Up The Down Escalator

Chapter 7

And I did go to camp. But first I had to get through the goodbye party.
The thing about our group of friends is that we try to have so many surprise parties for people but someone always ruins it and the person knows exactly when to expect it. This time was not an exception.
I'm not sure who ruined the surprise, but when Katie walked in, despite her insisting she had known nothing about it, we all knew it was no surprise to her.
The party was held at the house of another one of my friends, Nicky Wild.
Only our good friends were invited. Tiana Petro, Rachel Herman, Spring Meyer were all from RYNJ with me. There were also two Yarneh students: Jessica Leyar and Lily Bagshot. Lily was a grade below us but we were still good friends.
It was a usual type of goodbye party. We all wished her well and gave her goodbye presents.
I got her a pack of envelopes and stationary.
"You know, we can just text each other, Angelica, right?" Katie says smiling as she accepts the plastic wrapped gift.
"Yeah, I know," I say "but what if we want to do that the old fashioned way?"
"True"
When the party is over, Jessica's mother drives me, Lily, and Rachel all home. The other girls all lived within walking distance but the four of us lived on the other side of town; The Dark Side, as we like to call it.
That night the realization really hit me. 
Seventh grade was over. Now it's time for the real stuff. Eight grade. This mystical idea, we always knew would come soon but we never really let ourselves believe it. And now I was two moths away.
Two months away from the hardest grade of my life. Two months away from high school applications. Two months away from placement exams. Two months away from interminable nights of studying and worrying. Two months away, I realized with a pang, from being without the Wayde twins for at least a year. I hadn't really noticed it, but after all this family stuff, it was really great having them around. Lots of that kind of stuff had happened to their family so I felt like I could really relate to them.
That night the realization hit me also that I would graduate in a year. Leave and I might never see the Rose York of North Jersey ever again. Sure, it was a weird, and sometimes unreasonable school, but it had basically been my home away from home for the past ten years. The quirkiness of the school did t mean that I wouldn't miss it. Because I would.
I would miss it a lot.
These were the thoughts racing through my head, like trains with unknown destinations, as I began packing for camp.

_____________

So how was that? Sorry I've taken a super long time to update. I've been quite busy with summer reading and whatnot. I'm getting it for the first time this year!!  I'm already sick of high school and it hasn't even started yet!!!!!!!!
Thanks for reading!
❤️ you guys!
Stay alive
-Abigail