South Park: What If Scenarios/Ask The Characters Anything

What if Rosa Stayed In California

"Rosalynn! You're friends are here!" My sister, Ashlyn, calls out to me from downstairs at the front door.

"I'm coming!" I call back, quickly securing my hair into a bun, hoping that the weather isn't too unbearably hot today. The middle of the summer in California where we've lived since I was about eight can be a bit unpredictable. "Just thirty more seconds!"

It wasn't that long ago that my father sat our little family down and discussed the chance to move to another town. A small mountain town that none of us had ever heard of, but it was kind of close to Denver where his new job would be based out of. It would be a big change from the size of the town that we live in now, and Ashlyn and I would have to start completely over in terms of friendships. We put up a big fit against moving. We used to move all the time where we were younger, and after spending so much time at this current house, we didn't want to give that all up. In the end, my father said that he'd deny the transfer, so we didn't have to pack up our entire life and move several states away.

That was about six months ago now, and I can't help wondering if we made the right choice. Sometimes change isn't the worst thing that can happen.

I slip my backpack over my shoulder, my skateboard sticking out of the top. I snatch my helmet off my desk chair, and then I am rushing down the stairs that end right at the front door. "Time," I take a deep breath.

"Twenty-seven seconds," Katherine looks up from her smart-watch. "Once it hit thirty we were walking away."

"Whatever," I chuckle, rolling my eyes. Then I step outside, closing the door behind me.

"Still almost late," Emma, the leader of our little group, teases.

"I lost track of time," I shrug, skipping down the steps ahead of the others. "I was listening to a podcast about video games, and they were discussing a game that I've been wanting to play for a long time."

"Oh, Rosalynn, the nerd of the group," Stacy giggles. "Maybe that's why she gets along with the boys so well. She can talk their language."

"That's how she got Joey," Emma snickers as she takes the lead. The four of us going to meet up with the guys at the skatepark. "I mean, no offense, but you're not the prettiest out of the four of us, and Joey is one of the cutest boys at school."

"Don't listen to her," Katherine places her arm around my shoulder. "She's only being like that because she had a crush on Joey when we first became a group, but then Brandon came only and really caught her eye."

"Joey and I are just awkward enough to fit together," I shrug, fishing my phone out of my back pocket to check on any text messages I might have missed. An excuse to tune on whatever the girls are going to talk about on the walk over to the skatepark.

I have been friends with these three girls since we entered high school, and we're now going into our junior year. We aren't part of the popular crowd, but we aren't unpopular either. We occupy the middle where people know us but don't expect anything special from us. All of us have our own thing that we enjoy doing, so we don't rely on each other all the time. I'm not really sure how we all fit together, but it somehow works. Most of the time, anyways.

I know that I should branch out and find more people that have similar interests. I know that I should break away from this group that has rules that I don't always want to follow. I know that when I head off to college I'll leave them behind, but I can't help staying with what I know. I've accepted that this is how my high school years will be remembered.