Today is Saturday, June 1st. This is the day April and I decide to have our bonfire date. Man, I can't wait for this date to happen. I can just picture it now: all the stars are up in the sky, forming images and patterns that we can use our imaginations on. The sand, while coarse and rough and irritating, fills out between our toes. The waves come crashing in evert couple of minutes or so. No one else seems to exist except us, not even our parents or siblings.

It's about 8:40 PM and the sun is already starting to set. April and I have spent most of the day talking to each other on the phone while doing other things (like taking care of Zoey, in my case). Most of our phone conversations have been about school and how our families have been, but this phone conversation saw us talk about much more than any of that stuff. Our phone conversation saw us talk about how we hope to get married after my graduation in 2050 and have a family. We don't even care how we make that family; just that we will have one all the same. However, we'll have to wait years before any of that stuff can happen, so the best we can do is take each moment and try to experience it to the best of our abilities.

I'm especially thinking about how this date might go while Jonah and Hermione are helping me to pick out an outfit. Aunt Margie's ex-husband Herb is also helping me out on this date thing. He's been helping me go over the best conversation starters and the best questions to ask during the date. According to him, these dating tips are the same one his parents gave to him when he first started dating Aunt Margie. That's pretty cool, I guess, but I really don't want to mess up this bonfire date with April. In fact, I don't want to rely on him too much to get through this date.

Hermione has my hair pulled back so that I can gaze at my own face in the mirror. My green-hazel eyes look as radiant as they've ever been, with the ultra-black Revlon mascara and the deep purple eyeshadow from the Huda Beauty Obsessions 9-Color Palette really helping to make my irises stand out. My face has seen better days, though; there's a bit of a breakout on my right cheek that just barely stretches out to an eyebrow, but hey, that's why they invented foundation. Speaking of, Hermione offers to use it on my face so April won't notice my blemishes.

"Okay," I respond to her. "Not too much, though. April will probably notice that more than the actual breakout."

"Fine." Hermione rummages through her makeup drawer and then holds out two tubes of lipstick. one appearing to be made of silver and another appearing to be made of brass. "Alright, Hope. Which one of these do you prefer most? L'Oréal or Maybelline?"

I instinctively point to the brass lipstick tube. "I think I'll go with L'Oréal. I've always liked that brand."

"Oh, cool." Hermione then rummages through her closet and brings out some casual yet somewhat fancy clothes of hers. "Which one of these do you feel like wearing?"

My brain has to filter through all the clothes that Hermione has laid out before me. Which of these would be good for a bonfire date? So many clothes lay out before me, but eventually I settle on a light blue bodycon crop top paired with denim ripped shorts and cerulean flip-flops. For earrings, I put on a pair of blue Y2K flower hook earrings. I then move on to applying my lipstick and glossing them over as tenderly as possible. The L'Oréal lipstick I apply is actually a tube of Violet Parfait. This is actually April's favorite shade of lipstick, so I'm sure she'll be flattered. Hopefully, April will take notice of this and not have to focus on anything else during our date.

Speaking of April, oh, I just can't stop thinking about her! Even when it's almost been a year since we got together and I've had to worry about going through school and everything that comes with it, she's always been on the forefront of my mind. That dark curly hair, those DD-cup breasts, those curves, that... that brown skin! They all go together to make the most amazing woman in the world (or, should I say, the universe), and all the other women out there pale in comparison. I mean it, nobody else comes close to what she's got.

Anyway, now that I've applied pretty much all of my makeup and picked out my outfit, I go over the dating tips with Herb one more time.

"Any advice you still want to give me, Mr. Star?" I ask him.

Herb chuckles. "Just try to have fun and be yourself. Of course, you probably already knew that, especially since April's already seen who you really are."

I chuckle back. "Thanks, Mr. Star. That actually helps me out here. After all, what should matter is the person inside me, not out."

"No problem." He then winks at me as I begin to leave Hermione's room. "Good luck out there. I'm not sure you need it, but I wanted to make sure you knew you could count on it just in case."

