The last bell of freshman year had barely faded when Maya and Brielle burst out of the school doors, laughing like they had just escaped from prison.


“No more pop quizzes, no more cafeteria pizza, no more Savannah,” Brielle sang, spinning once on the sidewalk like a girl in a musical.


Maya laughed. “I don’t know if I’m more excited or terrified.”


“Definitely both,” Brielle said. “But mostly excited. Because we’re making this the best summer ever.”


They walked home slowly, the kind of slow where you don’t want a good thing to end. When they reached Maya’s porch, Brielle flopped down on the swing, pulling a pen from her backpack like it was a sword.


“We need a list,” she announced.


“A list?”


“A Summer List. Of everything we’re gonna do. No boring days. No wasted time. Epic memories only.”


Maya grinned and grabbed her sketchpad, flipping to a fresh page.


“What’s first?” she asked.


“Sleepovers,” Brielle said immediately. “Like, at least one a week.”


“Done.”


“Open mic night at Bean & Brew. You draw something live, I recite that poem I’ve been secretly working on.”


“Wait—you write poetry?”


Brielle shrugged. “I contain multitudes.”


They laughed and kept adding:


Paint a mural (even if it’s just chalk on a wall)


Ride the bus somewhere we’ve never been


Make a time capsule


Tell our crushes how we feel (optional and terrifying)


Learn to cook something that doesn’t come from a microwave


Watch the sunrise from the old water tower hill



By the time the sun started to dip, the list had taken up a whole page—half bucket list, half love letter to freedom.


Brielle stood and stretched. “This summer, we’re not hiding from life. We’re living it.”


Maya nodded, heart swelling. “And we’re doing it together.”


The girls bumped fists, the first stars blinking into the dusky sky above them.


The summer had begun.