chasing waterfalls [Peter Parker]

~45~

After everything that has happened this year, it was hard for me to go back to school. I had to learn and take tests as if my life hadn't turned completely upside down.

But months had gone by, and I was surprisingly able to get good grades. All I had to do was to get through the last day of school.

Dani and I were standing by my locker watching the morning announcements. Some kid put together a slideshow tribute to the Avengers with that Whitney Houston song. I could barely watch it. It felt like the room was getting smaller. It was getting hard to breathe. I closed my eyes and tried to think about something else. Anything else. Nothing was working. All I could think about was that day.

Dani noticed how stressed I was, so she grabbed me by the shoulders.

"Alright, let's go." She started moving me to the door. I chuckled.

"Where are we going?" Dani shrugged.

"Anywhere but here." I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her.

"What?" She smiled.

"Well it's the last day of school, we don't need to be here, and after the year we've had, we deserve it." She was right. People always miss the last day of school. Plus it would give me more time to pack for the trip to Europe.

I was excited for Europe, but not nearly as excited as Dani. She had not stopped talking about it since the trip was announced. She had this whole plan to meet a European guy in every place we went to. I just wanted to visit Europe, have fun, and spend time with my friends.

We ran out of the doors of Midtown High, and called a cab. We went out to lunch and spent the rest of the day walking around the city. For a moment, I forgot about everything.

When we got back to Dani's house, I started packing. Since we left for Europe in 24 hours, I didn't have that much time to pack. Plus, I still hadn't gone through Nat's stuff. I couldn't bring myself to do it. It just sat in cardboard boxes on my side of the room.

Once I finished packing, I put my bag by the door, ready for the trip.