CHAPTER 1: EYE – OPENER

PAIGE POV

Today is June 5, 2009, exactly 14 years here in Tasmania, Australia. I am living with my mom, Ruby, who is a Director Nurse at the local hospital here in Bicheno, Tasmania. With the experience and knowledge that my mom has of her job, she has gained the respect from her co-workers and our neighbourhood. Since my dad died back in London, my mom has acted as my father and mother since I was 4 years old. She looks like an older me, with a few age lines on the side of her hazel brown eyes, and a few white stands in her deep brown shoulder leng hair. And me, I'm Paige Johnson, age 17 and in the 11th grade.

Growing up with my mom in a new country isn't that easy. Since the age of 4 I remember my mom always bringing me to my best friend Amy's house for her Aunt Tahlia to baby sit me. So growing up, I got used to calling Amy's aunt as "aunt". Amy used to call my mom "aunt" as well. Tahlia lived with Amy's family. Amy's mom, Vicky, is a respectable Lawyer in our town. Their wealth and status in society has always brought small talk about them among the people of the town. I would always hear other people suspecting the Thompson's of illegal acts. This has never bothered me at all. They are good people and have always lended a hand to help to the Bicheno town live peacefully. At least that's what I would hear my mom telling me when the people around us started to gossip about them.

Amy Thompson and I did everything together while growing up. We played together, we camped with her aunts and sometimes with my mom. I am very close to Amy's family and I would not be complete without her. This is how I have always felt about her while growing up.

Although we are the same age, somehow I find her more mature than me. Perhaps it is the way that she talks and how she thinks, or the way she takes care of her own family, her self and me. She would always make me laugh when I was gloomy. I always saw the bright side of life whenever she was around me. She is merely my sun that rejuvenates and makes me feel alive. When I was growing up, I was mystified with everything about her. She has grown up to be a very stunning and gorgeous young lady. Her skin color is a silky evenly smooth white, with a slim body frame that is perfectly proportioned to her heart shaped face and greenish blue eyes. She has long curly soft redish-brown hair. I've always thought that she and her aunts have good genes for them to be able to stun the people in our town.

Growing up we'd often be seen hugging, cuddling, and kissing on cheeks. But when I started to notice the beauty inside and out from her, then I realized that my feelings for her were growing from more than just a best friend or a sister. Sometimes it bothered me knowing that my feelings for her weren't normal or right. I don't want her to be away from me. The last thing on my mind is to lose her.

We had a long night last night. Amy and I watched "Imagine Me and You" and I woke up late.

"Paige Angel, wake up. It's almost 630 a.m." My mom called softly while sitting beside my bed and brushing away strands of hair from my face. "Breakfast is ready, so you better get up." she continued.

I quickly got up from my bed as soon I heard my mom say the time. "Shoot! 7 a.m. is my call time!" I exclaimed. "And you are already dressed up for work, mom?" I stood up and rushed to grab my clothes to wear.

"Yes Paige, it's almost 7 a.m." My mom followed me and kissed the top of my head. "I better get going or I will be late. You eat your breakfast before leaving, ok?"

I nodded to my mom and she headed out of my room.

"Oh, and Amy is downstairs waiting!" she called back.

It took just 15 minutes to shower and dress up. I decided to wear my pink blouse with my white pants. I always get a kind word from Amy whenever I wear pink. She would usually say that it looks good with my skin tone. I grabbed my school bag and folder and headed down stairs.

"Hey, I'm so, so sorry. I was in such a deep sleep from last night. Have you eaten?" I saw her walk towards me from the couch with a slice of toast on a plate in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other.

"Good morning to you too, Paige" she greeted me a little sarcastic and gave that smile that would always brighten my day.

"Ooh! Good morning Amy. I'm sorry really…" I said as I met her half way.

"Your blouse is pretty. It complements your skin." she said as she kept smiling at me and handed me the toast. "I heard Aunt Ruby. You should eat your breakfast."

"So, did you eat yet?" I asked her again and gave her a big hug then started shoving the toast inside of my mouth.

"Yes, at home before coming here. Easy, Paige." she smiled at me again and handed me the orange juice. I just smiled back at her.

"Ready?" she asked while I was still finishing my juice.

I motioned with my index finger pointing up in the air signaling to give me a second.

She laughed at me and teased, "You look like you starved your self for a day or more!' and she laughed again.

When I finished, I quickly headed to the kitchen and set aside the dishes on the sink and went back into the living room.

"What did you say again?" I playfully pinched her side and linked my arm with hers and we walked out the door.

Outside, her red Porsche Boxster was standing by. That was our usual start to the school day. Either she will pick me up, or I will drop by to her place and we will go to school together. As expected, she and her car would always catch the attention of everyone in town and students in our school.

