I sighed, opening the door to Apartment 3J at the Palm Woods apartment complex in Los Angeles. I was here as a favor both to me and to my parents; they'd gone off on a mission trip to Puerto Rico for the summer and didn't want me to have to stay with my deranged grandparents in their tiny one-bedroom apartment in Walla-Walla. With that in mind, they decided to ship me off to the Palm Woods, which was run by my incredibly nasty uncle Reginald (I swear, Dad's parents must have been pissed to have a second son, giving him a name like Reginald). Anywho… I moved in and am going to be staying here for the summer. Here's hoping I'll be able to avoid Uncle Reg.

Unpacking was pretty quick; I only had a few bags of clothes and a small bath bag with my toothbrush and such. Once I was done with that, I quickly changed out of my travel clothes and into a new outfit for the pool I'd seen while I was checking in. Once that was done, I pulled out one of the towels I'd brought and left the room, going down the hall to the elevator. As I rode down, I thought about where I was; Palm Woods was the home of the "future famous," which made me feel kind of out of place. The thing is, I'm not really famous and I don't plan on being famous any time soon. I did sing, and admittedly really enjoyed it, but wasn't really planning on making a career out of it. I was actually thinking of becoming a pharmacist like my aunt (Dad's sister; no woman has enough lack of common sense to want to marry Reg), but I was still keeping my options open; I was only 16, after all.

I was still wrapped up in my thoughts as I got to the pool and laid my towel out on a lounger, but soon was pulled out of it when there was the sound of something that sounded almost like a battle cry. I pulled off my jacket, ignoring the cry, but then looked up when something moved in my peripheral vision. I bolted upright when I saw a group of four boys running towards the pool and tried to step aside to let them by. No such luck. One of them whacked me with the massive amount of noodles he was carrying and I lost my balance, falling backwards into the pool with a tremendous splash. I closed my eyes as I landed on the bottom of the pool, then straightened out and kicked up to the surface.

Once my head broke the surface, I coughed to expel the water that'd gotten into my mouth and pushed my wet bangs out of my eyes. "You all right?" I heard a voice and looked up to see two of the guys from earlier on standing above me; one blond with very bushy eyebrows and light green eyes, and the other with dark brown hair and matching eyes. The blonde smiled slightly when I put my shoes in front of them on the pool deck, "Well, looks like we caught you off-guard."

"No kidding," I agreed with a laugh myself, "But don't worry, I'm fine; one of the points of the pool is to swim, right?"

"Exactly," the dark-haired one said with a nod, "But still, we're sorry; we didn't even notice you until you landed in the pool."

"Let's just be thankful my phone wasn't in my pocket," I said, smiling as Blondie offered me a hand and helped me out of the pool.

"Sure you're okay?"

I nodded, "Definitely." Looking around, I noticed the other two members of the pack coming towards us, and I smirked when I saw that the helmet-clad shorter of the two, who was pretty damn cute, if I do say so myself, was holding a stack of pool noodles, "So you're the one who attacked me."

"That was you?" he asked and I looked down at my body; was the fact I was dripping all over the place not obvious enough? "I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry about it, I needed to cool off, anyway," I shrugged, picking up my towel and wrapping it around my shoulders, "By the way, I'm Erin. Erin Bitters."

"Bitters?" the last guy, who had incredible hair and absolutely gorgeous hazel eyes, asked as the other three looked downright disgusted, "As in…?"

"The horribly unpleasant manager of this place?" I finished, nodding sheepishly, "I'm afraid so; he's my uncle. Don't worry, though, I hate him as much as you guys do; I'm only here because my parents are off in Puerto Rico for a missions trip and I needed a place to stay."

"You seriously don't like him?" Noodle Boy asked.

I nodded, "Oh yeah; in my family he's the obnoxious relative that everyone secretly hopes can't make it to the family reunion. Everyone has one; I just am forced to live under mine for the summer." The guys all laughed and I smiled, pulling my light brown hair with purple tips (My sister-in-law is a cosmetologist and she was experimenting on me) out of its ponytail and shaking it out. As I retied it, I turned to Blondie, who seemed to be the default leader of the group, "So, is being knocked into the pool by a group of four incredibly cute guys some kind of initiation or something?"

"No, more like a lucky accident," he told me with a smile, "By the way, I'm Kendall, and these are my friends Logan, James, and Carlos."

Each of the guys gave a little wave when Kendall introduced them, then Carlos narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at my neck, "Wait, does your necklace say 'Hockey'?"

"Yeah," I smiled, fingering it a bit, "I've been a Buffalo Sabres fan for as long as I can remember and my brothers and I always used to play together, so it's been a part of my family for, like, ever. Why do you ask?"

"We used to play back home in Minnesota," Logan explained with a shrug as we all sat down on some lounge chairs, "It's just something that we haven't even had a chance to deal with since we got here."

"What, you never go to a Kings game or something?" I asked curiously.

Kendall shook his head, "We're always too busy."

"We're in a band," James put in quickly, clearly hoping to impress me.

"Oh, and you guys are always working late at the studio and don't have time for much extra stuff outside of work?" I asked, and they all nodded sadly. I pursed my lips, "Well, that sucks."

"We sometimes play floor hockey in our room," Carlos said, smiling slightly.

"But we usually get shut down," Logan added, his shoulders slumping.

"Yeah… uncle Reg doesn't really like anything even remotely fun," I told the guys, "Don't take it personally; he hates everyone."

"Yeah, but he seems to hate us the most of all," James told me, "We've already got two strikes; one more and we're out of here!"

"Oh, well then…" I bit my lip as I thought about that, then smiled, "I guess that means you guys like to have your fun." The guys all shrugged and I stood up, "Well, it was nice talking to all of you, but I think I'm gonna go change into some dry clothes and finish getting my apartment organized. Catch ya later."

"Wait," Kendall stopped me before I could leave, "What room are you in?"

"3J," I told him simply, picking up my jacket and phone and sliding my shoes back on, "See you around."

Turning my back on the guys, I walked away, but then heard them quietly arguing amongst themselves. Figuring it wasn't any of my business, I went through the lobby and to the elevators.