The 3rd Experiment

Chapter 4

|Monday, May 31, 1937|

"Hey, hey, happy graduation." I hear Bucky whisper, waking me up from a light sleep. I sit up in my bed and see that he's brought me a flower.

"I hope you got Steve one of those too, or he's going to feel left out." I joke

"Uh oh, how should I break it to him?" We both chuckle a little and I thank him for the flower. I stand up to see a powder blue, sweetheart neckline dress hanging up over the perfect pair of one-inch heels.

I've been ready to graduate since freshman year. I started out having no friends and I was never really good at any particular thing. I always hated having to hide my test scores from my classmates. In my freshman and sophomore years, I went through a phase where I hated Bucky. Little did I know, if I didn't hate him, I'd have had two more friends those years. Steve, Bucky, and I didn't  become a trio until Bucky graduated and left us for community college down the street.

I step into the dress and look in the mirror, admiring how it fits me and finally liking how I look. I put the shoes on and hope I won't be too much taller than Steve. I reach for the cap and gown and smile really big when Lily runs into the room.

"Raya!" She shouts, jumping into my arms. I give her a huge hug and lean my head on top of hers, squeezing her tight.

We go out into the kitchen and my whole family is watching as I make my entrance. And for once, it's the whole family. I put on the gown over my dress and walk out the door, headed to Steve's house so we can walk to graduation practice together. The whole way we are fidgety and giddy with excitement. After Bucky graduated, Steve was clearly done with school. He wanted to be there just as much, if not less than I wanted to be there.

***

"Rebecca Lynn Barnes." The Assistant principal calls out my name and I hear it echo through the speakers on the football field. I walk across the platform, shaking a few hands and grabbing my diploma. I run off the platform and smile, looking into the crowd for Bucky. I sit back down and smile at my folder proudly.

They go through every letter of the alphabet and after the 'B' names, I started zoning. I'm staring at the grass under the chair in front of me and I contort the blades in my mind to be the face of someone. I start to create a narrative for this person when...

"Stephen Grant Rogers."

I stand up and clap for him, cheering louder than anyone else had and I quickly sit down once he's collected his folder. I watch as he sits back down, surrounded by people he doesn't know. They eventually call out the last few names and they invite us to switch the tassel on our caps and then throw them in the air. After I toss mine, I run back to Steve's seat and hug him, almost knocking him over.

"Ugh, it feels so nice just thinking that I don't have to come back here tomorrow," I say, walking with him to the entrance.  Just as we get past the bleachers, Bucky jumps out to scare us. He makes me flinch and then lifts me up in a hug.

"I'm so proud of you, Raya." He says, setting me back down.

He turns to greet Steve and congratulate him too and I get distracted by the rest of my family walking up to us.

"Oh my gosh, you guys came," I say, not able to hold back my smile.

"Of course we did, Raya," Mom says, pulling me into a hug, "I'm sorry. For everything." She whispers in my ear.

"It's okay, Mom,"I say when the rest of my siblings run up to hug me.

"You're next, Bud," I say. ruffling Will's hair.

***

We get home and Dad starts to warm up the little grill in the backyard. Last year, Mom, Bucky, and I put some of our money together to get it for him for father's day. I help mom set out the hotdogs and hamburgers and we start grilling our dinner. I sit down at the table with water and start talking to Buck and Steve.

"How does it feel?"

"So good. You're lucky you got to graduate a year earlier." I joke.

Steve seems a little bit off. I know he's been looking forward to graduating and that he's going to thrive in a different environment but, somethings wrong.

"Hey, Steve, what's up?"

"I just wish mom was here to see me graduate." He says, not looking up from his empty plate.

"Aw, Im sorry, Steve-"

"Stephen, I'll be your mother now." My mom says, walking into the kitchen and setting the food down on the table.

"Heh, thank you, Mrs. Barnes."

Once we've all sat down and picked out our food, mom asks us to pray over our meal and I reach out to my neighbors hands.

"Before we start eating, I want to announce something." I say, turning everyone's heads to me. "A few months ago, I sent in an application to NYU for a political science major and I found out last week that I got in." I pull out my letter and skim back over it before looking around the table. Everyone is smiling and they all seem proud of me but this is a weird feeling in the air.

Mom didn't go to college, and Bucky is only taking a few classes at Brooklyn Community. So this was a surprising step for our family.

"That's a wonderful announcement, Raya. I have one, myself." Dad says, standing up at the end of the table.
"As head of my department, I have been selected to spearhead a faction at Camp Lehigh in New Jersey. I leave in a week."

"George-"

"How long will you be there?"

"Indefinitely."

His announcement put a damper on our meal as we all finished our food in silence. It felt as though we were each experiencing a different stage of grief.

Mom was bargaining, she was trying to figure out where he could work here or if we could move to New Jersey.

I was angry, now seeing how unimportant my news was. I wanted to prove that I had worked hard and found a path but it was overshadowed by Dad and by the unrest in Europe.

Bucky was almost in denial. He knew that if dad wasn't home. He would be in charge of a lot more. He would have to be the man of the house and he was not ready.

Will seemed a little bit sad, Lily too. Will realized how close his future was, seeing dad leave and he was sad that his father would leave him at a time like this. Lily was just sad because she thought dad was finally spending time with the family but, it's not going to last.

And finally, Eve was just content with this news. She had given up on dad a while ago. She knew he could never be a dad like her friends had.

This trouble in Europe is spreading ever so quickly, and it's already impacting our families.