High School - Senior Year

Most high school seniors are concerned most about filling out college applications, writing college essays, getting accepted, deciding where to go, deciding what to study once in college, getting time with their friends before leaving, graduating, packing, and starting college. Not me.
My junior year I had toured Ivy League schools in the New England area. I had decided I wanted to go to school for law, wanted to be a criminal defense attorney. I really wanted to go to California to go to school but I knew my mother would never let that happen. By the end of my junior year things changed so drastically between 9/11 and things with my father that my dreams changed. I developed a passion for criminal justice and psychology. By senior year I had decided I wanted to go to school, get my 60 credits and then go into the NYC police academy, finish up college and work towards becoming a profiler with the FBI. I knew that the Ivy League schools were out of the question, not that my father had much money but now my mother would have to put me through school all on her own. I decided very quickly which two schools I was interested in, of course I applied to a couple in case I didn't get in. The one school was in upstate NY, it was a big campus with large classes and a lot of cement but far away from my dream of going into theNYPD. The other school was in NYC, had the exact program I wanted and worked with the NYPD in furthering education, HOWEVER there was no dorms. I would be forced to live at home until I could afford to have an apartment, which would take a long time. Both schools were high ranking in the fields of study that I was interested in.
By this time my friends and I had grown apart. They were more concerned with partying, which is something that I wanted to distance myself from. They would leave me out and not invite me to things so they could be a little more free in what they did. I started to become close with an old friend and a new friend of hers. These two new close friends had an understanding and appreciation for screwed up parents. We always wanted to be out of our houses but we weren't typical teenagers looking for a party or trying to get wasted. The three of us came across a park and ride which apparently turned into a gay meet up place. They left us alone, we were two girls a and a guy (who happened to be gay but had no interest in finding love that way). We were able to hang out, not run into people we didn't really want to see, laugh and observe some interesting situations. One day I will write a post all about the park and ride. We wound up spending a majority of our hang out time at this parking lot and even made some friends. We would blast the music from our cars and dance our butts off.
When it came to school, I had started off the school year with a normal course load plus one AP class. After about two weeks in the AP class I decided to drop it, it was the last period of my day. The prior period was a study hall/gym (I had been excused from because of a knee injury) rotation and I had lunch right before that. I was able to work it so that I was able to leave school at my lunch period. My usual routine would be stop at Burger King get a number one, go home and eat then head to work until my pool closed. This was one of the reasons my weight started to creep up. I was able to hide my eating from my mother because she wasn't home and I was eating crap.
I was able to graduate in the national honor society and in the top 25% of my class, despite my grades slipping at the end of my junior year. I was accepted into all the colleges I applied to and chose to go to the one upstate. I knew I needed to get away and be on my own. I spent the summer packing for college and working all the time.
My relationship with my mother just got worse and worse. She never had any restrictions before but started to implement some even though I wasn't in anyway out of control. The rule was I needed to go home when my friends went home. I held a job and didn't miss school but yet she thought I needed to come home earlier. I think she just knew she was going to be losing the control she had over me.
My love life, non existent. Hanging around a gay meet up place doesn't really help that. I was fine with it, I knew I was going away to school and didn't want to start anything back home. I didn't want to have a reason to have to go back home more than I needed to.