April and I sit around the bonfire, just staring into the embers and the wood that keep it burning and burning. We can see everything that's happened with us from the summer I graduated from William Dewey High all the way up into now. I can't believe how much happened to get to this point. I met Quilene, one of my best friends in the whole world and my future sister-in-law. I met her family and appreciated how different and quirky it was from other families (including mine). I got to share my very last moments with Van before he passed away. Best of all, I gained new appreciation for my mother and everything she was capable of doing. All of my worries about her during her pregnancy with Zoey turned out to have all been vain, and honestly, I'm actually glad I turned out to be wrong. As much as I hate to feel that way, sometimes it's better to be wrong about certain things than it is to be right.

"So..." April begins. "You look gorgeous tonight."

Oh my God, she noticed. I hope she doesn't see me blushing.

"Thank you," I reply gracefully. "I like to spend my time. Time is effort, after all."

From there, the conversation tapers off and we resume staring into the fire. As we stare into it, we seem to give some passing thought to the future and what it could be like for us, individually and together. That's all it is, though; a passing thought. After a few seconds, my mind focuses back into the present and what's happening right now.

April wraps her arm around my shoulder. "Everything alright, dear?"

I give with a relaxed smile. "Yep, everything turned out better than I expected, especially with you by my side."

"That's great. You went through so much this year and last year. You deserve a break."

"I sure do. I think I'll just enjoy this summer and wait until the fall before I have to start worrying again."

"That sounds like a good idea." All of a sudden, she picks up her pink ukulele. Funny how I haven't noticed it until now. "I guess, while we're just hanging out here, I could play us a song. What kind of song do you want me to play for you?"

One song instantly comes to mind. "How about you play Be Wherever You Are?"

"Okay." April begins strumming the ukulele and singing the lyrics.

Isn't this such a beautiful night?
Whoa, we're underneath a thousand shining stars.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

Hearing her sing takes me back to that Birth by Sleep concert I attended with Quilene and Rhonda back in February. I still think it's a nice song, especially when April is playing it on the ukulele.

Look at this place, look at your faces.
I've never seen you look like this before.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

I still think this song was meant specifically for me and Quilene, which still seems funny to me because this was written years before we were even twinkles in our parents' eyes. It was especially meant for me, as I need to relax and not let the little things worry me too much or get me down.

Look at this place, look at your faces.
They're shining like a thousand shining stars.
Isn't it nice to find yourself somewhere different?
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be wherever you are?

Here's hoping I'll still remember what this song is trying to get across to me when sophomore years rolls around. It'd be nice to play this song in my head over and over again when there's an obstacle in my way. I'd like to hope that this song will stick with me for the rest of my life. I'd especially like to hope that Van is somewhere out there letting me know how proud he is and how much he loves me and Jonah.

Why don't you let yourself just be somewhere different?
Whoa, why don't you let yourself just be whoever you are?

I just give a big round of applause once April has finally stopped singing. That was the most amazing rendition I've ever heard, even more so than when Birth by Sleep did it.

"You really liked that?" April asks me, genuinely surprised. "Gosh... I mean, I know I'm no Steven Universe, but..."

"But nothing!" I exclaim gleefully. "That was just so beautiful. You should be incredibly lucky that you got your musical talent from your mother."

April chuckles. "Thanks, I get that a lot, actually. I guess Mom's band rubbed off on a lot more people than I thought."

"Yeah, I've heard a lot of great things about Sadie Killer and the Suspects. I especially loved their song 'The Working Dead.' It's too bad they had to disband just as they were peaking."

April chuckles again, this time much more solemnly. "Yeah, but in the end, it was the right call to make. They knew that fame would have left them unfulfilled and empty in the long run. Fame can be nice, sure, but it can also be fleeting. It can't replace anything in your life, much less love for yourself or others."

I nod. "Well, at least if things go south for me as an author, I've still got you and my family."

And so April and I proceed to share a kiss, a kiss that seems to last one minute short of eternity. I'm glad I'll have this moment to remember forever. It's just one of those things that will stick with you until you die. Then again, so will my college years. If there's one thing about college that I've managed to learn so far, it's that it can prepare you for a lifetime of resfeber, sehnsucht, and wabi-sabi.