HIIIIIII! :D It's been over a year and I'm back with a High School Love sequel. I recommend reading that first, but of course, young love is young love, and you can still read this just for the fun (and fluffiness!) of it.

I hope you enjoy it, and let me know if you like what I've done here. :)

CHAPTER 1

"I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does."

L. M. Montgomery – Anne of Green Gables

"Wake up, baby."

Ugh.

I didn't want to wake up. I wanted the person to go away. I guess I subconsciously waved my hand at the intruder to dismiss them, because they caught my fingers mid-air.

I slowly opened one of my eyes. I saw a cute guy with brown hair, who was grinning uncontrollably at me. "What," I mumbled into my pillow.

"Wake up, Katie-poo!"

"Don't call me that," I warned. I knew it was of no use even before I heard the next silly nickname come out the boy's mouth.

"Okay then, Kitty Kat!"

"Oh my God, Rick."

"What?" he asked cheekily. I kind of wanted to slap him.

"I wanna go back to sleep. Go away," I told him, but he didn't budge. I remembered that he was still holding my hand, so I used it to push his chest. He stumbled and fell on his butt. It was too funny not to laugh at, so I did the expected, which earned me a glare in return and also, with no small amount of annoyance, I discovered that I was painfully awake.

"Ouch, rude!" Rick exclaimed and I huffed. Seeing as there was no point in trying to fall back asleep anymore, I sat up in my bed and ran a hand through my hair. Rick was already up and about, jumping from one foot to another, like he knew something I didn't.

"Good morning, sunshine!" He bent so that he could kiss my lips, but I moved my head, so he landed on my cheek instead. Ha, that's what you get for waking me up this early, I thought. Rick frowned.

"Morning breath," I explained to him as I stood up and proceeded to walk into the bathroom to actually get rid of the said-thing.

"That's never bothered you before, and you know well it doesn't bother me," Rick yelled after me.

"Love you too, honeybee," I threw over my shoulder and shut the door in his face.

Two months ago, Rick came back from New York with his mom and his dad. We'd been separated for nearly a year before that. You may wonder what has been going on in these two months. To put it short, school has been driving us crazy and me and Rick and the gang went on some triple dates a few times, and my parents have been pestering me about them spending some time with Rick's parents.

To top it all off, me and Rick have been very . . . Active. That night, two months ago, when he came back to Berkeley, we slept together for the first time, and it was perfect, and it's happened a couple more times since then. We haven't really had the time to focus solely on us, and it was starting to really get on our nerves, but even still: we were closer than ever.

I thought about that while I was brushing my teeth, and when I walked back out to my room to maybe actually get dressed (I was still deciding on that, since it was only 9 AM, and it was Saturday), Rick was seated on my bed, playing with his phone.

He looked up at me and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back, and when I did, he stood up and walked over, wrapped his arms around me and inhaled.

"Mmm, you smell good."

"I smell like morning," I said, disgusted that I was even awake at this hour. I'm really not much of a morning person.

"You smell like you," Rick murmured into my ear and consequentially sent shivers down my spine. I could never resist him anyways, so I leaned up and captured his lips with my own.

He gave back as good as he got, all open mouth and little moans and roaming hands. If it had went on a bit longer, I would have totally led him to bed, but he chose exactly the moment I was contemplating locking the door and having my wicked way with him to pull back from me and speak up.

"Not that I don't love kissing you, but we are urgently needed downstairs," Rick said and stroked his palm over my cheek.

I frowned. "But my parents are downstairs. And what's more urgent right now than kissing you?" I bit his lip. He laughed in my face. Ugh. Sometimes I wondered why it was impossible to hate this guy.

"There's something we have to tell you. I think you'll be pleased."

"I'd be pleased if we stayed in here for a couple more hours, kissing. And maybe something more," I suggested and winked at him. He grinned. His hands wandered down to my butt.

"As much as I'd love that," he husked, "not everything in life revolves around sex, Katie-dear!"

I groaned and smacked his head. "I wasn't necessarily talking about sex. Get your mind out of the gutter, you idiot," I said. Affectionately, of course.

"I'd stay here and argue with you about the implied meaning of your last statement and discuss who in this room has their mind in the gutter right now, but I really need you to come to the kitchen with me," he gushed.

I rolled my eyes. There would be no victory here. So I did the next best thing and followed him out of the room.

My parents were seated at the dining table, eating breakfast and talking, when I and Rick walked hand-in-hand into the room.

"Good morning, sweetie!" my mom greeted, and my father soon did the same. We were on pretty good terms, especially since I didn't snap at them for the littlest of things anymore, because Rick was back in the same city as me.

As soon as I sat down with plateful of food, my mom decided to strike up a conversation.

"Kate, we have something to tell you."

I looked up and swallowed the mouthful of bacon and eggs. "Please tell me that I'm not getting a baby sibling. I mean, I would just love the thing to death, but I don't want to continuously wake up at night because of its crying, just. No."

My mom and dad looked horrified. "Oh God, Kate. I'm not pregnant," my mom told me. I visibly relaxed. "Me and your dad have been talking to Rick and his parents about spending some time together."

