Northern_Lights_2021

31 The end is a cruel and unusual punishment for people who don’t seem to have enough time. For centuries, many people have struggled to accept that, eventually, the end will come. Those who try to avoid it are always the ones that meet their end too soon. Just like Victoria Alberts. Victoria never believed that there was an end coming for her and, sure enough, the universe showed her wrong. Victoria spent most of her childhood breaking rules and pushing her luck. When she graduated from high school in 2016, absolutely nothing changed. She left the small town of Ember Lake, Minnesota, where she was born and raised, and ran off with her boyfriend, Jett Erikson, to Peaks Edge, California, which is twice the size. Victoria and Jett started dating when they were sophomores and vowed to run away together as soon as they graduated from high school. The day after graduation they did just that. They packed their things into Jett’s SUV and drove two thousand miles to Peaks Edge. Victoria wasn’t close with her family and they didn’t argue with her—they just let her go. Jett’s family, on the other hand, was very upset when they heard of his plans. His father was especially mad and screamed at him for being in way over his head. This made the decision to leave much easier because he knew that if he stayed, his whole life would be controlled by his father. Victoria and Jett started their trip at eight o’clock on Monday morning and they made it to Peaks Edge by noon on Tuesday. They took a few breaks to stretch their legs and switch drivers, but otherwise, they drove nonstop through the night. When they arrived in Peaks Edge, they noticed how wonderful a town it was. It seemed so quiet, and they knew it was the right place for them to be. They didn’t waste a single moment. Since they knew that they were going to need to find a place to live, they went to a diner to have lunch while they searched on their phones. They wanted to buy a house, but after much searching, they knew they were going to have to settle for an apartment. They had each saved five thousand dollars in high school, but even that amount was barely enough for a small apartment. Meanwhile, they found a cheap hotel and stayed there for a week. Looking at the apartments and prices, Victoria and Jett came to a compromise. They found a one-bedroom duplex for eight hundred and fifty dollars a month with a driveway out front and a nice-sized kitchen. They decided to go for it and called the number on the listing to say they wanted the apartment. When the two eighteen-year-olds planned their escape from their old lives, they didn’t think about jobs or money that much. They thought that the money they saved up was going to be enough to buy a house and live off of. They were in no way prepared for the painful realization that they were going to have to work. They also hadn’t considered the price of furniture. They spent a large amount of money buying recliners, couches, a kitchen table with chairs, a bed, other necessary furniture, and getting utensils and food to fill the kitchen. By the time they were done, they had already spent eight thousand of their ten thousand dollars. Having spent so much money, they knew that they were going to have to get jobs. Victoria fought Jett about their both needing to get a job. She told him that she didn’t want to have to work, as working was the man’s job. After days of arguing and screaming at each other, Jett finally gave in. He knew that he was going to have to find a job that would pay well enough for them both to live on. Jett scoured the internet and the papers for job openings but didn’t find anything. After three weeks of looking, applying, and interviewing with no luck, Victoria had had enough and decided to apply for a job at a dry cleaner called “High-Quality Clean,” in hopes of proving to Jett that finding a job wasn’t that hard. Jett scoffed at her for making it a competition and applied for more jobs but heard nothing. Two days later, Victoria received a call from the first and only business that she applied to and was asked to come in for an interview the next day. When Victoria arrived at High-Quality Clean, she was greeted by a very handsome young man. He introduced himself as Alex Pendleton and asked her if she had previously worked at a dry cleaner. She replied that she hadn’t and a conversation about dry-cleaning ensued. The EndWill Come Alyssa Schwartz