Woodfall

I

It was the first week of August, of a summer that was seeming to be one of the best I'd ever have. It wasn't one of those summers with a lot of travelling or big adventures, but it was spent with the ones Ioved most, and I think that's the simplicity of life, you don't need great things to feel happy, just great company. 

It was the summer after senior year, and so far I had spent it at home, in San Francisco, going to the beach and the pool at my friend Mer's house, and going to parties and concerts. I was always hanging out with my friends from school, Meredith, Rosalie and Maggie, we were called "The Groupette" by our classmates, because we went everywhere together and always wore similar outfits. Despite us being branded for our image, we really were the closest of friends, and the reason why we spent so much time together was because we really did enjoy each other's company! Besides "The Groupette", there were the guys, James and Rick. James was my neighbour, but Rick was my best friend, well, my best guy friend. They were basically all of my close friends from high school, and now we were all going to different colleges, which meant we had to enjoy our last summer all together.

I got in to Stanford. It was like the biggest achievement of my life. So far my plan was coming along: Stanford, Med school, and finally, becoming a doctor. I don't know why, but ever since I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a doctor, it was my dream. And almost everything I did was to make sure it came true, I mean, I spent most of my senior year studying to get in to college (most of my high school really). The good part was that Mer and Rose also wanted to become doctors so, besides having another thing in common, we really helped each other out. But now, I had gotten in, so I was making the most out of my summer, before college started.

Rosalie also wanted to get in to Stanford with me, but she got into University of San Francisco. Maggie was going to UCSF, Rick was going to UCLA and James was coming to Stanford with me. Mer was the big problem... She was going to Harvard, across the country. It was an amazing oportunity and I was extremely happy for her. But I couldn't help being sad for losing her. Meredith was my closest friend at school, we had a special bond, and we were even distant cousins (which we only found out after becoming friends). I didn't know what was going to happen to our friendship or our group. We avoided the subject, probably because we didn't want to face the truth, that "The Groupette" had an expiration date, set to the fall, most likely. So for now, we were just having a blast with each other, trying to forget about what was going to happen after summer.

Now, after spending July at home, I was headed to my family's house in Woodfall, a really small town in the country, where we spent our holidays. I was going with my two best friends since kindergarten, Lilian and Claire. 

Lil, Claire and I had been best friends for as long as I can remember. We went to the same school until the fourth grade, and we've been in different schools ever since, which didn't change our relashionship one bit. Lil was my neighbour, so I was really close with her family as well because I was at her house all the time. Whenever I got mad with my sister or my parents, or just didn't feel like being in my house, I'd go to the Harrison's. Lil also had a younger sister, Melissa, who I was also really close with, even though they didn't get along, at all. Lil was the typical high school popular girl: blonde, boobs and boys. How someone like her ended up being best friends with someone like me or Claire was a mistery. Of course she wasn't her popular hot blonde self around us. With me she was just my grumpy, annoying, funny best friend, who I fought with all the time over the most stupid things. She was really more like a sister to me. Claire was just the typical 'girl next door', so simple and nice. Seriously, she was so nice it kind of annoyed us sometimes. The three of us were so different but got along so well. Our friendship was the most natural thing in my life, they had always been a part of my life, we grew up together, went from playing in recess with our dolls to going out and getting drunk on a friday night. I loved my friends at school but these girls were just different to me, they were family. And thank god that they got in to colleges near home, I couldn't bear for them to move away too. Claire was going to University of San Francisco and Lil was going to Berkeley.

Every year, since we were like 10 years old, we spent two weeks in Woodfall with my parents and my little sister, it was our tradition. Some years their parents joined for a couple of days, because after so many years, all of our parents ended up becoming friends too. But this year was different, this year we were going alone, just the three of us. Since we were 15 we have tried to convince our parents to let us go alone but they never did. This year we turned 18, we graduated from high school, and I finally got my driver's license, so there was no chance for them to say no. However, they only agreed to let us be there one week alone, my parents would join us for the second one. So my mom let me borrow her Volvo and I drove us to Woodfall on a sunday afternoon. I thought that it would be exactly the same as every other year, except we'd have a little more privacy than usual, in the first week at least. Little did I know how much things would change.