Disclaimer : I own everything in this chapter. In the later chapters, most of the stuff belongs to the creators of Summerland.

Chapter 1 : Changes

"But why!" asked the blonde haired 17-year-old girl that was standing in the Taylor's living room, clearly outraged.

"Honey, your father has to go. Work gave him a transfer and if he doesn't go then he'll loose his job!" replied the girl's mother.

"Well, let him go by himself!" she retorted back.

"Yes and then it will just be you and I versus your father who will be across the country!" the mother yelled.

"Sounds good to me! Just because Dad has to move doesn't mean I have to or I will, for that matter!" The girl was steadily getting angrier and angrier at her mother.

"Riley Hannah Taylor, you are moving whether you like it or not!" her mother said in a tone that told you it wasn't worth arguing, but Riley didn't take that hint.

"Olivia Alexis Kingsley Taylor, I'd like to see you make me." Riley replied in a dark tone, pure hatred shone in her ice blue eyes.

"Go up to your room and pack your things or I will."

"You can't get into my room if I lock it." Riley said. She sprinted up to her room and locked the door. She put her back against the door and slid down to the floor crying. Her father was being transferred to Playa Linda, California. She didn't want to move to California. She had lived in New Jersey her whole life. She was going to be starting her senior year in the fall and she didn't want to have to start over. Riley was going to have a job teaching little kids to surf. She made sure her door was locked and walked over to a window. The window looked out on the beach and the ocean. Why me? she asked. Riley went to her bed and laid down on it. She stared up at her ceiling. This really can't be happening to me. It's not fair. I have friends and I have Jared. What am I going to do? I can't move. Riley let these thoughts flow through her head as she continued to cry. Just then her cell phone rang. She looked down at the caller id. It read "Jared Cell". "Not now." she mumbled as she tried to get her crying under control. She opened up her phone. "Hey Jared." she said.

"Hey, hun. Are you alright? You sound like you've just been crying or something." came Jared's voice over the phone.

"Yea. I have something important to tell you. Meet me at the Burger Shack in ten minutes, alright?" Riley said, looking out her window.

"Yea, sure. I'll be there. See you there. Bye."

"Bye." Riley said as she closed her phone. She couldn't go out through the front door, so she decided to leave through her window. She opened the window and slipped out through it. She walked across the roof to the giant maple tree that was right next to her house. She climbed down the tree and started walking. When she got to the beach, she took her flip-flops off and started walking towards the Burger Shack. It was closed today. Marco always closed it on Sundays. She sat down on the beach and leaned against the side of the building.

"Riley?" she heard. She turned her head and saw Jared, her boyfriend. He held his hands out to her. She took them and he helped her up. How could she tell him? She stood up and dusted the sand off her legs. She looked into his sea green eyes and started to cry. Riley rested her head on his shoulder and cried. He wasn't sure what was going on but he comforted her. He put his hand on her head and his other hand on her back. He ran his hand up and down her back trying to calm her down. "What's the matter?" he asked, leaning back so that he could see her face. It was tearstained and her eyes were all red.

"I… I…" she stuttered. She didn't want to say it. If she said it that would make it true. But there was nothing she could do. "I'm… m-m-moving." she finished in a whisper.

"You're moving?" Jared asked in a sad voice. Riley nodded her head. "Oh, Riley." he said as he hugged her again.

"I j-just thought I aught to tell you b-before you find me g-gone." she said.

"Where are you moving to?" he asked.

"I…" Riley couldn't say it. She didn't want to tell her boyfriend that she was moving across the country. "California." she said in a barely audible whisper.

"Cal-California?" Jared repeated. Riley nodded again. "When?"

"Probably this weekend." she said. She looked at him, her eyes still shining with tears and she could see that his eyes were misting over too. "But, when I leave, I think that, you know, we should, maybe, stop seeing each other? I mean, it's not fair that I'm going to be across the country and you're going to be waiting for me."

"I'll wait." said Jared, a tear fell down his face. Riley wiped it away.

"It's not fair to you." she said, starting to cry again. "This is it. I'm so sorry." she said as she buried her face in his shoulder again.

"I love you. You know that?" Jared said, looking down at the top of Riley's head.

She nodded. "I love you, too." She pulled away from him. "I have to go now. I'll write to you. I promise." Riley said as she started to walk away. Jared was left watching Riley leave him. He knew that she would never and could never stay. It was over.

Riley was still crying when she climbed up the tree and crept back into her room. She started packing some of her things in the boxes her mother had left out for her. She started emptying her closet. She left a few outfits out that she could wear until they left. The rest she put in the cardboard boxes, hangers and all. Easier to put up when we unpack. she thought. Riley started going through her desk for a magic marker. She wrote RiLEY'S CLOTHES on the box. She closed it and put it next to her door. She then went to her desk and started emptying some of her things into another box. Her notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers, calculators and everything else she used for school went in another box labeled RiLEY'S SCHOOL STUFF. She took her laptop and placed it in its bag. Riley then went over and placed her printer in a box and wrote FRAGiLE : RiLEY'S PRiNTER on it. She packed it full of those little Styrofoam peanuts. Riley took down her posters and plaques and her calendars and everything on her wall and placed that in another box. She wrote RiLEY'S STUFF on it. Riley then took a duffle bag and filled it with things that she would take on the airplane. She took her diary from its hiding spot, which was magneted underneath the metal desk that occupied the corner of her room. Riley decided to write in it. She sat down in the middle of her now half torn apart room.

