Chapter One

The cold chilling wind woke me up as a I lay there in the cemetary next to my mom's grave. I stood up slowly asI blew her a kiss and walked through the fallen leaves on the ground. I followed the gravol path out to the streets of Brooklyn and walked the two small blocks to my little apartment, to find my dad not being able to sleep, drinking his coffee as usual. We hadn't talked much since my mom died. You see. We had the perfect life, my mom was a model-my dad a cop-and we had an incredible house. We had a lot of money too so we got to travel everywhere, but my mom got a huge audition one day to basically be the next Tyra. She flew out to London and she got the job obviously. Too bad for everyone I suppose cause her plane crashed with no survivors, so now my dad and I have the crazy idea her death was our fault.

7 1/2 months had past and school just finished. I did my daily routine of stopping by my mom's grave and going home to wait for my dad so we could go out for supper. But at 4:30 instead of my dad walking in, there was a knock at the door. I walked over to the door and looked out the peekhole where I saw my dad's old partnerTed in uniform, so i unlocked the door and invited him in.
"How are you?" He asked nervously with a crackle in his voice.
"Good..why what's up?" I was curious why he was at my house without my dad by his side.
"Mackenzie, sit down."
Oh no, was the first thing I thought. He never uses my full name unless it's important, so I did as he said.
"I'm really sorry...but your father was in a terrible accident and didn't make it." A tear rolled down his cheek as he struggled to say the sentence. I hadn't talked to my dad much but it still made me burst into tears. What an awesome way to start my summer!

Chapter Two

Less than a week later I was being shipped off back to Canada where I lived my toddler years with my cousin Ryan, Aunt Amanda, and Uncle Jerry in Stratford, Ontario. I would have complained the whole ride there butI didn't have anyone to ramble on to(besides the guy driving themoving truck), besides I didn't have very many friends in Brooklyn anyway and Ryan was 16 now too, so maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

After the dreadful 14 hour drive,we pulled into the familiar driveway of a typical 3 story house onBurritt Street and was greeted by my Aunt and Uncle. After I had the basics unpacked with Aunt Amanda's help, Ryan was getting home from school. (Canadians get out 2 weeks later).
"You're here!" He shouted as he came to give me a big hug. We small talked for about 10 seconds before one of his friends walked in, and my mouth dropped...literally.
"Mackenzie?" His friend sounded confused..and so was I. How did this incredibly hott guy know my name? "Ry, why didn't you tell me she was coming back?" Alright, now i was really confused.
"Oh shit man, sorry." I wondered why he whispered but then remembered he's not supposed to swear. "I forgot you guys knew eachother. Kenz, you remember Justin.!"
"What!" All I could really do was laugh - "No way! you?" - and laughed again until i realised his arms were around me giving me a hug, then i started to blush. There was no way that little Justin with buzz cut hair and bucked teeth was this gorgeous guy standing in front of me.

Chapter Three

We decided to go to the what we called forest down the street like we used to. After walking through the bush and tripping over sticks we finally got to the clear spot. The sun was shining through the tree tops and it made Justin's deep brown eyes glisten, not to mention his new found skater hair that was a complete mess, but somehow looked perfect as he flipped it back in place to the left where it hung gently over his eyes. Ryan threw a branch at me and snapped me out of it, but not before Justin saw me and smiled with his glowing white teeth. Great. I thought as I blushed again. I finally came back to reality and realised everything was different from before.
"Wow, you guys really upgraded from mud pies!" Ryan just rolled his eyes cause he knew I was being sarcastic. It was pretty cool though. They built a track with ramps and stuff (which i figured was for the dirbikes my Uncle had). They even kept the old fort. "Although I gotta admit, I'm glad you guys kept our fort."
"That was my idea" Justin said confidently. Then he started walking toward it but paused, turned around, andgently grabbed my arm. "Come on." And he did that smile that makes me melt like ice cream on a summer day.

As we got closer, I heard people talking and Justin let me go. I went up the ladder stairs right after Ry and Justin followed. As I poked my head up through the door in the floor, I was surprised to see 2 girls and 2 guys I've never seen before.

Chapter Four

As I peered in, one of the girls spun around with the biggest smile on her face. She had such straight pearly white teeth and the prettiest face with gorgeous wavy long brown hair to cpmliment it. The other girl was opposite, with blonde hair and black underneath. You could tell she wore extensions, but it worked on her. Her eyelashes were amazingly long with the most blue eyes I've ever seen. As Ryan pulled my hand up to help me in, he introduced the perfect brunette as Caitlin and the gorgeous blonde as Maddy. They both just smiled and did a slight wave, though Maddy's seemed a little fake. When I finally stood up striaght and brushed myself off, the 2 boys walked over.

