How to Sleep Through the End of the World in September

Ch.1: Goodbye Summer

It was August 31st, the last day of Summer Break and I knew exactly how I wanted to spend it. Sorry Mom and Dad, but it's not with you. I was gonna spend today with my two best friends in the whole world; Evelyn and Cora, my two neighbors.

I got changed and rushed out of the house. "Lulu!" "Huh?" I spun around to look at my parents who were still in the kitchen. "Just be careful. Ok?" "Yeah, yeah I know. Don't worry I'll be with Cora. You know how responsible she is." "Yes. We're just worried about you Lulu. We know how you get when you and Ev get-" "Oh calm down Laina. She's 15 not 5. And she starts her Sophomore year tomorrow, I think she can handle spending the day with her friends without us there. Besides, it's not like she hasn't before." "I know. I just have a bad feeling about today. That's all." "You got your phone Lulu?" "Da-aad. Didn't you just tell Mom that I could do things by myself." "You know I'm only joking. Have fun with your friends." "I will!" I called behind me as I ran down the street to go meet Ev and Cora.

"Lu! There you are!" "We saw you talking with your parents in the doorway and thought something might be wrong." "Nah. Just them being their worrying selves." "Great then let's go get sugar high! Last Day of Summer prepare to become Best Day Ever!" I smiled, Cora rolled her eyes, and we all ran down the street to enjoy the last of Summer. 

 ***

We had a lot of fun that day. We got ice cream, went to the movies, got even more candy, went shopping, got more sugar, we did a high-ropes course, and a bunch of other crazy, fun things. (Maybe because we were having a sugar rush the entire time. But we definitely weren't having dinner later when we got home.) We did all of our usual fun things and lots more, but for some reason Cora seemed sad the whole time. When I tried to ask her what was wrong all she did was smile and say, "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Want some more ice cream?" Ev answered for me with a resounding YES!, but I couldn't help but feel like Cora was lying.

Her cat did die three years ago. Three years ago today actually. So I figured she might be sad about that, but that was one of the reasons we went all out to be happy today. And usually she seemed just as happy as us, so I wasn't really sure. She did love that cat though. They were actually born on the same day and had been together pretty much ever since. I guess it hit her extra hard because her cat, Leigh, didn't die of old age. She was run over by a car. Ev and I had been there actually. Cora hadn't seemed sad about it in ages though, so I wonder what was wrong.

Other than that nothing odd and we had lots of fun. I didn't think about it too much.

I got home, but Mom and Dad weren't there. They left a note saying that they had gone out to have dinner together at a fancy restaurant because they figured that I wouldn't be too hungry when I got home. Which was true. I was pretty tired and the sugar rush was starting to finally dissipate, so I decided to go to bed instead of waiting up for them. And I did.