Honey | Gini

One

Gina's POV

"I just wanted to say," Miss Jenn starts, "it has been an honour being your drama teacher for this year, and I hope to see all of you who aren't graduating back again for the next winter musical."

Although our last drama club meeting was a few weeks ago, we all wanted to come back to the bomb shelter for one last goodbye before leaving. It's strange but in a good way. Previous school years, I've always left right after the last bell, knowing I probably was just going to move away from everyone anyway, but this year I can thank Ashlyn's family for making it so that I can stay in Salt Lake. I'm going to live with my mom for most of the summer, but I'll be able to come back in the fall, and that's an amazing feeling. 

Miss Jenn begins tearing up as she says, "I love you all."

A few people sound, "Aww," and soon Steph and Nini are the first on their feet, going over to hug Miss Jenn. A few more join the hug, and then some more, until the whole drama club is smothering her in a huge group embrace. After backing up, we stay standing around her, and Miss Jenn is wiping the tears from her eyes. 

"Sorry," she says. "I don't usually get emotional, but that's the power of the theatre." She dabs her eye again then sees the mascara on her finger. "I'm gonna just go clean up. You kids enjoy the mingling, and don't forget to eat the snacks."

She rushes out of the room, leaving the rest of us on our feet together. It's almost surreal seeing all the faces of the people I call my friends. I've never had friends like this before, and I want to keep this feeling going. I wish theatre club could keep going during the summer, but I know that's unrealistic. 

"I'm really gonna miss you guys," Kourtney says. 

"Me too," Big Red joins in. "I never thought I'd like theatre, but now I couldn't imagine my junior year without it."

"We all definitely have to keep in touch during the summer," Lauryn says. 

"We could start a group chat!" Seb suggests. 

"And then we can send each other memes," Big Red adds. 

"I'm just not ready for the year to be over," I speak up. 

Beside me, Nini gives me a gentle smile. We've become friends since resolving our issues, but we're still not best friends or anything, so smiles and small talk are usually as much as we ever exchange. I should be fine with that, but sometimes I wish we could do more like hang out and stuff.

"Hey," Natalie Bagley suddenly cuts in, "what if we had, like, a huge thing before we left? Like a camping trip?"

There are a lot of yeses from the group, but one no stand out. 

"Nuh uh," Carlos responds. "I've been known to sleep dance, and that gets dangerous when I'm out in the woods."

"Come on," Ricky says. "Camping is fun. I go all the time."

"Then you can write my eulogy when I dance off a cliff in the middle of the night," Carlos replies. 

"Wait, what if we didn't sleep outside?" Ashlyn says, stepping forward. "My parents have a cabin in the forest. There are enough rooms for all of us to stay there."

"That's perfect!" Natalie cheers. 

"So we're doing a group cabin camping trip?" EJ says. "That'll make such a good vlog."

Ashlyn glances at her cousin but doesn't comment on what he said. Instead, she just looks to the group again, saying, "Cool. Once we have that group chat, we can plan the details."

"This is gonna be so great!" Natalie says. 

As the group starts to disperse, I notice Nini and Kourtney retreat to the opposite end of the room from Ricky and Big Red who come to talk with me and Ashlyn. Ricky and Nini broke up just less than a week ago, which I heard all about from Ricky, but it's weird seeing them actively avoiding each other. I guess I shouldn't care, since it has nothing to do with me. I just find myself looking at her a lot now, probably because I want to be her friend. I don't know if should want to be friends with my friend's ex, but I kind of do anyway. Although, she doesn't talk to me that much anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter. 

A/N: Hello. This was so hard to write, because it's a very necessary but not very interesting part of the story that sets it all in motion. I just hope you will stick around to read the rest, because I have a lot of little cute ideas. Thanks!