"Oh."

"You don't seem too excited," my mom observed.

"I am. I mean, I want you guys to hang out and . . . Stuff. I just – I don't want you to be disappointed or Rick's parents to be disappointed or something. I don't know. I just want you all to get along with each other," I mournfully explained. I didn't want to look like I cared, but of course. Of course I did. It was Rick and I, for the long haul. And that meant that our parents had to get along well, otherwise those picnics and such would be unbearable.

I felt Rick place his hand on my knee under the table. He was offering me reassurance. He always believed that all things eventually work out fine. It helped. I had never had much optimism in me, and it felt good for someone to give me a drop of theirs.

"Oh, darling. Don't worry. We've already met and seen each other many times, I don't see why a weekend getaway would be a problem," my mom told me. Which is when my eyes widened, because her words were an alert for an unexpected situation.

"Wait, did you say weekend getaway?" I questioned. My mom and dad nodded. The latter spoke up, "Arthur's just bought a house down in Winthrop. It's by that lake with a silly name, you know that one?"

I nodded. "Lake Cobbosseecontee. That's like 15 minutes from the Augusta town center."

"Yeah. By the way, I'm surprised you can pronounce the name of the lake," my dad said.

"I know right, it sounds so weird coming out of my mouth," I joked. "Anyway, so he bought a house. What about it?"

Rick spoke up next, "He said I could invite you to come with us, and then he remembered that it would be nice to spend some time with your parents, so he called them up and invited them, too."

I thought about this weekend getaway for a minute. If we went, how much alone time would Rick and me have for ourselves? Would we even be allowed to stay in the same room? Would Lanie, Javi, Kev and Jenny be allowed to visit? What if our parents suddenly decided they don't like each other and forbade me and Rick to date? Oh my god, what if everything went horribly wrong?

I felt the soft pressure of Rick's hand on my knee, and I calmed down. Everything would be fine. There hadn't been a problem so far, and I'd do anything in my power to keep it that way.

"That's cool," I replied finally. My parents smiled and Rick's hand wandered a little higher, just as I was putting food in my mouth. I turned to glare at him. He smirked.

"Well if you're fine with it, then I suggest we go the next weekend. How about it?" my dad asked.

We all agreed, and I actually kind of looked forward to this trip.

"Ugh, Rick."

"What."

"I – I need to ask you something."

"I'm busy."

"Well if you would stop kissing my neck, maybe you wouldn't be so busy then," I snapped back playfully. Of course, I didn't mind him kissing anything on my body, but this was too important to be left out and smothered with greedy kisses.

Rick pulled back and ground his hips into mine. I let out this sound that sounded completely like a whale – I also mentally slapped myself for it – and Rick laughed. He pecked my nose and removed his hands from my body, which made me really frustrated, because I didn't say anything about that, so I pulled him back down on top of me and pushed his hands to where they belonged, and then Rick did something with his tongue in my mouth that made me completely bonkers, so naturally I forgot everything about this question that I really wanted to ask him.

When my Black Keys t-shirt flew off of me, it was still okay, but then Rick's came off too, and it was skin on skin, and just so much contact and electricity between us, that I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Rick's hands were rapidly venturing south and while I mostly didn't mind it, there was that voice in the back of my head that told me I needed to stop him. So I did. Thank you, gut instinct! I thought.

"I need to ask you something," I panted into my boyfriend's mouth.

"But things were really getting interesting," he pouted back.

"Shush! Don't interrupt me."

"Okay, darling. Go ahead."

"What if our parents find that they don't get along? What if we won't have enough alone time? Will the gang be able to visit? What if we won't get to sleep in the same room? What if this affects us like twenty years down the road and then I'll have to marry an imbecile and work my ass off in three different jobs to feed the kids, and you'll be married to some blonde bimbo who can't even pronounce 'Europe' right, let alone 'Lake Cobbosseecontee'?" I ranted. Like a whacko. Rick had a surprised expression on his face and then he started laughing. He rolled onto his back on the bed and laughed like he was crazy. I wanted desperately to join him, but he was laughing at me, and I generally avoided laughing at my own stupidity.

"Rick," I tried to stop him.

He finally sobered up and grabbed my hands and then his big, ocean-blue eyes gazed into mine. I found that I could hardly breathe with Rick staring at me like that.

"Baby. You're over-reacting a little bit. I know you're worried and believe me, I am too, but everything's gonna be fine. Our parents know what all we've been through and I truly have confidence that they're gonna try as much as they can to make sure everything's perfect, okay? Please don't worry so much anymore," he told me, and I could breathe a little more deeply. I nodded at my amazing boyfriend and then I kissed the hell out of him, because I could and because I loved him and because at this time last year, things were so much more different and it was better now.

And I really was looking forward to this weekend getaway. I knew that with Rick by my side, everything was going to be just fine.

How about you? Are you looking forward to the rest of this story? :)
Also, note that the chapter was written in Kate's POV, and will probably stay like this for the most part. I just love writing her character.

Ariela