The crisp and auburn shade of September came, ruining yet another all-too short summer for the students of East Shores High. Under falling leaves, ESH became the center of town once again, no longer an empty parking lot for the skateboarders and the solemn graveyard it had been during the summer. Its prison doors were open once more, greeting the freshman to its hell and everybody else a cold welcome back from the draft that wound through the bustling hallways. The fading colors of autumn became a vivid splash of color within the confines of school, with every student still trying to savor that last memory of beaches and the summer air by the blinding colors of their clothes.

The sun was hiding when school let out, too late in the afternoon to hit the waters and too early to go home. School buses breathed out their heavy sighs and started up, droning away from the crowded parking lot and worming their way down the streets with restless children inside. A small group of six teenagers—three boys and three girls—lingered back at the doorways of the school, leaning against the charcoal railing whose skin had begun to peel away with age.

“Sucks,” Joel muttered, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans. Just yesterday he was wearing shorts. Somehow, going back to school made the whole world seem a lot colder.

Nobody needed him to clarify what he was talking about; they all knew he meant school. None of them were glad to be back and they all nodded and murmured in agreement. Then there was silence for a while, as the screams for children leaving the school grounds began to fade into the colorless autumn sky.

Andy shrugged his heavy shoulders, a football tucked under his arm. “At least try-outs begin in the fall. Been waiting all summer to get back on the field.”

“Maybe this year you’ll graduate and won’t be the only twenty-old year old playing for a high school varsity team,” Cordelia laughed.

Andy smiled at her. He loved the way she laughed—in short bursts and chippers, like that of a squirrel. Her strawberry-blonde hair blended into the season so perfectly that Andy didn’t even notice a leaf that had fallen on her shoulder until she brushed it away and her laughter died down. Somehow, the first day of school never brought much humor.

“This year’s the year,” Andy nodded slowly. “Just wait, it’s going to be awesome.”

Cassandra, a wild brunette with soft lips and a knapsack dangling over one shoulder, let out the sigh they were all holding in. “I sure hope so. I’d do anything to get away from this hellhole. Go off to college somewhere, meet a nice guy—”

“What’s wrong with me, Cassie?” Joel interjected. “I’m better than all those frat boys put together!”

Cassie laughed. “Dream on, Jo-elle. College boys are sophisticated.”

“This coming from a girl with a room full of kids’ games,” he muttered back.

She ignored him with an innocent smile.

“You guys can say what you want, but I still don’t like it,” Brad said from his spot against the wall. His girlfriend, Ruby, was busy tying her black hair back into a ponytail and he was amusing himself, tugging at the scrunchie, until she swatted his hands away with a giggle.

“Whatever,” Andy said, tossing the football over to his friend. “See you at practice, man?”

Brad grunted. Typical boy speak, really.

“This is our year,” Andy declared. “Let’s go, Wolves!” He prodded his foot into the cement a few times the way a dog does and threw back to his head to let out a howl. “Wolves! Wolves! Wolves!”

“Stop being an idiot,” Cordelia sighed, yanking his arm. But as head quarterback for the past three years, there was no chance she was going to move him. He was too busy in his fantasies of being a wolf.

“At least you’re not like that,” Ruby whispered to Brad.

He responded by pushing off the wall and howling at the sun, just beginning to peek out from a cloud, as if it were the moon. For a minute, it was just Andy and Brad howling like two rabid dogs, each trying to out yell the other while the other four just stared at them. Then they doubled over in laughter when they couldn’t holler anymore, now that they even had the principal standing at the door to see who had let the dogs out.

“Don’t you kids get enough of school during the day?” he asked. For a principal, he was awfully short and looked to be one of those kids picked on through his school years, making it no wonder he wanted to be a principal to get back at the kids who had done him wrong.

“Just showing some school spirit,” Andy said through his laughter.

“Yeah, yeah. Show it to me by passing this year.”

The principal turned his back and Andy couldn’t help giving him a quick flash. Brad burst out in laughter, stepping in front of Andy just in time to cover him up as the principal took one last glance back at the student who gave him the most trouble in all his years of teaching.

“Pull your pants up,” Cordelia sighed when the principal had left.

“They seem to be stuck,” Andy joked. “Want to come help me?”

