Growing Pains

Chapter 74 - Gather ye rosebuds while ye may

Someone was going to college in Europe, but Caitlyn stepped in front of me before I could see who it was, pushing my bag off my desk so she could sit on it.

"I have good news too," she said. "And guess what? It doesn't involve a lifetime of debt."

"I'm all ears."

She leaned in to actually pull on one of my ears, and said, "I found a treatment facility for at-risk kids not too far away that offers apprenticeships for people interested in working with them. It starts in September, so I could still help you with the surfing classes during the summer. What do you think?"

"Surfing classes?"

"Yes," she said, pulling her legs up and crossing them on top of the table.

"Caitlyn, get your feet off the table, please!" This was Mr. Wyatt, looking at us from the front of the class, still surrounded by everyone else's good news.

Caitlyn put her legs back down and went on, "I've been thinking. You could probably make some really good money teaching kids how to surf. Tristan says Sam doesn't shut up about it. He's been begging his dad to get him a surfboard. We just have to get him to talk to his friends about it, and we can definitely get a pyramid scheme going on. Sam goes to some fancy private school so we're talking filthy rich parents who like throwing money at their kids. You've essentially hit the jackpot."

I smiled, "Are you serious?"

"Absolutely I am," she said. "Let's eat the rich!"

I smiled some more, "I'll think about it."

She jumped off my desk, but I grabbed her arm before she could leave for her seat at the very back. "What?"

"I think it's really cool that you wanna help kids–"

She shook her head, "I don't care about the kids. I just want their parents' money, Ethan."

I shook my head too, "I'm talking about the treatment center for at-risk kids."

"Oh," she said. "Well, yeah, I've been at risk for years, so I know the area well."

"Guess who's renting a limo to prom?" someone asked behind her. We both turned to see who it was, only to find Isaac walking our way with Edward, smiling from ear to ear.

"Your boyfriend?" Caitlyn asked, unimpressed.

Edward shook his head, "No."

"The football team," Isaac said instead, taking a seat on the desk in front of mine. "Apparently Coach Sargent is paying because we won Nationals. We can all take a plus-one, so you can both come with us if you want."

I said, "Yes, please."

And Caitlyn said, "No."

I looked at her, "Why not?"

"Cause I would rather die."

"I'm going." This was Tristan, standing behind Edward, waiting for him to take a seat, so he could get to his. Edward noticed and said sorry under his breath before sitting behind the desk next to Isaac's like he always did these days.

Caitlyn frowned at Tristan, "Fuck you. You're lying."

"I'm not," he said with a shrug, already on the way to the back. "I'm taking Zoey."

Caitlyn rolled her eyes, "Fine, I'll go, but I'm gonna be on shrooms the whole time."

"Alright, alright," Mr. Wyatt said from the front of the class when everyone was done blinding him with the bright futures they had ahead of them. "Everyone sit down."

And everyone did. I looked down at my letter of admission, already folded at a wrong angle on top of my desk from having been sat on. I didn't think I had a bright future ahead of me, if anything, only a dimly lit one, but I didn't care. I straightened out my letter and looked up at Mr. Wyatt when he started speaking again.

"I don't wanna take too much of your time today. I just have a few things to say and then you're free to go celebrate. So, first things first, congratulations on making it to the last day of class! A round of applause for everyone please!"

Everyone clapped, even Tristan and Caitlyn, who said at the same time that they always thought they would die before they could finish high school.

"Believe it or not, I'm well aware of how excruciatingly hard high school can be, so I really do mean it when I say congratulations," Mr. Wyatt said, turning around to write something on the board. "This is my personal email. In the future, if you need to, you can write to me. I might take a few hours to reply, if I'm really busy, maybe a few days, but I'll always reply, alright?"

I wrote his email on the back of my hand.

He went on, "It really was a pleasure having you in my class. You're an exceptional group of people and I'm very glad I got to be a part of your lives, even if for just a year. I wish you all the best for your future. Whatever you decide to do with it, I can only hope it makes you happy. That's all anyone should hope to be, in my personal opinion."

No one said anything. No one even moved.

"Right, that's it. Class dismissed. I hope to see everyone this weekend. Yes, the rumors are true. I've been asked to chaperone your prom, so this isn't the last you'll see of me."

"Will we get to see you dance?" Kylie asked, already up from her seat in the front, her bag on her shoulder. Around her, others started to get up too, but no one seemed in any real rush to leave like they usually did at the end of class.

"Maybe, who knows?" Mr. Wyatt said, "Everyone's going, right?"

And everyone answered at once. Yes, they were going, and they were taking so and so with them, and wearing this or that, and going here or there for the after party, and if they weren't going, then it was because of etcetera, etcetera.

Isaac got up in front of me, and threw his backpack on his shoulders, "Right, let's go. I'm really fucking hungry. I didn't have breakfast this morning."

Edward got up too, "Why not?"

I answered before Isaac did, "Cause he dropped his toast on the sidewalk when we were leaving this morning and –"

"And you didn't let me go back to make more –"

"Cause we were going to miss all the good waves."

Edward smiled and followed us to the door. We said goodbye to Mr. Wyatt before we walked out, and he stopped what he was saying to Luke to try and convince him to go to prom, waved at us, and said, "Seize the day, boys."

And then Daisy said, from the bottom of her lungs, "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may!"

I didn't know what that meant, but I knew how to seize the day. I thought one way or another, we all did.