Jessica St. Claire POV
The summer is beginning, and I am ready. I start my senior year after summer. My four best friends and I have a lot of things planned for this summer. We have three days left of school. Sarah Thomas, Ashley Winfred, Nicole Jones, Stephanie Peck, and I have been best friends since kindergarten. We have been through everything together. Our biggest fear is not getting into the same college.
Sarah is the cheerleader. She is pretty, intelligent, and crazier than the rest. Ashley is the smart one. If it weren’t for her, we would all fail every subject in school. Nicole has the coolest mom, and we can get away with anything. Stephanie is the one that keeps us on the straight and narrow. Me, Jessica, I am the artist, the writer, the one who documents our lives.
Three days left in school, and today we are planning to ditch for senior skip day. The plan is to meet at Nicole’s house. Her mom is giving us her convertible for the day. We are going swimming with other seniors at Manson Lake. It is only thirty minutes outside of town. Every year the juniors skip with the seniors and go to the lake. It is a rite of passage for juniors. It is the leap into our senior year. I plan to write about this day for my book I plan to write someday.
I get up and get dressed for school. I pack a bag with my bathing suit and a towel. I grab some bottled water out of the refrigerator and run out the front door. Ashley is waiting for me outside. She always walks with me to Sarah’s house. It is the same thing every morning. We walk to Sarah’s, and she walks with us to Nicole’s. We take Nicole’s car to pick up Stephanie’s, and then we drive to school. Same thing every day since Nicole got a car.
Ashley and I walk to Sarah’s house. The day seems normal. It is a beautiful day for a swim and a jump. Every year the junior class takes a leap from the cliff with the seniors watching from the other side. This has been happening for years. My parents made the jump. They pretend not to know what we are doing today, but they know.
We arrive at Sarah’s house, and she comes running out looking marvelous. She is dressed to kill and has on a full face of makeup. “Sarah, you do realize we are going swimming, right?” I ask her.
“I still want to look cute,” Sarah says. Ashley and I laugh as we continue our walk to Nicole’s house. It is only a few blocks. We all live in the same neighborhood. Stephanie’s house is further down, so we always drive to her house. Besides, she is not going to do any walking if she can help it. Stephanie is a princess and always will be in my eyes. She is pretty, brilliant, everything a seventeen-year-old year dreams of being. She is the one that does the thinking for us and probably has kept us out of trouble. She always knows what to say and when to say it at the right time. There is no one like her.
We arrive at Nicole’s house. She is waiting for us in her mother’s car. It was so cool of her mom to let us use her car today. Nicole’s mom, Jan, knows how important today is to us. I am sure it was an important day to her when she made the jump into the lake.
Ashley, Sarah, and I jump into Jan’s car. Nicole lets the top down and turns up the radio as we pull out. “Are you ready, ladies?” Nicole says. She has that wild look in her eye. It is going to be a fun day for the Five of us.
We drive the few blocks to Stephanie’s house, but she is not outside yet. We wait a few moments. What the hell is taking her so long?
“You think I should go get here?” I ask the others. They nod. “Yeah, we do not want to be later,” Nicole says.
I get out of the car and go to the door. I knock on the door, but no one comes to the door. I look inside and see no movement. It is freaking me out. “Nicole, something is wrong,” I yell back to the car.
Nicole gets out. She has more courage than the rest of us, honestly. This situation is making me feel like I am having a heart attack. I wait for Nicole to approach the door. Nicole knocks. She looks into the window. Sarah and Ashley wait in the car as Nicole and I walk around the back of the house.
“What is going on?” I ask Nicole. “I don’t know; this is odd,” Nicole says. “Do you think we should go get your mom?” I ask Nicole. “Yeah, I do. This is not like Stephanie. Something is wrong,” Nicole says.
Nicole and I run back to the car. We hop in a drive the few blocks back to Nicole’s house. Nicole runs into the house to get her mother, Jan, to go with us to see what is wrong with Stephanie. Stephanie is always outside, waiting for us when we pull up. If she is not coming to the door, something has happened to her.
Jan gets into the car with us, and we drive back to Stephanie’s house. Jan gets out of the vehicle, and we wait while she looks in the windows. Jan goes around back to look in the patio window. She is only gone a few minutes when she comes back pale and panicking. She gets into the car and grabs her cell phone to call 911.
