School, as both a place and a concept, had never appealed to Sophie.

She'd fallen for all the high school propaganda. She'd been a huge fan of High School Musical when she was younger, she aspired to be someone like Gabriella: smart, pretty, Desiree by all the boys. Or perhaps she fancied the actress who played her. She loved the Monster High dolls and would've loved to have had one of her own if her parents hadn't dubbed them 'satanic'. Both of these beloved franchises had influenced Sophie's perception of what high school would be like.

That idyllic world of teenage freedom and self-expression was something she desired more than anything else in the world. In all the high school set media she watched and read, every girl had a guy that was perfectly designed for her own taste. They suited each other perfectly, loved each other fiercely. Sometimes the boyfriends would be way too boring and way too dull to actually get the girl they were paired up with, but their love was always pure. Gabriella had Troy, Draculaura had Clawde, and Sophie had only the unachievable fantasies those couples had set.

She'd done the stereotypical thing of trying to be popular in her first few years of high school, but that was a hard thing to do when she was not nearly interesting or pretty enough to be popular and her two best friends -Colby and Finley- never concerned themselves with stupid things like that.

Before she came to school, she worked laboriously on her appearance. She curled her hair for hours then brushed it out so that no one would know that she'd actually tried to make her hair look nice. She did her make up for hours, drawing, wiping off then redrawing over and over again because they were never even. She wished she could be one of those girls who were either confident enough to be without make up or someone who actually enjoyed the process and loved doing make up.

Joanna loved make up so much she wanted to make a career out of it. Sophie had seen it first hand the way Joanna would paint her face like the old masters did their canvases. Each flick of the mascara, every stroke of the foundation, every shade of eyeshadow was Joanna making a masterpiece of herself. Jo wanted to be a beauty technician or make up artist when she was older.

Sophie shared no such passion with her. She manipulated her own appearance for the simple reason that she would not force her unsightly face upon anyone.

She'd prayed to God a few times that she could become one of those people who didn't care about what others thought, but she wasn't like that.

She wasn't like Finley who currently had both his arms tightly wrapped around Brent's waist in the cafeteria, the entire school present around them. She wasn't like Colby who said whatever he wanted, his opinion always expressed, never hidden behind double meanings or said behind others backs.

Even now, that's exactly what he did and she was jealous that he could.

"Ezra said that you're planning on staying home for college." Said Colby. "I don't think that's a good idea, you should travel somewhere else. You should go abroad!"

"I'm not going to go abroad. It's too expensive and my parents would never agree to it." She would never be able to propose such an extreme idea to her parents. God knows what either of them would do if she even suggested leaving America for any other reason apart from missionary work.

"It's expensive if you do it by yourself. You could look into one of those study abroad programmes that help you learn the language and give you a visa to work or learn."

"What the fuck?" Interrupted Finley. "Since when did you become so knowledgeable about stuff like that."

"I've been looking into it myself." Colby boasted, a look of pride imprinted itself on his face. Probably because sentences that associated Colby with the word 'knowledgeable' were rarely ever spoken.

"You want to study abroad?" Asked Sophie. "But what about Ezra?"

"Ezra wants to do a gap year before he goes off to med school so he would come crash with me in whatever accommodation the program throws me."

"What countries are you looking into?" Asked Brent. He wasn't even fazed by Finley's koala bear impression anymore, Finley hung onto him so much that he probably just felt like a third arm or something.

Colby hummed and hahed; "Don't know yet. There's a good program for France but also one in Cape Town. There's a culinary course in Germany and an English teaching course in Japan. I'm not sure what I really want to do yet."

Wow. All of those plans were so far a field, a million miles away from the little town they all lived in now. Sophie had never considered anything farther than the small town world she lived. Where she knew everyone and everyone knew her. She understood that world.

Did people want to leave it?

Sophie glanced at Finley. He didn't smile at her, not even as a polite gesture. She wasn't surprised; her relationship with Finley was strenuous at best and non-existent at worst. He hadn't forgiven her for attempting to destroy Ezra and Colby's relationship whilst repeating a harmful rhetoric she didn't believe in. But that was fine, she hadn't forgiven herself either. "Are you leaving for college as well?"

"You talking to me?" Brent shoved Finley's shoulder, presumably for his rude tone. "I'm going to the Culinary Institute of America in New York."

"You... like cooking?"

Finley turned away and scratched his chin. "Might be."

"He's a culinary genius!" Boasted Brent. "He's been cooking for his family before he could walk and he just comes up with the most inventive dishes with hardly any ingredients; always making something out of nothing. He's been entering his stuff into a few competitions here and there, he's never come below second place!"

"Finley's been making my school lunches since my mom accidentally gave me salmonella." Said Colby. "Who knew salmonella was real?"

"I think most people do." Said Sophie.

Colby shook his head. "No, no. I mean like who knew you got it from chickens."

"It's a well known fact you get it from chickens."

"But it's called salmonella."

"Yeah."

"And that has the word salmon in."

