Instead, I send it to Claire and then cross number five off the list.
High School Bucket List
Make a high school memory box?
Go apple picking?
Get a piercing?
Watch the sunrise from the fifty-yard line on the football field
Learn the “Thriller” dance!?
Go on a double date?
Stay up all night
Volunteer?
Travel internationally
Kiss someone under the stars?
Do something scary?
Go to the homecoming dance with a date
Go ice-skating?
Have a photo shoot with friends
Go skinny-dipping
Take a road trip with Dad
Leave my mark on Frost Lake High
Chapter Thirty-seven
Vaughn
School has always been torture for me, but never more so than now that everything reminds me of Lacey. She’s everywhere and nowhere.
I’ve gone back to sitting at the soccer table at lunch, and I don’t linger long at my locker between classes, and since we don’t have any classes together, it isn’t hard to avoid her.
Still everything makes me think of her.
After school on Wednesday, I go out to the soccer field with the intention of practicing, but the cheerleaders are on the far field, and I find myself staring that direction instead of doing anything else.
It’s easy to fall back into my old routine, but I don’t remember it feeling quite so lonely.
I finally give up all pretenses of practicing and sit on the ground with the ball in front of me, watching while they rehearse their half-time dance. Lacey stands front and center, leading them with her signature smile. I can’t actually see it, but I know it like I know her. So filled with excitement and happiness that it makes me feel worse.
I don’t know if I was happier when we were hanging out or if I just thought I was because she’s always so happy. But I’m starting to think it was the first. I’ve had a gnawing ache in my gut all week, and no matter how much time I spend practicing and working on my game, I can’t make it go away.
That’s how Dad finds me.
“Taking a break?” he asks, flicking his gaze in the direction I was just staring. He’s got his clipboard and whistle.
