One Day At A Time

Chapter Forty-Eight: School's Out For Summer

Before she goes to bed that Sunday night, Louise gives Lilly her car keys back, apologizing again.

The following Monday, Lilly wakes up with a newfound sense of joy in her chest.
It's hope, hope that things can get better now.

Her hopeful joy follows her throughout her morning classes and to lunch.

It's the last week of school, which means that classes are a whole hell-of-a-lot easier now.
Though, maybe not for Lucas, since he shows up to the lunch table with sweat on his forehead.

"What happened to you?" Ava asks him, almost staring at him in curiosity.
"We're almost done with cleaning up the scraps from the set." He pants. "But, the auditorium's A-C is shit, so we just have to... suffer through it."

Rose pats his shoulder sympathetically.
"I'm sorry, but, you only have, like two more days of that, right?"
"Yeah... you're right." He sighs, but then an excited shine enters his eye and he sits up, like it just-now dawned on him that it's the last week of school.

"What're we doing to start off our summer?" Lucas asks excitedly.
"We could go to the beach." Ava suggests. It's the first thing that comes to mind.

"We don't have a beach around here." Lucas tells her, but she responds back with,
"There's, there's one about an hour away from my house."

She's talking about where she had her first date with Lilly.
A special place for sure, but it's also a place they can share.

Lilly picks up on this, saying,
"We have to go through a hiking trail, first, but the beach is really worth it."

"Are you suggesting a road trip? Because if you are, then I am one-hundred-percent down for that!" Lucas grins, his voice raising a bit in excitement.

It would be the friend group's first road trip together and that in it of itself is enough to excite them all.

They get to work eagerly planning the trip, which gets them through the rest of lunch.

The following Tuesday and Wednesday consist of simple end-of-the-year assignments and wrapping up anything left to be learned for the year.

And on Thursday, yearbooks are distributed during lunch, which results in the four of them all switching off each other's yearbooks to sign them.

Flipping through the pictures, all of them are in at least one candid picture.

There's a picture of Lucas on stage, drilling two two-by-twos together. Even in the picture, he looks exhausted.

And there's a picture of all of them at their lunch table, smiling at each other in the midst of their conversation.

They've had many good conversations at this lunch table, now that they all think about it.

The first few days of Fall seem so far away now, those first few days where they were already excited about Halloween and going to the corn-maze and everything else.

It's the end of June now, they'll have those Fall experiences in a few months.

But they stay in the present, they have one more day until Summer starts.
They can think about Fall when it comes.

They're last day of school goes past them and they are all overjoyed when that final school bell rings, standing by the school's exit door, grinning widely at each other, the same as every other student in the school building is.

Every student is thrilled to dump out their backpacks from the year, to get rid of old homework and the broken pencils that get lost in the bottom of their backpacks.

Thrillful, excited joy stays with Ava and Lilly on their final drive from school together for the year.

It's the end of a routine, which always off-sets Ava for the first week or two of Summer.

But she's gotten used to plenty of new routines this year, shifting into the routine of summertime won't be too difficult compared to what she's changed this year.

She's created the routine of being Lilly's girlfriend, which has been the biggest change of her entire life.
It has been a big change, but definitely not an unwelcome one.

When Lilly pulls into Ava's driveway, they both sit in the car for a moment.
"We did it, we survived another year." Lilly smiles.

She'd said it earlier when the final bell rang, but now it's different.

It's for herself and Ava.
They've had their own learning curve, their own journey during the year.

Their six-month anniversary is in two months for goodness sake!
It's insane to think about, very, very insane to think about.

"You're right, we did. We did it. I'm proud of you, Lilly." Ava says, looking at her earnestly.
Lilly looks back at her.
"I'm proud of you, Ava. I'm always proud of you, you know that, right?"

Ava nods her head.
"I know, and I, I want you to know that I really am proud of you, always. I mean that." She reaches over the center console and holds Lilly's hand.

They're proud of each other.
They've gone through a lot individually and together.
Another thing that's insane to think about.

They both sit in the car, holding hands, for another few minutes.
When it's time for Ava to leave, she gives Lilly a goodbye kiss for the last time until September.

The last time in the going-to-school context, that is.

She'll keep this tiny part of her routine in her life forever, whether herself and Lilly are in school or not.