Luke's POV
The year was finally over! Today was the last day of school, at 12:30 I would finally be a senior! One more year of high school before I would be off to college and I could hardly wait!
"Luke hurry up! You don't to be late for your last day of school!" My mom called from downstairs. I pulled on a t-shirt and shorts and ran downstairs, I grabbed a waffle from the plate and stuffed it in my mouth as I ran towards the car. I'd over slept, and Lauren didn't exactly give me a nice wake up call at 7:45. Zoe chased after me and leaped into the car just before I started the engine and sped down the street to Lauren's house then to school.
"If I get my first tardy ever, I'm going to murder you Luke Jackson." Lauren hissed.
"Calm down, it's the last day of school, what teacher would give out tardies?" I rationalized.
"Uh, our pre-calc teacher, that's who. Now come on let's go!" Lauren ordered like my basketball coach did.
---
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, the three of us sprinted into school like our lives depended on it. Lauren and I had just sat down in calculus before the bell rang. "Ok class, pop quiz!" Our teacher announced.
Groans and sighs filled the classroom, I think Lauren broke her pencil. "what? There can't be a quiz, she never said anything about a quiz yesterday? Oh my gods I'm gonna fail cause I didn't study and then I'll never get into Harvard." Lauren panic whispered.
"You'll be fine, relax Laur." I touched her shaking hand.
"Take one and pass it back class." Our teacher said with a big grin on her face, I swear she acted like Satan sometimes. I still have no idea how I ended up getting an A in this class, she was the toughest teacher in our school.
I got the paper back and heard Lauren sigh with relief next to me. I checked out the first question, it was a reflection sheet about the class and a few questions about what we were doing this summer. I finished in no time, same with Lauren. We played a few card games but mostly it was social hour. Once the bell dismissed us from class, our teacher said, "have a great summer everyone! See you next year!"
I watched Lauren walk up to our teacher and say a few quick words that made our teacher smile and hug Lauren goodbye. "What did you say?" I asked as we walked to our next class.
"I said thanks for a great year and see you in AP Calculus next year." Lauren grinned.
"You signed up too? I should've known." I bumped her shoulder.
"Great minds think alike. See you at lunch." Lauren waved as she stepped through the doorway to her chemistry class. That made me excited at least I knew Lauren and I would have one class together. Next I had history with Troy, I saw him walking Ruth to her next class. We found out they were dating about two days after prom, well Marcus and I did, Lauren knew within twelve hours. The three of us always gave them a hard time but nothing had really changed in our group which was what I had been worried about when they first started going out.
Troy sat down next to me and basically during class we played hangman the entire time, two classes later, it was lunch time. Leaving only two classes left before school was out for the year.
---
"Have you guys done anything in your classes today?" Ruth asked before she took a bite of her sandwich.
"No, we literally haven't done anything all day. I don't understand why we don't just ditch the last day." Marcus said.
"Yeah, I mean honestly all we've done is play games." Troy agreed.
"I agree, it's pretty dumb, the last day of school shoulda been yesterday." Lauren responded.
Our mouths all dropped open, "holy mother of Hades. Did Lauren just say school was dumb? Who the hell are you?" I teased.
"Shut up bird brain, you know it's true." Lauren threw her sandwich at me.
"Agreed," we all concluded.
"Marcus, are your parents still throwing the end of the school year party?" I asked.
"Yep, I told mom we'd be there to help set up." Marcus answered with a mouthful of bread.
"Marcus, offering to help out? Unheard of." Lauren sniggered.
Marcus gave her the stink eye as we all laughed hysterically at her comment, "my mom forced me to help."
"There's always catch," Ruth laughed.
"Whatever, you guys will help me right? I think I'll die if I do it alone."
"Sure, we'll help, but I have to pick up Zoe."
"Didn't Zoe say that Piper was taking her there?" Lauren said.
"What?" I gasped.
"Lily, Zoe, Penny, Taylor, Riley and Lena are all getting picked up by Piper. And Charlie, Aspen, Elliot and Sammy are getting picked up by Hazel today. Zoe mentioned it several times in the car this morning, I swear you guys, he's deaf." Lauren snickered.
"Oh, I must've missed that, I was a bit stressed this morning." I nudged Lauren.
