"Guess what I found out today?"
I look up at the sound of my mom's voice and raise my eyebrows in response. We're sitting together at the kitchen table. The bright sun is shining in through the windows. Summer is on the way.
"Sandra told me that Aiden's signed up for a summer wilderness retreat. June 1st to the last day of summer."
My jaw drops. I want to stand up and dance. "The whole summer?"
"Yeah, I suppose so. Sandra says he's been wanting to do something like that for years. Crack of dawn that morning they'll be on the road. "
"Oh, wow. That is just great! I'm going to throw a party."
"Sophia--"
My mom knows I don't like Aiden. It's sort of unclear, even to me, why I don't like him. It's probably because we have nothing in common. Everything I like, he finds a way to disagree with me about it, and vice versa. It's hard to be friendly with someone like that.
Whatever scolding my mom gives me after that goes in one ear and out the other. Aiden. A wilderness retreat. Gone for the entire summer. Oh, my god. This has to be the best thing to ever happen to me.
***
June 1st rolls around two weeks later. Sure enough, I'm awoken by the sound of slamming car doors at 5 in the morning. I roll out of bed and peek out the side of my bedroom window to find Aiden, Sandra, and his dad Dave climbing into the car. Dave sort of looks like he wants to kill himself. If a person like Aiden was my son, I probably would too.
I watch in utter glee as Dave pulls the car out and I don't step away from the window until the car has reached the end of the road and turned left.
This is going to be the best summer ever.