Dear High School

September

September 2, 2015

Dear High School,

I went out with Laura last night. She called me right after I finished my letter and asked me if I wanted to go out after school on Wednesday. I said yes. The next day she picked me up at six in her car, an old Volkswagen that may have been red at some point but was so covered in rust it was hard to tell. My mom immediately loved Laura and told her she was welcome anytime.

I got in Laura's car and discovered that Laura loved to drive fast. She whipped around corners and was going at least ten miles over the speed limit the whole time. When she caught me looking at the speedometer she laughed.

"I know I drive fast. I like to feel the speed, especially in this old thing. My mom died in a car crash when I was five. My dad was driving us home after a party. My mom told him he shouldn't be driving, he was drunk. The driver hit us head on. My dad lost his license, my mom lost her life. I walked away unscathed." She laughed. "Well, I became addicted to the feeling of adrenaline running through my veins."

"Is that why you do everything you do? In school, I mean?"

She nodded. "Sort of. I just want to make my mom proud, you know? Except when I was a kid, she was never there to tell me she was proud so I never knew what was enough. I pushed myself to the end of my abilities looking for acceptance from someone who could never give it to me. Then I realized that I had created a reputation for myself and it became about proving to everyone else that I was the best. Now, I just don't know anymore. I don't know if I'm doing it for myself, or my mom, or my dad, or everyone else, or no one. I just do it, you know?"

She pulled into the park and hopped out. She waved her arm and took off running. I ran after her. We ran for a good five minutes before we reached a creek. She sat down by the bank of the creek and picked up a rock. I sat down beside her.

"Have you been here before?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"No one comes here. It's beautiful but people say it's cursed. You know why?" She waited for me to shake my head. "It's cursed because a boy drowned here. He was four or five and his mother took her eyes off him and he went in to far and the current took him. Now all the locals are scared of the place. Except you're new here and I'm an adrenaline junkie."

"Are all small towns like this?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so. I wouldn't know, though. I've never been more than fifty miles outside the city limits. The world's huge and here I am, stuck in this crappy little town. I always talk about leaving after I graduate but I don't know where to go. Even for college, the closest college is forty-three miles outside the city limits."

Laura threw her rock into the creek. It skipped four times before sinking to the bottom. She picked up a second stone and twisted it in her hand.

"Where did you move from? Why did you come here?"

"My sister moved out and my parents decided that they didn't want me to get involved in the same things she had and decided that the best thing for me was to move out to some small town. My mom wanted somewhere quaint."

Laura laughed, I loved her laugh, it was a magical sound. "This town certainly is quaint. Just wait for Fall, these people give a new meaning to 'quaint'. What did your sister do that was so bad?"

"It wasn't bad, really. It just wasn't good enough for my parents. They always wanted us to be doctors or lawyers or something like that and my sister was more into rock concerts and parties in her friends' basements then anything academic."