Been Here All Along

28| past

"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." - Andy Bernard

"You ready?" I asked Ian as we stood by the door to our apartment to leave. I was getting some hardcore flashbacks to high school because of Ian's plain white t-shirt and a pair camouflage cargo pants, his signature JROTC get-up.

"I am," he grinned.

Earlier in the week, Ian arranged plans to meet up with his JROTC sergeant and lieutenant from high school. He's been looking forward to it since the arrangements were made, so I'm excited for him.

He insisted I come tag along since they are meeting at our old high school. They are running a training today and said Ian could come sit in and watch. His therapist thinks it'll be good for him to go back and experience from the outside what it is that drove him to join the army.

I, on the other hand, will be going around the school and talking to some of my old favorite teachers. I wasn't a total teacher's pet, but I did have a few favorites that adored me.

"It's going to be so weird being back at Adams." I have not gone back since I graduated; I never could bring myself to, it was just too hard. High school was a building of a reminder of Ian, who was away.

   "We had some good times there, though." Indeed we did.

In high school, our group was the group that everyone liked. We got along with everyone, unless someone wronged us. Even then, though, we didn't usually hold grudges; we simply just chose not to associate with the people any of us happened to have bumped heads with. Ian, Mason, Kaila, and I were a crowd of likable people. That does not mean we didn't know how to have fun.

We were the group that everyone wanted to hate, but just couldn't. We were too nice to everyone and too funny, honestly.

"Remember gym class senior year," I recalled. "Mr. Highland hated me."

Our group took gym as a blow-off class our senior year and truly treated it as just that. None of us would change our clothes for class, no matter what, and we literally never wore tennis shoes. Not to mention I literally got away with sleeping on the gym floor almost everyday.

Back when times were easier.

   "He learned to love us," Ian smiled.

   He'd probably argue it to this day, but we were definitely his favorite group of students to see everyday.

   "Are you excited to see your sergeant and lieutenant?" I asked him. I'm excited for him — he idolized these two men. They were role models to Ian, driving him to be a better man every single day.

   While his parents are amazing and helped raise me as well, I give a lot of credit to his sergeant and lieutenant. They were great at their job of making Ian into a man.

   Ian pulled into an empty visitor parking spot at our old high school, John Adams High School. It's weird not pulling my Jeep into a student spot, even after being graduated for four years. We went in through the main office to retrieve visitors passes and were recognized by the secretary almost immediately.

   "Wow," she gasped. She looked more shocked to see Ian than me, which isn't surprising. Word got around quick that Ian was going to war, and not everyone returns, hence the shock. Ian did, thank God.

   Literally, I thank God every night for letting my love come back to me.

   "Ian and Josie," she greeted after the shock of seeing Ian wore off.