It was the final play of our senior year. This was the last set I would paint at this school. This was the last time I would have to convince Noah that the picture didn't have to be perfect, the last time I would have to remind Nadia that the paint always washed out of her hair, the last time Julian would over-embellish some insignificant part of the mural.
Above all, this was the last time we would have time like this. Just the four of us, just like sixth grade when we became The Souls. Admittedly, none of us really opened up to anyone else as much as we had opened up to each other. Maybe that was because we hadn't had to put forth any effort. We just knew each other as soon as we sat down to tea. It had started with a cup of tea on a Saturday afternoon. These days, Sillington House was much to busy for us to have our own tea. Instead, we worked on our projects during the rest of the week and helped Mr. Singh with the customers on weekends.
One of our projects was the sets for the school plays. Nadia really got into theater after Annie and Julian started helping me in the wings. Even Noah had been absorbed into the fuss when he finally agreed to work the sound effects for us.
Freshman year had found Julian moving to the back to operate the lights while I started training in helping actors transform between scenes. Nadia took the school by storm with her acting. She's really that good, my almost cousin.
Sophomore year was hell. Luke was put in rehab for heroine abuse and my parents became rigid in everything I did. We had a lot of fights when I finally told them that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on the farm. I spent three weeks at Sillington House when I told Mother that I wanted to go to Julliard to study the machinations of a Broadway set. In our junior year, I spent two weeks at Noah's while his mother talked mine out of disowning me. As it was, I recently returned home after spending nearly a month at Nadia's. Her mother was highly supportive of the two of us going to Julliard. My almost cousin will study acting and she will take the world by the ears and remind them what a really good actress can do.
The real reason for staying with Nadia was that Luke had just come home. He would inherit the farm because I would not. The fact that the university had kicked him out was just a detail.
Transcending all of that, Julian was in Epiphany to help his father while attending the college and Noah was going to Princeton. All we would have would be our memories and holiday breaks.
So I grinned as Noah and Nadia argued about the shade of green for the trees. My grin remained as Julian reminded them that he would be putting some strange color on the paint and it would come out differently. Really, the color of the trees was insubstantial. It was only Midsummer Night's Dream. It was all about Puck and fairy mischief, really. The future would be about whatever it would be about and the trees could be pink for all I cared. I had great friends who helped me find myself all those years ago. Even though we would be attending different schools—or classes in Nadia's and my case—we would still be close enough to call each other; we would still be The Souls.