Chapter 1

Alex POV

My name is Alex. Just some basic stuff about me… I'm 16 years old and I live in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Also, I'm an only child. I live in a small house near a lake. I have a cat and a dog. And, I'm in love with the band R5, specifically, Riker. I mean, he's so hot, how could you not be in love with him! Just thinking about him makes me love sick. Ahhhh Riker…

Today was the one of the warmest days we'd had since I can remember. The winter just seemed to drag on and on… I just got home from school and was walking to my house with my neighbor, Kaitlyn. She wasn't in my grade, but we went to the same school and were neighbors, so we were pretty close. We walked to my house and started talking about our neighbors that were moving.

"I can't believe they're moving during the school year! That's going to be so hard on their kids," said Katelyn.

"Yeah I know. Especially since they're really young. They're probably going to be super nervous. But maybe the next family who moves in will have kids our age. I just hope they're nice," I said.

Katelyn and I decided to take a walk down to the lake (which was just down the road) before doing our homework. It was early May, but in the Adirondacks, we still had some pretty cold days. But they were getting warmer. We sat on the docks and stayed for about 15 minutes, just soaking in the beautiful weather. It was so quiet. Most of the houses on the lake were summer homes, and almost nobody was visiting yet.

A week later…

Alex Pov

Our neighbors were officially gone. They moved out yesterday. It wasn't like I knew them all that well, but I wasn't the kind of person that liked meeting new people. It seemed so empty since they left because they were always outside doing yard work or gardening, and I could always see them from my bedroom window since they lived across the street from us. I guess it just gave me a sense of safety to know that someone was always there in case something bad happened. I was alone most of the time since my parents both worked at the town hall from 9-7 every day. I was glad I had Kaitlyn. She kept me company most of the time.

Today was Friday and I was so happy the weekend was finally here. But I had homework. A lot of it. I had a math packet, and I had to finish an essay for Spanish. What Spanish class gives essays? That's what I would like to know! I didn't want to procrastinate, so I started on math since I at least knew what I was doing. I was horrible at Spanish. I could never remember all the translations I was supposed to.

A few hours later…

Finally I was finished with all my homework. I decided to get some fresh air and walk down the street and get the mail. I was pleasantly surprised to find this month's teen magazine. I loved pulling out the posters of R5 and cutting out every single picture of them and putting them on my walls. I had a wall completely dedicated to R5.

R5 wasn't very popular in the Adirondacks, and I don't know why. I guess not a lot of people like them. But I knew one person who liked them almost as much as me. Katelyn. I had introduced her to R5 a few years ago. She had taken after my R5 wall and started making her own. But mine was way bigger since I got monthly magazines and she didn't.

I read the magazine and R5ed my wall. It was getting dark and I decided it was time for dinner.

"Hey!" I got a text from Katelyn… "Whatcha doin?"

I told her I was about to make dinner and she could come over when she was ready. Since both our parents worked really late we were a bit lonely, and made up for it by having a sleepover every Friday night at my house usually, since it was bigger.

I made pasta for dinner, enough for me and Katelyn. It was her favorite. Apparently I made really good pasta. Half way through making it, Katelyn arrived with her pillows and stuff.

"Hey. I'm here," she said as she came in. She had a key to my house since she came over practically every day.

"Great. I'm almost finished making dinner."

"Pasta. My favorite. So have you heard anything about the house for sale?"

"No. But I saw some people come by yesterday to look at the house. Maybe someone will buy it soon," I said.

"I hope so. So what do you want to do tonight?" she said.

"Well I got my teen magazine today, so you can read what's left of it. And we can watch this new horror film I got from the library. It's about vampires."

Katelyn and I had a Friday night routine we always did. First we would eat dinner. Then take turns showering and getting ready for bed. Next we would get some snacks and watch a movie for a few hours. While we were watching a movie my parents would usually come home. Katelyn and I both loved horror movies. Although sometimes I get slightly freaked out if it's about a serial killer or a murderer. I have a fear of being kidnapped or murdered so we usually didn't watch those kinds of movies, but anything else I was usually fine with.

So after eating dinner and getting ready for bed, we started watching the movie. Halfway through, my parents came home and we had to pause the movie because my dad was yelling at me for something ridiculous. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about my dad…

He always has to be or Pants. Everything always needs to be perfect or he's not happy. But I wasn't the perfect daughter so he was always yelling at me. Always saying how I did so many things wrong, I was worthless, whatever. His favorite line was "you're such a brat" and then go storm off somewhere. When I was younger, I would be deeply hurt, but since he said these things to me so often, I wasn't fazed by it anymore. It almost meant nothing to me. Almost. It reminded me that in his eyes I was worthless. It didn't mean much coming from him, but when my mom never stuck up for me, it made me feel like she felt the same way, which I knew wasn't true. But sometimes it just got to me.

Katelyn was used to this. After the yelling was over, we went on watching our movie like nothing had happened, because not much had.