235 days till graduation. 235 days till my life begins.

All my life, you stood by me when no one else was ever behind me, all these lights they can't blind me, with your love nobody can Drag Me Down

My sleep is suddenly disrupted by the sound of four angelic voices.
Which I realize is only from my phone.
I search the table beside my bed for my phone but I can't seem to find it.
It's a holiday today and it's still quite dark outside. Which means I shouldn't be up until about noon. Why is my alarm ringing then?
I have to put it off soon. I don't want James to come into my room and yell at me for half an hour for waking him up and disrupting his "Beauty Sleep" and what not.
I search for it on my bedside table but I cant seem to find it and I'm hence forced to get up.
Yes, the pain.
A clock on the wall says it's 4 am. Why the hell did I set an alarm to this ungodly hour?
I finally find the phone on the window sill. I must've left it there once I finished speaking to Travis. Which was around 2 am.
It says RoadTrip on the alarm.

Oh Sh*t.

I completely forgot didn't I?

So basically my friends and I decided a while ago that we'd go on an impromptu road trip whenever we get a few days off this year. We don't really know if we'll see each other as often as we do so we said we'll make this a trip of a life time.

I vaguely remember Samantha calling me around 12 and informing me that this trip would be today. I think she said we should all be at Natalie's place at 4:30.
I don't even have my bag out and it is now 4:10.

Natalie's house is about 10 minutes away from mine. I should just be able to make it.

In the next 15 minutes I stuff a lot of things into my bag. I don't even know what.
I think I put in a winter coat but also short sundress because I have no idea where we're headed.

I write a note to mum and leave it in the kitchen. I am aware of the fact that she'll not be very pleased but I shall leave that problem to deal with later. My problem now is to get to Nat's house, in 5 minutes.

I don't know how I manage it but I run, no, sprint to Nat's house and when I get there faster than I've ever gotten there before, I jump, fist bump the air and just collapse on her drive way. 
I'm quite proud of myself in getting here in record time.
Natalie, Vincent, Andrew, Samantha and Anne look at me like I've finally lost it.
Mary hasn't arrived yet.
Yes!

"You totally forgot didn't you?" Sam asks me. "I knew this would happen. Which is why I didn't get off the phone till you set an alarm. I bet you had your head in the clouds, thinking about Travis or some other nonsensical thing." she scolds me but I bet she's very proud of herself for asking me to do so.

While we're putting the last bag in Mary arrives saying that she's only fashionably late.

"So anyone knows what the plan is?" Andrew asks.

"Let us just drive and see where the road takes us." Natalie pipes in. "Gentle reminder, when I say let us just drive I mean I'm driving. I'm not letting any one of you drive my baby. I don't trust any of you enough for that." she further adds, quite seriously.

She has a Land Rover Discovery Sport.
What. A. Beauty.
So I get why she doesn't want us at the wheel.

I call shotgun before any one else does and rush to the front.

Let's get this party started.

~

I think most of us sleep for a good 4 hours  while Nat blares some really good music that I have never heard before from her phone.

She wake us up for breakfast and lunch. Anne and Mary had packed some absolutely delicious sandwiches. Of course we had to get out of the car each time. If we had dropped anything in the car, Natalie would've had our heads.

Most of the journey I'm staring out the window, pretending to be in a music video, Anne and Mary and Sam are in some deep conversation that involves Biology which I immediately tune out. Bio is just not my thing. Vincent is snap chatting I think. Andrew is just taking pictures of everything. Nat is singing very loudly.

Around 6 in the evening  we near Lake District.

Absolutely breath taking.

It's views like these when you feel as if nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
As we grow older I think, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but Nature's sources never fail.  

I don't want to leave this place now.

It's just so beautiful that I think my description wouldn't do it any justice.

We're at the highest land in England. The mountains rise majestically from the ground and are in perfect and beautiful shades of green. From where we're at we can see loads of pretty cottages. Imagine waking up to a view like this everyday.
There's a valley and in the valley there's a lake. The lake seems to go on for miles. It just looks so good.

None of us are really saying anything. We all just get out of the car and sit by the road, taking in the view.

We decide to just set up camp here.

These people have thought of everything. They bought three tents, and a couple of other supplies.

I end up sharing a tent with Mary and Anne. Which actually kind of scares me.

Around 9 we've finished with our dinner which was out of a can so not very great. The view made up for all that though.

The 7 of us are now sitting around a camp fire.

We're eminiscing on the good old days like a bunch of old people.

"Remember that time you wrote Buble' instead of bubble in your English exam Anne??" Vincent says and starts laughing uncontrollably.

"Remember that time you peed on yourself in Year 6 Vincent??" A rather angry Anne retorts.

I'm going to miss this lot. I'm going to miss everything we do.
We have to admit that things are never going to be the same.
Might as well take in and live the moment.

"Guys. Stop." Sam finally says, shutting them up. "So tell me, what do you guys plan to do. We've got to start sending in applications to different universities and everything soon isn't?"

Oh no. Not this conversation.

What do I say??

"I'm definitely taking up Corporate Law. I shall take the Corporate world by a storm." Anne says. Mary and Natalie want to do similar things so they go into a full fledged conversation on best universities and all that.

Sam then mentions that she's applying to Oxford to become a surgeon. She'll definitely get in. Little genius that one is.

Even Andrew and Vincent add on what they want to do while I manage to dodge all questions pointed my way.

Around 12 everyone is tired and we go into our tents.

The next morning we decide to go around the Lake District park and do a lot of cool stuff.

We decide to go para gliding. Scariest thing I've ever done. I mean, the view was magnificent but the fear of falling down from 3000 ft is not something I plan on experiencing again.
We also go on jet skis which was also quite fun.
Ok no, that was really fun.

And before we know it, it's time to head back.

Back to school.
Back to reality.

Something I don't look forward to.

I do look forward to seeing Travis though. He texted me a few times but I didn't really get a chance to talk to him.
I think we're taking things a bit too fast. Like sometime this week I'll be meeting his hotshot parents and everything.
What if they don't like me? What if they ban him from seeing me?
Ugh. Just thinking about it scares me.

I considered just staying here and telling the others to just carry on without me but I cant hide from my life anymore can I ?

I've got to start making decisions.

Real Ones.

Can life just not get in the way for once?