What happens in the summer

the Beginning Road after the Road

the days that followed Carole acted like nothing had happened. though the girl that Adele had punched was out in the hospital. i walked down the familiar halls of the high school i was beginning to cope with, many of the kids looked tired going on with the same movements. play practice continued and Sebastian joined just to spend more time with Adele. his old friends were becoming jealous but left him alone. the girls sending Adele glares and flashing middle fingers when she wasn't looking. 

i followed the trail of kids down the hall and into one of my other classes i had with Carole, though she usually never showed up. as i sat down, she strutted into the class and plopped down next to me. i stared at her for a moment contemplating what she was doing here, she grinned and leaned forward motioning for me to come closer.

"Don't look now but it looks like broken nose is back." she said with a grin nodding to the door. 

i looked over to see the same girl walk in, she looked like a nun compared to what she usually wore. her face was still beat up pretty bad and she scowled at us. Carole giggled and leaned back propping her feet in Sebastian's empty seat. class started and almost instantly the teacher got after her for her behavior. 

"Alright class, settle settle. now, today i am assigning you your projects, they will be due at the end of September for those of you who don't know when that is, it is next month. here are your packets i want you working on this the entire period. you will work with the person next to you. Drake you and Ben, Jenna and Selena, Carole and Dylan. Carole would you please put your feet down, this is not your house." the teacher said throwing the packets at us. 

she shrugged and moved one leg off the chair. i grabbed the packet and flipped it open reading through it. 

"So do you wanna do the Slide show, or the Photo Album?" i asked reading over the directions.

"Nah, and Nah, let's do the Video." 

"But there isn't a video." i said.

"Live dangerously and you will live right. (-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)" she said sitting up. 

"Okay so what do you want our topic to be? i think i am leaning more for books of the 1940s, or the music or the life style." i said. 

"How about all that but in this century and we are just adding books and stuff from the others, it will be a documentary of our lives and this school!" she said cheerfully. 

even though i had my doubts that we would fail i agreed to it. we set to work talking about all the places around town that we would take videos in. we agreed to many historical places and areas to describe everything that we needed to get a good grade. by the end of class we had exchanged numbers and decided that we would start right away. so after school finished we set off on our journey. i pulled out my phone, she shook her head stopping me and pulled out a small video camera. i took it and turned it on, pointing it at her to capture her. 

she grinned and i smiled back. she took a few steps making sure i got her full body, she put her hands on her hips and stood ready to start. i turned on the recording and we started.

"Greeting fellow students of AP Human Geography, i am your hostess Carole Luna and your Host Dylan Cross." she said happily.

"Although you can't see him he is there, don't worry you'll see his face soon enough. to start off our project we head to the big boulder hill, follow me Pretzel boy!" she exclaimed before turning and walking off. 

i rolled my eyes and suppressed a smile as i followed after her. she took us to the the big boulder and sat down on it, crossing her legs and pretending to look in the distance. i laughed and she caught the camera laughing along with me. we then took the camera down to were the river was and to the lake telling everyone about it, and how it got there as comically as possible.  

we finished and decided to get sandwiches and eat them on the boulder. i re-watched our progress and smiled seeing all the cheesy jokes she made. she took the camera gently out of my hands and turned it on to show my face. i grinned half way through eating my sandwich and swallowed quickly. 

"Good evening ladies and gents we are here on the Boulder showing you today's menu, bacon and cheese. so tell me Mr. Cross what do you have to say, a traditional and expensive plate?" she said. 

"Very, traditional in many households!" i said laughing almost choking. 

"Oh no, you okay? seems to be the sandwich is just that good." she exclaimed before shutting it off. 

we laughed after, it felt good to laugh. by the time the sun had set i was back in my room listing all the other questions i wanted to ask Carole. 

15. who is Jordan?

16. what is it to be an adult?

17. live dangerously or live under a bridge

18. do we have to be separated into categories?

19. how do you see the world from someone elses eyes?

i

i smiled to myself, before pushing the paper back and walking off to bed. tomorrow i would ask if we could shoot a video in the Poet's room, secretly i wanted to go back. to see how it looked like in there, to read as many as possible. Sebastian called me up just as i went to bed

"Hey what's up?" he asked sickly.

"Not down."

"What, never mind. what did i miss in school?" he asked. 

"Some project in class that you need to do and a study guide, nothing too much." i replied, i knew he was going to ask about Adele and if she had asked of him. 

in truth she had, she hadn't stopped bugging me. i finally made up the excuse that he was sick and to my benifit he was. he cleared his throat and asked. 

"yes, she did, she did nothing but bother me all day about you." i said before he could finish

"Good, well see you tomorrow." he said, i could hear the smile in his voice. 

i hung up and sighed, the dork was so helplessly in love with her. sleep came to me quickly but i was awoken by a text message. 

Carole: Late night thinking brings fucked up thoughts. are you awake?

Dylan: Yes, what are you doing?

Carole: running.

Dylan: isn't it a little late for that? where are you running?

Carole: one must sometimes learn to ride a bike with out a helmet... i am in the downtown part.

Dylan: that is a long ways to go, what are you doing there?

Carole: searching

Dylan: for what?

Carole: the end of life as we know it.

Dylan: What is that?

Carole: the beginning road and the after road.

she didn't reply after that and i got the message that she was off again probably running. now woud have been a great time to ask about Jordan and who he or she was but i decided not to. i wasn't ready to put our friendship on the line.