FicWad

I don't understand the last day of term. Seriously. I mean, you go in for like three hours and do nothing. Asides from find out whether you failed classes or had to go to summer school, you sat and did nothing until the bell rang. It's the most pointless thing in the world. Asides from math. Now that is pointless. But, waking up on the last day is almost as easy as waking up on the first day of school. On the first day, it's easy to get up, but the next few days following, you're always tired. Or maybe that's just me.
I made my way to the shower, for once not stumbling in the light of the morning and fumbling for the light switch or the shower knob. I managed to have probably the quickest shower ever, and was just brushing my teeth when there was a thumping on the door.
"What?"
"Get out! I'm gonna be late."
I groaned. Ellie always did this. I swear she waited until I went into the bathroom before she discovered she was 'late'.
"It's 7:30." I replied. "Your bus doesn't leave until 8:30."
"So? It's the last day."
"Oh, so on the last day of school you decide to be early?" I asked, after opening the door.
"God, you only took, like, /forever/."
I ignored her and walked to my room, but she followed me. What was she, a cat?
"Wow, check out my shadow. It's even more annoying than me." I said, looking round at her as I grabbed my hairdryer.
"Why are you up so early? Normally you're still hitting 'snooze'."
"Yeah, well, normally, I would hate to go to school. But summer break starts today. I'm willing to get up for that."
"Are you walking to school today?"
"Do I look that active?" I asked.
I actually used to be seriously sporty when I was a kid. Hockey, swimming, net ball, football, or soccer for you guys, you name it, I probably did it. Hell, I even attended a trampolining club.
"Can you actually answer a simple question?"
"Stupid questions deserve stupid answers." I replied. I really irritated her when I was sarcastic, which was pretty much most of my breathing time. Believe it or not, we actually enjoyed the banter when we 'argued'. I wouldn't really call it arguing. It really was banter. Just stupid conversations and stupid comebacks to try and irritate each other. I'm only telling you that incase you think I'm actually mean. I'm not that mean.
"No, I'm not. I'm getting the bus." I told her, giving her a stupid grin. "But you don't get it 'cause you're not in high school."
"Just you wait until after summer break. Then I'll be getting the same bus."
"I can barely contain myself."
"When will you be back after school?"
"I don't know." I said truthfully. "Patrick always walks home the last day of school. I think he said something about going to get lunch or something."
Bad move, Lisa.
Ellie's eyes lit up and she grinned.
"Really?"
I groaned.
"Yes. Just us."
Ellie most probably noticed she wouldn't get anywhere, and shrugged.
"Might not be a bad idea to have lunch with Pete and the others." I said.
What? I couldn't help it. Admit you wanna know how she'd react.
Her head snapped up.
"Pete?"
"Yeah."
OK, now I feel bad. And I bet you're sending me death thoughts. Alright, alright. I get the message.
"Or... maybe I could invite them round tonight if your mom's OK with it. We could have a sort of... barbeque or something."
"Really?"
"If your mom's alright with it. And if Patrick says it's alright."
"Wow! So I could meet them?"
"Don't get your hopes up. Patrick might turn around and say hell no."

"Hell yes!" Patrick laughed later on when I told him about my idea. Or my weakening, rather.
"Really?"
"Yeah." Patrick nodded, trying to prise a sticker off the door off his locker. "It'll give Ellie a chance to flirt with someone other than me."
"But Pete has a girlfriend."
"And a baby."
"It's not his, though, is it?" I asked. I couldn't for the life of me remember whether Ethan was Pete's or not.
"Nope." Patrick shook his head, giving up on the sticker and slamming the door shut. "So what did Robyn say about the barbeque... thing?"
"She said it was fine. She's surprisingly cool about stuff like that. Mind you, she's a sucker when your name's mentioned."
Patrick laughed.
"Why?"
"She adores you. Everyone does." I said, as we walked down the corridor and outside.
"They're insane. I'm nothing special."
"You're everything special." I told him, while we sat under the tree. Everyone was running about wild, even seniors. That was a scary sight. It was like when old people got drunk. Scary and made you frightened for your life - but you had to watch.
"I'll call Pete and the others tonight." Patrick said, watching me as he doodled on a notepad. I nodded.
"Did you tell your mum about getting into the band?"
Patrick nodded.
"Yeah. She was over the moon."
"Ellie wouldn't stop talking about Pete last night." I told him. He rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky.
"About how much she wants to bone him?"
I punched him.
"Hey."
"True, though." Patrick shrugged, but I knew he didn't mean it. He wasn't that mean, either.
"She thought she had a chance. She was devastated when I told her about Ethan and Christa."
"Christa was lovely." Patrick nodded.
"Yeah, she was. So different from the other girls around here." I said.
"You mean she wasn't a slut." Patrick laughed. You know that laugh he has? That kind of giggle/chuckle. It always made me smile. It still does.
"That's one way of putting it."
"Every girl round here is practically a slut." He said, pityingly.
"Every girl in the world is pretty much a slut to a non slutty girl or guy."
"Stop talking. You're not making any sense now."
I shrugged. At least he knew when to stop me when I became confusing. Which was a lot, actually.
"But anyway, back to Christa. I got on really well with her."
"Good. You can keep her company on tour all summer."
"Huh?"
"The tour. You're coming with me, right?"
I was touched at how thoughtful he was. I got excited, big grin. Butterflies in my stomach at the thought of touring, the lot. Until one thought came into my head.
"I have camp."
"Camp?" Patrick repeated.
"Not like the camp you go to when you're 10 years old." I said. "You know, the exchange program thing?"
"Oh, right. When is it?"
"Last two weeks of summer."
"That's nothing. Our tour only lasts a month. You'll be able to come then, right?"
My butterflies came back. So did my grin. A cheesy one at that,
"You'd let me?"
"You're my best friend, of course I would." Patrick said, nudging me with his shoulder. "I couldn't possibly go on tour and not have you come. I'd miss you way too much."
That kid really was golden.
"I'd miss you too." I replied.
"Just promise me one thing." He said, as the bell went for the end of break and we had to go back to class, to do nothing, I might add.
"For you? Anything." I said.
"When you go to that camp thing... don't forget about me."
I ruffled his hair again, and he ducked, hitting his head on a branch.
"I could never forget about you, Stumpy." I said, using his own nickname. He loved it really. It was better than Pat. It makes me cringe when people call him that.
He grinned as he rubbed his head and we walked inside.
"I won't forget about you, either."

