A story about five friends and their final summer together.
Day 1:
IN THEIR GOING to the pool the first weekend of June, summer had officially begun.
Day 2:
MEMORIES of past summers lingered but the five friends were 16 and ready for new adventures.
Day 3:
BEAUTIFUL was the weather, always blue sky and yellow sun
Day 4:
OF the best spots in town, they could now explore them all
Day 5:
HERITAGE Plaza was the neighborhood where all five friends lived.
Day 6:
RICH they were at least where money was concerned, but that had never stopped them before
Day 7:
A short ride away was the pool, with the library and the skate park next door
Day 8:
LEAVE the pool for sunny days, leave the library for rare rainy days had always been their motto
Day 9:
BUT now at 16, they desired to spread their wings as much as they possibly could
Day 10:
LIFE, as it often does, got in the way of their plans with the discovery that one of the five would move at summer’s end
Day 11:
ANY of the five, known simply as l, m, n, o, p, had friends outside their group, but it was their group where they spent the most time
Day 12:
INTO m’s house they went, for movies and games and better popcorn than the theatres.
Day 13:
SELDOM were they quiet, even with a movie playing, yet the departure of n preyed on their minds, killing their fun
Day 14:
COME, come, come, o said, the most theatrical of the group, let us not stay inside and mourn.
Day 15:
WHICH of them was not already painfully bored, so as one they stood and headed out into the sunshine
Day 16:
SUMMERS had never had a proper end date before,
not for them,
not till now
Day 17:
THOSE negative feelings the friends carried were banished. l-m-n-o-p had the rest of summer to make some lifelong memories
Day 18:
OF their remaining free time, they had their list. a bucket list that became their one and only goal
Day 19:
ONE item, first on the list, was to have a fashion show at the local thrift store, taking endless photos and trying on everything
Day 20:
SUMMER clothes were mainly what they found, but they did manage to find some truly awful costume pieces that made the fashion show that much better
Day 21:
FORGOTTEN was the impending separation, at least as much as it could be. they were quite good at forgetting things
Day 22:
BE afraid, p said, be very afraid. in july, rather than jokingly celebrating christmas, the five celebrated halloween with an all-night horror film fest.
Day 23:
TO every corner of town they went. they had no jobs to delay their spending every moment together
Day 24:
NEVER had n uploaded more photos to her family’s computer than during this summer and she certainly wasn’t the only one in the group with photos to treasure
Day 25:
A few weeks before ‘the end’, l-m-n-o-p had a very full bucket list, nearly every item crossed off
Day 26:
WAS there anything they regretted doing or not doing? maybe, but they added those to the ‘do not think about’ pile
Day 27:
IT was done. 67 bucket list items, some big, lots small, all done
Day 28:
ALL summer they had worked to play hard and now the summer was over
Day 29:
IN the final days, they gathered to help n pack. they would stay in touch when she was gone, but it was not the same
Day 30:
ALL the days after that summer’s end, life moved on as it was supposed to. l-m-n-o-p stayed in touch, with the photos and memories to remind them of past days together
“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” – L.M. Montgomery
Click here to access the rest of the stories from the One Year, Twelve Stories project
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