2.3 Return Home

Time passed quickly and soon I had been two years at the University. Every semester we had exams due. I had failed one so far and passed the others. Things were also going great with Jerry.
I finally decided to kiss him. He was very surprised as he didn't look at me that way.

It didn't take us long before we were sleeping together. We were now boyfriend and girlfriend and we spend most our free time in bed together. This was also how i dealt with all the stress from studying. I felt like i could really be myself around Jerry. I didn't have to hide the less attractive sides of me from him. After we had made love we would just lie there. Usually falling asleep while holding hands.

We hadn't talked about our future much. Only what we expected to work with after University. Right now we were just enjoying each others company.

At home, things were going pretty good as well, as far as i could tell from my phone calls with Rie. My mom had finally let her artistic side out.

When she wasn't at work, she would spend most of her time in the hobby room, drawing pictures. She was too shy to let any of us see it though, so she would put them away in her room to sell at the consignment store later.

Hans's career was going great. He got promotion after promotion. In his free time he spend it either with his new girlfriend Linda, or practicing his guitar skills.

When i asked Rie about herself, she would just say things were going fine and nothing more. I knew not to press on, so i let it go and expected her to explain when i got back home.
I had been invited home for Christmas and Birthdays, but i had declined since i wanted to spend my free time, even in the holidays, catching up on my studies. I needed to excel at my final exams. I didn't want to fail another class, or i would have to go home and say to my mom that she wasted a huge amount of money on me. No, i needed to study. Rie told me though that they missed me at the holidays and it wasn't the same without me. She called me "The glue that holds it all together". It touched me, but still didn't change my mind.
The next exam, which was after three years, i passed with flying colors! It was amazing what a rush i got from it. It made me want to be even better the next time, which would be my final exams. Jerry was doing great too, though he didn't seem to need to study as much as i did. Most of the time he would just hang out with his friends while i studied. He didn't go to a lot of parties. He was much more mature than that for his age. He was a couple of years younger than me, though it didn't matter at all. We fit perfectly together in all ways possible. I had started fantasizing about our future, marriage, babies... What great joys of life would be out there for the two of us. I still wanted to travel. I needed to save up some money in order to do that. And that's where my education comes in handy. Now that i was finally going to get my degree i could get a great job in sports and not worry so much about money all the time. I would also sometimes go to the gym and work out, when i was done with my studies for the week or just needed a break.

I loved working out. It gave me a kick i had never had before. It was like it lit a fire inside of me that was untouchable. That's when i knew i was doing the right thing. This was going to be my future. I was gonna be in sports. My new goal, besides traveling, was to become the greatest football player ever seen in Moonlight Falls!

As time passed, i fell more and more in love with Jerry. Now that exams were closing in on us however, we weren't together much. But we had finally decided that when we were done with this crazy ride, he would move in with me. He had shown me so much love and attention that i couldn't imagine anything else. He was perfect!

The way i studied varied from day to day. Sometimes i would read  in books, and other times i would study the skeletal structures of the human body on a skeleton with my class. Though at times it would scare the living crap out of me.

The hard work payed off. I made the Dean's List and i was so happy. Some of the other students said i was studying too much and i needed to relax a bit. Since i was studying basically all the time, i fell apart from the other students. I didn't get party invitations anymore and they weren't really talking to me. I guess i had outgrown them in a way. The only person who seemed to still have an interest in me was Jerry. He was my glue. When i was down or just stressed out, he would hold me, kiss me and  make everything better. He slept most of the days at my place and sometimes we would study together. We also had fun though. At times we would hang out in the park to relax. One time we did a school cheer, it was so much fun.

The others looked at us like we were crazy or something. That's just because they weren't jocks like us. Most of the people were rebels or nerds. But we liked the park because of them. They made it tolerable. I couldn't deal with too many jocks at a time, since most of them were men and that was just too much of men's locker room mentality.

Then it was finally time for finals. I had gone to bed early the night before so i would be rested and ready. I got up early, went to the bathroom, took a shower, got a good breakfast, played some video games to relax, studied for an hour and then headed to the first exam. It was about the human body's atonomy. I excelled and passed with flying colors. The next two exams went the same way and soon I was at a frat party celebrating the ending of four years of torture. I liked studying but this was just too much. I was never ever gonna do that to myself again. I spend most of the party chatting to my now former class mates and making out with Jerry.
We were to leave for home in a couple of weeks time.
After a week i received my report card. I got an A! Yes! All the sweat and tears, the years of studying, working out, taking extra courses, neglecting my friends and family, had finally payed off. I was going home with honor.

Home. Home is where the heart is, now i was there. I arrived home late on a rainy Saturday night.

I went inside to find them all gathered in the living room. They swarmed around me, hugging me and congratulating me on my degree. "I told you she would make it," I heard my mom whisper to Rie.
On the wall above the tv hang a sign that said "Welcome Home!".



I know this chapter wasn't as long as the others, but I wanted to keep it in one theme. Now that her university years are done with, i will focus on her future.
Also, for some reason i didn't get a notification or an action to go get the exam paper, you know, where you invite friends and family to see the ceremoni where they get their papers or what ever it is called. So i don't have pictures from that.