Today, Mom told me we're moving. I am so, like, clinically depressed now. But the thing is, its not like we're moving to a new town in Long Island. No… Dad's company has to be a bitch and move us all the way out to friggin California. Now, I have to leave everyone and everything during my senior year. I'm going to be, like, the looser new kid in Cali. I don't belong there. I'm an East Coast girl. Not a West Coast girl. Let the West Coasties be West Coasties and the East Coasties be East Coasties. There should be none of this crossing over. No East Coastie with a West Coastie. None of this moving people who don't want to move, aka ME!

I had to tell Jared today. He took it better than I expected. I told him that it wasn't fair with me being all the way across the country so I ended it. It was horrible. I know he'll write to me, though. I'm not looking forward to telling Payton. I don't know how she'll take it. She'll hate me. But I'll tell her about my side of the argument, the whole part where I screamed at my mom for about five minutes and threatened to lock myself in my room so I couldn't go. Well, I did lock myself in my room, but I snuck out to talk to Jared and I'm going to sneak out for dinner. I'll ask Payton to meet me at La Bella's. I am really in the mood for a pizza.

So yea… That's my sob story. The next time you'll be seeing sunlight is in Playa Linda, California.

Riley Hannah

Riley closed her diary and placed it in her bag. There was no way she was letting the delivery men touch her diary. She had too many things that were to be kept secrets in there. She then walked over to the cell phone that was lying on her bed. She picked it up and pressed "5" for Payton's speed dial.

"Hey, babe." came Payton's cheerful voice from the other end.

"Hey, hun. There's something I need to tell you. Meet me at La Bella's in a few, mkay?" Riley, now more composed said into the phone.

"Sure. I'll be there. Bye." Payton said.

"Ok. Bye." said Riley as she closed the phone. She made sure that her door was locked and then decided for extra protection, she would take the chair from her computer and jam it under the doorknob. She walked over to the window again and pushed it open. She walked across the roof and down the tree. Riley's house was an ideal location for everything. She was right near delis, pizzerias, burger places, the beach and it was only a ten minute walk to her school, East Hampton Tech. Riley was a very smart girl and East Hampton Tech was for the top 1 of students in East Hampton, and Riley was one of them. There were only 100 kids in her graduating class.

She walked out to La Bella's to find Payton sitting at a table out front. She got up and hugged Riley. "I ordered us the usual. What's the matter?" Payton asked, seeing the tears starting to fill up in Riley's eyes. For some reason it seemed easier to tell her than Jared. Maybe because she didn't have to break up with Payton.

"I… I'm moving." she said, staring down at the table.

"You're… You're moving?" Payton repeated, tears now starting to well up in her eyes too. "You… You can't! Tell your mom that you refuse to go!"

"I did. And I locked myself up in my room. I used the roof to get her. For all my mother knows I'm still up there sulking."

"Riley, I can't go through my senior year without my best friend."

"I know. But, you still have Jackie and Sarah. Just think of me in Playa Linda, California, all by myself." Riley said.

"Oh well… There's nothing we can do about it, so lets not waste time talking about what you can't have and start eating what we can have." said Payton as the waiter brought over the pizza. Riley started to laugh. "Yum. Sausage and pepperoni. Well, just thing on the bright side. These beachy guys will be so hot!"

"Very true." said Riley. "And I suppose that after we're done moving in, you'll have to come visit."

"I'm coming to visit even if you don't invite me!" said Payton, taking another bite. They finished the pie and Payton agreed to come help Riley pack up her things. They walked back to Riley's house and finished packing up the things on Riley's desk, like her books and papers. They packed all her shoes except for a pair of white flip flops and her Etnies. "That's about it." Payton said looking around the room. All that was left was the desk and her bed which still had sheets on so Riley could sleep on it.

"Yea." Riley said. She decided that since she was home she could take the chair out of the door. She lifted the chair and put it back in its place with the desk.

"I should be getting home." Payton said. She went over to Riley and hugged her. "I'll come over before you leave for he airport alright?"'

"Yea. Thanks for helping me." Riley said.

"No problem. Anything for my best friend." Payton said with a smile. She left through the window, across the roof and down the tree. Riley watched as she walked towards her house.

Riley was bored so she took out her laptop and talked to her friends the rest of the night. She finally went to bed and cried herself to sleep.

Several days went by and Riley spent most of them out with friends. She spent as little time at home as she could. Finally, Saturday came and her mother came to the door. "Will you open this damn door?" she asked.

"Why?" said Riley in a cool tone.

"So the movers can get your boxes." said Mrs. Taylor.

"Fine." Riley went over to the door, unlocked it and made sure that the people were being gentle with her things. She kept her laptop and her carry on bag under her bed. "What about my furniture?" Riley asked.

"Well, we always talked about redoing your room and we thought that you could just get new furniture." she said with a slight smile.

"Oh. Thanks." Riley said. She hated being angry at her mom. She started to cry. Mrs. Taylor came over and put her arm around her. Riley just cried. "Why, Mom? It's not fair that I have to leave everything."

"I know it's not. It's just something we have to deal with. Everything will be fine. And do you know what I hear?" said Mrs. Taylor pushing Riley out to look at her.

"What?" asked Riley.

"Playa Linda has a surf team."

Riley's eyes immediately lit up. "They do! Are you sure?" Riley was on the surf team in East Hampton and loved it.

"According to my sources, yes." said Mrs. Taylor, glad to see her daughter happy about something.

"Mom, I'm so sorry about how I've been acting. It's just been really hard to take."

"Understandable." said Mrs. Riley. "Now, would you like some lunch?"

"Yes please." said Riley. They walked down the stairs and a few minutes before they were leaving, Payton came over as promised. They said one final good-bye and they left.

A/N : Ok... Here's my first chapter of Summer Love. I hope you liked it. Next chapter will be about Bradin, probably, and then they will meet at the surf team tryouts or something. So yea... Read and Review please! --Erica