My fingers were tapping restlessly across the wooden surface of my desk as I watched the minute hand on the clock move ever so slowly towards the six. It was only three minutes away from 2:30 which was when the bell rang; signifying my freedom from this torture chamber that they called school. It was the last day of my junior year in high school and I only had one more year until I could leave the small town of Brittany, Alabama population: 3,596. I had been living there my whole life, and I was just ready to get out.  I would be eighteen in September and I could hardly wait.

                “Spence, calm down.” My best friend Kyla Davies said from her desk beside mine. She was the only one that I allowed to call me Spence, a nickname that my father had given me when I was three. He died of lung cancer when I was six; I barely even remembered him. I remembered that he smelled of pipe tobacco and peppermint. He was the only person that I had ever known who actually smoked from a pipe but it was uniquely him.

                “I’m sorry, this is torture.” I answered, pushing a hand through my always messy blonde hair. It was cut to just below my shoulders and I was constantly running my fingers through it. I don’t know why I did it; I barely even noticed it anymore.

                “Well, we only have like a minute left and you’re making me nervous so stop.” I sighed dramatically and leaned back to rest against the cool plastic of the chair behind me. The class around us was chaotic and while it was normally fun today it was just annoying.

                “Spencer, will you sign my yearbook?” Jimmy Hamilton asked me, holding said yearbook out to me with a grin. I quickly jotted down the standard “have a cool summer – Spencer” before passing it back to him. Jimmy was my biggest fan; or so he told me. I was the star soccer player of Brittany High School. I had brought the girl’s varsity soccer team to victory at state three years running. I was well known around town, but then again who wasn’t?  Jimmy was a bit creepy but I didn’t have the heart to turn him down. He just wasn’t my type. Which is weird, considering that I don’t have a specific type.