A/N: Inspired by the wonderful book Golden by Jessi Kirby. That book gave me all the feels.
This was the toughest assignment Nikki was faced with in her AP composition course. Their teacher had placed a prompt on the board, explaining that their grade for this assignment was simply based on completion, but she wanted them to be completely honest. Not with her, but with themselves.
That prompt, in its both simple and complex form, was:
Who are you right now in your precious life and what do you want the most out of it?
It shouldn't have been this hard for her right now. She was tough. She was in love. She was hurt. She was aggressive. She was pessimistic. She was skeptical. She was a realist. She was jaded. She was scattered. She was... She didn't know exactly who she was, being completely honest with herself.
What did she want? She wanted to stay in love with Jonesy. She wanted to graduate high school. She wanted a college education. She wanted to stay strong. She wanted to not hurt because of her parents. Because of her father. She wanted to be with her friends. She wanted to be successful. She wanted to be, but that wouldn't suffice on paper. At least to her standards, which were still lower than Jen's. (No one's standards were higher than Jen's.)
God, this assignment was due Monday. It was Friday.
That bought her some time (for the prompt, not her precious life).
It was time to seek the answers to those questions herself. No more staring senselessly at a blank Word document. No more endless scribbles on her notepad. No more crashed trains of thought.
It was time for a night drive with some good company. (Her friends.)
Because they knew her the best. Maybe even better than she knew herself right about now.