"You thought you got salmonella from salmon?"

"Kind of. I knew you didn't get it from Ella. Hahaha, you get it? Did you guys get it? Salmon... ella, you know, Ella... it's a girl's name. Ella."

"We got it." Said Finley. Colby stared at him expectantly. "It was a great joke, Colb."

Colby smiled. "Thanks."

Conversation moved on from... whatever Colby was talking about.

They were all going so far away. When did they decide all of this? She could've sworn that the last time they talked, Colby hadn't given college a single thought and Finley didn't care enough to plan anything. Perhaps she had just assumed that the status quo of their lives would be maintained, that they would all simply stay in high school forever. Although, she hated high school and had dreamed of leaving for a very long time, there was a safety in that place that Sophie had unconsciously become attached to.

Did that mean she'd never see her friends again? Never see Colby again after seeing him every day of her life since she was three?

They all had dreams and ambitions that extended far beyond this small town and could no longer be contained in its simplistic structure. Sophie possessed no such things. Like Colby, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life or what she would pursue in college -if she went at all- but the difference between him and her, was that he had the determination to try. The possibility of life being better somewhere else existed in his mind.

Life seemed so uncertain in that moment. So complicated, so overwhelming. Of course, they were all going to part ways eventually, but this was far too soon. She wasn't ready.

Was she not allowed a moment of rest? A moment to breath where time would stand still instead of forever forcing her forward.

At the very least, she would always have Joanna. They were the same. They understood each other in a way no one else could. This small town was enough for them. Their dreams were quaint and humble. They were unlikely to leave, here was enough for them.

She still needed to apologise to Jo for last night. She wasn't sure what she was going to apologise for specifically or how she could do it to decrease collateral damage.

"I've got a meeting with Dr Morgan to get to, so I'll see you guys later." Said Sophie, standing up and giving her long silk skirt a pat down.

"Meeting?" Asked Colby. "You didn't say anything about it earlier?"

"I just remembered. Good thing I did."

"You just remembered?" Questioned Finley, he glanced up at Brent. "I call bullshit."

Brent flicked him in the forehead. "Why are you being so rude today?"

"See you later, Soph! Dr Morgan really likes me." Boasted Colby. "Ezra's been giving me tutoring lessons and let's just say, I'm only getting one type of D now."

What?

"Hahaha, sex joke. Hilarious, man." Finely high fived Colby. Ugh, these boys.

"Thanks, I thought of it at the beginning of lunch and was waiting for a good time to bring it up. I wrote it on this napkin." He lifted a napkin that did indeed have the joke written on it in blue ink. The E in Ezra was slightly smudged and there was a ketchup stain in the corner. Below the joke, Colby had also written 'Ask Ezra to be top again?'

She had no idea what that was referring to and frankly, she didn't want to.

Picked up her tray in one hand and patted Colby's head with the other. "It was a great joke, I'll see you all later."

"Bye-bye. Love you lots." Colby waved at her as she left.

She waved back. Colby always meant it when he said that, he always meant it.

Jo didn't like eating lunch in the cafeteria on Mondays. She'd gone on to Sophie for hours on end about how much she hated the food options on menu. Sophie wasn't that fussy with food, she had never been given the option to be, so she could never relate to Jo's rants.

As always, Joanna was sitting outside on the grass, headphones in and lying in the sun. It glistened in her red hair, set it alight.

Sophie sat down beside her, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and beckoned her awake. She didn't particularly want to. Joanna was much more friendly when she was sleeping.

To Sophie's surprise, Joanna woke from her nap and looked at Sophie with a smile.

"Hey." She said, her voiced laced with sleep. "I was wondering when you were going to turn up."

"Jo, I'm sorry for last night, I-"

"It's fine. Don't worry about last night, it wasn't a big deal. What? Don't look at me like that, I'm allowed to let you off the hook sometimes. To be honest, I wasn't annoyed only at you. That Avni bitch. Who the fuck does she think she is?"

"What happened between you and Avni?"

Jo shook her head, a few blades of grass poked up from between the strands of her hair. "I don't want to get into it. She's just a sad fucking loser. She's obsessed with me. It's sad really. Think she's in love with me."

"You think Avni... is in love with you?"

"What? You don't think so? Use your brain, Sophie." Jo knocked her fist on Sophie's head. "Have you even got one hanging about in there? I'm just kidding. Avni was constantly staring at me during the party. It's like, I know I'm good looking, don't need you to tell me. That's why she kissed you."

"She kissed me because it was truth or dare."

"Yeah, a dare that I gave you. She must've been so jealous that I'd practically told you to kiss me in front of everyone that she kissed you before we could. It's pathetic. She's so jealous of what we have."

"Would you have kissed her?" Asked Sophie tentatively.

Joanna thought for a second. A very long, very worrying second. "Nah. I've got you, what do need that skank for? Speaking of which, isn't the princess supposed to be woken up with a kiss."

Sophie smiled, checked that no one was around then leaned down and kissed Joanna.