Remember that part in the movie Grease? Where they graduate and the bell rings, and everyone spills out the door, throwing everything into the air? When the bell went that day, that was exactly what everyone did. It's great to walk out of school thinking you don't have to go back for 7 weeks.
"Did you fail anything?" Patrick asked, as we switched report cards. We were nosy like that.
"Nope. I even passed math." I said.
"Barely." He said, pointing at the grade. I shrugged.
"Oh, look, you just passed Gym. I guess you're as hopeless at Gym as I am at math."
Patrick nodded.
"Gym is my idea of personal hell."
"Mine's math."
"So, this thing tonight. It's on, right?"
"Sure." I said.
"Awesome." Patrick said with a grin. "I'll call Pete when I get home."

The night went amazingly. Pete and Joe turned up, along with Christa and Ethan. Patrick came across the road, and Robyn and Jared even came outside for a while and danced together, just watching each other as they swayed. It was one of those 'parties', or 'get togethers' I prefer to say, that ended up making people feel left out if they didn't have someone to cuddle or kiss. Not me though. I could care less. I was just starting to wonder why Ellie hadn't come out. She'd been on the phone when I left her to come outside, and indicated to me she would be out in a while. She was actually being nice for once. Maybe it was summer that made her stop being grouchy and let her have a laugh for once.
"Hey!" I said to Christa, sitting down next to her as she bounced Ethan on her knee. It was strange talking to her, I barely knew her, but I could talk to her as though we'd been friends for years.
"Hey." She replied, grinning. "Long time no see."
"I know." I laughed. "How's things?"
"Not bad. So you're on summer break now?"
I nodded.
"Finally. It took long enough to come."
"I remember the last few days of term used to go so slow." Christa said.
"Damn right." I said. We watched Patrick and Pete laughing at something by the pool. It was 10PM on the first few days of summer and the light from the pool lit up their faces as they bent over laughing.
"So how are the men in your life?" I asked, looking at Pete and then Ethan.
God, she probably thinks I ask the stupidest questions. She basically told me about Pete yesterday and here I was practically asking the same questions.
"Brilliant. Pete was up all night with Ethan. He was telling him this story about vampires and stuff. Stuff I have no interest in, but only listen because Pete's saying it."
She was awesome. No doubt about it. And she was in love. You could totally tell.
"Aw. How long have you been together?"
"About nine months." She smiled. I loved the way her eyes lit up when Pete was mentioned.
"Sweet." I said, just as Pete guffawed loudly and slapped Patrick on the back. I faintly heard Patrick's giggle/chuckle as he turned away to talk to Joe, and Pete walked over to us. He sat down on the ground in front of Christa.
"And how are you ladies doing?" He asked, taking Ethan off Christa and lying back, putting him on his chest.
"Great." I said. "Your girlfriend was just telling me all about you and your daddy like ways."
Pete laughed.
"I like telling stories." He said.
"Vampire ones, huh?"
"Yeah. Sort of Lost Boys spin offs." Pete grinned, lifting Ethan up as though he were weight lifting.
"Awesome. Brilliant movie." I replied. Pete looked at me as though I were covered in gold.
"You are officially my best friend." He said. I laughed.
"Should I feel special?"
"Feel very special." Christa said with a wink. "I know I do."
"That's 'cause you're my sweetie." He said, sitting up with difficulty and kissing her on the lips. It wasn't a peck, it was a cross between a peck and a make out session, where their lips just lingered after the kiss as they looked in each other's eyes.
"You two are like... Romeo and Juliet." I smiled, standing up. "Except... without the tragic ending."
I left them laughing as I walked over to Patrick and Joe. Nudging Patrick, he turned around and put his arm around me.
"Hey buddy."
"Howdy. Having fun?"
"You bet." He said. As he turned his head, he froze and stopped. He pointed past me, his drink spilling over his hand. I turned around and froze myself. I saw Pete and Christa stop to stare in the doorway of the back door.
"Oh, God." I heard Patrick whisper in my ear. I had to severely stop myself from bursting out laughing, or throwing myself in the pool to do something else than looking at the doorway.
Ellie was standing in tiny, and I mean tiny shorts. Let's just say that, I was glad she was wearing underwear, even if it was a little slutty for a 12 year old. I was glad that it was that which was showing, 'cause otherwise there would be a whole lot of nothing showing. On top of her shorts she had a, well, I can only say a boob tube. Remember them? Like way back in the 90s when they were cool. I was so glad I never wore one. And get this, just when my face had turned red enough, she was wearing cat ears. You know, the ones in Mean Girls all the girls wore?
Jesus.
"Everybody enjoying the party?"