My Second kiss

Chapter 5

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Chapter Five

Before I could blink it was nearly June, and the energy level throughout the school was rising. Teachers were collecting the last of the make-up homework. Students were cleaning out their lockers, and orange cones were spontaneously showing up around the courtyard awaiting the big summer project of expanding the faculty parking lot. I usually lived for these last days of school. I loved how the hallways always smelled like cleaning liquid from students wiping down the desks and chairs. I loved the scattered boxes in all of the rooms being filled back up with used textbooks and rented calculators. I even loved the cafeteria running out of food because the lunch ladies didn't want to buy more food just to have leftovers after the last days of school. But this year these things made me feel a twinge of sadness. This year wasn't just the end of a school year; it was the end of Jess and me walking to and from school together-again.

I had already encountered this heartbreak once before when he'd gone to junior high without me three years before. Though when I was only eleven, the fact that Jess and I weren't walking to elementary together didn't occur to me until I was getting ready to leave for school the first day of sixth grade. I had been eating my breakfast when I looked at the clock and realized that Jess was late (and he was never late). I slurped down my cereal and hurried to put my shoes on as I casually mentioned to my parents that I was going to go to Jess's house and make sure everything was okay. I remember Mom and Dad looking at each other with concern in their eyes. Dad looked so casual when he told me, "Jess isn't going to be walking you to school this year." He had said it so nonchalantly, as though it was no big deal. Now, I think he knew how big of a deal it really was; he just didn't know how else to say it. My parents had watched me with pained eyes as I melted to the floor, tears streaming down my face. Mom had called the school nurse and told her that I was going to be late for school that morning. I think she felt guilty for not warning me about it earlier. The next nine months of sixth grade had been a lonely time for me, and I was not excited to relive those years again.

But when the final bell rang on my last day as an eighth grader, I was so excited to get out of the dark, dingy school and into the sunshine that I nearly forgot about the tragedy that I was facing. Hoots and hollers rang through the halls as excited kids ran out of the classrooms and into the warm air. Summer vacation had begun. But I was reminded of the sadness when I saw Jess, leaning against the brick school wall with a thick manila folder in hand.

"What's that?" I said when I got close to him.

Jess looked down at the folder. "It's just a bunch of test scores and special projects that I've done over the past three years. I guess they save them for us and give it all back when we graduate from junior high."

"Don't remind me," I said.

"What's the matter, Gem? You're supposed to be happy on a day like this. You're free from school for a full three months."

I shrugged and quietly headed toward the main wooded road while he fell in line beside me. The sun was beating down on our heads. It was the hottest day of the year so far, and the smell of the hot pine made it feel so much more like summer. I couldn't bear to think that this was the last time Jess and I would be walking home together from this school. It would be the last time we'd run through the soccer field and throw rocks at the old goal posts. It would be the last time we'd crawl through the fence into the cement jungle. We stepped silently onto the soccer field when Jess turned to me and said, "Seriously, what's the matter?"

I stared at him with narrow eyes. "You don't know?" It made me angry that I was the only one realizing how horrible our separation was going to be. "Next year you're going to high school, and I'm still going to be here in this lame school, and I'm going to have to walk here alone. This is the last time we're going to walk to school together, probably ever! Next year you'll be driving your own car to school and you'll probably have a girlfriend."