May 26th, 2011 - Life goes way too fast for me. It feels like just yesterday, I was entering high school and now suddenly I’m about to take my own path. One that may change my course forever. It’s now or never.

I sit on the public transit bus, thinking a lot about Newpointe. Although it had it’s ups and downs, I feel like it wasn’t too bad of a city. I remember the days that I would spend at the downtown ice cream shop. It was on a small corner block, right next to an art studio and bakery. After getting ice cream, sometimes even with my friends, I’d beg my mom to get something from the bakery just because it smelt almost too good. That was over 7 years ago, and the ice cream place and bakery shut down only 2-3 years after that. Even though the bakery’s a tuxedo rental store, I can still smell the fresh bread, pastries and donuts they made that wafted through the air.

It’s 2011 now though, not 2004. I was younger then, but now I’m an adult. That happened almost 2 years ago too now that I think about it. I spent that entire night partying at this small abandoned warehouse near Point North just.. doing stuff. I can’t even remember for the life of me. It happened way too fast though, and now I’m just sitting on a bus remembering all the days I used to hang out with my friends, especially here. Once we went to high school and had to split classes, it felt like our world had fallen apart. It was only glued on with the tiniest amount of glue, as teachers would constantly tell me and Keith to stop talking all the time, but we continued to. I’m kind of relieved we didn’t get moved or anything. I have to say though, having the same lunch period as everyone else makes me at least happy that I get a chance to even hang out with the group I’m in, even if it’s our last year together.

The bus pulls up by the back of the school. I pass the gardens leading up to it. They were designed by the people who take the gardening classes here, and all of the flowers are really pretty. I walk into the school, a small smile on my face. It’s a little bittersweet that this is the last day of school. Not school overall, but high school.

My first few periods go by quickly. Most of our day is cut off for the ceremony though. I get to my 5th period, lunch, deciding not to go walk someplace else to get food. Usually, I’d always walk over to the Northern food store right next to the school, or if I’m feeling lucky, Krystal’s Diner. They have the most delicious burgers there. I couldn’t ever describe how they tasted, even to my own diary. I sit down, spotting Keith walking up to the table with Cody.

I’ve known Keith for several years, ever since 2nd grade when I moved to Newpointe in the first place. I haven’t always lived here, but what I do know is I’ve always lived up north. My parents were originally from the big, bustling capital city that is Lexington City. I know, very original name for a capital city. I’ve been there and you can just tell how huge it is from a few kilometers away. Or a mile. Skyscrapers plunge onto the sky, with all kinds of light coming from them at night. It truly looks so spectacular. But, out of all of the places my parents could’ve chose, they decided to raise me in a random city in the middle of nowhere. Esterhaze was its name, and from what I remember it wasn’t that bad of a city. We still had to shop in other places like Newpointe though, which was pretty inconvenient, so during my 1st grade summer break, my family shifted over to Newpointe.

“Hey look, it’s the new kid!”

“What’cha gonna do with all of those spots, Arlan? Did’ya forget to wash your fur or something?”

Those voices rung in my head from 2nd grade the year after summer break. I had just moved to a slightly bigger city and was now being treated like I was weird. I wasn’t even that weird anyway, just.. quiet. Yeah, looking back I didn’t have the best reputation there either. I did have one friend who helped aid that. I remember the day vividly: Keith was my partner during art class one day, and even though I did most of the work to sketch a cool painting, he still helped aplenty there. I’ve always noticed how hyper he was, which is why he was considered the weird kid, even more than me. But together, we formed a great bond. That day, we became friends, and over time as we kept going to the same schools he helped shove me out of my introverted shell. Or at least that’s what I like to believe.

Cody is an interesting person. He’s not as quiet as Blake, but he’s quite the loud one when it comes to instruments. I couldn’t ever count the amount of times he told us about his parents complaining because of the noise in the garage he would make when practicing his electric guitar. It got to the point where he was forced to start using the shed for storage and practices. It wasn’t the biggest shed, but it was not that much smaller than the garage, which he said was okay, but I could see the slight sadness in his eyes. Speaking of his parents though, something I find so surprising about him is how he has the least strict parents. We’d usually always go to my house to hang out together, the 4 of us, but if all else failed we would usually always meet up somewhere downtown or just go to Cody’s house since his parents were really chill about it. Other than that though, I really have a liking for the tiger. He’s always just.. chill about things, and he gives great advice to us. I’ve never seen him get mad over anything, he usually just resolves it quickly or keeps it to himself.