At school, it's not unusual to constantly hear flattering comments about Amy. A lot of girls are envious with her beauty. Surprisingly, even high school girls. But to me, I've never thought like that. I've always found her to be attractive and gorgeous. Many of the guys would attempt to get her attention, but so far none of them had succeeded. Amy and I have been seatmates in all of our subjects.

We arrived 10 minutes before class stared.

"We made it!" We both giggled and ded a fist bump.

"'Morning Paige, how was your weekend?" Grace smiled as she greeted us.

Both Amy and I settled to our seats. "Our weekend was great." I said. "We went to the beach on Saturday. Then last night Amy came over to our house to watch a movie" I continued, answering Grace's question.

"How about you?" Amy asked her as she passed the attendance sheet to her.

"Mine was alright. Nothing very exciting about it." she said as she wrote down her name on the sheet then passed it to the next row behind her.

"You should come over to mine or Paige's house some time." Amy said as she looked at her.

"Oh yeah, and you can invite Shiela too!" I continued as I looked at her too.

"Really? Wow, that would be great! I'm sure Shiela would be up for that!" she exclaimed. She leaned back to her seat and both Amy and I faced forward.

A minute later Shiela arrived and hurried to her seat beside Grace.

Grace turned to Shiela. "Hey!" she grabbed Shiela's hand, "Amy and Page invited us over next weekend!" She pointed to Amy and I as she informed Shiela.

"What's the occasion?" Shiela asked with query in her eyes.

"There is none. It's just a girl thing!" Grace grinned and explained to her.

"I'll be up for that then. Count me in!" she told us as she lean forward from the seat behind us.

Both Amy and I turned around and gave them a quick high-five.

While waiting for our Political Science Teacher, Mr. Jones, Amy and I talked a little about the movie that we watched the night before.

"So, what do you think about the movie?" she murmured to me. "I didn't expect that that would be the outcome of it."

She caught me while my mind was engaged about the movie. Because to me the movie that we watched together was an eye – opener for my feelings about her. "Ohh that? It was cute though."

"Do you think that really happens for real?' she continued to ask.

"Well, it's really not far from reality, it happens to quote unquote normal relationships" I said, moving my hands with quotation signs and we both laughed about it.

"Hello Paige. Hello Amy. You two seem to be having a good day" Richard interrupted our talk.

"Hi Richard" we greeted him back in unison.

As we greeted him, Mr Jones walked into the room. Thanks to him Richard stopped talking and went away.

"Ahem. Please be seated.." Mr jones instructed the class.

Everyone settled down when our teacher appeared in front of the class. He started discussing Human Relations as our Current Event / Political Science subject. For half an hour he went on discussing the topic, and as the minutes went by, he assigned a project for the whole class.

"You guys group yourselves into four and discuss the good and bad sides of the Legalization of Same Sex Marriage in our country. It is a combination of the two ideas, so team work is really needed with this." Our teacher explained about our project.

In between his explanation I began to feel uncomfortable. I felt like there was a huge note stuck on my forehead saying that I was in that situation now.

"Right after last night, and now this is the topic in our class!" I told myself and loudly snap "Tsk!"

"Is something wrong?" Amy looked at me and asked me underneath her breath not to catch the attention of Mr. Jones.

I probably looked surprised with the expression in my eyes and just uttered an excuse. "Oh nothing. I just remembered I left 20 bucks in my pants yesterday." "Ya, lame." I told my self again.

She just laughed softly and shook her head "Psshh, Paige."

Again, I heard the voice of my teacher continuing his instructions about our project.

"...and the essay will be due two months from today. Every Friday, I am open to check your draft. There will be no addition or deduction to your grade if you pass the check every Friday. Now, I will give you 15 minutes to group yourselves and discuss a little." He announced.

Amy and I just looked at each other and in an instant we both knew exactly what our look meant. Both Grace and Shiela patted our backs. "So, I guess we can all be groupmates, huh!" Shiela said with excitement in her eyes.

"Oh sure, of course. Who else are going to be our groupmates, right?" Amy smiled at both of them as we all arranged and angled our chairs into small circles to discuss.

"What do you think about the topic, girls?" Amy continued.

I blushed and wasn't sure if she noticed. At that very moment, I'm not sure what came over me, but I felt something inside of me. I looked down at my notes pretending to read. "I am not quite sure.." I continued pretending to read.

"Are you alright?" she leaned her head down to mine.

I looked at her and to my surprise her face was only an inch away from mine. "Yes. Of course I'm alright." I moved my head back slowly and just a little for her not to notice.

"How about Shiela and I take the Anti side." Grace answered Amy's prior question. "And Paige and you take the Pro side" She continued.

"Hmm.." She leaned back and smiled at me. "What sounds good to you?" She looked at me and waited for my response. I had something on my mind but I didn't want blow it up offend her.

