Chasing Blue

#1: Survivors.

Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.
-Sarah Dassen

. . .

Present

Isabella

I've made it out in one piece. 

I push through the main door and let it swing before it slowly comes to a halt. The bright sun hits my face, directly from the top. The afternoon sun in the summer months doesn't feel as pretty as it sounds. I wipe away the trail of a single sweat drop rolling down my temple as I hurry towards the football lawns. My senior year has officially come to an end. What a painfully frustrating journey it's been from the first time I stepped into this school till now. 

I pull my bag back onto my shoulder. One shoulder, because wearing your backpack double arm is not considered cool in the rule book of High School. I climb the staircase that descended the path to hell, silently patting my back to have made it out alive. Calling High School hell was my attempt to explain it mildly. It was everything I was unaware of and worse. I remember how I entered detention hoping for a smooth ride through the last four years, but I think I experienced everything apart from a smooth ride through the last four years. 

"Good?" Maya Sen yelled at me from the farthest corner of the football field. 

In reference to the paper that I just finished writing, this marks the end of classrooms, tolerating lectures and dodging controversial statements of the teachers. After finishing the Math exam, I hereby declare my high school journey over. No vote of thanks. 

"Survived." I nodded as I slow-jogged my way towards her, welcoming more sweat trails. 

My legs ached because of the workout I did today morning. Prepping for the last volleyball match of the season, and my last match as a student of Frankfurt High definitely didn't make my coach the least bit emotional. Instead, he went extra hard on the entire team. 

I dropped my bag beside May's black sneakers. Her black eyes looked a tinge of brown under the sun but the tree's shade shielded her from the slow sunburn. I plop beside her and stretch my legs in front of me as I lie down. 

She laughs, watching me trying to catch more slow breaths as she unties her long black hair and pulls it into the most perfectly messy-looking bun. She brings the cold coffee from her tray to her mouth, takes a sip, and slides it over to me. 

"Well, the hard part's done," she sighed hugging her knees. "And yet, something feels off." 

I sip the cold coffee. "The hard part was the fun part." I adjust my head onto her backpack to get a better view of the empty football field. "How did you do?" 

She scoffed. Normally, that scoff would be an intimation of sarcasm. But here, the scoff meant 'meh' because Maya Sen is an academically studious student body president with self-diagnosed borderline symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder believes that being diligent in high school might not necessarily be the start to a millionaire lifestyle but it's definitely a boost to scholarships. 

"Aced it." She smiled with her lips pursed. 

May started reading for the finals two months ago. When she was through with her second revision, is when we started opening our textbooks. She's got a scholarship to Julliard and as much as she wants to exaggerate the process as being hard and nail-biting, I think it was an easy swing. With all the co-curricular experience, volunteering work, and internships she's been doing, Julliard needs her more than the other way around. 

Our eyes converge on the view of three boys walking towards our corner. The three of them hold five trays as they slowly laugh their way through the entire walk. Eating in the cafeteria has never been our thing. Mainly because (a) too many people crowd the place, (b) the cafeteria is always a magnet to drama, and (c) it's the one place that is tainted with the presence of Jacob Miles.