Amanda Winters was your normal five foot two teenage girl. She had light brown, shoulder length hair. Her light blue eyes would change colors depending on the light. They would turn either to a light grey color, an ocean blue color, then to a light green; however, they usually just stayed light blue.

She wasn't the most outgoing girl, but she wasn't considered shy. She did what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it, without being noticed. She was quite intelligent, but sometimes hid the fact; due to the harrassment she would probably get. She was the nice, caring, affectionate, thoughtful, friendly, and loving kind of girl.

She had a bad temper when the people around her that she cares, and loves about gets hurts. Also when she would see other teenagers treating their peers rudely or cruelly.

But that temper was rarely shown by Amanda.

"Be home by six! I want you to meet my new friend tonight at dinner! Don't you roll your eyes at me, Amanda!" As Amanda walked out the front door, towards her friend Samantha's house to do a school project, she noticed her next door neighbor had some company.

Ray Ferrier wasn't that much of a good neighbor toward her mother, but he seemed friendly towards her. Amanda noticed a teenage boy named Robbie, that she met a couple of times before, but never really talked to him, by Ray's front door. It must've been locked, due to the fact that the door wasn't opening as he tried to get in. As she realized she was staring, quite intently, at the handsome boy, their eyes locked with each other for a spilt second.

She broke the eye contact as she reached the sidewalk. Ray looked over at her, with a slight roll of the eyes, and a small wave. Amanda returned the wave, and chuckled to herself as she walked away from the scene.

"Ah, I've got to go Sam. My mother wants me to meet this weeks new boy toy." Amanda heard her best friend Samantha Walker laugh, as she rolled her eyes.

Amanda's mom was a widow, her father died when she was about ten years old, and ever since then, her mother would always bring over a new man every week. Of course Amanda loved her mom more than anything, but Amanda thought that her mom was sort of a slut sometimes.

"Bye Mandy! I LOVE YOU!" Samantha called out to Amanda as she walked down the street.

"I HATE THAT NAME! BUT I LOVE YOU TOO!" Amanda called out, she could tell that Samantha was laughing, due to the fact that her shoulders were shaking. She smiled to herself as she walked down the sidewalk.

As she walked down farther, she realized that most cars weren't moving. The passengers that were once in the cars, were now outside staring at something in the sky behind them. She saw Robbie with a few friends of his a few feet away from her, he looked quite worried.

What the hell is going on? She thought to herself, as she herself turned around to gaze at the sight also. She could barely see what it was, but whatever it was had loads of peoples attention. She didn't really care that much anymore, so she started to walk home.

As the wind started to pick up heavily, she hugged the light jacket around herself tighter. Leaves, trash, and dirt were flying towards whatever was causing this distraction. For some odd reason, she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Mom, I'm home!" Amanda announced, taking off her jacket, and throwing it onto the black couch. She heard giggling come from the kitchen.

'Oh, great. Just in time for another loser trying to get it on with my mom.' She thought to herself, as she walked into the kitchen.

She jumped in the air, as she heard something crashing into something metal. She ran over to the window in the kitchen, and saw lightning behind the house.

"Where's the thunder?" Amanda wondered outloud, as the lightning kept striking.

As it suddenly stopped for about five seconds, she turned around and saw her mother in this slightly handsome man's arms.

'Thanks for protecting me too, mom.' She thought again, bitterly. She wasn't the jealous type, but she hated it when her mom choose anybody's side over hers.

Amanda rolled her blue eyes for the tenth time that day, and looked out the window again. But just jumped again as the lightning hit again, twice. Then it stopped, for good.

She sighed happily, putting a hand to her chest, grabbing tightly in relief.

Amanda just stood there dumbfounded as she watched her mom, and the mystery man go outside. Amanda found that her legs were running after them, outside onto the sidewalk.

"MOM! What are you doing? Where are you going!" Amanda slightly yelled at her mom, concern dripping off every word she announced.

"Honey, I'll be fine. Richard and I are going to see what happened a couple blocks away, where the lightning striked." Amanda watched her mother, tears started forming in her eyes. She was very worried about her mother's safety, and also Richard's, even though she didn't know him.

"Mom, you can't go! I have a bad feeling about it! Please don't leave me alone!" Amanda cried, pulling on her mom's shirt. She really didn't want her to go, and see what happened. As she wiped her eyes, she turned her head slightly to the right, and noticed Ray was talking to Robbie also. Her mom must've noticed, because she gave a weak smile to Amanda, and walked over to Ray.

"Ray, I was wondering if Amanda could stay at your house until I get back. I wanted to see what happened, and Amanda's alittle on the scared side. She thinks something bad is going to happen. So if you wouldn't mind..?" Amanda watched Ray smiled, and nod, gesturing that Amanda could.

"I'll be alright, honey. I love you so much." Amanda smiled into her mom's chest, as she gave her daughter a big bear hug.

Little did they know that, that would be the last hug either of them would recieve from each other.

Hope you liked it.
Reviews are welcomed, I don't bite ;)