Chapter 29My last three finals went by painlessly. I knew I had aced English and Social Studies and History because I enjoyed all three courses and had prepared for them for weeks. But by the end of it all, I felt the stress of everything collapsing on me.
I was saying goodbye to friends, family and the town I had called home for many years. I was leaving all the good times behind.
But I wasn’t ready to close the door on Rocco, who, it turned out, had not shown up for the History final. After I handed my exam in to my History teacher, Mr. Addison, I waited outside on the front lawn for Rocco, sitting in the shade under a dead, old pine tree, picking blades of grass and watching students piling out of the building, smiling and exchanging excited banter that the end of the school year was
