𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍 . . . 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐥

21. 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣

21. offense taken

season one, episode nine: tape 5, side a

▂ ▃ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▃ ▂

"I've got a question for you, Justin. Not the one you think. Not yet.

What's the best part of high school? The great friends you make? The romance? No, we both know the best part of high school is summer break. It's the great reset button.

And after everything that happened to me sophomore year, I couldn't wait to start fresh. To tear the rest of the pages from my journal and forget it all. Except, I didn't get very far."

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day and the end of sophomore year, and Nessa was ecstatic. She loved summer. When the bell rang and students ran out into the hallways and swarmed the courtyards of the school, it took Nessa about five seconds before Justin and Montgomery grabbed her by her wrists and dragged her out of school, into the chaos where students were throwing their papers into the air.

"They do know someone has to clean all of this up, right?" Nessa asked the two boys surrounding her as they walked around in an attempt to find the rest of their friends, pointing to the mess of papers on the ground.

"Relax, Ness." Justin replied, laughing as he wrapped an arm around her. "Just have fun, it's summer!"

Justin made a point, so Nessa grabbed the one singular Biology paper in her backpack and threw it in the air, laughing before Justin pulled her into the direction of the rest of the group.

"Ah, this is going to be a great, great summer." Zach declared as the group of friends piled into his car, preparing for the adventures they would get themselves into from now until August.

"At work, my usual partner in crime was spending the summer with his grandparents. His temporary replacement was nice enough, but entirely too normal. And I couldn't escape my past.

I needed a change. I needed to be someone new. Have you ever felt like that? I wasn't going to be invisible anymore. I was going to start brand new. I was going to cut away the past and leave it all behind. I was going to work harder, be smarter, and be stronger.

Because you can't change other people, but you can't change other people."

"No, so now she's trying to punish me by giving all of my stunts to this 80-pound freshman." Jessica said to the group of friends – Sheri, Bryce, Nessa, Zach and Justin. "Go ahead. You really think that she can lift Melanie Opstad's fat ass into pyramid formation?"

The boys laughed, but Nessa didn't think it was that funny.

"Jess..." Nessa said softly.

"What? She's fucking fat." Jessica declared, and Nessa just shook her head.

"Maybe, but she's nice." Nessa defended the girl. She didn't really know if Melanie Opstad was nice, but she probably didn't deserve to be fat shamed by six people.

"Your coach is such a bitch." Bryce stated as the group laughed, and this was something Nessa could agree with and laugh along with.

"She's actually pretty cool as long as people show up to practice." Sheri stated, and Jessica's face faltered. The rest of the group groaned.