Blue birds fly

Prologue

September 18, 2045

"I just started 11th grade... I have two more years of school... What will I do in the future? I haven't made any plans yet. I've got nothing!" Bridget, a 16-year-old blonde with green eyes, thought to herself as she and her best friend Jared, a tall 17-year-old dark-haired boy with brown eyes, watched "Stranger Things" and ate snacks.

"How come almost everyone else has plans for what they want and HOW they want it, and I'm still trying to figure myself out..."

For a couple of seconds, the only thing making noise was the TV sound in the background. Jere was thinking about what to tell his best friend who seemed to be very concerned about her future.

"I think you should focus on the present and let the rest sort itself out. I'm always here for you though, and I know you best. So be assured that you will find your calling and I will be your biggest supporter no matter what happens!"

"How can you be so sure? I know you know me, but I don't feel anything. Sometimes everything seems so hopeless and I feel like there's nothing bigger for me. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, I understand, but we're still young and have our whole lives ahead of us. How can you say there's nothing bigger for you to do? Now is the time to try things out, be wild, and do what we want while we still can! Don't you just want to live and be free of responsibilities, paying taxes, working every day, and all that adult stuff? Why are you so worried about your future right now?"

"I just think that there is more to life than just partying, hanging out with the girls, having boyfriends and then growing up, working, getting married, having kids and dying... You know? I just want there to be more. Maybe my expectations are too high and all, but I just wish I knew what was missing."

"Well, you can't have everything in life, you know, but that already sounds like a heck of a plan to me, if I may say so myself," Jared said, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "Please, can we just finish this? We still have two more episodes!"

"Fine, we can finish this another time," Bridget sighed.

After that, they finished the series and were so excited about the cliffhanger in the end, that they forgot all about the previous conversation. Life was good. Bree had everything she wanted. A great family, friends, and school life was good. She was at the top of her class and everyone envied her. She also had her best friend, whom she could always count on and would never judge her for being herself. She didn't know why she had been so worried about her future. Maybe she should just focus on living in the moment and everything would turn out just fine. Maybe even better. She had read a lot of books about exciting adventures and people finding out their true callings and identities once they grew up, but her favorite ones were those cute romantic books that made you realize you single you really are. Sadly most of them are just make-believe and nothing like that could possibly ever happen. It would be too good to be true. Some girls dream about their wedding since they can talk and how perfect they want everything to be. Most want tall guys who are blonde and have blue eyes and are super romantic and treat them as their queen. That wasn't her type though. All she cared about was finding someone who would be by her side and would always care for her, for who she is. No matter what. She had a lot of doubts and unanswered questions, both about her future, but also about her life in general. She had time to figure out everything. There was no hurry. She could just live her life. Bree smiled once she had thought about it and looked over to her best friend who was rambling around about some ice cream guy he saw the other day, who started throwing chocolate sprinkles at some dudes who were trying to steal popsicles from the truck. They both started laughing and enjoyed the rest of the evening together before he left. And it was the start of fall, her favorite season. What could possibly go wrong? At night, Bree lay on her bed, processing all of her thoughts when she remembered something:

No way! she sighed. I forgot to do my homework! I'm so stupid. So she reluctantly got up and had to work on her 5 paged essay about globalization. Boring... Why couldn't it be an essay about World War I or just anything more exciting?! Once done, she was so tired she fell asleep on her desk.