730 Days till Someday

Chapter One

"Can you believe the school year is finally over?!"

"I thought it was never going to end!"

"Jo, why aren't you excited?!"

Josie Elizabeth Gardner, Jo to her few actual friends and Josie to everyone else, lifted her head, looking at the small group of friends she'd managed to keep over the school year. All three of them looked at her expectantly. Winter, with her bright copper eyes, platinum silver hair, and petite stature—always trying to cause some sort of mischief. Kenzie with her buttery blonde curls, crystal blue eyes and freckled skin—the mother hen, and more commonly then not, the one getting them all out of trouble. Then Stacy with impossibly long rust colored hair and chocolate brown eyes framed by thick glasses—the overlooked beauty. Jo fumbled for an answer as the whole group was swept up with the excited mass of students. The ceiling and walls practically rang with the excited energy of the three hundred students, crammed into the same hall, all talking at once. As the familiar twinge of a headache started to press on Jo's scalp, she had to choke back tears. She was going to miss this. Sure, school would only be out for eleven weeks, but that was practically forever to a sixteen year old. She was already counting the days till she could come back.

"Why ARE you excited?! I'm not looking forward to this summer at all." Jo mumbled pulling her long dark hair back into a messy ponytail.

"WHAT?!" The three girls exclaimed in unison as they maneuvered around a group of hysterical cheerleaders. Several members of the football team were throwing a football up and down the hallway over everyones heads, just adding to the chaos.

"Are you crazy?!" Winter asked, walking backwards in front of the group so she could make eye contact with Jo.

"No, I ..."

"You just don't want to go off, to that fancy job of yours all summer!" Stacy stated making a face as she fumbled with her cell phone.

"Sure, that's part of it ..."

"NO! It's because you don't want to leave Andrew behind!" Kenzie said grabbing ahold of Jo's elbow and pulling her in close. Jo smiled at the jest. With that all three of her friends began to 'ooo' and 'ahh' while making overly exaggerated kissing noises at her. There was no way to control the heat in her face.

"Oh shut up." She mumbled at them trying not to laugh, still blushing an unattractive shade of tomato red. She looped her arm through Kenzie's as they approached the end of the hall way.

Of course they'd guessed why she actually didn't want to leave, and go work, out in the vast nothingness of South Dakota all summer. It didn't take a genius to figure it out! Everyone knew she was crazy about Andrew. He was way cuter than most of the guys that were at school. All tall and tan, with dark red hair and blue eyes, who wouldn't fall for that?

"Who cares about Andrew?! She's gonna go off and fall madly in love with some older guy and forget all about stupid Andrew." Kenzie said grabbing Stacy's hand.

"That does sound like something our Jo would do."

"Five bucks says she does!"

"You're so on!"

They busted into a fit of giggles over the bet, and began clamoring about summer plans none of them really intended to keep.

Finally reaching the end of the hallway, they were all herded through the cafeteria into the back courtyard of the school. Several of the cafeteria tables were set up in the shade next to an impressive line of grills. It was still early, so no one was actually sitting at the tables because of how cold the shade was this early in the morning. Students who were lined up waiting to get hotdogs and hamburgers, were huddled together, probably there to get six or seven for any one of the smattering of cliques that stood, or sat, out on the nearby exposed dirt in the sunshine. There were a few teachers that walked around signing year books, and giving hugs, as they passed out juice pouches. Everyone knew they were just there to babysit until the final bell rang, but it didn't seem like anyone minded. A thin veil of dust covered a lot of the cement because of all of the activity. The four girls wandered slowly toward one of the huge concrete planters housing one of the many scraggily young trees that dotted the area. They stopped now and then to say goodbye to other friends, before finally reaching the planter.