That water fight was how we ended the year off with a bang. 

Our punishment was light. Well, for me at least. 

Some people were mortified when Principal Hugo told us we would not have our end of the year ice cream celebration in the lunchroom. He sent us back to our rooms after dinner and made sure we didn’t have evening recess. 

Everything went back to normal after that. The next couple of days went by in a flash. 

“Can you sign this for me, Dean?” 

I was in my U.S. history class talking with Lawrence, since there was nothing else that our teacher was required to teach us, when a girl with curly black hair asked me to sign the back of her yearbook. 

A boy with a blonde buzz cut leaned toward Lawrence and tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Do you want to sign my yearbook too?” He asked Lawrence. 

We went around the class signing people’s yearbooks and having them sign ours. 

During afternoon recess, we were out on the field, and I asked Jenny if she could sign my yearbook. 

“Yeah, of course,” she replied. 

“Ooh, let me sign it too,” Maggie added. 

I chuckled awkwardly and managed a smile. 

“Sure, sign away,” I said. 

The truth was that I didn’t really want Maggie’s signature. It wasn’t because I hated her or anything; we were…cool; I guess. But after having the entire history class sign my yearbook—I was running out of space for signatures, and I really wanted Max and a couple of other seniors to sign it. 

Though I guess space didn’t matter because when I asked Max for his signature, he scribbled his name over a bunch of my classmates' jokes and quotes. 

“Uh, thanks…I guess.”  

Max laughed as we stood in the shade of an enormous tree. 

“You’re welcome, man.” 

***

And now was the day that I was looking forward to, but also dreading at the same time. 

The start of summer break—A.K.A. moving day. 

I was in my room with Max, Lawrence, and our three other roommates, packed my things into a suitcase and bag, then looked at our now clean and soulless room. 

“I’m going to miss this place,” I said first. 

The others nodded and murmured in agreement. 

“But do you know what I won't miss, though? This freakin’ heat,” Lawrence added. 

“““Yeeess,””” the five of us groaned in unison. 

“I pray to God that Dictator Hugo gets another child abuse case so that we can get actual air conditioning, and not this…” said the shortest roommate as he pointed to the singular fan at the back of the room. 

“I’m praying alongside you,” said our chubby roommate. 

““Amen,”” said Max and our skinniest roommate. 

There were laughs and chuckles as Max looked at every one of us. 

“I’m gonna miss you guys,” he said with a smile. 

“Really? Because it seems like you’re happy to get away from us,” Lawrence joked. 

“““Yeah!””” Me and the other roommates said in agreement. 

Max laughed and lightly punched the edge of Lawrence’s shoulder. 

“I am,” he admitted, “and I was going to say it if you didn’t cut me off.” 

The boys laughed, then the shortest of us said that he was going to miss Max too. Then all of us said it to Max, then to each other. 

And after a couple of hugs and fist bumps, we took our belongings and headed outside.