My ending days as a Junior

Tyler Jacobs: “I think we should do a pop up book, and then turn it into a newspaper.” As he said this his mouth immediately gave in to his humor as his smile widened farther than any mouth could ever have. His face was always one big smile.
“Don’t listen to him,” Erica scoffed. She could help but sneak a smile too. Tyler had that effect on people.
“Oh my god,” Mari said, joining our little group. It was like a newspaper party in the back corner of our Physics classroom. Tyler, Sonia, Mari, Erica and I were all involved with the school Newspaper. I was the Managing Editor. “I can’t believe what a waste of a day today was,” she said, while slumping down into the seat in front of Erica with her new book on her lap. “I did nothing all day. It’s unbelievable!”
Far from us, Shayla had heard what Mari had said and commented loudly, in her usual obnoxious way. “This class is a joke, man.”
“I know, but isn’t it great?” a voice from the other side of the room responded. Hannah. Mr. Ramphall seemed not to notice, or not to care. He was a gentle and funny man, but also a very laid back teacher.
All of us scoffed. Yes, it was great at times to have one of those classes, but it also got to be really annoying at other times. The school year was almost over anyways . . . nine more days left and we were officially . . . seniors.
The word made me shudder. Then, I shuddered at my shudder.
Wasn’t only just two or three months ago when I had yearned for this moment to come? Didn't I want to finally leave high school and get it out of my life already?
I used to say to my friends, “if I could graduate tomorrow, I would.”
This seemed scary now . . . yet exciting. As my lazy head rose slowly from my supposed sleeping position, I wondered: “Would I miss this? This life? This ambiance?”
My ears suddenly tuned in to the conversation around me. My people. Of course, my high school life had encircled around Newspaper, ever since I was promoted to Managing Editor of the Content class of the Newspaper. All day it was Newspaper, Newspaper, Newspaper.
“So Erica,” I said, coughing at little at my dry mouth. Damn it! I forgot my water!
Erica looked at me, not surprised at my little antisocial “sleeping” mode. “What?” she said casually.
“When’s the senior issue coming out?” Again, just about newspaper.
“Oh, it’s already here,” she said with a smile as my eyes grew wide with excitement. “And now that that’s done, me and Simon were talking about changing the entire Newspaper . . . at least how it’s lay-ed out, of course.” She was the Managing Editor for Digital, a separate class from Content, but still together all the same. That reminded me of Simon (well, Mr. Simon) always saying “We make Content look good”
“We have so many ideas for next year, so we can win at Competition,” Mari said.
“Yeah, I wondered why we didn’t win,” Sonia chirped in.
“What do you mean we?” Tyler said his smile deceiving his wanna-be harsh comment. “You weren’t even there! You thought you were so cool and didn’t show up!” As Tyler said this, he leaned back and waved his arms around at the "so cool" part, apparently mimicking Sonia as his shirt extended reading Pembroke Pines Charter Baseball. I wondered again, for what must have been the millionth time, about how a good-looking Varsity Baseball player got interested in Newspaper. I was stereotyping where I shouldn’t have. Charter rose above common stereotypes. One of the reasons I loved being at this school.
“Shut up, Mr. I Don’t Know Where to Put My Hands!” Erica said, mimicking Tyler with the hand motions. Erica was referring to a video we shot of newspaper. Tyler was interviewed, the hardest interview of them all since no one could stop laughing, and the first thing he said was, “I don’t know where to put my hands.” That started the first round of soon-to-be many hard laughs.
“Okay, okay,” Sonia smiled. “What I’m saying is, we should of won something at Competition. We had a lot of good stuff!” Good hearted Sonia belonged in Digital class, and was the pure hard working “layer-outer” – as Tyler puts it – there was.
“Because it’s rigged!!” Mari said, louder this time. Everyone laughed, including me the one with the sulky mood. Maybe it was because I still hadn’t slept. And maybe I couldn’t sleep because I was too tired. Too tired . . . something’s bothering me.
“That’s why we need change,” Tyler said, his grin rose higher back to its usual position. “Let’s make the paper into a pop-up book!”
Laughter. And more laughter.