A Summer of Memories

Nostalgia

Almost nine years ago

The town of Rocky Springs did not have much, but we had a few good things. The place always seemed to attract tourists for a quaint vacation, but to us, it was just home. One of the things that really set us apart and attracted so many during the summer was the Rocky Springs Water Park. It was quite the place. There were plenty of water slides, games, and rides, including a lazy river. This is where everyone went once it got warm, especially after school had ended. The last day of school before summer break always seemed to be the Friday before Memorial Day. So, when the bell rang for the final time that school year, we all knew where we were heading. Everyone, and I pretty much mean everyone, at least if the persons being considered were teenagers, went to the Water Park. It pretty much went unspoken from year to year that we would all meet up there. We all wore our swimsuits, tank tops, and Daisy Dukes to school, but no one really cared much. We were finishing our last tests for the year and would be forgetting about school for a few months. This is where I met him, although I didn't know it would be him at the time. It was the summer of my sophomore year, and I had just turned sixteen in March.

The girls and I met at our usual spot near the gate. Once we had purchased our armbands (all the local kids that bought one that day would have passes for the whole summer if they kept them on), we went inside to grab lunch, store our belongings, and put-on sunblock. While this may seem lame to some people, we were not going to be those girls that got burned the first day of summer and looked like lobsters for the rest of the break. We all had skin that was on the fair side, except for Iris, who was blessed to have a Hawaiian mother and a father from Mexico. (How they got together was a mystery to all of us, including her, but apparently it was the love of a lifetime because she had four younger siblings and an older brother, who was a senior at high school that year.) We were heading to hit all our usual spots in the park when all of a sudden, we heard a masculine voice shout behind us:

"Hey, Stardust!"

All of us looked around with confusion to one another except Ann. (Her real name was Andromeda, but she didn't go by that. It was just a bit too awkward.) She seemed to know exactly who had called out the random name.

She turned around and said, "Hey, Todd! Long time no see!"

Then it dawned on us. This was one of the boys she had met back during spring break when the school took a few of the students on an "educational vacation." Ann had gone along with several other students from our school, and even though our school is not that big, we still did not know everyone that attended. Once Ann got back from her trip, she was telling us about several of the people she met, a few of which happened to be Todd and some of his friends who were juniors. We then remembered that he had called Ann "Stardust" after he heard the story behind her name. (Her dad, who was a mythology professor at the university a few hours away, and her mother were both professional star gazers. They had even had their honeymoon out west somewhere, in like Arizona, so they could look at the stars all night. So, when they found out they were having a girl, it was only natural for them to name her after one of their favorite constellations.)

Todd had brought his pals along that day as well, for he was not alone when Ann and the rest of us turned toward his direction. Once both groups caught up to each other, Ann and Todd began to converse quite amiably and his friends eventually joined in as well with the two, but the rest of us girls just sort of stood back and watched all of the conversation. Ann eventually remembered that she was not alone and that she had friends standing awkwardly behind her, so she proceeded to introduce us to them and vice versa.

Todd was obviously the ringleader since he was more outgoing. He was of a decent average height for a seventeen-year-old boy with a dark shade of brown for hair and blue eyes. Then there was Peter. He looked like a guy from the beaches of California, blond shoulder-length hair and all. John sort of looked like the runt of the group, but he still seemed to fit in comfortably with them all just the same. He had a sort of dusty brown color for hair and grey eyes. Last of all, there was him. His name was Liam. He had dark hair, somewhere in-between a very dark brown and black, and he had incredibly dark eyes. Ann then introduced us three to them since they already knew her. First Iris with her beautiful foreign complexion and dark hair and eyes, then Mary Jane with her Irish looks from her grandmother, who still lived in Ireland, and finally me, Sara, with my ebony-like brown hair, turquoise eyes, and sprinkling of freckles.

After introductions had been made and a few words were exchanged amongst the different groups, it was decided that we would all hang out that day together. What we did not know, was that this day, would be the beginning of the rest of our lives, lives with long-lasting friendships, and in the case of a few of us, relationships beyond just friendship.