The sunlight felt like heaven on my bare shoulders, and I leaned back to enjoy the precious rays. It had been so long since I’d been able to relish the feeling of constant sun. A chorus of loud screeches from off to my left caused me to turn my head in that direction, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as a boy ran around, grabbing people suddenly and shouting in their ears, causing them to scream. He came near me, was next to me, went to latch his hands on my shoulders, until…

"Hey! You're new."

I giggled, popped a grape in my mouth. "Yeah."


He smiled at me before hurrying off to terrorise other students. A tall shadow fell over me, and I looked up to see one of my best friends from when I was a young girl. Matt sat down beside me and stole a grape from the container in my lap.

“Well, holy shit. I’d heard you were back, but I didn’t expect it to be true. You’ve been telling us you’ll come to visit for so damn long, I was beginning to not believe it.”

“Gee, thanks, Sanders. Nice to see you, too.”

“It’s wonderful to see you. But you have to admit – you’ve been promising us for years, and it hadn’t happened.”

“Yea, yea, I know. Now quit stealing my damn food!”

He chuckled, patting the back of my hand with his own. We sat in silence for a few more moments, before I glanced up to see three guys approaching us. Matt nudged me with his shoulder; once the newcomers had found places to sit in front of us, my friend began the introductions.

“This is Brian, Zack, and Justin. Guys, this is an old friend, Amy.”

They guys barely spared me more than a curious glance and swift “hey,” and then they launched into stories about what had happened during their morning classes. I stood up, threw away my trash, and began walking to my next lesson. Unfortunately, no one familiar was in either my French or Algebra class, but there were two faces I’d already seen, in Chemistry: Brian and the crazy boy from lunch. Something he’d done before I arrived had Brian laughing; I shrugged it off and approached the teacher. He quickly signed the piece of paper I’d been given by the school secretary, sending me to an empty seat behind Matt’s friends.

“Hey, I never caught your name earlier.”

“Oh, um, it’s Amy.”

“I'm Jimmy. Sorry if I freaked you out.”

“Nah. It was really quite amusing.”

“Mr Sullivan, Ms Maysen, perhaps this conversation can wait until after class?”

The rest of the hour was spent trying to pay attention to the teacher and not giggle aloud at the things Jimmy was whispering; from what I could see, Brian seemed to be having the same issue. The bell couldn’t have come at a better time, for I was near bursting out with laughter by the time it rang.

I hitched my bag onto my shoulder and followed everybody else out the door. As I headed toward the office, I noticed that Brian and Jimmy were walking with me.

“Um, can I help you with something?”

“Nah. I’m just heading this way for detention.”

I laughed. “Why does that not surprise me?”

“Because you saw how I am at lunch?” the taller of the two guessed.

“That, I did. What about you, Brian?”

“I parked over this way.”

We split off at the office building. Once I dropped off the paper, I stepped back out into the sunshine and started my trek home. I was grateful for both the weather and the fact I only lived a ten-minute walk away. My mother greeted me at the door, immediately shushing me.

“Please don’t wake him up. He’s in a terrible mood today.”

“Mom…”

“Please, Ames? We’ll only have to deal with it for a few more days.”

“Fine.”

She ushered me out to the back patio. “So how was school?”

“It was awesome, actually. Remember Matt Sanders? He goes there, so I got to see him again.”

“That’s great. Your dad will be happy to hear that.”

We were quiet for a while before she went inside to start dinner. I pulled out the homework I’d been assigned and decided to get to work.