Let's Go To The Mountains

Chapter 1

Thomas

My six o'clock alarm blared into my ears. I groaned as I dragged a hand down my face and sat up in my bed. School doesn't start for another hour, but I'm always up before the sun. Grabbing my phone from the charger, I walked into the kitchen of my apartment.

Over the years, I've managed to accumulate a large amount of money. I've put it all in various accounts, of course. I don't need to draw any attention to myself. I hope Sarah's been smart enough to do the same. If she's even still alive. Who am I kidding, of course she is. I just haven't been able to find her.

With my money, I bought my own apartment and paid someone to fudge some school transfer papers. I like to bounce around from place to place every two or three years. Junior year is the perfect time to integrate into a new school, at least as perfect as it can be for me seeing as I look older than any freshman should.

I moved to the east coast right before the school year started last year. I enrolled as a junior, as I typically do. That year, I joined the football team. It was a sport that I haven't really played within the past decade. I'm a natural, but playing sports in high school is dangerous. There are scouts looking for new recruits. I'm always a junior or a senior, and that's the time they typically swoop in, trying to commit players to schools before they get too many offers.

This year, I'm a senior. I managed to fly just under most colleges' radars. I have plenty of friends and am pretty popular in school. It's a book I've read a million times. Life gets to be really redundant when you are immortal.

My phone buzzes with early Snapchat notifications. I just left everyone on delivered. I don't need desperate girls sending me 'good morning streaks'. I quickly checked my texts: some guys for the team were getting together after school, a couple girls were trying to talk to me, a few friends were playing me in 8ball, and some were asking about homework assignments.

That's another bonus of repeating the same grades. I have all the information cemented in my brain. I can sleep through classes and still be valedictorian if I wanted to be. I'll settle for top ten in the grade.

I quickly showered and got dressed, pulling on a pair of dark jeans and my football hoodie. I slung my book bag over my shoulder as I walked to my car, dumping it into the passenger seat once I got in.

Cars and licenses are harder to get, but, again, I know people. My license and ID get changed once the birth year doesn't quite match my looks anymore. Blending into this world takes effort.

Once I parked in the school lot, I fished out my AirPods and put on some of my music so people wouldn't try to talk to me. It was barely seven in the morning. Never in my three hundred plus years have I ever been a morning person. I walked out of my car and headed to class. Here's to another day.

Sarah

I pulled up to school at eight fifteen, taking a few minutes to touch up my makeup before walking into the brick building. The place is annoying as hell, but it starts later than most schools do and that is a blessing in itself.

The late school starts are part of the appeal of the west coast. It's part of the reason I tend to gravitate to this side of the states. It could also be that the ocean always makes me feel more connected to Thomas. After he left for war, he never found me. I know he has to be alive. I'm still here, so he should be, too. For some strange reason, in all the centuries we've had, we haven't crossed paths.

To be fair, he's probably traveling the world, living different parts of life in different countries. I tried doing that. Living in Europe was fun until I'd seen it all. I came back to America around the end of World War II. I like to spend wartime in neutral countries.

I've been at this school since my freshman year. It doesn't matter that I'm trapped at eighteen. With enough makeup and skill, anyone can look older or younger. I'm just glad that I get to stay in one spot for more than a couple years.

I'm currently in my junior year at this school. Makeup had become my best friend. I can look twelve or twenty two whenever I want. It's a very useful skill to have, and it's allowed me to complete all of high school and college in one place. I like it: there is less moving around and fewer headaches. I know Thomas doesn't have it as easy as I do. Though, maybe he could get away with acting younger. Some of these freshmen boys look like they should be graduating.

"Mornin', Sunshine," a voice said behind me. I turn over my shoulder to find one of my friends trying to catch up with me.

"Hey, Cameron," I reply, stepping up to my locker and opening it.

"Have you done Johnson's assignment?" she asked, leaning against the locker next to mine, hugging a binder to her chest.

"There was homework?" I paused putting my stuff away, "I don't remember there being homework."

"It was from a few days ago."

"I probably already turned it in."

"Of course," she sighed, dramatically facepalming, "I've been putting it off for too long."

I hung my now empty bag in my locker, took out my notebook and materials for my next class, and shut my locker. We both walked to a junction in the hall, pausing at a corner to talk before the bell rang.

"Before I forget," Cameron started, "Are you free after school? I have a few classes that are confusing me. So you can help me with that and we can work on our project for Mrs. Smith."

"I have practice then about an hour and a half before I have to get to work. I'll pick you up."

Cameron and I have a mutually beneficial friendship. She needs help in school and I need some friends so I don't go through high school alone. I've tried that and ended up 'transferring' halfway through sophomore year. I'm not going to waste my time going to school if I can't have some fun. Our friendship isn't fake, though. We get along spectacularly and have done so since freshman year. If all goes well and we don't drift apart, we'll probably be going to the same college.

It's not entirely her fault that we aren't the type of friends who are attached at the hip and practically live together. It's just that I've had plenty of friends. At first, I would find myself getting too close to them and then I'd have to leave and it would break my heart. No permanent strings makes everything easier for everyone.

In the afternoons, I help Cameron out with some of the class material if she asks for it. I'm not going to ask to give up my time, but if she asks, I will. I have a job so I can keep up appearances as the kid whose parents want them to earn everything, but also so I can pass some time and get some money. Being immortal isn't easy on my bank account.

This town is near a bunch of colleges, so apartments are not cheap, and I can't exactly ask my underage friends to move in with me. I got a place freshman year with the help of a bunch of fake documents and plenty of makeup. I was alone all of freshman year, but sophomore year, I started looking for roommates. No one wants to live with a sixteen-year-old especially when they are older, but I don't ask a lot for rent and bills. I fed them some crap about emancipation which they hardly listened to. That topic is always a conversation bore.

They just needed a place to live and a roommate who stayed out of the way. Perfect. I never invite people over and I keep the place clean. They love me. Now, them on the other hand. They like to have their friends over. Just a few, not a whole party, but enough to make a lot of noise.

They aren't bad people. We've been living together for two years and nothing has gone awry. If anything I can stop acting as young as I pretend to be around them and just blame it on their collegiate influence. Sometimes, I even end up giving them advice.

The bell rang, pulling me back to the present while sending Cameron and I on separate routes to our classes.