BFF (A Josh Hutcherson Fanfiction)

4 - What Star Through Yonder Window Breaks?

I assumed I would be done with Shakespeare by the end of my sophomore year of high school. Well, at least done with Romeo and Juliet. It’s such a cliché choice for a literature class, and it’s one that most of my class has probably already read. After meeting with my aunt’s lawyer early this morning to finally sign the papers that put Aunt Megan to rest once and for all, I decided to try and crack down on some of the reading for my classes. I figured it would be a decent distraction.

Since I did so well in high school, my guidance counselor thought it would be smart for me to get my general education requirements out of the way senior year. A good amount of my AP classes transferred, except for three: English, History, and Calculus. There are eight periods in a day at Union High and I took all AP classes starting junior year. Unfortunately, the AP versions of those three classes don’t count as the college version in California.

In order to make up those three classes without having to cut into my Major Course Work, my guidance counselor decided to nominate me for the UCLA Freshman Summer Program, and thanks to my impeccable school record and the fact that they base their decision on academics and not family history, I was accepted. Three weeks from now, I’ll begin my English, History, and Calculus classes and I will be done with them before the fall semester starts. In an effort to stay ahead of the class, I’ve decided to download the syllabi and read some of the materials before my first day. Number one on the list for English: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

The worst part about reading Romeo and Juliet again, aside from the fact that I’m going to face some major high school déjà vu on the first day of classes, is that the only reason I’m taking this class is to make room for “Major Course Work.” Well, my major is undecided. So what Course Work will I be doing?

I thought I knew who I wanted to be. Like Josh keeps pointing out, I was a great detective when we were younger. Then I realized my mom had a drug and alcohol problem. Then my mom sent me to live with my aunt. Then my mom died. Then my aunt died. Suddenly my life is spiraling out of control and I’m not so sure I want to be a detective anymore. I don’t think I’ll be good at it. I couldn’t see that my mom was sick. I didn’t know that my aunt was planning on killing herself after my eighteenth birthday. Clearly I’m not as observant as I thought I was.

If I’m not a detective, what can I be? I’m sort of low on Marketable Traits. I’m a pretty mean waitress. Not mean as in like not nice but mean as in I can carry heavy trays full of food for ten hours straight and never drop a thing. I got straight A’s in school. I was the valedictorian. But who cares about that stuff? It mattered in high school. I earned money to support myself, learned how to take care of myself at a young age, but that literally doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Not when you’re competing with people who cure cancer and discover ways to make cars work without gas.

Before our trip to the Griffith Observatory yesterday, I had accepted that I would go into UCLA with an undeclared major and hopefully figure it out after my freshman year. After our trip to the Griffith Observatory yesterday, I feel like I have to decide right now what I’m going to do with my life. This stupid boy with his stupid secret admirer notes and his stupid instructions is totally ruining my life!

Even though I’m mad that the trip to the Hollywood Sign made me feel like I need to do something about the road my life is headed down, I’m also happy. In a way, sitting on that picnic table with Josh, thinking about nothing and everything at the same time, was the best thing to have happened to me in a long time.

“Knock knock!” Josh says as he opens my bedroom door. “Can I come in?”

I put down my copy of Romeo and Juliet and glare at him. “It appears you already have.”