EDIT, DECEMBER 2012: The first ever chapter of Don't I Know You? :) When I first posted this, I had no idea that this story was going to basically grow legs and run far, far away from me. But it did.

Thanks to my beta, Polka Dot Jewel!

Don't I Know You?

"We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you..."

Anastasia- At The Beginning

Sonny

My name is Allison. Some people - Mom- call me Allie. I'm seven-years-old. Today, Mom's dragging me to Texas for the summer.

The whole summer!

"But, Moooom!" I moaned when she told me. "Why?"

"We're going to see family, Ali," she told me.

I didn't want to spend summer in boring old Texas! I wanted to stay in Wisconsin with Lucy, my best friend. Unfortunately, here we were, in the car, on the way to the airport, on our way to Texas.

Texas!

"Mom, how much longer is this gonna be?" I whined; we'd been on the plane for thirty minutes, and my legs were starting to become sore.

"It's a four hour flight, dear," Mom said patiently.

"It's WHAT?" I yelled, getting an annoyed look from the man beside me. I think I woke him up... oops.

"Four hours," Mom said calmly.

"So we're gonna be here for-"

"About another three and a half hours, dear." How was she so calm? I was going to die of boredom and leg cramps!

"Are you kidding me?" I asked. I must have said it a little too loudly because people were shooting me funny looks.

"No, I'm not. Now quiet down, Allie, you're causing a scene," she said, still calm. My mom's like that. She never yells or raises her voice. She's scary calm!

I resorted to just curling up. I watched the sky through the window, finding pictures in the clouds. I eventually fell asleep.

I woke up just a few minutes before the plane started going down. Ew! I hate plane landings! Why couldn't I stay asleep 'til the plane had already landed?

Mommy guided me through the busy airport. It was too busy. I didn't like it... I thought someone was gonna step on me!

We finally got in a car and began our drive. We were driving for what felt like ages, so I looked out the window. I needed to see where I'd spent my summer... ew.

My whole summer!

I was really tired. Texas isn't as cool as Wisconsin; it's all houses and desert. I haven't seen any parks or shops! We arrived at this house, and I'll admit, it was kinda pretty. There were tons of flowers, and I could even see butterflies. I hoped there were no bees, though. I hated getting stung!

I trudged alongside Mommy, continuing to take in my surroundings. We waited patiently as she pressed the doorbell. The door was opened by a slightly fat man with a mustache. He didn't scare me, though; he actually kinda looked like Santa.

"Allie, this is Uncle Trevor."

So this is who the fat man was.

"Come meet the others!" he said excitedly. He had a weird accent. Well, this should be fun...

Once we were inside, I noticed there were, like, five billion people. It seemed like that many, anyway! There were no kids, only adults! I was told all of their names, but they all looked alike. I got told all their names in, like, twenty seconds, so excuse me if I got them confused. The nicest of them all was this lady with blonde hair. She had a pink flower tucked behind her ear, and she wore an apron. I think her name was Auntie Daniela; everyone's names seemed to start with "uncle" or "auntie"! Despite my initial complains, I decided to keep quiet; they were giving me ice cream! The adults were loudly chatting, talking over each other. They kept randomly laughing, too!

At this point, I just wanted to go explore this place they called Houston, Texas! I trudged over to Mommy and immediately grabbed her hand. "Mommy," I whispered, now tugging her hand. "I wanna go to the park!"

She sweetly smiled at me, gently squeezing my hand. She said to me, "Maybe tomorrow, sweetie. It's nearly time for dinner, and you'll have to go to bed soon after that!"

I groaned, quietly staying by Mommy's side as the people seemed to crowd around me once more.

When I woke up, it took me ages to remember where I was. I then remembered:

Houston, Texas.

More so, I was in a bedroom that seemed to be covered with everything pink and yellow. It was nice, but not as nice as my purple and blue room back home! It was very bright, so I couldn't go back to sleep. I was going to get up and look for Mommy, but because I didn't know my way around the house to Mommy's room, so I waited until she came in for me.

"Mornin', sweetie!" she said, her voice a little too perky.

"Mom," I mumbled, looking over at her. "Can we go to the park today?" This was an important question, but there was something even more important... "And can I have pancakes for breakfast!"

"Yes, the park! YES!" I yelled, as Mom and Uncle Joe (I think it was Uncle Joe) walked outside with me. It was a sunny day, and I groaned as Mom pulled out a They laughed as Mom placed sunscreen on my squirming face, but I didn't care... We were going to the park!

Of course, what should have been a short trip turned into the longest one ever. Mom and Uncle Whoever kept stopping to talk to people, having the longest conversations. How was it possible to know everyone?! Mom kept introducing me to everyone, saying things like "This is my little girl!" I just smiled, hoping the conversations would end so I could get to where I wanted to be. Eventually we got there, and I nearly cried for joy.

It was perfect!

The park was huge, there were swings, slides, and those really cool course things that I always fall off of. I tried to run off, but Mom caught my arm and dragged me over to a park bench with her and Uncle. I don't under why she put more sunscreen on me, but she finally let me go so I could play.

I ran off happily, but got a little scared. There were tons of kids here, and I didn't know anyone. I saw that all the kids were at the top of the Spider Web, so I ran over to it. I climbed up, grinning as I got higher... but then I looked down. I was so high! I suddenly began to freak out.

"GET ME DOWN!" I shrieked, but failed to notice all of the people trying to help me. I quickly climbed down and fell to the ground. I was sitting below some monkey bars, but I knew better than to even try those. I sat by myself for a few minutes and failed to notice a boy above me.

"Hi!"

"Ahh!" I screamed, shocked by the face in front of me. A very happy boy was hanging upside down from the monkey bars.

"Did I scare ya?" he asked, continuing to hang there. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok, I think..." I said, trying not to be rude.

"No, really!" he said before jumping down. He neatly landed on his feet. My mouth immediately opened in envy. Why couldn't I do that?

"What's your name?" he asked, now standing in front of me.

"Allison," I said. Did I need to tell him more?

"Hm... Allison. All-ee-soooon," he said, sounding it out. Was my name weird? I suddenly got worried. "I bet people call ya Sonny right? 'Cause it's cool, and it's, like, short for Allison."

Sonny?

"People call me Allie, actually," I said truthfully.

"Hm, too bad. I like Sonny better!" Who was this kid? "Mind if I call you Sonny?"

"Can I know your name first?" Seriously, who did he think he was? Mr. Awesome?

"I'm Chad. Chad Goldfarb. Nice to meet ya, Sonny!" he said cheekily, sticking his hand out to shake mine. I decided right then, I liked this boy.

"Nice to meet you as well, Chaddy," I said, shaking his hand. I suddenly felt more comfortable around this boy.

"That's good. Wanna play?" I nodded. Together, we ran towards the swings. We immediately began planning on how we were going to get this big kids away from there.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

That's chapter one! Thank you so much for reading.

Love,

Hannah xo