Unlikely Star

The Purple Piano Project

New year, new me. That was going to be my motto for the year. It was my junior year of high school, which meant I really had to do well this year to get the attention of colleges. I know senior year was when you actually applied to colleges, but they looked mainly at your junior year transcript to see if they want you or not. So with all my distractions in my life gone, I'm going to be able to get great grades, win Nationals for both Glee and the Cheerios, and come out a better person.

My Cheerios uniform was still in its dry cleaning bag. I wanted it to be freshly cleaned for the first day of school. Coach Sue had thankfully accepted the Glee girls back onto the team. I thought after what happened last year, she would've never let us rejoin. But, she welcomed us with open arms during summer boot camp, everyone except for Quinn. I actually hadn't heard from Quinn all summer, so I hope she was doing good.

For part of the summer, I stayed with my cousins who had a place down in California. Although the weather was so much more temperamental than in Lima, there was so much more to do on a daily basis than just going to Breadstix. Swimming in the actual ocean was so refreshing, mainly because it wasn't filled with tons of chemicals and chlorine. My skin had turned to a slightly darker tone, not dramatically though. It had gone from pale ghost skin to light olive. My dirty blonde hair got even blonder and my freckles became more prominent.

I decided to quit my job at the boutique. I knew I would be busy throughout the year, so I thought it would be better to be less stressed out. Linda was disappointed, but she told me I was free to come back at any time.

Possibly the worst part about summer was saying goodbye to Sam. After he told me he was leaving, I tried to spend as much time with him as I could. I even helped him and his family pack up their stuff. But the day eventually came where they had nothing left to pack, and it was time for them to leave. He was heading to Kentucky for his father's new job. Tears were flowing, mainly from me, as his car rolled away.

For the next week or two, we video chatted practically every night. Sam was telling me about the new neighborhood he was living in, and I was telling him all about Cheerios boot camp. But after that, our calls changed to every other night, then possibly once a week, and then we just stopped talking completely. I noticed the dramatic change, but I didn't want to say anything, so as to not ruin our relationship.

Finally, we both decided to call each other and talk about what we were going to do. After talking for about two hours, Sam and I decided to call things off. We both realized that our relationship worked so well because we were always with each other. Whether it was just talking in the hallways, or having a quick make out session in my car. Not being able to see each other every day obviously wasn't working out.

That was in early July. I hadn't talked to him at all since then. For the rest of the summer, I was mostly trying to get over Sam. I knew that we most likely would not be able to get back together, so it was better to get rid of my feelings now and bury them six feet under.

I spent lots more time helping out at my mom's bakery. Mainly because she had hired a new employee, Zander. As in the Zander who I was pretty sure was flirting with me earlier in the year. I wasn't the biggest romantic, but I could tell he was flirting with me again while we were working. He hadn't officially asked me out, but I could get a certain vibe from him.

But now, it was time to focus on me. This was going to be my year, and nobody could stop me.

***

First period was as boring as I could expect. Calculus was not interesting to me or any of my other classmates. I started to make my way down the stairs to get to my spanish class, but I was cut off by Jacob Ben Israel.