Now here we are, the end of May with nowhere to go but a summer full of new adventures. Where will we go on vacation this year? Dad hasn’t said, but I’m sure it’s going to be a fun time. I’ll be able to see my friends a lot more too, especially with Adam moving next door last month. I can play basketball with my new hoop, or I can stay home and get on the game with some of my friends that have moved away. I simply cannot wait. 

I look around the room, reading all of the faces. Even the girls that sit in the back and always have something mean to say are staring at the clock, trying to hold back a grin. My friends, Austin and Tate, sit on the other side of the room, and they try to start a conversation to pass the time. Knowing them, it’s probably about the new Rainbow Six update, or about what will happen in the NFL draft this year. They’re nerds, just like I am, but they are good people. 

I look at the teacher, occasionally scanning the classroom but mostly focusing on his watch. I had more missing assignments for this teacher than I have ever had in my other classes. He pulled me aside one day and asked me why I had been missing assignments, I honestly couldn’t give him an answer. I’m usually such a good student. Maybe it’s because I forgot to study for one of his tests and still got an A in it. Not too shabby for a writing class.

I think about the past school year and everything that has happened. In my first basketball game, I made a half court shot that won us the whole thing. My parents stood up and cheered, and all of my friends ended up talking about it the day after. I felt like I was a superstar in my own home town. My first middle school crush was this year too, and I remember spending weeks thinking about how I was going to ask her out. I stopped her after 2nd period and asked for her number. That didn’t go as planned. A week later I met my current girlfriend, Lizzie. We’ve been dating for 4 months now, which feels like a long time, but it probably isn't. My parents have been married for almost 20 years at this point, and I can’t imagine how long that must feel.

2 minutes left. If anybody was talking before, nobody was talking now. Every second feels like an hour, and the more I think about it, the slower time goes. I start counting in my head “1… 2… 3… 4…”, trying to get to 120. The person behind me, as if they heard me counting, taps me on the shoulder and asks for a piece of gum. I get annoyed. “Gum? At a time like this?” In the time it takes me to pull out my gum and give it to him, another minute passes by. I breathe in deeply and close my eyes, all of the desks and whiteboards disappearing in the back of my head. The cold desk warms as I set my palms against it, and as I focus I remember that in less than one minute, I will have everything I need to be happy. Euphoria clouds my brain, and I sit at the very top of one of those clouds, looking down at the classroom below. This class will be past tense. This school will be too. Next year, I’m in high school, and I’ll never have to worry about this stuff ever again. I breathe in one more time, and just like I had wished, there it was: the ringing of the bell.