The Girl Before

Chapter One

Alexandra Horowitz
9/13/2021
10:00 AM

The seniors are hauled into the auditorium. We are about to hear the whole spiel about senior year:credits,college applications,you know the whole spiel.

"Good morning seniors.",The principal said

The seniors blankly stare at the principal. They are about to be put through the same thing they have heard since freshmen year.

"This is your final year of high school. Just yesterday,it was September 2018 and you were all little freshmen with big book bags thinking that you were going to be like those kids in every high school show you watched. Now you are seniors applying to college.",the principal said

    I started applying. I believed my freshman year that I was going to apply and go to hard to get into schools:Harvard,Princeton,Stanford,Vanderbilt,Northwestern,etc.,but over time it changes when you are in a public high school. I now had state schools and easy schools to get into on my list. The only hard school was American University in Washington DC. Only a few kids would get into an Ivy League school. It takes time to realize that going to an Ivy League school does not make you better than someone who went to state school or spent their first two years in a community college. I constantly browsed my list in the summer:American University,University of Maryland,Temple University,University of Vermont, University of Rhode Island,Florida Atlantic University,DePaul University,SUNY Buffalo,SUNY Albany,Syracuse University,and the College of Charleston. My mother looked over the list and I had to remove the University of Vermont,DePaul University,and College of Charleston,too far.

"Oh my god,we know the whole nonsense. We know we got to pass all our classes to partake in senior events.",Elizabeth whispered

"Eh,it is better than pre-calculus. I fucking hate pre-calculus.",I replied

"Everyone hates high school math. Where am I going to apply the quadratic formula after senior year?",Elizabeth said,"Anyways,did you start your college applications? What is your top school and your major."

  "I started mine. My top choices are American University and University of Maryland,but my safety top choice is Temple University. I do not have a major in mind yet. I applied undecided to many of my schools but I applied to American University for their C.L.E.G. major on the pre-law track. C.L.E.G. is an abbreviation for Communications,Legal Institutions,Economics,and Government.",I said

"American University? That sounds like a conservative college with gun carrying students from the south. I never heard of it.",Elizabeth replied

"Well it is actually the most liberal college in the country which means many of the kids there vote democrat at election time. It is located in Washington DC.",I said

"I always felt you were politically ambitious. My top choice is Boston University,San Diego State University,or the University of Minnesota. I am thinking of pre-law or pre-med with either public health or political science. I cannot decide!",Elizabeth said

"Hey girls.",Jack Siegel interrupted us

"Jack. How was your summer?",I asked

"Great. I got to do a lot.",Jack said

Soon the guidance counselor said,"Guys,you are at an assembly. Quiet."

After the guidance counselor returned to his standing area,we continued to talk more.

"I saw you worked at a summer camp.",Jack said

"Yes,I did. How about you?",I asked

"I worked at the same summer camp,we were just in different divisions of the camp.",Jack said