Eight Minutes

Bright Stars

 The image isn't mine.

"I promise;" I said as I hugged her tight. It seem that our senior year had gone by so fast and part of the summer even faster. Now it was August and my friends from senior were starting to leave for college or getting ready for their senior year at Mt. Helen's high school. 

 Me? Well, I was going to leave in a week. I was one of the last to be heading off to college and I was fine with that. I would be going to school in a large city 4 hours away; I don't like large cities. I prefer the country side, but the field of work I wanted to go into didn't provide many options in the way of schooling. 

 As I waved good bye to my best friend, my mother approached me.

 "I miss her already." I say to her. 

 "I know Catherine. It won't be long now until you have to go." Her words were strong, but I could see sadness in her eyes. I was her last child to go to college and I knew how old that made her feel. Though it was brief, she quickly picked herself back up again. 

 "Now, I need help with dinner. It won't be long now until your brother and his family get back." My brother was 32 years old and his name was Felix, and though we were 14 years apart we were very close. I was also close with my sister-in-law, Kara, who I viewed as my sister completely and I was absolutely in love with their five year old daughter, Kay. Felix and Kara were high school sweethearts and got married pretty young. Kara was my best friend growing up, she was my mentor in a very special subject called life, and I was turning out to be the same way with Kay.

 I trailed after my mom as we went back in to the house and as soon as we got to the kitchen we got to work on dinner. Well, she was the one prepping for  dinner so when she went to cook it wouldn't take as long, and I was the one working on dessert. I love anything sweet and I know my big brother does too, so I made chocolate cake. 

 "I'm done Mom, do you need any help?" I asked her after finishing my cake.

 "Nope, run along and study. I'm not paying good money on schooling for you just so you can fail." She replied. I smiled and ran up stair to my room. It was my haven, my girl cave. I loved it and you could always find me there. My favorite part about it was the balcony that hung toward the woods behind our house. The woods held happy memories of my childhood. 

 My mother used to say I had two different personalities, my girly and polite side that adults got to know and the outdoorsy and crazy girl my brother and my friends all got to know and witness. It was sad that I would be leaving it all behind. I broke through my trance and flopped onto my bed, my boyfriend, besides my fridge, and the food inside my fridge, don't tell him I'm cheating; and opened up my laptop to study for college. I wanted to have an advantage over some of the other students so when I left college I would get a job faster than the other students. 

 I needed to get lots of experience and an internship I got over the summer did give me plenty of lab experience, but I still needed to learn more. After about an hour or two, maybe a break to watch videos in between, or a couple, there was a ring from our doorbell. I rolled out of bed and ran downstairs so fast that I nearly knocked my mother over.

 "Sorry Mom, I'll get it!" I said as I ran past her to open the door. As I opened the door, I threw my arms around the giant on the other side of the door. 

 "Hello you," He said as I pulled away, before I was tackled by a blur of hot pink and purple.

 "Kay!" I heard come from Kara who was walking up the driveway. The little fireball didn't get off until Kara pulled her up off of me and put on her hip. Kara walked over to my laughing brother and while one hand supported Kay the other slapped his chest. When she did that he stopped laughing and gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes. I rolled my eyes and walked back inside the house to get a glass of water with Kay and Kara behind me.