Monday morning, August 31, 2012 marked the beginning of the new school year. Rose and I, along with our closest friends, Jason, Matt and Trevor had all exited my SUV parked in front of the school and were now standing to the side of it as we stared off at our school in the distance.
"Senior year boys, its finally here", I said in a slow, collected voice that reverberated off the ears of us all.
"I thought it'd never come", Jason remarked solemnly, in a low, soft moving tone, as if he was amazed we had finally made it.
"How could you with all the work we've had to do", Trevor added.
There was a breeze that past through us as we all shared that moment, not a word spoken for a few seconds, yet volumes were said in that brief amount of time through the expressions on our faces. We had made it this far, scathed but intact.
"So, what are you all doing this year"? I asked, pompously.
"Parties, parties, parties and more parties", Jason and Matt replied, eagerly.
"Hey man, don't forget about the girls", Jason added melodiously.
"How could I?" Matt quickly responded with a smile of his own.
Their responses were quickly followed by their own dance, both were different yet they resembled one another in the overall good vibe and feel good rhythm.
"Pigs", Rose commented, with an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders, "why anyone would sleep with you two is beyond me".
"Im aiming for ten girls by the end of May", Jason replied confidently.
"My numbers fifteen", Matt boldly said.
"What about you Trevor"? I asked, "what's your plan this year"?
"Im going to be studying even more this year, harder classes and more reading", he replied to the surprise of Matt, Jason and I. "I need to be ready for everything college will throw at me."
"What!", Matt squealed.
"No," Jason protested. You've got to let loose for once. Especially this year", I replied immediately, "you've earned it".
"Party with us, there are a lot of undergrad girls who can teach you what you need to know for college", Matt added in a slow, methodical tone, trying his best to keep a smile from flooding his face..
"I don't think Harvard is looking for party students".
"Thats actually my plan for the year too, I need to get into a good Medical school, so I'm going to be doing things differently this year", Rose spoke.
That was the first time she had said anything about changing to become an idele Ivy League student. She had a solid 3.5 GPA all throughout High School, yet she spoke of how little GPA mattered to her. She would taunt others mercilessly besides Trevor who strived for academic perfection as people consumed by an insatiable desires to overwork themselves for a letter grade that could not precisely depict real knowledge. Her 3.5 came effortlessly but we had been told many times over that anything below a 3.8 was of no use to us. I didn't think much of her evolved perspective at the time, so I didn't ask her about it.
"What about you Russ?" Jason asked.
"Ya Russ, got any big plans this year?" She asked, her head up and with her arms wrapped around me.
"All I'm focused on this year is staying out of trouble, graduating and treating you like the princess that you are". I responded with a smile for the guy's and a kiss on the cheeks for Rose.
"You hear that Rose, you've got a real man, who isn't just trying to get it in like we are," Matt spoke, "treat him as well as he treats you".
"You don't need to worry about that, I treat him the way he deserves to be treated."
