It was half-past two in the afternoon. I sat stiffly at my desk in my last period calculous class. Every other student in the classroom were all trembling with excitement, some quivering their legs, some grinning hugely, some biting their lips and staring at the clock. Yes, you could indeed say that I was stuck in a room with a bunch of unruly Seniors.

It just so happened that it was June 12th, the last official day of our high school life, and it happened to be the last period of the day. Although the last day had consisted of handing in text books, the cleaning out of lockers, the turning in of graduation gown order forms, and shuffling about trying to receive the signature of anyone-who-was-anyone in the yearbook, all of the people in the Senior student body were acting like complete and utter scallywags.

That is, of course, except me.

Of course I was rather in-a-tizzy on the inside about the completion of high school, but I had enough self control to not act like I was about to explode and send glitter and fairy dust flying everywhere when the bell rang. I sat coolly in my seat, holding tight to the beautiful leather-bound book that I cherished as a personal journal. As the calculous teacher, Mr. Davis, presumed to blabber about the importance that high school education played in teens lives, I carefully opened my journal and began to admire the inside of it, as I often did when nothing in my general vicinity peaked my interest.

Within the front cover was a small jotting in elegant handwriting:

To my Favorite young Ymbryne

A.L. Peregrine

I studied the style of the writing and traced the words with my fingertip, as I found myself doing many many times a day.

It had been nearly a year since I had chosen to leave Miss Peregrine's loop. It was a choice that resulted in many hardships. There had been days where I had been drowning in school work, most of which I found pointless (really, whose going to use calculous in the world?) where countless hours during the evening were spent cursing horrendously and going off into many tangents. Bunches and bunches of weekends were occupied with extra-circicular activities such as studying in the library on Saturday afternoons or burying my nose in a textbook for hours at a time. It would be horrifyingly wrong if I were to say that Senior year was wonderful because it was most certainly not, it was hell, pure hell.

Other than school work, I had my family to deal with. After returning home from the loop last August, my parents expressed that they were glad that I was home safe and that I had enjoyed myself in "England." Little did they know that I actually was spending my days in the 1940's via Miss Peregrine's temporal loop on Cairnholm Island in Wales. But fabricating a vacation with my best friend, Helena, to England had turned out to be a wondrous cover-up. My parents and Claire attended a wild beach party the very evening I returned home. Helena was not aware of what I had told my parents, and they never bothered to ask her about our trip to England, either.

As the school year progressed, I tried my hardest to spend more time with my family. It was successful on certain levels. I was getting to a point where I actually enjoyed going to the mall with Claire; I could grocery shop with my mother and have it be a peaceful event. I often did things with my father such as dinning out at small diners, seeing horror movies in the theater and I even went fishing with him a handful of times.

The school year was heinously long, but it was well worth it.

So now, here I was, about to gain the very thing that I worked so pretentiously for: my freedom to escape this non-peculiar world.

I quietly began to flip through the journal pages. The entries were written with a fountain pen, that's the only way Id have it, and, many of the entries had photos to accompany them. The majority of the photographs I had shot myself, and each one had its own story to tell. Also tucked within the pages were some letters from Miss Peregrine. She had made it painstakingly clear when I left that her and I were to write to each other every week during my time back in New York. It was a promise that I would have never broken, even under the worst of circumstances. And we did, we wrote to each other every single week, and on occasion, twice a week. It really did amaze me how quickly letters could travel between my world and the loop.

I would be going back soon. There was no doubt about it.

When the bell finally sounded, the sound of chairs squealing across the floors surface were so strident that they drowned out my own thoughts. I waited till most of the other students had cleared out before moving from my seat and out into the hallway.

Students bustled up and down the halls. The energy of the school was exciting for once, and I was actually glad to be heading home.

On my way out the door, as I passed the menagerie of school buses and cars in the parking lot, a felt a hand grab my shoulder.

I turned to meet the face of my best friend, Helena.

"I can't belive that it's finally over, Minnette!" she exclaimed joyously.

I smiled. "It surely is a wonderful feeling, isn't it?" I asked her. "No more long days of sitting in rooms loosing our minds over useless textbooks."

Helena giggled.

The two of us strode past the clique of uptight females that often found it amusing to be brash toward the other students, myself and Helena included. They paid us no mind as we went right past them and began to walk down the street toward my house. They were as ecstatic as the rest of us to be finished with high school. I was sure that bullying other students would no longer be their source of entertainment.

We arrived at my house and went right in. My parents were off running errands and Claire had moved in with her fiance a few months back. We went to the kitchen where I prepared some finger sandwiches and some raspberry tea. Helena was accustomed to hanging out after school and doing homework together, so eating was a part of the routine.

Gathering the food, we went up to my bedroom.

Helena took the seat in my bay window that overlooked my street and I plopped down on my bed.