“The help you need you couldn’t possibly get…”

Andy just laughed.

“Walk me home?” Cassie flashed a smile at Joel.

He smiled back. “See you guys.” But he didn’t look at them when he spoke, just put his arm around Cassie. She pushed it off in midstep and started down the road, two steps ahead of Joel and speed-walking. He jogged to keep up and she broke into a sprint. Joel chased her for half a mile, running through traffic to keep up, and finally tackled her into a pile of leaves on the side of the road. They disappeared under the rubbish. Cassie resurfaced after a moment, crawling onto the sidewalk, but Joel caught her ankles and yanked her screaming body back into the pile of leaves, which had become all but a cluttered mess by now that would have to be raked all over again.

Andy watched them, laughing. “With a tackle like that, he could take my place when I graduate.”

“If,” Cordelia interrupted.

“No way, man,” Brad tossed him the football. “I’ll be quarterback next year.”

“Yeah, as soon as you learn to throw!”

“I’ll throw you!”

They dove at each other, arms clashing, each trying to push the other over.

Eventually they both fell to the ground and began rolling over each other, fighting for the football.

The two sane ones, Cordelia and Ruby, were left standing side by side, watching their friends act like the idiots that they (usually) were.

“Another year of this,” Cordelia sighed.

Ruby smiled. “Ain’t it wonderful?” Then she screamed as Brad reached up, seized her waist, and brought her wriggling body down on top of him.

Cordelia saw Andy reaching for her.

“Don’t you dare,” she warned, stepping back. “Don’t you even dare.”

He crept closer, slowly, like a shark underwater.

“Don’t…” Cordelia said, backing up to the stairs leading into the school.

He came even closer and reached his arms out.

She spun and started up the stairs. “Don’t!”

But he already had her. She fell to her knees on the first step on her elbows three steps above that. Pinning her arms to the side, Andy threw himself backwards, causing Cordelia to sail through the air with him and land next to Brad and Ruby, who were already making out in plain sight. No big deal. Brad and Ruby. They did it all the time, even in the middle of class.

“I’d rather throw you around than a football any day,” Andy laughed, rolling Cordelia over in her grass.

“You’re ruining my coat!” she whined, pounding her fists helplessly into the earth. “It’s brand new.”

“You’ve had it for four years.”

“I like this coat.”

“I bought it for you.” He dug his nose into her face and kissed her roughly on the lips.

She sighed at him as he came up for air. “I hate you.”

“Will you hate me forever?”

“If you give me the chance.”

“Great,” he said, moving in for another kiss.

Cordelia finally laughed and rolled over, giving him only her cheek. He tried for her lips again, but she pressed her lips to the soft ground and curled into a tight ball. Laughing playfully, Andy tried to turn her over, but she’d only throw her head from one side to the other, never giving him a chance.

Falling back on his knees, Andy sighed happily and let Cordelia squirm her way forward a few feet—like a worm—just to be safe, before she collapsed Indian style on the grass. They stared at each other, breathing deeply, and tried to laugh.

“Your face is a mess,” Andy said, reaching out his fingers to wipe away the dirt from her brow.

“Not as much as yours!” she said, grabbing a handful of leaves and rubbing them into his face as he drew close.

He seized her hand and gently pushed her arm away. He smiled at her, but it wasn’t his usual teasing smile when he told a bad joke or wanted to impress somebody; it was a serious smile, a dreamy one made Cordelia frown slightly because she had seen that smile before.

“This is the year,” he said distantly with a single, yet empty, laugh at the end. And he said it again, because it sounded so unreal. “This is the year…”

“I’m sure it’ll be great,” Cordelia assured him, carefully. She wasn’t so sure. A cool breeze caught her bare skin and she shivered, zipping up her coat. Brad and Ruby continued to make out next to them and it no surprise that Brad had ripped off his shirt by now. What was surprising was that his pants were still on.

“Don’t they care that everybody is watching?” Cordelia asked, knowing neither Brad nor Ruby was paying the slightest bit of attention to anybody around them anyway.

“Nobody’s watching,” Andy said. “We’re alone.”

“Yeah…we are.” Cordelia leaned back on her hands and stared up at the sky. The sun was gone again and it didn’t feel so warm anymore. “We really are alone, aren’t we?”