"Paige? What do you think?" She focused her eyes on me and look worried.

"Oh yes! Yeah, yes of course. That sounds great to me." I looked at her but I couldn't maintain my look.

She nodded and just moved my hair behind my ear. "Then I think we are settled. We just need to discuss this over the weekend. Are you guys okay on Saturday?" she looked to Grace and Shiela for the answer.

"Yes, Saturday is good for me." Grace answered.

"Same with me" Shiela agreed.

Amy moved her chair back by my side.

The other students were still deliberating their topic with their respective groups when Mr. Jones got the class's attention.

"If you have no more question to ask then the class is dismissed." Mr Jones announced and waited for the class to react and leave the room.

Literature class was over and we finished as well with our second and third classes for the day. The time passed by fast and still my mind was thinking about my growing feelings that I was having for my best friend. After watching the movie last night, I had more thoughts for Amy.

We were on our way to our last class, Science, when Amy broke the silence. "We're gonna discuss the essay at your house?"

"Of course. That's what we do every night, Amy!" I looked at her, smiled and linked my arm with hers.

"Great! I thought you weren't gonna come back to earth!" She smiled back at me and kissed the side of my head. She was always like that to me, and every time she did that it automatically put me in my comfort zone.

"Hmm, is something wrong?" she ask and looked down at me.

"No, of course not. Nothing is wrong." I smiled at her and looked at her greenish blue eyes as I caressed her arm.

Richard was walking behind us when he passed through us and walked backwards facing us while talking. Beside him was Amiel, a young, quiet type guy. He looks like the boy next door type of guy, excellent in school and very gentleman with his every action. Richard is a very nice young man that is trying to hit on Amy and Amiel on me. Richard is about 5'11 and Amiel with about same height of him. But Richard has a buffy body, with deep blue eyes and neat cut hair. He is also a Foot Ball player in our school

"may I carry your bags ladies?" he is smiling to us and gesturing to get our bags from our shoulders.

"no thank you Richard, I can handle this" I smile at him.

"same with me Richard" Amy said to him.

"Alright, then ill just see you on our next class" he turned his back to us with little disoriented look. And Amiel just waive his hand to us and smile.

"I think he likes you…" I tease Amy and I laughed. "geez, no thank you Im better this way!" she tug my arm closer to her and she looks at me and smile.

Again I blush whenever she act close to me and I am not sure if she noticed it.

"yeah right Amy…psshh"

We finally reach our next class, Science. And Amy knows that science is my least favorite subject. I am impatient for the class to finish and want the "alone" time studying with Amy. My mind is occupied with the thoughts of after class studying with her at my house.

"we are going to discuss about relationships…?"I said to my self in silent. "will I going to act as normal or it will going to show as we go on?" still talking to my own self and questioning how will I going to manage a conversation with Amy about Relationship.

I just got to my mind when I heard the bell ring.

"class adjourn" our teacher said and left the room.

At last, the whole day of school finished. And we headed to the parking lot where her Porsche Boxster is waiting.

"so what do u think about our chemistry today?" she ask while she was driving.

I was silent for a little then answered her "it was alright, I comprehend with the lesson today I guess.. Science is my favorite anyways." I chuckled and grin at her. And she laughed about it

A minute later we reached my house and she dropped me off.

"Give me at least 45mins to change then ill be right here" she said when Im about to get off her car.

I nod to her and smile "I will be waiting Amy."

She gently grabs my right arm and she lean forward to kiss the side of my head. "Ill see you in a while Paige.. I hope you would feel livelier." She gave a worry look in her eyes.

The warm breathe of her breath close to my ear gives a tingling feeling inside me.

"I will wait for you Amy, you take care with your driving on your way home" I caress her hand that is holding my arm.

She gently let go of my arm and I slowly get off her car. I walk to the front door of our house and I heard her car gas up and gone.

At home, I saw mom in the kitchen preparing for diner.

"Hi mom! Your early today." I walk to her and give her a kiss on the cheek.

"how's school today angel?" mom said as I walk to her.

"School is school" I said it fast as it sounded I just repeated the word. "I mean school is cool and Amy will come over." I continued.

Mom looks confused with what I had said but understand the last part. "what is new to that?" she teased and chuckled.. "so is steak and mash potato is alright for diner?" she continued.

"ya what's new to that…?" I told my self in silent… what is new is, I develop my feelings for my best friend since the time is I don't remember.

"Paige, hey!" mom exclaimed at me and snap in front of my face.

"ack! Mom??!"

"you staring from no where... is everything ok angel?" mom looks concern. "I ask if steak and mash potato are what you want for diner."

"yes mom that is tasty, and everything is alright of course. I better clean up my room and change before Amy arrive." I smile at her and again quickly kiss the cheek her and rush to my room.

