Through Thick and Thin

center]"Most people come into our lives and quickly leave. It is the special few that come in and leave a footprint in our hearts that really matter."
Early June 1998; Last day of School.

The last day of school really and truly was pointless. I sighed as I doodled in the notebook I had snagged from my locker earlier as I sat in class, we were doing absolutelynothingthe teacher was grading last minute work, and there was a mind numbing movie on the T.V that no one was paying attention too, oh and to top it all off? Jimmy wasn't here; his ass ditched me in math class on the last day of school; by myselfwith the bitchzilla's and everyone else.

For right now, he is no longer my best friend, he is enemy number one; the traitorous bastard.

Monica and her group were having fun giggling over stupid things and every once and awhile would whisper; or what they thought was whisper, loudly across the room asking me something of no importance, making sure to call me any and all horrible nick names they could think up, which I have to admit were pretty pathetic.

“Pssst. Freak.” I closed my eyes in frustration gripping my pen tightly and ignored them.

“Psst, Hey freak! We're talking to you.”

I kept on doodling and sketching out random things, The guy's band had finally settled on a name; Avenged Sevenfold and I was tryingto write it out all kick ass looking for them; it was proving to be extremely difficult.

“O'Conner!”

“What!” I snapped, turning to glare them down.

“About time freak, we've only been trying to get your attention for like, ever.”

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. “I'm sorry, but my name isn't freak and I don't listen to people when they incorrectly say my name. It's Quinn. Get it right, or fuck off.” I swiveled back around in my seat and picked my pen back up, growling low in my throat when a paper ball hit my back; however I just let it go and continued to focus on what was in front of me.

“Dude, just give up. She isn't budging.” I heard a girl that sat near Monica say a bit annoyed; probably because the paper ball flew past her desk to get to me.

The girl successfully gained Monica and her lackeys' attention and I got to sit there for the remainder of class in peace.

When class let out, I went to my locker to grab my jacket and raised my eyebrow at Jimmy who was leaning casually against his. “And where the hell were you?” I asked as I spun the combination and opened my locker pulling the black hoodie from inside and pulling it over my head, yes it was June and hot outside, but I wanted my Jacket.

“Sleeping.” Jimmy said with a yawn. “Sorry.”

“I'm officially mad at you. I am not talking to you for the rest of the day.” I closed my locker; which I still had to fully clean out at the end of the day, and slung my messenger bag over my shoulder heading towards English.

“Quinn!” Jimmy whined, dragging his feet behind me. “Come on talk to meeee.”

I ignored him, and turned into the classroom sitting beside Layla with a huff.

“What's your problem?” She asked with a laugh as Jimmy sat on her other side glaring at me.

“He ditched me first hour; I am no longer speaking to him.” I clarified pulling out my notebook and pen to doodle some more, the teacher had the film for “To Kill a Mockingbird” on the TV; He was
waiting for the bell to hit play.

“That wasn't very nice James.” Layla scolded in a playful tone as she propped her head up on her hand.

“Like you two never over slept!” He whined, laying his head on his arms. I just shrugged and flipped my notebook to a new page to doodle on.

I successfully ignored Jimmy for all of English while Layla and I talked quietly and played various games of hangman to keep ourselves entertained. The day dragged on painfully slow, and at long last we were finally free. Zack, Jimmy and I were huddled around our lockers shoving everything into our backpacks that we could before removing any photo's or posters from inside. I smiled, as I untapped a picture of all of us, Matt, Jade, Layla, Brian, Jimmy, Zack, Val, Michelle and I that had been taken at the beach forever ago, and put it in my pocket, before closing my locker with a final sigh.

“Good bye junior year.” I whispered placing my hand on the cool metal.

“Hello Senior Year!” Jade cried happily as she came up behind me. “We're gonna rule this school!”

“Don't let Bitchzilla hear you say that.” Layla laughed, leaning against Jimmy's locker after he shut it.

