• "Mom!!! Wake up. Today's the first day of school."

    She groggily opens one eye and looks over to the clock beside her bed. It's 5:30. Yet her child is beside the bed bubbling like she just drank syrup. Considering this child that's entirely possible.

    "Jay, it's not time to leave yet. Go make some breakfast while I get myself together."

    "OK!!!"

    Giggling the girl bounds down the stairs. The summer has finally ended. It's time to see her friends again. She has been waiting to see them again and she's so pumped she could hardly sleep the night before. Now she is excitedly fixing a meal for herself and her mother. No one else will be up for a while so whats the point of making too much?

    Thirty minutes later her mother descends down the stairs. Her glasses are crooked and she looks grumpy but she is clean and awake. The girl is not fooled by the disheveled look of her mother. This woman is always alert.

    They eat in silence, the girl scarfing down her meal and her mother eating half of it and then just drinking her coffee.

    The ride to the school was long but full of the usual morning chatter. Did she take a bath? Yes mama. Brush her teeth? Yes mama. Got her supplies? Yes mama. I miss anything? Yes ma- uh no. They both laugh as the girl jumps out of the car, heading to the spot she and her friends have picked out.

    She is the first one there. Nothing new there. She sits down on the stone bench and pulls out a book and waits patiently until she hears a squeaky yell.

    Up jerks her head. She jumps up from her seat and races to pick up her small friend. She swings him around as only she is allowed to. They hug happily and start to yap. He comments on her new tee shirt. She comments on how he seems to have grown. He laughs calling her a liar. They both know he'll be tiny forever. At least compared to her.

    Soon their other two friends show up and they talk and talk, trying to catch up on two months in thirty minutes.

    Far too soon the bell rings. Time for class. They all grumble and agree to find a table to sit at for lunch. They'll meet up in the hallway too. Any chance to be together.

    They walk in different directions. The very first day. The very first year.

    This was going to be fun.