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I’ our oays We’re scattering ourselves to different winds, but we’ll colobe in different directions Like Colu where no stinky sixteenth-century European explorer and his crew of scurvy one before! Except one of them died of fever, and, like, mutiny, I think, and the other was pretty enocide, so in a fit of good judgod," Kayla breathes "Can you get out now?"

-5-

3 Years

45 Weeks

0 Days

I’ve co home sucks ass No one else has ever, in the history of humanity, come to this conclusion No one except me I am special

"Isis, we’re late!"

And late I a proper about farewells, though As Mom starts the car, I stand in the doorway and breathe in the st I didn’t spend all eighteen years here, but all the shit that happened in the last year and a half

Goodbye, little roo Ms Muffin close, and leave

Moer ale and watch the highway flash by Suddenly, a terrifying thought hits me upside the head with its sweaty pale years?

I didn’t volunteer, or do sports I didn’t become a radical warrior princess on ically-appearing clothes Hogwarts didn’t even send iven theo to London and find Platforh to the other side and unleash e I’ll make Voldemort look like a sock puppet And I’ll make-out with Draco And I’ll train a bunch of house-elves to fan rapes -

I stop when I realize I’e Focus! I need at least seven whole focuses if I’ to make a fabulous impression Or any impression at all I’d rather make a bad impression than no ih

I didn’t even kiss a boy For realsies, anyway Not-drunk

I did other things I held hands, and hugged Nas and hand-holding Once or twice he even hinted he thought I was pretty But it was an act, just to buildit Little it It’s not even worthy of a prefix It’s just ’it’

I have to leave that behind, too There’s no room for that Not if I want to nore it until it goes away, and it’s sort of worked I got far enough to sleep in a bed with Jack without freaking out So I’ives me a little bit of hope where there used to be none

Jack helped me realize that I’ly

Orwith hirew up all kinds of ways

A sharp pain radiates in my chest, but I brush that dirt off n, sweetie Get the reen and white on the side of the road I pull out the brochure map and direct her onto the careen lawn dappled with buttery, late-afternoon sun The buildings are all old brickwork, ivy sprawling across s and ro Hundreds of kids are walking around, their parents walking with the thee into dorets out and my stomach drops with excitement as I fumble at the door handle This is it This is how arette burns ontheo