Chapter 1
I remember when I was younger and my family would visit our summer home in the Florida Keys. I loved to sit in the sand and draw pictures of whatever my heart desired. Sometimes it would be a heart other times a flower. The hardest part about it was deciding where to draw my pictures. Draw them too close to the water and there is a chance that the pictures will be washed away by the tide. Draw them higher up but the sand is not as good.
Now as I sit in the car on my way to senior year at Smallwood Academy I wish decisions were still as easy to make as where to draw the picture in the sand. Not only did I face life altering decisions this year, I had secrets that came along with them. Secrets that only one person knew and I planned to keep it that way.
We pulled up in front of the senior dorms. Menzer, the girls dorm, on the right and Wiklund, the boys dorm, on the left. I got out of the car and I felt like my head was going to explode with all the thoughts that were going on inside it. Of course I was excited to be back after the long summer break and see all the people I haven't seen since the last day but I still had that nagging feeling inside of me.
"Ok you two stand next to each other." My mom said to my brother Luke and I. Luke was a year older and wouldn't be going to Ocean Prep this year but he decided to come along for the ride. Even though we're a year apart we look like twins. We both have the same olive skin tone, same hazel eyes, freckles all over our face, and light brown wavy hair. Mine of course being longer. We are also much closer than your average siblings, so not going to the same school was going to be hard on us. The webcams in our laptop will be getting lots of use this year.
Now though it was time for the annual back to school photo we take right outside the car. By going to a boarding school our mom couldn't take the pictures in front of the bus or front door, so she settles for the car.
"But I don't even go back to school till next week." Luke complained, he was never a big fan of these photos, or any photos in general.
"It's one photo it won't hurt you." My mom said as Luke and I got closer. "Smile!" she added and snapped the shot. "See not even a scratch."
"I will never be emotionally the same." Luke said dramatically with a little smirk towards me.
I began to make my way to the trunk of the red durango my mom drives so I could get my stuff out of it when a car pulled up behind ours. The first thing I noticed was the wild, bright red hair in the window. The second thing I noticed was that it was getting out of its car and making its way towards me rather quickly.
"Lacy!" the red hair, also known as Tiffany Hudson, yelled as it ran towards me. I first met Tiffany freshman year. We were roommates and after we got over a rough start we became friends and have been best friends ever since. Tiffany has always been a very outgoing person and has been known to say what is on her mind. She's really good at telling you what you knew at the back of your mind but didn't want to face, she'll bring it up. At the moment though she was pulling me into a hug.
"I've missed you!" she said.
"We saw each other last week," I said with a smile.
"Yea I know but it feels like so much longer," Tiffany said. "But anyway it's senior year Lacy! I'm so excited! It's going to be epic!" She said as her voice kept getting higher and higher, as it normally did when she got excited.
"I wouldn't expect any less." I said, even if I wasn't totally convinced myself.
All of a sudden a car screeched to a stop behind us and I turned around to look at it.
"That car was going awfully fast" Tiffany commented but I didn't hear her, I was too busy noticing who was getting out of the car, the one and only Oliver Hartling.