Better Than The Movies

Chapter Nineteen

"Who's going to the college fair tonight?"

I'm sitting in my third period English class, waiting patiently for the bell to ring signaling lunchtime. I've been actively participating and enjoying this class until Mrs. Livingston brought up the one topic that no high school junior dared venture into. Life after high school.

I glanced around to see the usual try- hards raising their hands while others stared at her blankly silently wishing they could disappear. I'm one of the latter. I avoid all eye contact as she passes back the flyers notifying us of all the schools coming to torture us tonight. I wasn't planning on attending and made sure not to mention this to any of my parents. I'm in the clear, I thought as the bell rang releasing us. The papers make their way to my desk and I stare expectantly at the paper, waiting for it to disintegrate. I take one and pass it back to an already empty desk. I just leave them there for the next class as a less than pleasant surprise.

This school isn't necessarily college- preparatory. All these kids know what they want even when teachers insist that they could do better. My deal is why does better always mean college. I could travel the world or join the military, maybe even start my own business right out of high school. So many things in this world to do besides another four years of school where a number is stamped on your head as your worth. Numbers like GPA, SAT, and grades determine so much in the world. I think it's a shame that you spend so much of your life working and studying, not enjoying your young life because you're so focused on those numbers.

And I'm stupid just along with them. I may not be all the way together about college. But I put so much effort into those numbers, I'm one of those try-hards who raise their hand for every question. I got 1400 on my SAT's the first try and a 4.5 GPA. Teachers think I'm putting my life to waste because I'm focused on something bigger than college. They think I have the numbers to get into an Ivy and if my parents knew they would say the same thing. That's why I haven't shown my parents a report card since freshman year so they couldn't force me to make a decision that I didn't want to make.

I walked into the cafeteria, seeing hundreds of those flyers crumbled up and strewn across the linoleum floors. I was happy to see Kayden, Destiny, Erika, and Dylan sitting at our table, knowing they wouldn't talk about college.

"Hey gorgeous," Erika exclaims, scooting over to make room for me. Everybody at the table gives me a form of a greeting besides Destiny who is too engrossed in her screen to notice.

I squeeze in between her and Kayden with Destiny across from him and Dylan across from Erika. Rumor is it they went on a date while I was at the baseball game last weekend. Now they can't keep their hands and other body parts off each other so after a week of their nonsense Destiny, Kayden, and I had enough and prohibited them from sitting next to each other.

"What'd I miss?"

I missed the first ten minutes of lunch on facetime with Jace. He was homesick and had been texting me sick pictures all day. I had enough when he sent me a picture of a large teddy bear that Carter sent him for a get well soon gift as a joke. His voice was groggy and his face was redder than usual. In all honesty, he looked terrible with tissues stuffed up his nose and this was the one time that I didn't see him in glasses. He said he was too tired to put them on which I thought was just lazy. All he did was sniffle and complain about being home alone. I hung up after he fell asleep in the middle of my sentence about proper hydration.

"We were just talking about what colleges we wanted to see tonight..." Dylan trailed off and my eyes narrowed. Since when were my friends' good students? "MSU, Howard, Bowie State-" He went on listing all the colleges on the list that I threw away.

"Howard's coming!" Destiny screeched loud enough to alert the attention of the table behind us. "I could ask them about their Medical school!"