Going Way Back

Chapter Three - One Last Time

                                                                      Sapphire

"Cannonball!" Oscar, Brooke's younger brother, yelled as he jumped into the pool with a huge splash. This was a farewell pool party held at Brooke's for Stella, Sapphire and Connor. They had invited all of their friends and Stella had invited some of her friends and colleagues.

"Thanks so much, you guys for doing all this," Sapphire said, looking at her best friends Brooke and Mackenzie, and her boyfriend Hunter.

"No problem," Brooke said. "We would do anything for you! It was really fun and I think that it turned out great." She looked over the deck to where loads of kids were in the pool, admiring what they had done. There were heaps of snacks in the kitchen and outside there were heaps of things to do and loads of decorations.

As people were starting to leave Stella, Sapphire and Connor were stationed upstairs saying goodbye to people who weren't going to the airport with them. Some of the last people left were her best friends.

"Bye Saphie," said Paige, giving her a hug. Behind Paige was Brooke, Mackenzie and Hailey. The four of them became best friends in kindergarten and had been best friends ever since. They met Hailey in Year One and she became one of their best friends. They went to primary and intermediate together and had been really excited to go to high school as well.

"Bye Paige," Sapphire said, gesturing for the other three to come over.

"I am gonna miss you all so much. We have been best friends ever since kindergarten and nobody in Twizel is ever going to be as good of a friend to me as you guys have" Sapphire said, looking at her friends with a tear going down all their faces. "I hope that even though I'm going to go live somewhere else we will all stay really close friends."

"I hope so too," said Paige. "One last time?" They did their group handshake.

"I can't believe that that might have been the last time for a while that we'll do that," Brooke said.

Everybody had left and it was just them and Brooke's family. As she left she looked back at Brooke's house and thought about all of the memories that she had made there. She remembered when she had her first sleep-over with Brooke and they thought that it would be a good idea to get some midnight snacks. They didn't know how loud they were being and woke everyone else up. Brooke's parents came into the kitchen and thought that it was a robber, but when they turned on the lights it was just her and Brooke. They didn't have another sleep-over for a while after that. Sapphire smiled.

"You okay Saph?" Brooke asked

"Yeah," Sapphire said with a smile on her face. "Just... remembering."

***

They had arrived at Auckland Domestic Airport and had checked in all of their bags. It was just going to be Sapphire and Connor on the flight because Sapphire hated car rides with a passion and Stella would be driving so she could take some of the bigger things and keep an eye on the moving van. Stella would have to pick up the kids from Timaru, as that was the closest airport, and then have a two hour car drive which Sapphire was really dreading. After checking in all of their bags, they had gone to a cafe where they would be meeting up with everyone to say the last goodbye.

After having a bite to eat it was time for Sapphire and Connor to start saying goodbye so they wouldn't be late for their flight. Sapphire said a quick goodbye to AJ, her brother's best friend, and his mum. Then she said goodbye to Thomas, Kylie's husband and her kids Brianna and Toby.