"I'm Chaz!" He seemed really excited and he was pretty hott too but not compared to Justin. I thought it was odd he was wearing a touque in the middle of summer but I guess that's a new thing in Canada. I could see his brown hair underneath though and it was flipped to the left like Justin's.
"Christian." The other guy said as he gave me an unexpected hug. He was the cutest! His voice was still high and had braces that matched his shoes. He had the same hair as Justin but was about as tall as a smurf or that girl Snooki from Jersey Shore. After Christian let go, I finally got a chance to look around.
"Wow, this is actually pretty sick!" To be honest, I was shocked. I was never really the girly girl type so I was happy to see the walls splattered with paint and topped of with with skate boards hinged up on deck shelves. They finally installed windows too, which I walked over to and looked out of for a second before I turned back around and sat beside Chaz on the couch. He seemed happy I chose to sit there and smiled as I sat down.

"Oh will you guys get a room!" Christian felt that had to be said and I agreed (in my head of course) when I looked over to see my cousin and Maddy practically sucking eachother's face off. That was whenI noticed Justin and Caitlin were holding hands as her head layed gently on his shoulder.
"Oh, c'mon!" Awesome! Yet again I started blushing. That wasn't supposed to be said out loud, soI helplessly tried to save myself as they all looked at me confused. Even Ryan and Maddy came up for air to look at me. "I mean...c'mon, let go skating." I stood up with Chaz's arm in my hand to get him up too. I grabbed a board of the wall and the boys did the same. Maddy snared at me. I suppose she didn't like me taking her boyfriend away from their makeout session.
"We don't skate!" Maddy yelled.
"Oh..Alright..." I didn't really know what else to say, I didn't care if she came or not and I gave out a little chuckle.
"Well I do!" Caitlin jumped up and grabbed a board to join us. She didn't seem like someone who could pull off a 360 so I was curious to see what she had.

Chapter Five

After skating for at least half an hour we dropped the boards off back at the fort, locked it up and headed home.
"Not gonna lie Caitlin, you got some skill...for a girl that is. Not as good as me but hey, baby steps." I finished sarcastically and everyone thought it was funny, including her. "haha, well at least you don't hate me like Maddy does."
"Don't take it personally, she's like that to everyone that goes near Chazzy." Justin nudged him with his elbow and everyone laughed again. "Well why would she be jealous of girls around Chaz when she's with Ryan?" I was a little confused but Caitlin finally talked for the first time to explain.
"Chaz and Maddy were together for like 2 years, but then he dumped her not even 2 weeks ago."
"I never even really liked her!" Chaz defended.
"Yeah, and niether does Ryan," -she paused to laugh then went on. "Actually none of us do." She finished what I'm pretty sure Chaz would have said. I was shocked Caitlin didn't like her, I thought they looked like they were friends.
"So then why do you guys hangout with her?" I laughed again.
"She buys us anything we want 'cause she's rich in exchange for Ry. He's takin' one for the team." Justin laughed too. Wow, even his laugh was amazing. There was a sort of huskiness to it, but it sounded genuine unlike most guys. I started to wander off into another fantasy of Justin again but snapped myself out of it whenI saw him grab Caitlin's hand and wave goodbye with the other. Christian was on the other side of Caitlin as they walked in the opposite direction of Chaz, Ryan and me.

Obviously Ryan saw the confused look on my face, and answered the question I hadn't even asked yet.
"Christian is Caitlin's little brother. He's 14, they moved in beside Justin a couple years after you left for Brooklyn." Great. I thought again. They grew up together, they're best friends, they'll never break up. Stop it! I blinked a few times and realised Justin would probably never go out with me anyway. I was just a normal girl, and didn't think I was nearly as beautiful as Caitlin. I had straight dirty blonde hair, the samecolour asJustin's and blue eyes that didn't come close to being as pretty as Maddy's, but I guessed that didn't matter if they didn't like her anyway. I had my mom's teeth so they were straight and white but I still had to deal with the fact that he would never be mine even if he was single.

