Summer Away

Chapter One

"I don't know what I'll do this summer." I complain, "With how this year has been.. I just need something."

My friend, Madeline, sits in the desk next to me, "I'm sorry, Leena." She pauses before a look of pure brillance crosses her face, "We aren't using the beach house this summer. That place is full  of cool people. You and Levi would have a blast."

"Actually?" I wait until the school bell finishes its ringing before saying anything else, "Would your parents be okay with that?"

Madeline shrugs, "Yeah, sure. They won't care. I'll send some people to clean it and text you the house code. No problem."

I don't text Levi immediately. I know that Madeline's parents probably won't care, but I don't want to tell Levi something then let him down. 

Madeline's parents are only slightly more present than mine. She might see them on weekends, but on the weeknights they're usually at work. As long as Maddie doesn't bother them they won't bother her. She pretty much has free rein.

Things are a little different for my brother and I. Our parents got divorced last year. Our mom moved to California and our dad is just constantly traveling or is at an apartment in D.C. The last time I saw my parents was at the courtroom the divorce proceedings were heard in. Since then my brother and I have taken care of ourselves. We order our groceries online or eat out. We drive ourselves wherever we need to be. We'll help each other out if we need to. My brother is basically my closest friend. I can tell him anything and he'll understand because we've been through the same thing.

Our class passes by quickly. I really wasn't paying attention, I was too busy thinking about the beach house. I meet Levi in the band room after school. We usually wait there for ten minutes, just enough for the parking lot traffic jam to clear. Most days we carpool, he drives.

I sit next to him. The band room chairs are already stacked up, so we're on the floor. There's an incessant beeping coming from the school's server room that's just a wall away. A brass group is practicing in the center of the room, they have a contest next week. The stage is connected to the band room and drama club uses it as a sort of backstage area during their rehearsals. They have their racks of costumes set up against the wall.

"Hi LeeLee." Levi uses the nickname my dad gave me years ago. Back when we were still a family. "I'm thinking about going on a run with Gav. Do you want to take the car or should I?"

"I'll ride with Maddie to the golf course. She'll be here in a minute."

"k. Gav says there's a party this weekend to celebrate the end of school. Wanna go?"

"To a party full of your football friends?"

"And cross country friends." Levi argues back, "It'll be fun, Leena. You need to get out more."

"Who'll I hang out with?"

"That guy you sit next to in social studies."

That makes me laugh. Ethan and I were originally assigned to sit where we do. Then the teacher let us pick our own seats. Ethan and I still sat next to each other for some reason. He's constantly on his phone and copies my work when he thinks I'm not looking. I don't think I've ever said more than five words to him. But the arrangement works, most people in that class are obnoxious and I don't really know anyone. Well, besides Levi. But I know he'd rather sit by one of his friends. We see each other constantly anyways.

"Ethan?" I ask, trying to hide the laugh, "I've never even talked to him."

Levi shrugs, "Well, him and that group will be at the party. Ethan'll let you join. Worst case scenario you hang out with me."

Madeline finally comes in, she must have had to meet with a teacher or something. "Are you ready to go, Aleena?"

Levi stands as I nod, then he extends a hand to pull me up. "Yeah, let's go."

Levi waves as he leaves, "See you later, Leena."

Tomorrow is the first day of districts for golf. Maddie and I are going to the hosting golf course today so we can see what it's like. I anticipate going to state this year and ranking in the middle there. Maddie will at least get to day two of districts, maybe state.

In our league the players of each team are ranked. The best varsity player is number one, the worst is number six. Junior varsity plays numbers seven through twelve, anything after that is C team. We have fourteen players, so junior varsity gets switched up pretty often so everyone can play. Varsity always stays the same.

I'm number two, Maddie is number four, so we're both varsity. We don't get to play together in matches, though. For league matches you're paired up with one other person from your team and two people from the opposing team. A foursome. I'm with the number one player, Maddie's with the number three player.

Today we're not playing through the school, though, so we get to play together. Maddie and I change in the locker rooms (rare for a golf course), and Maddie picks up the cart keys. I buy a couple sleeves of balls and start securing our bags to the cart.

Maddie tees up first. The first hole is a par four. Her shot goes straight into the fairway a decent distance away. My driver is my weakest club. It goes straight enough, landing on the right of the fairway, but it only goes 140 yards. My other clubs make up for it, though. I can be one the green in three shots, two if things go well, and usually get a par or bogey. On a few holes I might get a double bogey, maybe even a triple bogey, but on most of them I do better.

We play eighteen holes. It takes us five hours, we moved at a good speed. I scored ninety, which is eighteen over par. Not my best, but certainly not my worst. Enough to get to state and do decent. 

By the time we're done it's eight thirty. Maddie drops me off at my house.

- Next Day

We have districts for golf today so I don't have to go to school. I took my own car this morning instead of carpooling with Levi. I had to be at school an hour before school started to catch the team van.

Only varsity is eligible to go to districts. Then the coaches choose who goes out of varsity. Four of us are going. Our team captain, number one, Isabella, is the most extroverted of us all. She plays Taylor Swift on her phone and makes us take selfies for a team post. Isabella is the type of person I try to avoid. She's the nicest and funnest person around until she boos you when you get an award. Yes, she actually did that. In front of her parents. In front of everyone. They all just laughed it off. It wasn't funny. She and I both know she meant it.

I don't understand why Isabella hates me. Maybe it's just her personality, maybe I offended her someone. When I was in fourth grade, and she was in fifth, she used to make me believe these things, rumors, that were clearly lies. When I called her out on it she just gaslighted me. She says hi to me in the halls, pretends that she's excited to see me, then constantly makes fun of me. At practice she always picks on me then chooses to be my partner. She'll act like she likes me, then she'll say something so incredibly mean.

She was doing a sort of local pageant this spring. I was volunteering for the hours. One of the organizers did told me to fill up the lemonade jug. It was so loud. I did it right in the middle of her speech. After all the mean things she's done to me I felt like I was standing up for myself when I did that. Even though she probably didn't notice. But I was upset that she got to go there and spout all of these good things about herself when she was one of the meanest people I had met.

So that's Isabella. She's nice and outgoing and will always be everyone's favorite. People laugh off the mean things she does, as long as it's not to them. She just finds one person to be mean too. And that person is me.

I hit a shot from the rough. Instead of going into the fringe of the green as I had hoped it falls short, still in the rough. "Good shot." Isabella calls. It's not. We both know it.

Isabella does her approach shot, gracefully landing on the green. "Nice shot." I say. It was.