Chapter Four will be longer than the other three I have up, there are some flashbacks in these, I tell you before. I own nothing again. Keep up the reviews!

Chapter Four

Mimi came down from her nap a little while after we put on dry clothes, apologizing for missing our homecoming. She still looked tired, and her hair was little messy. She and my mom hugged first, my mother looked very happy see her, I thought I saw a tear, my mother never cries.

Then it was my turn for a hug, Mimi pulled me into a tight and firm hug.

"You look thin," I told her, partly because it was true and because she loved hearing it. She was always on a diet, always watching what she ate and what she didn't. To us, she was perfect.

"Thanks sweetheart," She said, finally releasing me from our hug, looking me over. She shook her head and said. "When did you grow up on us? When did you turn into a woman?"

I smile self-consciously, glad the boys were upstairs and not around to hear this. "I look pretty much the same."

"You've always been lovely, but oh my goodness, you are a vision." She shook her head like she was in awe of me. "Oh honey, you're so pretty, you're going to have an amazing summer. It'll be a summer to remember." Mimi always talked like that, and when she did it sounded like a proclamation, like it would come true because she said.

The thing is, Mimi was right. It was a summer I would always remember. I'd never ever, ever forget. It would be the summer that changed everything. When everything began. It was the summer I turned pretty. Because it was the first time I felt it. Pretty, I mean. Every summer up to this one, I'd always believed it'd be different. Life would be different. And that summer it finally was.

Dinner the first night was always the same: a big pot of Mimi's chili, Mimi put the pot in the middle of the table, along with packets of crackers tossed around it. Each of us would get a bowl and help ourselves to the pot throughout dinner, dipping the ladle back into the pot. Mimi and mom always had red wine, us kids had grape Fanta, but on that night there were wineglasses for all of us.

"I think we're all old enough now? Don't you think Pen?" Mimi said as we sat down.

"I don't know about that," my mother began, but then stopped. "Oh, all right, fine. I'm being protective, isn't that right Mim?"

Mimi laughed and uncorked the bottle. "You? Never," she said, pouring a little wine for us each. "It's a special night. It's the first night of summer."

Austin drank his wine in about two gulps. He said, "It's not the first night of summer, mom."

"Oh, yes it is. Summer doesn't start until our friend get here," Mimi said and touching my and Austin's hands.

He jerked away from her,, almost by accident. Mimi didn't seem to notice, but I did. I always noticed Austin.

Riker must have seen it too, because he changed the subject. "Ally, check out my latest scar," he said, pulling up his shirt. "I scored three field goals that night." Riker played football, he was always proud of his battle scars.

I leaned in next to him to get a better look. Clearly he'd been working out. He stomach was flat and hard, and it hadn't looked like that last summer. He looked bigger than Austin did now. "Wow," I said.

Austin snorted. "Riker just wants to show off his two pack," he said, opening a pack of cracker and dipping one into his bowl. "Why don't you show all of us, and not just Ally?"

"Yeah, show us Rik," Jack said smiling.

Riker smiled right back. To Austin he said, "You're just jealous because you quit." Austin had quit football? That was new.

"Austin, you quit, man?" Jack asked. I guessed it was news to him too. Austin was really good; Mimi would send us newspaper clippings of them in the mail. He and Riker had been on the team together for two years, but Austin had been the star.

Austin shrugged. His hair was still wet from the pool, and so was mine. "I wanted to focus on my music," he said.

Riker stood up and pulled off his shirt. "Pretty nice, huh?"

Mimi threw her head back in laughter and my mom did too. "Sit down, Riker," She said tossing a pack of crackers at him.

"What do you think Ally? He asked me. He looked like he was winking even though he wasn't.

"Pretty nice," I agreed trying not to smile at him.

"Now it's Ally's turn to show off," Austin said mockingly.

"Ally doesn't need to show off, we can all already see how beautiful she is by looking at her," Mimi said, sipping her wine and smiling.

"Beautiful? Yeah, right," Jack said. "She's a beautiful pain in my ass."

"Jack," my mom warned.

"What'd I say?" He asked.

"Jack's too much of a pig to understand the concept of beautiful," I said sweetly. I pushed some crackers towards him. "Oink, oink, here you go Jack."

"Don't mind if I do," he said, devouring the crackers.

"Ally, tell us about your hot friends you're gonna set me up with." Riker said.

"Didn't we already try that once?" I said. "Don't tell me you forgot about Taylor Jewel."

Everyone burst out laughing, even Austin.

Riker's cheeks turned red, but he was laughing also, and shaking his head. "You're not a nice girl Ally," he said. "There are plenty of girls, who are cute at the country club, don't worry about me. Worry about Aus. He's the one missing out."

The original plan was for both Riker and Austin to work at the country club as lifeguards this summer.. Austin did it last year, and this year Riker was old enough to do it too, but Austin changed his mind and said he wanted to bus tables at the fancy buffet instead.

We used to go there all the time. Kids twelve and under could eat for twenty dollars, there used to be a time when I was the only one twelve and younger. My mom always made sure to make a big deal out of telling the waiter u was younger than twelve. Every time she did, I felt like vanishing, wishing I was invisible. It wasn't that the boys made a big deal out of it, which they could have, but it was the feeling of being different, an outsider, that bothered me. I hated being pointed out. I wanted to be just like them.