Is there a road back to the way we were?

Chapter 49

Students and teachers gathered outside, the cool night breeze providing relief from the heat of the day as they waited for the fireworks. Emmeryn led Onyx outside in search of Zephyr and Fawn. She found them standing a short distance away from a large tree. As soon as they reached, Zephyr put his arm around Onyx's shoulders out of habit, something he'd been doing a lot recently, Onyx noticed, not that he minded.

"What's with the look on your face?" Fawn nudged Emmeryn lightly, noting the way she kept sneaking glances at Onyx and nibbling on her bottom lip as if to suppress a smile.

"Nothing." Her tone sounded secretive.

"You're going to ruin your lip gloss."

"Already ruined..."

"Huh?" How was she meant to interpret that? She turned her attention to Onyx and noticed the faint blush on his cheeks under the light of the lamppost several feet away.

"It's starting!" Zephyr pointed to a light rising in the sky, which then bloomed with a loud crackling sound and scattered it's bright remnants as everyone watched with awe.

The fireworks filled the dark sky with bright, beautiful patterns and though the whole display didn't last long, maybe a maximum of fifteen minutes, it was a perfect end to a perfect day, a beautiful end to the five long years everyone had shared together, a final toast to all the memories, whether happy, sad, funny or stressful, all the moments that would be cherished, some maybe forgotten. It was beautiful and emotional and nostalgic. Everyone together one last time before going their separate ways as they pursued the future. Some would be off to Sixth Form to do their A-levels, others doing vocational courses or apprenticeships, some starting part-time jobs that they'd continue to do alongside their studies. The teachers would welcome a new batch of students as well as continue to teach their current students, maybe thinking of their old students from time to time and wondering where they were or what they were up to.

High school was a strange place, to put it politely. Small eleven-year-olds walking into a new building, a place with a different way of doing things, surrounded by familiar faces from their own primary school but mostly new faces as they met students from other primary schools and new teachers. A new teacher for every subject, a new classroom for every subject, navigating their own way around the building as they located where all their classes were with the aid of maps and older students. Then five years later, sixteen-year-olds leaving a place that had become as familiar as home, leaving people who had become friends and family. No matter where they went afterwards, it would always be a part of them. A part of the experiences that shaped them into the promising young people they were today.

Yes, high school had been strange, interesting, confusing. But that was just how life was, wasn't it?

****

Results day came and went and fortunately, they had gotten the grades they'd been hoping for. Now it was the first day of Sixth Form. All first years gathered to collect their ID cards and timetables. Sixth Form or college - whatever one wanted to call it - was different to high school. There were no fixed periods, bells didn't ring to signal the end of a class, no lockers, no uniform, break could be at any time depending on what one's timetable was like and you didn't need to come in every day, only when you had classes. Of course, students did tend to stay behind in study areas or the library sometimes to revise or catch up on work but the only compulsory attendance was showing up for class.

Emmeryn stood in the queue with Fawn, looking around the area and taking it all in. They were on the boulevard outside, the gate to the garden outside the cafeteria open for the new students to enter, without their ID cards they couldn't use the main entrance as they'd be stuck at the turnstiles. The garden was larger than it first appeared, with two levels connected by a short set of stairs, adorned with picnic tables on the patios of both levels. On closer inspection Emmeryn realised that the lower level was downhill from the higher level and the steps were embedded into one side of the hill, connecting the patios on both levels but not disturbing the grass, which was neatly trimmed but still allowed to grow in a messy, natural way.

"Where are Onyx and Zephyr?" Emmeryn asked.

"They've already gotten their stuff and gone home."

"What? They didn't wait?"

Fawn raised a brow at her, her lips set in a firm line. "Well maybe if you hadn't overslept, we could have gone with them. They were already here when you woke up."

"I went to bed late last night."

They moved further along with the queue, Fawn shaking her head and sighing. "Emmeryn, my love, we need to discuss your sleeping habits. They've steadily declined since GCSEs and I'd hoped they would've improved over summer but clearly they haven't."

"They're not that bad! I'm still getting enough sleep, just not all in one go at night."

"Okay, if you say so."

They collected their ID cards and timetables and left the building, making their way to Fawn's house.

"Do our timetables overlap anywhere?" Emmeryn compared her timetable to Fawn's, scanning them carefully. "Ah, you have Psychology every time I have History so we'll see each other on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays."

"Cool. What other subjects are you taking?"

"Art and Geography. You?"

"Biology and English."

Emmeryn nodded contemplatively. "I wonder what the others are doing."

"I think Zeph is taking Biology, Sports Science and Psychology. Onyx is also taking Biology and what else, Chemistry and Maths. Or at least I think that's what they said."

"You're all doing Biology and some other science."

The self-disappointment in her tone didn't go unnoticed by Fawn. "Because we have interest in different areas of science. Your interests lie elsewhere, that doesn't make you any less worthy though. In all honesty, no A-level is easy. Just because you're taking subjects that aren't considered super difficult or whatever, doesn't make you any less of a student or won't make any future struggles invalid. Onyx is the only one doing Maths, Zeph the only one doing Sports Science, and I'm doing English. We're all doing different things now and it will become more different when we go to uni. We just have to stay focused and keep working hard."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am, silly! Have I ever been wrong?"

"Ugh, so cocky."

"Please, you love me either way."

****

"Nyxie, we're in the same Biology class!" Zephyr fell back on Onyx's bed and grinned at him excitedly.

"That's nice." Onyx leaned against his desk and rubbed his eyes.

"You don't seem excited." His grin dropped immediately.

"I'm just tired."

"Didn't you sleep?"

"I did but also kinda didn't."

Putting the timetables on the bedside table, Zephyr noticed the book Onyx had been reading. "Sense and Sensibility?"

"It's interesting."

"So I was thinking..."

"Yeah?" Onyx looked at him suspiciously but either he was oblivious or didn't care.

"Now that we're sixteen, we're old enough to sign up for the gym. Do you want to be my gym buddy?"

"You haven't signed up yet? You've been sixteen all year."

"I was waiting for you to turn sixteen. Then summer we were all chilling and now that college has started it would be fun to have something else to do."

"Sure, I'll go to gym with you."

"Wait, really?" His tone was full of disbelief but Onyx saw how ecstatic he seemed.

"Yeah."

"You absolutely mean it?"

"Yeah."

"Then we must go every weekend without fail."

"Sure."

From that day, both boys became regular members of the closest gym, which was a twenty-minute walk from the college.