As the bell rings signaling the end of the school day, I head to my locker for the last time this year. Taking all my stuff out I wait for my best friend Sydney. Her last class is on the opposite side of the school from mine. We always meet at my locker since it is closer to the buses. As I'm waiting, the three most popular and bratty girls in our school, or the trio as everyone calls them, snicker as they walk by me. I can tell Katelyn Allen, "the leader" of the trio, wants to make some smart remark as she passes but luckily this time she decides to keep her mouth shut. Ugh I am so excited not to see their makeup caked faces over summer!

Literally our school is so stereotypical! You have the popular girls and guys which are normally categorized as the jocks or popular kids. They are not people you want to hang around. They are all so fake and think they are the best things ever. They are your typical popular lids. Then you have the nerds and the weird kids. Basically the "categories" I fall into. I hate to describe it like that but its how it is at this school. The nerds, weird kids, and anything but the populars get along. Its just the populars who despise everybody else.

"Em" "Emmie" Emersynn Amber Clark!"

I hear her and look up " Oh hey Syddie" I say, using the old nickname I gave her when we were like 5 just to annoy her since she used my full name.

" We're not 5 Em. I've been standing here for 5 minutes trying to get your attention to go. The buses aren't going to wait forever ya know."

" Then what are you waiting for girl? Lets get moving. We are free for three months now!" I say

" Remind me again how I've dealt with you so long?" Sydney asks as we come up to the buses.

" Because I'm your best friend and you love me oh so very much!" I say stepping on our bus.

" You two are late again. Next time I'm going to leave you girls here. You're lucky I like you!" our bus driver Mrs. Adams says.

We both chuckle and thank her for waiting while taking our normal seats. Mine being the first one on the right and Syd's the one right behind me. On the way to our seperate houses we talk about our day, how much we are excited not to have to deal with the trio and the other populars, and much more. Sydney gets off first as her house is in a different neighborhood than mine. After a few more stops in her neighborhood, we drive a few more minutes to mine.

As we pull up to my house, I see my mom's maroon jeep in the driveway and my light brown pit bull Roxie at the window.

"Have a good summer Mrs. Adams!" I say as I get off the bus.

"You too sweetie!" She replies

Roxie is at the door waiting for me.

"Hey Roxie girl!" I say as I reach down to to hug her.

I walk up the stairs to my room and drop off my backpack with Roxie at my heels. Then head down to my mom's office by the living room on the first floor.

"Hey Momma," I say.

Turning away from her computer she says "Hey baby. How was your last day of school?"

"It was pretty good. I'm so glad to be done with math and work and everything. Now I can focus on swim!"

"That's good. Speaking of swim, there is some caramel apples in the fridge if you want some for a snack before but you better start getting ready soon. Swim is in 45 minutes and I need to pick up your siblings on the way. Aiden doesn't have soccer today and doesn't want to be home alone and Elaina has swim with you. Can you make sure her bag is packed for me please?"

" Ooooh! Caramel apples! Yay! Thanks Mom! And I'll make sure her bag is packed. I'm excited to swim with her again since its summer swim now!"

" Thank you Em"

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As we pull to the elementary school, I see a light red/blonde haired, green eyed, 10 year old with a pink flower backpack ,also known as my little sister Elaina, standing out in front of the office. It looks like the bell had just rang a minute or so ago because kids were still coming out of the classrooms. Elaina sees us and says bye to her friend Mary.

As she gets in the car she says " Hi Emmie! Are you excited for swim? I can't wait to swim again and with you too!"

" Hey Laina. I can't wait to swim with you too. How was school?"

" It was good. It's crazy I'm done with 4th grade already. I'm going to miss all my friends though. and Mrs. Jones next year. We watched inside out at school today! Lots of people brought in treats too!"

"That's great Lain! I'm sure Mom and Dad wouldn't mind some of your friends coming over sometimes. Movies and treats are always fun! We don't get a lot of that in high school. "

" Oh wow. That would be so boring Em."

As we pull up to the junior high I see Aiden out front with his best friend Dylan.

" Mom can Dylan come over?"

"Not today. Your sisters have practice today. We have to hurry and get to the pool." she says.

He gets in the car looking annoyed.

" How was your day bud?" Mom asks.

"It was fine." he says while jamming his head phones in.

"Hey no need to have attitude dude. You knew your sisters had practice right after school. He can come over another day. You have all summer to hang out."

"Okay," he replies.

Mom hands them both caramel apples for an after school snack as we head off to the pool. Both of the two thank them.

Our pool is about 15 minutes from our house in the town next to us. Our town doesn't have a pool. The three towns around hear share the pool. Mine and Elaina's coaches coach a few teams that all combine to one. Basically we have a summer team that has between 50-60 kids ranging in ages from 4-18 who swim just during the summer. Then we have a year round team where about 15 of us summer kids swim year round. We join with the summer team and practice with them as one team during the summer. During the summer we go to the summer meets every Saturday and periodically a year round or also called USA swim meet. The summer kids go against one or 2 of the other teams in the area at each meet. The USA kids go against the USA kids and teams at the USA meets. When it is not summer I swim with the USA team and go to USA meets once a month about. Two of the 4 coaches for summer and USA coach the high school team at my school. So the few of us that go to high school in my town have them for our high school team as well. On the high school team it is a mix between the summer kids old enough to be in high school, a couple of us who do USA and summer, and also just some kids that just do high school swim. During high school season one of the summer/USA coaches the USA team. The other summer coach only coaches the summer team. So Elaina only does the summer team. I do all three. I do summer and USA during the summer. Then during about August to October I do just high school swim. The rules of our school say you can't practice with club teams during high school season so I can't practice with my USA team during that time. But it all works out since I have the same coaches for both. I know this is confusing with my teams but its natural to us.

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"How was practice girls?" Mom asks us as we get in the car.

"It was awesome Mom! I got to see Jane and Blair again! I had a lot of fun swimming. Im glad to be back to it."

"That's great Elaina! I'm glad. How about you Em?"

" It was hard but good though. It is nice to be back with the summer team but I miss not having 6 people per lane." I half joke.

When we get home around 6 I head into the kitchen to give my dad a hug. He's cooking dinner. In most houses moms cook but in my house both my parents like to cook so it just depends on the day who does it. As I go out of the kitchen and head upstairs to my room, I hear Aiden ask my dad to go play soccer with him outside. Elaina is already in her room next to mine drawing. She loves anything artsy/crafty.

My room is themed with different colors of blue, my favorite color. I have a light blue and white floral comforter on my bed in the corner of the room. The walls are white with many blue canvases and pictures. Just below the window on the wall opposite my bed I have a white desk. On top of that I have a string of polaroid pictures on it. On the wall where the long side of my bed is against I have a canvas that has a swimmer on it and says "Your talent is your gift from God. What you do with it is your gift back to God"

" Time for dinner" Dad says.

I head down to the kitchen with everyone else.

After dinner I head upstairs to take a shower. I notice my curly red hair falling out of my bun from swim. After my shower, my gray blue eyes are tired from my long day. I say goodnight to everyone, grab a book, and plop onto my bed. A good end to the school year and a great way to start the summer.

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of many. I plan to get a lot of writing done over winter break which I'm on on now so I will have stuff to post. Don't forget to vote and leave a comment down below.

-Bo