By mid-May, prom was behind us; finals were ahead of us; and Cale, Sophie, Chris, and I found ourselves sprawled across the hood of Chris' car in the local Dairy Giant parking lot, sipping shakes.

"I think we did it wrong," Cale said out of the blue before taking another sip of his shake.

"Did what wrong?" Sophie sighed as she absently brushed the hair from his eyes.

"Prom. I mean, this year was epic, and the prom was just..."

"Prom." We all said with a universal sigh.

"Actually, I don't think we did it wrong," Cale reconsidered, breaking the quiet again. "I think it's just not us. We're not epic prom people; we're legendary Tuesday people. Anyone can talk up prom, but who has a life-changing experience at a bake sale?" He hugged Sophie closer as he spoke.

"Or finds a best friend at a roller-skating rink?" I offered.

"That's what I'm talking about." Cale lifted his fist to me for a pound, to which I obliged.

"Or learns their crush likes them from a hyper-organized binder dropped off by a shady character?" Chris let out a laugh.

"Dude, you had me until shady character; not cool." Cale's voice was low and severe, but he couldn't hold it as a laugh erupted from his chest.

"Prom was a bit boring," Sophie agreed. "We dressed up. We took pictures. We danced, we left. That was the prom experience. I'm not sure why prom is made out to be some pivotal moment in high school. Maybe it was because it was just our junior prom, but there was really nothing very memorable about the evening."

"Come on," Cale said as he popped up from the hood.

"Oh, no," I groaned. "Do you ever not have a plan?"

"You love my plans," he tossed back at me as he opened the door to his truck and ushered Sophie inside. "You two follow us."

Chris and I followed Cale; of course, we followed Cale. We were moths to his flame of fun.

"Where do you think we'll end up? The zoo, the beach, Mexico?"

"Honestly, with Cale, who knows?" I smiled before adding, "but that's the fun of it, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Chris agreed with a smile as I slipped under his arm.

We arrived at the gazebo. The vibrant green of the spring grass set it off like it was out of a movie.

"What are we doing here?" I asked as I pulled myself out of the car.

"As Sophie said, our legendary prom isn't some high school cliché. Our high school prom is at a retirement home gazebo on a Thursday," Cale said with a flutter of his hands around the scene.

"What does that even mean?" Chris laughed.

"Come on," Cale prodded as he crouched a bit, and Sophie jumped on him for a piggyback.

I grasped Chris' hand as we crossed the lawn to the gazebo. Cale let Sophie slip from his back as he pulled out his phone. The two of them murmured to each other over his screen for a few moments before they parted in agreement.

"Our prom," Cale announced as Don't You by Simple Minds, blared from his phone. "Sophie, may I have this dance?"

"You may," she said with a giggle.

"The way I see it, we have two options: join them or mock them." Chris looked down at my face with a smile.

"Join them; whatever Cale is doing, you always join him," I nodded.

"Agreed," Chris said as he spun me into his arms.

"This is my favorite part," Cale yelled before breaking into a stream of la-la-la-la's.

"Always join him," Chris laugh before we all joined in together.

High school was hard, emotional, confusing, and that was all before the first period on a Monday. People always wanted to focus on the milestones, the big game, prom, graduation. But that's not what high school was; high school was the community. It was the time in my life when I learned I couldn't do it all myself, no matter how many binders or highlighters I used. I needed to look around, to listen, to let people impact me. This attention was the only way to learn what I should actually pay attention to in life.

"Hey, too much thinking." Cale tugged me away from Chris as he looped me in a waltz-like moment. "Be here with us; do all the thinking later."

I let out a laugh, causing him to loop me around again.

"You know what my epic prom moment was this year?" Cale looked down at me with his soft brown eyes as he spoke. "Being assigned an uptight, hyper-organized partner for my capstone."

"Uptight?"

"So, we agree hyper-organized," he laughed. "Really, Delly, I meant what I said in class."

"I know; the capstone changed a lot of us." I smiled.

"Del, the capstone didn't change me; you changed me."

"You changed me, too. I guess Mrs. Sommers wasn't completely off when she paired us together." I laughed.

"So, what's our next grand adventure?" There was a twinkle in his eyes.

"Senior year," I murmured. "SATs, college admissions, another prom..."

"Senior year." Cale's voice sizzled like a firework shooting into the sky. "Think of all the shenanigans I can get us into," he teased.

"Shenanigans?" I shook my head at him.

"Oh yeah, I'm thinking vaudeville-style shenanigans. You already like top hats; how do you feel about dummies? We could bring ventriloquism back."

"Vaudeville shenanigans; you really have been paying attention to those old movies I've made you watch."

"Seriously, though, Delly."

"You are telling me to be serious?"

"Yeah, one of us has to be. Where would we be if you just gave into my plans? It'd be a mess. And trust me, I have plans."

"Cale Benton, have you been planning for the future?"

"Yeah, but typical, binder-free planning, not your extreme planning style." He shrugged.

"Okay, let's hear some of your plans," I prodded as I let my head rest on his shoulder.

"Okay, life goal; we open a restaurant called Cale Delly." He shifted his face to catch my expression.

"Cale Delly, are you serious?"

"Come on, that's a great idea. With our names, we can't not do it."

"Nope, and now you have lost the right to call me Delly," I added, letting my head dramatically drop back to his chest.

"Your words are protesting, but you know it's a killer idea."

"Do you even know how to cook?"

"I happen to be a sandwich expert."

"An expert? Really? Let's hear the qualifications."

"Ok, well, I eat... a lot... as you know. And I have pretty discerning tastes."

"Cale, I watched you eat a waffle with ketchup yesterday."

"Hey, sometimes when you need to scratch that ketchup itch, you have to get creative."

"Ketchup itch?"

"That's a thing. You know that insane craving that will eat your brain if you don't give in?"

"Ketchup, that's what eats your brain?"

"Yeah, why? What eats your brain?"

"Oh, I don't know... finals, SATs, college, life..."

"Oh, Delly, it's like you don't even listen. We have this locked down. Cale Delly... endgame."

"I don't know; what about Delly Cale? It's like kale from a deli, but not."

"I like you are jumping on this bandwagon, but no. That's a hard pass. It has to be Cale Delly."

"It sounds like we are going to put kale in everything. No one likes kale."

"Wow, hurtful," he laughed.

"How do you do it?" I asked with a sigh.

"How do I do what?" Cale absently spoke as he spun me again.

"Always look forward to the next idea, the next adventure, the next challenge."

Cale just shrugged.

"No, seriously, things like this Thursday prom would never come to my mind."

"I don't know. When you said I wasn't paying attention, I agreed. I didn't want to be that guy. I want to create a world around me I like; one that I want to live in. I know I'll never broker world peace or cure cancer, but if I make my world better by how I live my life, it's got to cause a ripple. There's enough heavy stuff in life that we all have to deal with, but I don't have to add my dead weight to the pile."

"I wish I could be like that," I sighed.

"You are like that; where do you think I learned it from? Just be you, Delly." Then he dropped his face closer to mine to add, "and maybe start a binder to make it official."