Gabi Vasquez couldn't say that her first year away at college had been a good one. In a single year, she had changed her major six times, switched roommates twice, nearly flunked Calculus II, and she had failed to find a part-time job. To make matters even worse, she still had student loans to pay off.

Now, as she walked into her childhood home, she wished that she could return to the good old days. Gabi had wanted to leave Medallion Court more than anything while she was there, but now that she was a college student, she wished that she had appreciated that time in her life more. If nothing else, she desperately missed the family that still lived here.

Gabi climbed up the creaking stairs until she reached the fourth floor of the apartment building. Then, she found Apartment #406 and knocked on the door.

"Gabriela!" her mother exclaimed as she enveloped Gabi in a hug. "It's so good to have you home!"

"It's nice to see you too, Mom," Gabi said. She spotted her father and her younger brother Jonas in the back of the apartment, quietly eating their lunches. Jonas was a few inches taller than Gabi remembered, but he still had his trademark emo fringe. Gabi always appreciated Jonas' hairstyle and music taste, even if their parents hated it and were convinced that it was nothing more than a phase. It was clear that Gabi had taught him well, despite the fact that she had long since traded in her eyeliner and My Chemical Romance T-shirts.

"Dad, can I hang out with Matthew after dinner?" Jonas asked.

"Jonas, I don't care what they're teaching you in that school of yours," their father replied in Spanish. "We speak Spanish in this household."

"Sorry Dad," Jonas said in Spanish. "Can I hang out with Matthew after dinner? Please?"

Gabi felt invisible as she watched her brother and her dad argue, and to be honest, she kind of liked it. At that moment, she wished that she could disappear like this forever. Then again, Gabi would be pretty happy if she could just make her loans disappear.

"Absolutely not," Dad said. "Your sister is home, and you should visit with her."

Jonas turned around to face me. "Oh, hi Gabi," he said.

"Hi Jonas," I said, smiling.

"I don't see why he can't spend time with Matthew," Mom said. "He's a nice boy, and Gabi will be here all summer."

"Mom's right," Jonas said.

"Gabi?" Dad said. "Are you okay with Jonas leaving for the afternoon?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Gabi said as she tried to remember Matthew. The only Matthew she knew was Matthew Clark: a tall, intelligent, blond-haired boy who lived in Medallion Court with the Vasquez family and was a year younger than her. Gabi had no idea that her little brother was friends with him. Matthew had always been friendly but distant to Gabi, along with all of the other girls who couldn't stop themselves from swooning over him.

"Fine, Jonas," Dad said. "Let me know when you're leaving."

"Okay Dad," Jonas said. He pulled out his phone and started texting someone, presumably Matthew.

Gabi, meanwhile, tried to calmly answer her mother's many questions about her year away at college. "How was it?" Mom asked. "Are the people treating you nicely? Are you still planning to go to medical school? Juan's mother told me that med school is hard to get into, but you can do it. Is the food any good? Do you have a job yet?"

"College is going fine," Gabi explained. "The people are fine, I changed my mind about med school, the food's okay, and no, I don't have a job yet."

"What happened?" Mom asked. "Did you change your major again?"

"At this rate, you'll never graduate, Gabi," Dad said.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to major in history," Gabi said. "Biology is just a lot of work, and my American History professor last semester was amazing."

"You've got to be kidding me, Gabi," Dad said. "Nobody will hire a history major."

"It's what I love, Dad!" Gabi exclaimed.

"You said that when you switched from business to computer science, and then from computer science to biology," Dad said. "You have to understand that your mother and I are losing our patience with you."

"Also, why don't you have a job yet?" Mom asked. "Did you take that resumé building workshop that I told you to take?"

Gabi shook her head. "I had to study for calculus," she said.

"You should really have a job by now," Dad said.

"How else are you going to pay off those loans?" Mom asked.

Gabi had expected this reaction, but she was sick of her parents' questions. "Who cares about loans?!" she shouted. "I'm done with loans!" She ran into her old room, which her parents had converted into additional storage space, and slammed the door. It was immature of her, but Gabi thought maturity was overrated.

As she stood among her parents' boxes, Gabi wondered what exactly she was doing with her life. Perhaps she was too young for nostalgia, but Gabi wanted nothing more than to be a kid again. She would do anything to trade places with Jonas, even if he might disagree. Gabi longed to tell him that adulthood just wasn't worth the pain.

If Gabi lived anywhere other than Medallion Court, she might have built a treehouse in her backyard and lived there forever. Instead, she had to be content with her mother's storage closet.

Someday, Gabi would face the world, but today was not that day.