"So, have you picked out a college yet?" Helena asked, biting into a sandwich.

I nodded. "There's a small University in London that specializes in Ornithology," I explained.

"You're going all the way to London? Just to study birds?" she asked, oddly.

I was lying, of course. I did have an immense interest in studying birds- considering that I was half-bird- but I would be going to no university. No, in a couple weeks I'd be on a ferry across the ocean to Cairnholm to visit Miss Peregrine and the children before I would be moving to Blackpool to study under Miss Avocet at the Ymbryne Academy. Helena may have been my best friend, but there was absolutely no way that I would be telling her of peculiars, loops or ymbrynes. She would grow older thinking that her best friend was just an overly-crazed bird-lover. As much as I would have liked to share my world with her, it was impossible. I had to keep it secret; anyone in the world could be a wight in disguise.

"Absolutely," I replied. I reached for the plush raven that I kept at my bedside. Since returning home, I had been collecting lots of raven-themed items, posters, journals with ravens on them, jewelry of ravens and whatever else I managed to scoop up on my regular thrift shop trips. "There are so many species of birds around the world that are almost extinct. At University I will learn how to identify and care for injured and ill birds, and someday, I will own my own aviary, where I shall breed endangered birds and release them back into the wild."

Helena sipped her tea, then reached up, touching the dream catcher than hung above my bay window, which was made with black feathers. She twiddled a feather between her fingers. "Well, in that case, Ornithology sounds pretty interesting."

I squeezed my plush raven and cuddled it to me. It had been so long since I had taken a flight. Miss Peregrine had instructed me to put aside some time every week and seclude myself so I could practice assuming my alternate form. Such a time happened to be very late at night, long after I was sure my parents were asleep. I would sneak out my bay window and stand upon the roof. From there I would circle around to the backside of the roof that faced the woods. Flight would happen immediately at this point.

"What do your parents think of you moving to London?" she asked.

I sighed. "I'm not sure. I mean, they seem okay with it, but there's still that tiny bit of resistance that they don't want to let me go." Like I had said, my relationship with my parents had improved quite a bit since my return. It had taken some work, but we partially functioned like a normal family. I had discussed moving to London with them, and they seemed at peace with it, but my father had mentioned that he was unsure about how he felt about me crossing the ocean by myself. My mother has voiced that she was proud of me for keeping class in mind whilst choosing a school to attend.

"There's no way in hell my parents would let me leave the state to go to college, let alone the damn country," Helena said, laughing then sipping her tea.

"Yeah, I could see your parents having a fit over you leaving New York," I said.

We both giggled.

Helena sat up, reached in her pocket and pulled out her phone. She quickly answered a text message then looked at me. "Hey, it's only four o'clock. Considering that we're done with school, and technically adults now, we should celebrate."

I smiled. "Well, what do you have in mind?" I asked with a smile.

She sat forward, grinning hugely. "How about a mall trip?"

I leaped forward, off the bed. "Exquisite! Let's go!"

An hour from sitting in my room, discussing my move to "London," Helena and I found ourselves thrown into a menagerie of over-excited teenage goth girls in Gothic Goodies, a store in the mall just for goths. It was true that I still dressed in all-black and wore loads of dresses and skirt and blouse combinations, but I had fallen out of my darker stages. Helena wore a lot of black as well.

We were shopping for dresses to wear to graduation.

"Look at this one," she said, holding up a long black gown, with a high collar and long, lace sleeves that buttoned at the wrists. My stomach dropped when she held it up. "This would look perfect on you!"

It was rather an elegant dress, but too elegant for graduation. Still, I would be needing new things to wear for Ymbryne academy, so I decided to buy it. It was too beautiful a gown to leave on the rack; it would probably be bought by a young girl who wouldn't truly appreciate it. I draped it over my arm carefully while we looked around some more.

I decided on a ruffled, short sleeved black blouse with a plain black maxi skirt, and Helena chose a strapless black dress that ended just below her knees.

We then made our way to a store that specialized in all-natural homemade tea mixtures, essential oils and products for you skin and such. Next was the bookstore, and after that, the shoe store.

When the shopping part was complete, we made our way to the food court for hot dogs and a soda. After a few hours, Helena decided she was tired and we left after eating.

I dropped her off at her house on the way home. I pulled up to the curb and she sighed.

"You know, you really are my best friend, and I'm going to miss you when you move away," she said, lowly.

"I shall miss you, as well," I replied. "But I promise I'll visit."

She got out of the car and collected her shopping bags. "See you at graduation?" she asked.

I nodded. "You bet."

And with that, she went into her house, leaving me with a smile on my face. Yes, Helena was indeed my best friend on the entire planet. And I would miss her dearly while I was away, frolicking about September 3rd, 1940.