The Girl Before

Prolouge

Alexandra Horowitz
9/13/2021
7:30 AM

Holy shit,I am a senior now. That was the feeling I woke up with this morning. Just a moment ago,I was a freshman so excited by the idea of being in high school,watching all those television shows throughout elementary school and middle school that showed high school as a place where you can be the most average person and still manage to get with the jock of the school football team. I was naïve,it was not like that at all for me. No star athlete boyfriend,no popularity,parties were almost exclusively for friend groups(no large parties where the entire grade was invited),no big sports games,none of that nonsense. Maybe because I went to high school in a neighborhood near a large city? I do not know. Maybe if I lived in a small suburb in the south or Midwest,this would be more common.
It was my last official year of high school. I did not care to make an impression on my fellow classmates,I have been there since September 2018. I was not a naïve freshman who believed everything I watched on television. I just threw on my favorite t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

"Are you ready for your final year of high school?",my mother asked,"Are you excited?"

"I am fine. No one is excited for school.",I said

I looked at my schedule. I completed my credits in science and foreign language. I started later now. Period four was pre-calculus. Period five was Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics. Period six was Advanced Placement English Literature. Period seven was orchestra. Period eight was journalism. I had no gym because I played a sport. I was not truly excited for that aspect of senior year. I was more excited for prom,senior events,college acceptances,and graduation. It was the thing most of us dreamed about.

9:30 AM
I had officially gotten to school. All the sophomores,juniors,and seniors were in the courtyard catching up with friends and talking about their summer. The freshmen with their overpacked bags like they were going on a camping trip were sent to the auditorium to hear about their next four years in this hellhole. I spent my summer as a camp counselor dealing with nine and ten year olds from rich families,who had no rules at home who believed that talking back at the counselors was okay. The enjoyable part was the other counselors in high school and college. I went to baseball games with my father and went on college tours throughout the northeast. I was looking at big city schools. I could only stay in northeastern cities,nowhere in the south,midwest,or west coast but my older sister was allowed to apply to the University of Michigan in which she got reject from.

"Alexandra! There you are!",Elizabeth McDougall,my best friend for the last few years said

"How has it been?",I asked

"Nothing much. Just worked at a cafe and bakery all summer.",Elizabeth said

"Hey. At least you made some money. I got paid nine hundred and fifty dollars this summer and got tipped very little from the rich campers who spent the summer there. It was kind of insulting.",I said

Soon,the boy I long had a crush on since I was little and my childhood friend Jack Siegel passes by. I never told him that I was in love with him but we have been extremely close and told each other everything. Soon the principal came out.

"Students. School is beginning.",The principal said

Rachel Goldberg
9/5/1923
6:45

   Rachel. Get up. A voice was yelling at me. It was my sister Molly who was a year younger than me who I shared a room with. I had two older siblings as well:James born a year after my mother Rose immigrated from Salonica and married my dad Jacob who immigrated when he was a young boy to escape persecution and pogroms in Czarist Russia. My parents married in 1898 and James was born the following year in 1899. He served in the war and went to college. He was now in law school. My parents have been pressuring him to marry but has lived with his long time friend George Friedman in their own apartment. James had come to the apartment today.

"James,I found you a lovely girl. You remember Jane Cohen. She is two years younger than you. She just graduated from Cornell.",Mother said

"For the last time ma,I am not interested in her. Do you understand?",James said

   James did not seem enthusiastic about the whole thing. He knew Jane but they were not friends and he had no mutual attraction towards her. Jane was a year younger than he was. She was the bell of the ball at school.

"Mama,I got to get to school now.",I said

   It was my final year of high school. I was beginning to apply to college. There were schools that did not take girls or had a separate school for them. For most of history,women did not go to college. We were forced into the role of being a stay at home mother or if we wanted to work,we could become teachers,nurses,or secretaries,and not much else as women are not taken seriously. I could apply to the girls schools:Barnard,Smith,Wellesley. I could look at Oberlin College,University of Pennsylvania,Northwestern University,American University,or any school I can find.
    When I got to school,I tried to search for Margaret Levy,Mildred O'Connor,and Dorothy Russo,my best friends since we were little. I found them in the crowd. We have been spending time together at the beach,flirting with boys,and sneaking into speakeasies.

"I hate the summer had to end so suddenly. This summer was swell. Sneaking all that hooch to the beach and in front of the police officers.",Dorothy said

"I hate that my parents support prohibition. My brother Sam and I do not. We have snuck out many times.",Mildred replied,"It's a whole lot of baloney. You have to believe me."

"Florence,I heard you have a new boy in your life.",I said

"John Lawrence. He is quite the sheik.",Dorothy said

   John Lawrence was well known around the school. He was very handsome and the captain of the school's football team that won him a scholarship to Harvard and Brown to continue playing football.

"Well classes are beginning,so I must head to German.",I said