Before anyone could say anything else, the bell rang, signaling lunch was over. "Let's meet at Luke's locker after sixth period, we can carpool from there." Troy said.
"Cool, sounds good. See you all after sixth period." Ruth concluded as we all went our separate ways to our last classes of junior year.
---
The bell for sixth period finally rang, my day was over! I jumped for joy in the hallway and trotted all the way to my locker. I stood happily by my locker awaiting for my friends to show up. Naturally, Lauren was the first to arrive, "we are seniors! One more year left!" Lauren cheered as she high fived me in the hallway.
"Yes thank the gods. I'm so ready for college." Lauren grinned.
"What's up! School's out my homies!" Marcus called high fiving us.
"We talked about this Marcus, if you use homies one more time I will slap you." Lauren threatened playfully.
"Ok, ok, I'll stop. Where's truth, they're always late." Marcus snickered.
"It's the truth, they're always late." I couldn't help myself, Lauren slapped us.
"Good one dude, that was hilarious." Marcus gave me a fist bump. Moments later Troy and Ruth appeared hand in hand, "here comes Romeo and Juliet, come on you two we're burning daylight!" Marcus teased.
Ruth blushed and Troy gave Marcus the stink eye, "alright that's enough Marcus, come on, let's go help set up." Lauren punched his shoulder.
"I agree, come on let's go." Our group walked out of the school confidently towards the parking lot.
---
Marcus lived in a standard two story home in a neighborhood populated with younger kids. The house was a hunters green with light brown doors and white shutters. Juniper and Lily must've planted dozens of bushes and flowers all over the house, the landscaping was amazing.
"Hey mom, we're home!" Marcus called as we walked through the front door.
"Oh there's my little boy! Gods how are you a senior now? How are all of you seniors?" Juniper hugged us all. Marcus seemed a little annoyed and embarrassed by his mother's behavior but shrugged it off as she made us some snacks and told us what we were supposed to set up after we were done.
"Ok, girls, you two will help me in the kitchen and you three will put up streamers and set up tables and chairs and various yard games." Juniper pushed us outside.
"She's been a little on edge about this party over the last few days. Sorry guys." Marcus apologized as he grabbed a chair from the garage.
"That was stress? Have you met my mom?" I joked.
"Luke's right, my mom is almost as bad as Annabeth. You call that stressed?" Troy agreed as he helped me carry a table outside.
"Ok you're right, both of you. I just would like to say that I am challenging you both to ping pong, and corn-hole." Marcus challenged as he grabbed another chair.
"You're on dude, but everyone knows that I am a ping pong wizard." I boasted.
"Not tonight wise guy, I will take you down." Troy threatened in a joking matter.
"Yeah sure Valdez, you can try but you will fail." I let my ego get the best of me.
"Luke we all know I'm a better player than you, so shut your trap and get back to work." I heard Lauren order from the kitchen window.
"Oof, I should give you a high five for that one Laur." Marcus cooed.
I rolled my eyes, "ok, when I beat everyone, game on sweetheart." I retorted, Lauren's face blushed red only for a moment before she disappeared into the kitchen.
Troy and Marcus were laughing at me, I shook it off and continued to carry tables, chairs, ladder ball sets and other games.
When we had finally finished Hazel had just pulled up with half of the kids in her car, "whahoo! School's out baby!" I heard Marcus' little brother, Aspen, cheer.
"You said it dude, no more school! No more school!" Charlie chanted.
We heard Piper's car stop in the driveway and all the girls jumped out. "Three months of nothing else but sun and Camp! Bring it on!" Lena howled. My siblings honestly crack me up so much sometimes. Then I felt a wave of sadness cloud me for a minute as I thought about next summer, I knew that was what I'm going to miss the most when I left would be them and my parents.
"Hi Lauren!" Zoe and Taylor waved to her, I snapped out of it and glanced towards them who must've been in the window from the front.
"Wow you guys, don't even say hi to your own brother, I'm crushed." I ran over and grabbed Taylor who shrieked and screamed with laughter.
"Me next Luke! Can I have a piggy back ride?" Twelve year old Riley pleaded, her bright blue eyes and blonde hair caught the sunlight as she stood in front of me.
"Oh fine, but just this once." I squatted down and picked her up.
"Whee! Look at me Tay! I'm taller than everyone!" Riley giggled as she bounced on my back.