Chapter Six

A week had finally passed and I didn't really talk to anyone because they were all busy with friends from school before summer started. But today instead of everyone coming back to Ryan's and dumping all their homework on the plush living room carpet, it was only Ryan and Justin coming into my room like the first day I got here.
"You coming?" Ryan asked as if I knew what he was talking about. Justin had to finish for him.
"We're all going over to Caitlin's to kick off the first day of summer. You know, swimming and stuff." He smiled...why does he always smile and leave me speechless?
"Uh, right. Yeah I'll go, I gotta get changed though. Wait for me?"
"Yeah, of course." He smiled again as he shut the door.

I got changed as fast as I could cause I didn't want them to be waiting forever, so I grabbed the first bathing suit I could see. I threw on the zebra print bikini with silver hooped chain straps, a pair of ripped jean shorts with some silver flip flops and grabbed a towel as I ran out my door and down the stairs. I guess I didn't take as long as I thought, cause when I saw them they were still telling my Aunt the plans for later. They heard me then walked over, Justin's eyes were wide like he was suprised or something. Confused, I opened the door and walked out. We figured it would be quicker to skate over, so we grabbed some boards and left.

When we got to Cailtin's about a block or 2 away, I was in awe. Her house was amazing. Unlike all the other brick houses on the street, it was stone with fake marble for the driveway and stairs. Inside was amazing too. There was a grand foyer with a giant chandelier in the center and a spiral staircase to the left, we turned right and went down a hallway into the kitchen. That was also pretty incredible, it looked like a fancy club or something you'd expect to be Miley Cyrus' . Then we kept going and out the french doors that lead to the backyard which looked like an oasis. There was a huge patio matching the driveway out front and stairs going down to the pool that was lined with stoned and rocks. It even had a waterfall and a hot tub too.

Caitlin was already in the pool splashing around with Chaz, Christian was jumping off the waterfall and Ryan ran over to copy him. Justin stood waiting with me, I looked over and got lost in his eyes again and it felt like we were the only two there. He clearly noticed and laughed a little. I was making myself look like an idiot by daydreaming everytime I looked at him. I dropped mt towel where the rest were and kicked off my flip flops while taking off my shorts. I was suprised to see him still standing there when I turned around. "What? Afraid of the water?" I teased as I ran and did a front flip into the pool. I came up just in time to see him laugh and do he same. Ryan got out to go get a water gun and realised Maddy wasn't there.
"Yo, where's Maddy?"
"We ditched her back at school." Christian said happily, this kid just doesn't care what he says or does. Ryan filled up the gun and shot water at Christian and once again, everyone laughed.

Chapter Seven

When we were done swimming and about to leave, Caitlin's mom - just as beautiful as her - came out and asked if we all wanted to have a camp-out in the yard and have a fire. We all agreed it would be fun and I figured I could get to know Justin more now that he's older and maybe I wanted to find out more about his and Caitlin's relationship. So we all went to our houses to get our things for the night. I changed into jogging pants and my favourite pullover sweater and decided I'd just sleep in that. I threw in clothes for the next day into my backpack and put my adidas sandals on. Chaz was planning on sleeping at mine and Ryan's house so he just put on his happy face pyjama pants with a black sweater and his bag on his back. Ryan was pretty much the same.

When we were good, we skated back over and ran into Justin right as he was coming out of his house in his cute plaid PJ pants and white tee with ironically the same sandals I was wearing. He had an acoustic strapped on his back and I wondered if it was his, before I got lost in another day dream of him this time playing a song for me, Ryan, Chaz and I pulled into Cailtin's driveway while Justin ran across the grass and we all walked around the house and out to back yard together.

Christian and his dad already had the fire started and Caitlin and her mom were bringing out the ten for the boys to set up. She set it down, walked over and sat beside me.
"So, do you ever miss your mom, or dad, or New York or anything?" I was suprised she knew about that stuff. "Ryan told us all a couple days ago." She said smiling.
"Oh... uh yeah, i miss my mom, but my dad and me didn't talk much and Brooklyn wasnt the greatest." I couldn't believe I was actually saying this to her, I never talk to anyone besides family about my mom.
"Well if you ever wanna talk.. to a girl -" She chuckled. "- you can talk to me. My brother and I lost a really close family friend a couple years ago so I know what it's like."
"Thanks." I don't know if I sounded sincere or not, but it did mean a lot to me that she said I could talk to her. We both smiled and she gave me a hug. For once I wasn't jealous because she was dating the hottest, nicest guy in the world, but happy for Justin.