Days as a Freshman: 92
Mood: Happy to be home

“Hey!”

I waved at a group of kids standing around a small red Toyota, feeling a pang of anxiety as the car continued to stay small, no matter how close I came to it. This was going to be a tight fit.

“Hey! She makes it at the last second, as always!” Jonathan opened up the trunk and started to push things around in the back. “Thought you were gonna walk home.”

Grabbing my overstuffed bag, Crystal’s boyfriend heaved it into the last remaining empty space in the trunk, pushing it against other bags and backpacks to make room for the door to close. As he jammed the bags together with his elbow, I cringed, thinking about all the clothes, make-up, and hair products that might be exploding all over the insides of my suitcase.

“Thanks again for giving me a ride,” I said, stuffing some loose brown hair into my winter hat. “I would have been stuck here.”

“No prob, bob.” Slamming the trunk, Jon smiled and walked around to the driver’s seat, motioning to the two other people already in the back, “it’s probably gonna be a tight squeeze, but it’s only like 2 hours. We can make it.”

Opening the door to the back seat, I saw a girl I didn’t recognize sitting next to Daniel B., who was pressed up against the window and looking uncomfortable as always. Ducking inside the car, I tried to take up as little space as possible, pulling my backpack onto my lab and closing the door gingerly.

“Hey, I’m Susan” Reaching a squished arm over to shake my hand, the girl in the middle seat smiled and then moved a little closer to Daniel B. “I think your seatbelt is stuck in the seat.”

“Oh no, no seatbelts in the back.” Jon shut his door and looked at us in the review mirror, winking. “I should have said that before…dog chewed ‘em up a few years back…but I’m a good driver.”

Susan raised an eyebrow. “You kill me and my parents will put a mob hit out on you.”

“Yeah,” Jon laughed, “The Maine Mafia, with their skis and plaid shirts.” Starting up the car and turning around to look out the back window, Jon slowly started to pull out of the campus parking lot. “Susan and I are cousins. Can you believe it? She came to Stonehill to be closer to her favorite relative.”

Susan laughed, her shoulders brushing up against Daniel B, causing him to squish himself as close as he could to the door.

“And you know Daniel, right, Grace?” Jon pulled a little faster than he needed to onto the main road, our small, leaf-covered campus disappearing behind us.

“Yup. Hi!” I leaned forward and smiled at Daniel B., wondering if he was silently steaming about someone leaving out his last initial.

“Hey, Grace” He smiled faintly and hesitated a little on my name, quickly looking out the window after he said it.

“To Maine we go!” Jon stepped on the gas and turned sharply onto the highway, causing all of us to slam to the right, everyone’s weight pressing up against me. I reached over and locked my door.

“To Maine!” Susan shouted back, reaching into her backpack for her iPod. “Wake me when we get there.”

I felt her shift as best she could and I pressed myself against the door, trying to give her as much legroom as possible. The girl had taken the middle seat; the least I could do was give her somewhere to put her legs.

Jon turned up the radio and I looked out the window, watching the boring highway landscape. Going home for a few days of relaxation was what I hoped I needed to clear my head. Everything at school moved so fast, there was never any time to actually stop and think. Never any place to escape and totally be by myself. I was hoping the quiet streets and woods of my town would help me think through things.

Like the fight Stacey and I had been called to Dean Carlon’s office for. The fight we had kinda sorta lied about. The words guys had been calling Sasha, and the way he had looked at us right before Public Safety escorted the entire group out of the lounge.

He had seen us, kept his eyes on us as he was pulled out of the room, and given me a look I had never seen before. It was like his entire face was blank. Blank and frozen.

Jon changed the channel on the radio and rolled down his window a little, the cold, fall wind giving us some much needed air. I traced the outline of the passing cars with my finger, happy to be escaping for a few days, but knowing I would be coming back to something even bigger.

“Grace, we need to talk about this” Justin Stevens had whispered to me as best he could while being dragged out of the room by PS. “Find me after break. Or I’ll find you.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted either of those things to happen.