Instead, I wasted my time on jerks.

“All right, we’ll go to Uno’s,” I said in a defeated voice, shaking my head at his silliness. Sometimes I thought that Terry would never grow up.

All too soon (or late depending how you look at it) dinner was over and Sydney and I were being dropped off at the school. Project Grad was one of the most anticipated senior events. We quickly found Kennedy, Paul, and Trey. The school was amazing. Everywhere we looked, there was something different. They had carnival games, Guitar Hero, DDR, faux poker tables, and even laser tag set up in the gym.

Somewhere around 2 AM, we began to get tired. Silently, we made our way into room 303 at the end of gold hall. It was the classroom where we had first, in Mrs. Hanson’s freshman Geometry class.

“Remember Hanson’s crazy stories?” Trey brought up.

I snickered. “Yeah, the ones she told 5 million times?”

Kennedy laughed, accidentally snorting.

It went quiet. So quiet I was sure we could have heard a pin drop, but it didn’t last long. Within seconds, everyone was cracking up.

“You Snorted!” Paul cried in between laughs, pointing his finger at a very embarrassed Kennedy. Paul and Trey started on a plethora of snort jokes.

“Remember the story Mrs. Hanson told about how she needed trigonometry to get the couch through the door?” It was Sydney, trying to take the focus off of Kennedy’s snort.

“I think she told that one everyday we had that unit, and then again when we reviewed it for our final.” I added, laughing again.

The ever-conceited Trey brought the spotlight back to himself. “I think my favorite class was sophomore English honors with Ms. Saundra. It’s amazing we were in the same English class together, considering we were never all in a class together after that.”

Kennedy laughed again, although this time she didn’t snort. “I think the administration was warned and made especially sure that we wouldn’t be together again.”

Around four, we made our way back to the rest of our class, where people were signing yearbooks, and playing games, half awake.

At that point, I was thirsty. I went to get myself a drink. I made the mistake of getting into the line that Rob Carr was about to get in. I dated Rob for a year and a half, but I dumped him because he wanted me to “put out”. I wanted a lot more from life than that.

I had no idea he was behind me until his slimy tentacle of an arm snaked around my waist. His breath was hot on my neck. “Wow Bree, you just keep getting prettier every day. You sure you don’t want to put out a little more?” I would have known his voice anywhere.

I removed his tentacle from my waist, took my punch, and turned to walk away. I hadn’t made it very far when he grabbed my arm, almost spilling my drink on the floor. “What? No goodbye kiss?”

I glared at him, and turned back again. He wouldn’t let go. “What do you want Rob?”

He pulled me against him, “Just a little fun, baby. Ever heard of it?”

“In my world, fun doesn’t involve you.”

“I’m sure I could change your mind.” With these words, he cupped my cheek with his right hand, and slowly ran it down my face to my neck. “Someday I’ll be the only guy you’ll be able to get.”

I pulled my arm back and slapped him as hard as I could.

He shot me an incredulous look while rubbing his cheek. “You’re such a brat Taylor.” He always resorted to my last name when he was angry. “Someday you’ll come crawling back to me. You can’t count on your sweet face for everything.”

“Back off Rob, You don’t want Mr. Garret to come over here.”

He looked to the side, and, sure enough, Mr. Garret was standing nearby, looking just as much like Mr. Clean as he had his first day here.

“Just give me a call when you’ve realized just how stupid you are.”

I laughed. “The day that happens is the day pigs fly without an airplane.”

He winked at me, unable to just accept it. “Well, I guess pigs will fly a lot sooner than most people think.”

I rolled my eyes and began to walk away. It wasn’t until I left Rob that I felt the sting in my hand. Great. Just great. I looked at the punch clutched in the fingers of my other hand and realized that it had spilt all over when I had slapped that jerk. The cup was empty. I threw it away, silently cursing Rob and made my way back to Sydney.

When I found her, she was alone, staring off into space. I put my arm around her shoulder, and wordlessly, we made our way to an empty hallway,

“I can’t believe we’re leaving in two weeks.” Sydney was always the sentimental one.

“I know,” I leaned back against the wall and slid down to the floor. Sydney followed my lead. “What I really can’t believe is that we were both accepted to—“

“UCLA…” she trailed off. “And on to your dream. You’ll make an amazing psychiatrist.”

I smiled sentimentally at my best friend. “Thanks. So, I know that I’m going to major in Psychology, but what are you going to major in?”

“I really don’t know.”

Sydney was one of the smartest girls in school, but she had no clue what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. “You’ll have to figure it out sometime.”

“I know, I know.” She hit her head lightly against the wall behind us. “So, LA… that’s so close to Hollywood.”

I nodded. “Think we’ll meet any movie stars?”

“Oh, definitely.” It was one of the few times I’d ever heard Sydney use sarcasm.

“If you could meet any one celebrity, who would it be?”

“Dylan Winters, without a doubt.” She answered automatically.

I hummed in agreement. “He is just so gorgeous. I’m sure we’ll see him at least in passing sometime.”

“Let’s be realistic. We’ll never meet him.”

“Never say never, my darling.”