Saving Us ✔

1.

I am so screwed. 

There are notebooks and papers, highlighters and study guides spread out all around me on my bed as my laptop sits before me, my final staring me in the face with time running out. This test is the last thing that stands between me and graduation, as soon as I hit submit, I am free from high school and Summer will begin. 

I can't wait to start working at my grandparent's store this summer, to be out in the sun and feel the breeze from the ocean. After the crazy amount of studying and throwing myself into school my senior year, I deserve a break from homework and class, from the stress and the pressure. I deserve it, true, but I know I won't get the break I so badly need. 

After answering the last few questions on my final, I hit submit with six minutes to spare. History has never been a subject that I'm good at, so I held my breath as the screen loads with my score. It probably only takes it a few seconds, but to me it feels like hours before I see the little 86% pop up on my computer screen. 

As I let out the breath I had been holding, a smile spreads across my face because I honestly had no hope of doing that well. I reach for my phone and open the group text that I have with my parents. 

McKenna: Just finished my last final. I got a 86%. Graduation, here I come!

Both of my parents are surgeons at the local hospital and are usually very busy, so I am surprised when they both respond almost immediately to my text. 

Mom: That's okay honey, an 86% is a high B. You'll have to do better in college though. 

Dad: Did you take your time? I know you can do better than that, McKenna. An 86% isn't horrible, you're mom is right, at least it's a high B. You'll still get to go to Duke, this won't damage your GPA beyond repair and you're already accepted. 

As I read their replies, the smile I had just minutes before immediately fades. Of coarse they think that anything less than a 100% is nothing to be proud of and not good enough, I don't know why I expected them to act any other way, I know who they are. 

Then I start to feel sick. 

Duke. 

I still have to tell them about Duke. 

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My dad doesn't make it to my graduation, he gets stuck in surgery and even though I know that saving lives is more important that watching me end my high school career, I am disappointed.

When the ceremony is over I go to find my mom and grandparents in the crowd. My mom is on the phone when I approach them, she gives me a small smile when she sees me but then walks away to finish her conversation. 

Both of my grandparents wrap me in a hug and shower me with compliments and congratulations before we head to the car to go to my celebratory lunch. 

We don't even make it to the parking lot before my mom says that she has to leave and go to the hospital. With a quick hug goodbye and a "Congrats, honey" called over her shoulder, she hurries to her own car. 

"It's okay McKenna, that's just one less person we have to share our appetizer with." My grandpa puts his arm around my shoulder, pulling me to him and trying to lighten the mood. 

I give him a weak laugh in response as I put my arm around his waist and the three of us head to my favorite restaurant, Pelican's Fresh Grill, at the boardwalk. 

If it weren't for my grandparent's, I would have gone crazy years ago. My parent's are obsessed with work and being seen as the perfect family. My mom and dad met in high school and started dating their junior year, after graduation they went to the same college and competed against each other to be the top of their class - my dad beat my mom, but just barely. They went to the same med school, did their residency at the same hospital, and eventually ended up working in the same place, but in different areas of surgery. While my dad is a heart surgeon, my mom is a general surgeon, and one day I am supposed to be a surgeon too. 

There is no room for mistakes with my parents and education is the most important thing to them. 

My grandparents however, they live life day by day. My grandpa especially, is a very laid back person and goes with the flow. My grandma thinks that you should always do what makes you happy and drop anything that causes you stress. I don't know how the two of them ended up with a daughter as high strung and shallow as my mom, but they did and they don't agree one bit with their parenting style or any other decision my parent's make regarding me. 

Later, when I am dropped off back at my house, I notice that my car is still the only one in the driveway. I'm used to being home alone, my parent's are usually gone until the late hours of the morning, sometimes even opting to just sleep at the hospital, but tonight I was expecting them to be home to make up for missing my graduation and celebration.

That's my problem though, I always expect things from them when I know better.