A few minutes later, I heard the door buzzed. I give a quick glance on my room to see if everything is neat and organize. Second buzz, I hurried down to stair.

"I got it mom!" I make voice noticeable so my mom would know I got the door.

For some reason my heart beat faster knowing on the other side of the door is Amy. My long time Best friend, that now I see her in different way. I inhale and exhale couple of times before opening the door.

I open the door and peek who is outside. "Hey! Amy!" I greeted her with much enthusiasm and try act as our usual study night together. I step aside and open the door little wider for her to step inside the house.

"yep, im right here!" she grin at me and lean to kiss me on my cheek as I kiss her back to hers.

I grab the books in her hand and place it on the table as we walk inside. "mom cooks for us a diner." I smile at her.

"I hope u didn't eat your diner yet Amy" mom calls out from the kitchen.

"Hello Aunt Ruby, that smell so yummy?" she smiled at my mom as she greeted.

We walk to the kitchen, settle our selves to the table and started to eat.

After the diner we headed to my room to start with our usual night studying. I sit on my bed and she sits on my study table.

We were in silent for long studying until she speaks up.

"Are you up now to our Political Science discussion?" she asks me while she continues reading on her book.

I am still sitting on my bed, my back leaning against the board and reading my Literature book "uhm.. yeah.. we both in Pro side right?" still looking on my book.

She turned her whole body to look at me "yes at least that's we agreed to take.. are you…?" she freeze for a minute.

I just nodded to her and waited for her to continue.

"are you sure you wanted to take the Pro side or you want to switch our topic with them?" she continued and looking seriously.

"no no, Amy its really cool to me.. juz.." I answer her uncomfy that my feelings will just be too obvious for her to glimpse but I wasn't able to hide that my blood flushes to my head and i blushed.

He hurried to my side and sit beside me. " really Paige, tell me, if you are not that comfortable?" she looks at me little worried and waited for my answered but she continued. "it is really ok for me to change our sides Paige, im sure both Grace and Shiela wouldn't mind it either."

I look at her straight to her eyes " its not that what I worry about Amy.." I paused with my sentence and look down.

" and then what is the matter? What is bothering you?" she lifts my chin up with her soft hand and lean her face a little closer to mine.

With how close she is to me physically on that particular moment, with the mounting feelings that I know I am having for her, I break open with the thoughts I been having for the whole day.

"I am worried... that… you… might…notice… just recently..." I barely speak the words with hesitant. "What I feel for you..!" then I said the last part quite fast that she hardly understand.

"What? Did you just say, what you feel about me?" she drops her hand from my chin and stares at me, for I don't know if she is offended or interested.

"Amy, I have always liked you…" I look her straight in the eyes as I soothingly hold her one hand with both of my hands.

"I don't know when I started to have this feelings but all I know is I confirmed it from the last night…"

"You might feel disgrace about what I am telling you now…" as I continued but she interrupts me.

She placed her one finger across my mouth and she slightly shakes her head. "You should not have think of me disgracing you Paige…" she talks softly while she stares directly on my eyes and slide her free hand to caress my other arm.

"I have always liked you too Paige… as we grow up, I have I always try to be around you and make you feel happy… because being with you is I know my only reason to be whole…" she continued. And drop her hand from my lips and place her hand over mine.

I don't know what to react or how to react from the words I heard right from my dream girl's mouth. I was daze, because what she has told me was exactly the opposite of what I am expecting her to respond.

I shrugged and my eyes just focus to her face. I tried to response but my mouth just hangs open without any words. I tried to read her face but all I can see if the genuineness behind the words I just heard.

"I… " the only word utter from my mouth. And after a few seconds I regain my serenity and continued. "…I didn't expect, the words you have just said Amy…"

She hesitates but continues. "I know, but it something that I been trying to conceal from a very long time." She lifts her hand and touches gently my face.

I seriously look at her and said. "We are going to take it easy from this… right?" I ask her with worry in my tone and my eyes.

She nods at me smile. "Yes Paige, we are. I am with you though all this." She keep slowly caress the sides of my face.

With the simple gentle touch from her gives my body a deep astonishing feeling. I little tilt my head to her touch and lift as one hand to touch her hand on my face. "Amy… " I softly call her name. That is the only word that came out to my lips.

She moves closer to me and brings me inside her arms and holds me. " Sshh…"

We stayed like that for quite long. We just enjoyed the revelation of our feelings for each other with uncomplicated gesture of showing it.

My heart beats faster and pound as if it will exit my chest. Hearing that from her is a blissful feeling. Living is a day by day work, but loving is a complete and total endowment of life. I would not have thought that the girl I dreamed of having, is also would have share the same feelings as I feel.

Its good thing that before we unwrap the supposedly our Political Science topic, we already finish studying and doing our home work together.