"Why don't I ever get a piggy back ride?" Taylor whined.
"Because Riley is special." I toyed with my sister who had her arms crossed, she looked like a twelve year old version of my mom when she's angry.
"You're mean," Taylor couldn't resist the smile on her face.
"But you love me, maybe Troy will give you ride."
Taylor ran over to Troy and demanded that he give her a piggy back ride. Soon enough Troy, Marcus and I were racing each other with little kids on our backs until the girls called for us to come inside. Food was everywhere, there were endless bowls of fruit, chips, sweets and treats. Juniper made us boys help set up the food on the porch while the girls and the younger kids played games and ran around the yard. Around five the rest of our families started arriving. Surprisingly enough, my parents were the first to show up. Mom must've finished work super early today, there was no other explanation.
"There he is!" My mom exclaimed.
"Hey buddy, how does being a senior feel?" My dad ruffled my hair.
"Dad," I gritted my teeth but smiled anyways, "but it feels great! I can't wait for next year when I get into MIT."
"Don't talk about next summer, I don't want to think about it." My mom gave me a sad look.
"Ok, not yet, but it will come up." I ended the conversation.
"Mom! Look at this! I beat Charlie!" I heard Lena squeal from the porch.
"Let me see kiddo, did you kick his butt?" My mom smiled lovingly at my grey eyed little sister.
"She's lying! Don't listen to her!" Charlie's voice echoed from the yard.
My dad put his hand on my shoulder as the two of us laughed while we watched Charlie chase Lena and Penny around the yard in protest for his loss. I noticed just now that I was as tall as my dad, I felt like an equal standing next to him. It dawned on me that now we were both adults. Both mature in our own ways, I felt so grown up compared to all the others here, a part of me wanted to be like the kids running around outside but another part of me was happy I was older.
"Boys! Are you guys coming outside?" I heard my mom call from outside.
"We're coming in a sec wise girl," my dad answered, the look in my dad's eyes when he heard my mom's voice was so full of love and life. I knew that every time he saw my mom he loved everything about her. I hoped I'd find someone like that someday, and I hoped I'd look at her just like how my dad looks at my mom.
"Come on buddy, I'll take you on in corn hole." My dad challenged, and he raced me outside. I went for the blue bean bags, but my dad beat me to it. He loved blue more than Zoe and I combined. I took the red ones and we had a good time shouting playful insults at each other and spending some time together. I couldn't remember the last time the two of us had done something like this together, it was nice, I missed hanging out with him like this.
---
The stars were beginning to light up the night sky, everyone was gathered around the fire enjoying hot dogs and burgers. "Zoe, remember when Sierra said Sammy was a dork and you dumped your hot soup on her? Gods that was so funny." Elliot laughed.
"I remember, and what about that time you punched some kid in the face because he said it was weird you hung out with a girl." Zoe said.
"Yeah, but Lauren punched Chandler in the nose and kicked Andrea in the chin." Marcus brought up, everyone turned to Lauren and she blushed bright red.
"Lauren, holy shit." Aspen cooed.
"Ok then, does anyone have any good stories about their year? I mean ones not about punching other children?" Leo clapped his hands together.
"Riley and I won the talent show." Taylor beamed.
"Yeah, it was super fun!" Riley put her arm around Taylor and smiled proudly.
"I won a national art contest. And Lilah and I starred in the school play." Lena exclaimed smiling at Delilah.
"See, that's some good news." Piper put on a fake smile unable to hide her shock from the conversation before.
"Ok, well I've got some news, this summer, sunshine and I are treating you all, meaning the adults to a trip to Venice Italy!" Leo lightened the mood.
Cheers and whoops of joy were exchanged between the adults around the fire, "hey we should sing a song!" Taylor suggested.
"Yeah! That's a good idea Taylor, what should we sing?" Piper asked sweetly.
Riley, Taylor, Lena, Delilah and Penny all exchanged excited glances like they all knew a big secret.
It was Riley who started singing first, "what time is it? Summer time! It's our vacation! What time is it? Party time! That's right, say it loud! What time is it? The time of our lives! Anticipation! What time is it? Summer time! School's out, scream and shout!"
Soon enough everyone began to sing along because it didn't matter if you've seen the movie once or a zillion times you always remember the song. We all sang long into the night, laughing and just enjoying the start of a great summer vacation.