"A girl who'd wait for the third time around, head in the clouds feet on the ground,
She's a girl he's glad he's found, she's his Shipoopi."
---Shipoopi, The Music Man
Summer sat in the drama room before school with Kristi and Becca looking through bridal magazines trying to find the perfect hair do' for Prom.
"I like this one." Becca said tearing out a page and placing it on top of the other pages that they had torn out
"That is cute." Kristi agreed, "It's very old Hollywood."
"Oh my god." Wasman said shaking his head as he walked into the room with Counterman and Jackson, "Are you guys still talking about hair styles? You've been doing that all weekend."
"But now we have magazines to flip through."
"Hey all!" Ariel said walking into the room, "Lenny's having a big poker game Friday. If anyone wants to stop by after prom feel free."
"We're in." Wasman said, "Right Kristi?"
"Sure. I mean it sounds like fun."
"What about you Summer?"
"Can't Seth and I will be very busy after prom."
"Very busy huh?" Becca smirked
"Not like that!" Summer exclaimed hitting her arm with a magazine, "He's helping me get everything ready for the big move."
"That's right only sixteen more days 'til you head back to the coast and forget all about us." Jackson said sticking his bottom lip out
"That's not true. I'm going to Berkley and Kristi and Wasman are going to be in L.A. which means that our weekends will be packed full of road trip fun."
"What are we talking about?" Ms. Casey asked walking into the room
"Nothing." Summer sighed, "Jackson's just trying to make me think that I'm going to forget about all the people I've met on my way to the top."
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"So Casey, did you have a good mother's day?" Kristi asked changing the subject
"I did. Hannah took me to the movies and then we ate pizza and watched the Valley marathon."
"I did that too!" Summer exclaimed, "But that was after Seth and his dad took his mom and me shopping while Ryan and Marissa took Sam and Cohen to the park to play."
"That's so sweet." Kristi sighed, "I wish Wasman would do something like that for me."
"But you're not a mother yet. You're not even pregnant." Wasman explained to her before he turned pale and his eyes became wide, "You're not are you?"
"No."
"Oh thank God."
------
That night Summer sat on her floor starting to pack up pictures that had been hanging on her walls. Some of them held memories of her pre-Springfield life, pre-Sam life but most had been taken during her stay here.
She took a picture of Kristi, Anne Marie and herself sitting by Anne's pool dressed in tank tops and rolled up jeans and placed it into the box.
"You guys are not going to get a good tan dressed in that." Katherine said walking out of the house dressed in a bikini that hardly covered anything.
"Well Katherine, some of us aren't a size two."
"I remember being a size two." Summer sighed, "I miss those days."
After sorting threw a few others she found one that pictured Wasman and Jackson backstage before a Seusical performance holding Summer up by her feet.
"Say it!" Jackson yelled as he grabbed Summer's pant leg harder
"No!" Summer squealed
"Summer, if you don't say it Jackson and I will drop you." Wasman told her
"Try it."
"You heard her Wasman. And you know she is getting pretty heavy."
"You're right Jackson." As he pretended like he was about to let go of her leg
"I give!" She exclaimed, "Wasman is nothing like a character from the Valley!"
"Now was that so hard?" Jackson asked as he and Wasman set her down
Summer picked up her bulletin board and laughed to herself at all the inside jokes that were posted on it. She slowly took off a picture of a fuzzy caterpillar that Seth had sent her and shook her head.
"Seth?" Summer asked panicked as she tried to lay a half awake Sam into her play pen and keep her phone against her shoulder at the same time
"Summer? Are you okay?" he asked
"No." She whispered
"Okay tell me what's wrong."
"I was lying in bed and I was sleeping, you know having this really weird dream about some guys I know painting weird pictures on my stomach with Vaseline..."
"Sounds like sexual repression to me." Seth said interrupting
"Hey, the story's not over yet." She told him as she placed a few blankets on the couch and crawled under them, "Anyway I think they were using Vaseline 'cause my stomach itched. But anyway I woke up and felt this itch by my underwear line..."
"This story is taking a really weird turn."
"Interrupting again. So I'm half asleep and I reach my hand under my blanket and I pull out this freakin' fuzzy caterpillar."
"What?"
"Yeah. But I didn't know what it was 'cause it was it was rolled into a ball. And I don't know why I did this, maybe it's because I thought it might just be a dream, but I kept it on my bed and I looked at it and I sort of closed my eyes for a second and then I opened them and it was still a ball and I closed and opened my eyes again and it was no longer in a ball and it was crawling towards my arm!"
"That story would have been so much better if you replaced caterpillar with Bear or something."
"Hey it was scary."
"Yeah 'cause in the dark a caterpillar looks like a dragon."
"Who's that?" Marissa asked in the background
"Give Coop the phone." Summer instructed
"Hello?" Marissa asked getting on the line.
"It's Summer. So I was a sleep and I woke up and there was this caterpillar on my stomach."
"Oh my god! Are you okay?"
"Yes. And at least you care about me."
"Of course I do. I remember how much you freaked out when Luke told you that he put a caterpillar in your sandwich in third grade and how for months after you were afraid that the caterpillar was going to turn into a butterfly and you'd die."
"I can't even see them on TV with out my skin crawling."
"Maybe you can look at this as your first step of moving on."
She placed the picture into a zip lock bag and then took off her class schedule.
"Attention teachers." A voice over the intercom said shortly after the bell had rung, "Although you are able to, we are asking all teachers to not print off schedules for the students. Thank you."
"Well that's stupid." Ms. Casey said leaning back in her chair, "We don't want you to make copies of the schedules but we'll announce that the schedules are ready so that students can bug you about them."
"Hey Casey, can you make me a copy of my new schedule?" Jackson asked walking into class with Counterman
"Uh how about no."
"Well how about you just log on and change my classes."
"You know I can also change your grades."
"You can't change our grades. All you can do is look at them and laugh."
Summer placed the schedule in the bag and thought, for a moment, about how the year had gone by so fast. A year ago she had dreaded even the idea of moving to Missouri but now it was almost a second home.
"Sum?" Meg asked opening the door, "There's someone here to see you."
"Okay. Send them in."
Summer began to straitend up but stopped once she heard a voice from behind
"Hello Summer."
She paused for a moment and then slowly turned around.
"Daddy." She whispered
