The September sun beamed in through my window and caused me to awake with a rather anxiety-inducing realization. It was the first day of the final year of high school. From today onward, I would be a senior. That felt weird to think about, given that I was only seventeen and I felt as though I was far too young to even become remotely prepared for the responsibilities of the adult world. However, everything changed. That was something that I had been trying to accept for a while, now. 

I got out of bed because the sun beckoned me to get ready. 

Once I was changed into a sky blue flannel and tie-dyed jeans, I swiftly moved my hair up into a ponytail. 

I soon made my way downstairs to greet my mom. 

"Hey mom," I said. 

"Hey honey, how are you?" she asked me, "No anxious tummy ache?". 

She knew me far too well. 

"No. I'm actually alright," I said, which surprised me because I knew I was telling the truth. 

"Well, I'm glad to hear it," my mother said, with an optimistic smile upon her face. 

I wished that I could have been optimistic too but in reality I didn't want it to be the first day of senior year, I wanted it to stop weighing over me like something I couldn't carry. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that soon enough, in a matter of mere months, Drew and I would have to leave each other. He was going to head off to university and I was going to figure out whatever it was that I wanted to do. 

I hadn't always been an indecisive person but I couldn't understand how they thought people would be able to figure out their whole life by the age of seventeen. It seemed a little excessive. However, that was something that I could use to distract my mind from the fact that I would be seeing Heath again, today. 

For a quick breakfast, I grabbed myself some toast and rushed out of the kitchen with it. 

"Hey, Zoe! You haven't finished!" my mother called out to me. 

I quickly swallowed my bite of toast before I responded to that statement. 

"I don't want to be late, mom!" I told her. 

I hard my mother chuckle lightly, as I made my way out of the front door of the house and walked over to Drew's car, so I could sit down beside him. 

"Hey Zoe!" he greeted me. 

"Hi Drew," I said. 

"Are you ready?" he asked me. 

"As I'll ever be," I said. 

Drew had this confident expression on his face, which I wished that I knew how to have without faking. He had always loved school. I, on the other hand, hadn't been the biggest fan. Nevertheless, school had allowed for me to meet Drew in the first place, almost thirteen years ago. 

Intuitively, I knew that I would be alright. I just couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Maybe it was just me, though. Maybe I had just begun to convince myself that everything was different, now, and my childhood had essentially ended. There was one thing that I couldn't allow it to take with it, though, and that was my friendship with Drew. 

A while ago, the two of us had promised each other that, no matter what, we would be there for each other. Then we got older and Drew began to have all these romantic notions about how he wanted his life to work out. As much as he may have denied it to me, I knew that he liked Heather Violets. That had only been further confirmed when Wesley had asked him if he was going to take her to prom and had also proceeded to shatter my heart into pieces. Alright, so maybe I was being slightly dramatic. I supposed I could be more sensitive than most when it came to things like this. 

Drew's car rolled on until we got to the parking lot of the school and that was about the same time that my stomach did become filled with nerves. 

"Are you alright?" Drew asked me, as he stopped in a space and unbuckled his seat belt. 

Right. I needed to get out of the car, too. 

"Fine. Thank you for the ride, Drew," I said, as I tried to plaster as sincere a smile as I could manage onto my face. 

"You're always welcome," Drew replied. 

It really didn't help that he was always so nice to me. That ended up making me like him more! I was trying to move through my feelings for him and get out on the other side but part of me felt stuck. 

"Let's go," Drew said, as he began to walk towards the main school building. 

I swallowed down my anxiety and followed behind him. I didn't want to keep my teachers waiting on the first day. 

Once I had re-registered at the first desk, I received my timetable. 

Drew headed off to go and find his friends from his band, while I walked off in search of a place to collect my thoughts. 

As I walked on, though, I was soon approached by a girl who looked as though she had just started. 

"Hi, I'm Evie," she said. 

"Should that name ring a bell to me?" I asked. 

"I'm Heather's sister," she told me. 

Of course she was. That would explain why she looked so familiar. 

"Oh, hey Evie," I said, as I smiled back at her. 

"I know that this is going to be the perfect year. I've been excited to start high school all summer," she told me. 

I thought that I would never live to hear anyone say that. 

"I'm sure it'll be great," I said, as I began to walk on a little further. 

"Hey, what's your name?" she asked me. 

I turned back to her. 

"It's Zoe," I said. 

"Could you help me find my first room, Zoe?" Evie asked me. 

"Sure," I said, with a sweet tone of voice. 

After all, Evie was only related to Heather. It was no big deal.