Chapter 1
Rhiannon Carp, that's my name. I was born on a cold winter night in the middle of December; ever since I was a child I've loved the cold weather. When I was five years old my mother taught me to ice-skate on the pond that would freeze over during the winter in our backyard. I skated every day, and every time I was on the ice, I felt invincible. I was born to be on the ice, and nothing can ever stop me from being here.
When I was around seven years old and had been skating for a while, my dad taught me to play ice-hockey, and I fell in love with ice all over again. When I turned twelve, some of the neighborhood boys asked me to join their team and play with them; most people play neighborhood street hockey, but we have a lake in the middle of the park in our neighborhood.
Now I'm sixteen years old, and my dad's job is transferring us from North Dakota to Minnesota. I'm scared that nobody there will like me because at times I can be too much of a girl, and too much like a tomboy. One thing I know for sure is that the high school I'm going to doesn't have a girl's hockey team.
6:00 Am
I'm in the car trying to fall asleep, we have a few hour long drive ahead of us, and my punk of a little brother is sitting right next to me. I put my headphones in before my parents or brother can say anything to me. I close my eyes and fall asleep.
12:00 PM
It's noon-time. We're here in Minnesota. I decide to stop being such a negative person and look out the window for once, after all this is my new home. I see young kids running around and playing in the snow, some teenage boys roughhousing on some ice…that won't end well, and some normal people just walking around. My house is next door to the house where there are kids wrestling.
It is quite curious actually, the location of my new house that is. There are only two houses on this little winding road through the woods, I wonder why. Whatever the reason, I like that we are out in the middle of nowhere, because then people wouldn't be able to see me skate. The pond behind the house is between ours and the neighbor's houses. So nobody really owns it, do they? Nevertheless, I'm still going to skate on it.
We pull into the drive way and I get out of the car. I grab my few things I didn't pack up (a pillow, purse, and backpack), and go inside the house. I walk up the stairs and pick the room I want as my bedroom. I pick a bedroom in the back of the house with a window that faces towards the pond and the woods. There is a window seat, and a decent sized closet. This room is perfect.
I put my purse, pillow, and backpack on the window seat claiming this room as mine, and go back outside to help my parents and the movers with our things. The movers are unloading all of our boxes from the back of the truck and I hear my mother yelling at them to be careful with her glass ware.
I look around at something to do, obviously with my mother in this kind of mood, I won't be helping out. Then I catch the eye of one of the boys next door. He has piercing green eyes that for some odd reason I can't stop looking into. He has blond hair, and is wearing a hockey jersey without the padding.
The boy walks over to me with a smile on his face. I'm feeling slightly attracted to him. "Hi!" He says cheerfully holding out a hand for me to shake. "I'm Kendall Knight."
"I'm Rhiannon Carp; it's nice to meet you. Do you live next door? Or is it one of those other guys that do?"
"No, I do. Those are just some friends from my hockey team."
I have to be smart about this; I don't know what to say. Should I say that I like hockey, or blow him away by saying I'm a twirler? "Oh, you ice-skate then."
"Yeah, I do. What about you? Do you like the ice?"
"I'm a twirler," I blurt out without a second thought. Oh no, what have I done? I could have spent time playing hockey with this boy, but now I'm instantly one of his enemies.
"You're a twirler?" He doesn't seem rude, he seems intrigued. "You don't seem at all like that kind of girl. You're either lying to me, or you're just a really nice person."
"Nice person. Yes, I am a figure skater. It seems weird that I'm talking to you, rules of the ice and all, but I don't turn people away because of the different sports they play, that is just plain stupid. I mean you seem like a really nice guy."
"Great, we should hang out sometime."
"Yeah, we should," I say with a warm smile.
"So it looks like your dad and brother need help, my friends and I can help out if you'd like."
"No, I wouldn't want you to do that, you don't have to."
"Well you're my new neighbor; I might as well meet the rest of the family sooner or later." Kendall walks up to my father and introduces himself. I hear him ask if my dad needs any help with the boxes, and then he picks one up and carries it inside. I got a good look at the box he grabbed; it has all of my hockey stuff in it.