And The Pain Is Alright

And The Pain Is Alright 3

And The Pain Is Alright 3

Senior year is a whirlwind for Meredith Grey.

First of all, she finally decided to apply for college in the end. In fact, she applied to six colleges because her mother said she'd pay for them all, and she insisted that Meredith apply for Dartmouth even though she didn't want to actually go there.

But she did in the end, because Dartmouth offered her a great scholarship, and she didn't have any strong leanings otherwise.

At this point, Meredith has kissed four people and dated five.

She hasn't gone "all the way," with any of them yet, it all that could change as the prom was nearing closer.

By this time her hair has faded back to her usual dirty-blonde, and she's cut out the pink parts at the tips as a distant memory.

She wonders idly what her soulmate is up to. She hasn't heard or felt anything in a while, but she figures that generally after leaving grade school that people are less clumsy so they're less inclined to get all sorts of random injuries.

There's pain, sure, but a lot of it is angsty and emotional.

And Meredith hates that at least so far, for this kind of pain, that she has to go through it alone.

It's actually in music class that Addison seems to find her true calling.

Her band teacher calls her a "prodigy," and hands her some applications for music school.

And Addison loves it, and moves to put the paperwork through.

She doesn't talk to her brother as much anymore, because he's off at university and he's decided that he's so much cooler than his little sister.

Or, at least, he pretends as such when he calls home to her.

But there's always those little moments where Archer talks to Addison like he used to, and Addison always cherishes those ones.

"Do you think I'm cut out for music school?" Addison asks Archer one day.

"Only if you want to be a music teacher, or a performer, or a composer or something?" Archer shrugs at her question.

"What do you want to be?" Addison asks him. "What would you do with a B.A in English?" She teases.

"Actually I switched majors, sis," Archer confessed to her. "I'm hoping to head into Radiology," Archer shrugs.

"Why the sudden change?" Addison inquires.

"Why not?" Archer laughs.

"I could be a scientist..." Addison muses.

"I bet you'd be one of those weirdo mad scientist types," Archer rolls his eyes at her.

"Hey!" Addison rolls her eyes back playfully.

"Whatever," says Archer. "At least mom will be less stressed if she doesn't think you're gonna end up being one of those band geeks who plays for cruise ships," Archer adds.

"Those people are probably happy!" Says Addison.

She applies for pre-medical school anyway.

When Meredith books her flights off to Europe, she doesn't tell Ellis Grey that she's going. Or, she tries to, but that never goes over well.

"Gap years are for dropouts, Meredith," her mother would always tell her, hardly ever looking up from the book in front of her nose.

"But it'll be a great experience!" Meredith tries to insist to her.