This is my first story, and I hope you'll enjoy it. Feedback would be great, since I'm still figuring things out. :]

Chapter 1. Teen dream

I was dreaming peacefully, that was until the curtains of my bedroom were pulled open with an enthusiastic goodmorning. It was our maid, who had been working in our family for nearly 30 years now. She always was the first one I saw in the morning. If I had to pick her or the annoying sound of an alarmclock it wouldn't really be much of a competition. Her name was Rebecca, but for me it was just Becky. Well, that was when my parents weren't around. They were a bit on the formal side and not very fond of nicknames.
The Sunday morning sun woke me up in a soothing manner and I sat up, leaning with my back against the padded headboard. I pulled my hair in a pony tail, and greeted Becky with a groggy morning voice.
"Mornin' Becky."
Becky turned to me, with a warm smile on her face. I loved her smile. I don't even remember the last time my parents genuinly smiled at me, or were proud of me. Becky was always smiling.
"Good morning Sookie," she put down some fresh towels on the foot of my bed,"should I bring up some tea? Or breakfast?"
I shook my head.
"No thank you. I'm just going to take a quick shower and eat breakfast downstairs."
Becky nodded and left my room, taking the warm and friendly athmosphere with her. Now it was just me again.

After a couple of minutes just staring at my wallpaper, which was a soft yellow with an elegant flower print, I jumped up and decided I would spend my day productive. Even if it would be just to keep my mind of how unhappy I actually was. I showered quickly, blowdried my hair and brushed it thoroughly. Then I walked through my room, and into my walk-in-closet. That was one of the plusses of being a rich kid, I guess.
Although you would expect that it would be filled with designer stuff, it wasn't. I was more of a comfy and casual girl, with the exceptional 'my-parents-picked-this-outfit-because-it-makes-them-look-good'. Somehow I always hated those outfits. They never even tried to include my opinion, I just had to trust them on theirs, and I so never did. Eventually I picked my favorite grey sweater and combined it with some washed jeans and all stars. No need to dress up today, thank God.

Most girls of my age could enjoy weekend's, have fun with their friends. I wasn't allowed to. When my parents hadn't organized some boring high tea or lunch or dinner, I would be forced to just sit home all day.
I didn't have many friends. Just Amelia and Sam, who weren't actually allowed to come over, but who still sneaked in occassionally. Becky would never tell on me to my parents and always kept her mouth shut.
I wished that I could go to a normal school, so I could see them every day. My parents prefered home schooling, however. They said it would be better for me, not getting my good manners spoiled by those -in their eyes- worthless boys and girls with no manners. My teacher mrs. Fortenberry also was one of the reasons I loathed it. After boring and frustating lessons Becky was the one who made me feel better in an instant.
I wouldn't know what I'd do without her actually.

My route to the breakfast room -yes we had a special breakfast room- took me through the main hall of the second floor, which had high ceilings and huge windows, I noticed it was really nice weather and decided I would go for a walk after breakfast, my homework was already finished anyway. Becky had already put a plate with scrambled eggs and some toast on the table, the eggs looked delicious and tasted even better. I polished it of quickly and placed my plate in the sink, since I didn't feel the need to let Becky do everything, I didn't want to become spoiled, like the girls you see on MTV.

When I stepped outside I felt so much better. We had a beautiful garden, it was huge and was so green and I just loved it. The walks always gave me time to let every sorrow slide away, and I just could take a step back and think everything over. Just as always, I started to walk in a random direction. After a while I decided it would be nice to have a look at the lake, since you could lie there in the grass without getting disturbed, and right now that was what I wanted most. The walk carried me along a little temple, one that my father had placed there since he was in love with the Roman architecture of that time. I loved that temple and it was one of my favorite places, you could find me there often reading a book or listening to music on my Ipod, singing along. Another one of the plusses of it being secluded that nobody had to listen to my awful singing. Or that I had to be emberassed.

Now don't get your hopes up. The place wasn't huge, nor special. It's one of those little buildings you saw in English landscape gardens, one of my fathers passions. That was one of the few things I actually appreciated about my father, his love for history, art and landscaping. I remembered that as a small girl, he would tell me all the stories about the gods and goddesses, the heroes and the battle of Troy. He would also show me pictures of gardens and flowers in his old books, me sitting on his lap, he smoking his pipe. I wondered why and when we actually stopped with that, propably it had something to do with growing up. Was I the one that made us become so distant, or did my parents were responsible? We were an unhappy family I didn't even know what caused it.
Eventually, I reached my destination. I let myself fall down on the grass and closed my eyes, it didn't take long before I drifted off.

"Hey. Are you okay?"
The question was accompanied by a little tap on my arm. I sat up quickly, wondered how long I had been sleeping, when I faced the person who had woken me up I forgot what I actually wanted to ask. He was kneeling beside me, his light blue eyes giving me a worried look. His face was beautiful, almost angelic, strands of long blond hair hung around it.
"Are you okay?"
I nodded.
"Can you stand up?" I nodded again. "Ok then. Let's stand up then."

He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me up, you could definitely tell he had some muscles. After we stood he released me, I wanted to scream 'no don't let go just hold me', but that's a bit weird to say when you've just met someone. Talk. Say something. Say anything. Smile. No don't smile you'll creep him out.
"Thanks. I'm Sookie. It's okay really, I guess I drifted off."
A grin appeared on his face, it made him even more handsome. I swear in that moment I could've just melted in liquid Sookie.
"That's good to now. I didn't really feel like discovering a dead body on my first day of work." Now it was my turn to look confused.
"Pardon?"
"Oh sorry. I'm the new employee, the gardener, well his son actually, but now I'm also working here, fulltime. My name's Eric."

We shook hands. His hand were huge compared to mine. He was also very tall. The jeans he was wearing were slung low on his hips and had some dirt on it around the knees, his black t-shirt was spotless, however. As I reached his face I noticed he was smirking at me. A blush krept on my face, what if I had been drooling? After all, the guy, Eric, was someone worth drooling over.
"Shouldn't you be working?" He looked a little offended by that question, oops. "No no, not like that. Not trying to be condenscending or bitchy. I'm just a bit drowzy and slow." I felt my face become red again while his facial features relaxed, and he smirked again. Did he know how he affected me? How he left me speechless and not being able to think straight? Simply, by just standing in front of me? Luckily, he started talking again.
"My first workday consists of making myself known with this place. It's beautiful, you're very lucky."
My eyes fell to the grass. I shrugged. If he only knew.
"I guess." He gave me the concerned look again.
"I should go back now. Homework and stuff."

Such a lame excuse, but I didn't want the conversation ending in me talking about my feelings, I came here to actually escape them. I turned around and made my way over to the path that led past the tempel. When the open field of grass turned into forest I heard someone running to me. When I turned around I noticed it was Eric, who else? He breathed a little heavy and looked a bit flushed from running after me, he still looked amazing though.
"Do you want to meet up tomorrow? I'd really like to get to know you better Sookie."
I smiled, figuring there wouldn't be much harm in just talking and getting to know eachother better. As long as we avoided my issues.
"Sure. Do you know where the temple is?" he nodded,"I'll meet you there tommorow at 8 then."
He smiled and said he would be there, he also said he was looking forward to it, the sentence accompanied with a smile. It made my stomach do somersaults. We parted, taking different paths. When I reached my house it was already dinner time. How long had I been out? It didn't matter to me, because it lead me to meeting Eric, who was now haunting my thoughts. His smile, his voice and his soft blue eyes. I really couldn't wait untill tomorrow.