“Like I fucking care about her?” Jade scoffed rolling her eyes. “So losers, what are we doing now that we're free from hell till next year?”

I shrugged my shoulders, leaning against Zack as I yawned. “No fucking clue.”

“Party, Duh.” I heard Jimmy laugh.

“That's your answer for everything man…” Matt's voice spoke from my left, I opened my eyes to see him standing there with his arm casually over Val's shoulders, she looked sad. Not that I can blame her, in a week they'd be gone, and she and Matt were pretty much over; they'd both decided the distance would be too much on them.

“It's a good idea though, last hurrah kinda thing.” Val said with a small shrug of her shoulders.

“That's my girl!” Jimmy cheered happily, pulling Val into a hug and looking at the rest of us. “Well?”

We all gave in, shrugging our shoulders and agreeing.

We found Michelle who agreed before we all squeezed into Matt's car, shoving our bags and books into the trunk and made our way to the park. Jimmy climbed out of the car and ran towards the liquor store as soon as the car was turned off.

The rest of us climbed out of the car, detangling ourselves from our friends and walked almost in silence towards the spot.Ourspot, I shoved my hands in to my back pockets and tilted my head back, closing my eyes as I walked letting my other senses guide me, hearing the crunch of the others feet on the gravel and in the leaves, the smell of the flowers that I knew were about 15 feet from the spot, the feel of the asphalt turning to mulch and dirt beneath my feet as we continued along the path. I could even hear the swings squeaking as a gentle breeze moved them back and forth.

Layla pulled out a pack of cigarettes upon our arrival and everyone; except me took one. Sitting down on an old log I smiled, watching as my friends exhaled the smoke and it float up to the sky. Jimmy returned with a couple 6 packs, and everyone took a drink, we spent the entire night, drinking and dancing to no music at all, laughing and having fun together. It was almost 10 when we decided to head home, or more so Matt brought the twins home and the rest of us walked to my house, giggling and stumbling over one another as we climbed up the stairs to my mom's apartment. She of course wasn't home.

I grabbed a ton of blankets and every pillow off of my bed and tossed them into the living room where Jimmy, Layla, Jade, Zack and I immediately began setting up a tent/fort draping blankets over every possible surface before we all laid down, using each other as pillow and stared up at the mickey mouse pattern of a really old set of sheets.

“We're almost out of school.” I sighed. “Like, legit done. One more year.”

“Senior year is going to fucking rock!” Jade laughed throwing her hand into the air, proudly showing off the `rock on' symbol.

“We won't take Monica or Aaron's shit anymore.” Layla said, nodding her head; which was resting on my stomach.

“We'll chew that place up and spit it back out, they'll remember us the class of 1999!” Jimmy laughed throwing his arms in the air, successfully knocking down a bit of the fort.

“Jimmy!” I whined as I blanket fell on my face.

“Sorry…” He mumbled, fixing it and laying back down, this time on his stomach.

“We're gonna get the band goin' real well.” Zack said softly “and Varsity won't know what hit him with me and Quinn, senior year is going to be fucking awesome, especially because we're there together.”

“Don't forget Brian will be there too.” I giggled tilting my head to look at Zack; I had been using his chest as a pillow.

“How could I forget?” He grinned. “The school won't know what to do with all of us.”

“Teachers might run away in fear.” Jade stated seriously, as she tilted her head to look at us. “They'll fear us!”

“It's always good to have that isn't it?” Layla questioned, running her fingers through Jade's hair.

The red head shrugged. “I dunno, but it sounds awesome.”

We all nodded in agreement, a comfortable silence over taking the room; which was broken by a rather loud snoring type noise coming from Jimmy.

Laughing we rolled around trying to get comfortable to drift off to sleep ourselves. As I started to fall asleep, I couldn't help but smile, and think. This summer, was going to be unforgettable.

It sure was going to be unforgettable, if only I knew then, the reason why. . .