Chapter one- Back to Life
A long time ago, perhaps not even that long, lived a king.
The King excelled at so many things.
One being the might game of his Kingdom, Adler. The game for others seemed difficult and not entirely comprehensible. But for this king, it was a testament to his power, to his strength and to his unprecedented popularity. Especially since many came to duel the king and his knights but alas they all failed.
The King once had a beautiful queen who he thought to be the love of his life.
But the king was wrong as the queen was selfish and wicked a heart.
So the king banished her from his kingdom. Well not really; he actually just got dumped by the wicked queen because she had sought love from someone with a bigger- and older- kingdom.
But even though the kingdom was not a fan, he was still madly in love with her.
So the king, in his desperation to get his true queen back, acquired from a mistress who had long longed for him once upon a time.
The mysterious mistress was reluctant to become his acting queen as she knew the queen hated the mistress with all her heart.
But the king was a charming king, a persuasive king. He managed to persuade the mysterious mistress into the role.
And boy did she play it well.
Holding his hand for the public to see. Sharing her charisma with those closest to him including his mother. And most of all angering the queen so she would return to her rightful kingdom.
But Adler as a kingdom liked the charisma and gentle soul of the mistress and insisted they were in love with her and wanted her as their new queen.
The King did not realise that he himself had slowly, well actually very quickly, began to fall for the mistress.
He declared his feeling for her by the icy chills of a warm lake, a hot tub, and there they shared a passionate kiss.
The king had secrets. Secrets he had not shared before but thought it best be safe to keep them buried.
But the queen, being that of a wicked- and a little crazy- heart was not happy by this newfound blooming love. She tried to deter the mistress but the mistress could not be deterred, we she could and she was for like a few weeks but soon came to her senses.
It was there that the king on his kingdom declared his love for the mistress and made her the new queen.
And they lived happily ever….
Peter jolted awake and looked around him he was in his bedroom and he had just woken up from a nap.
He looked at his phone and realised that he literally had fifteen minutes to shower, get changed and be at Covey's in time for their date.
Peter quickly ran to his bathroom where his brother had just come out after filling water balloons up with his friend Richard.
"Hey," Owen said, "It's kind of a mess in there. Sorry." Richard and Owen laughed as they walked back to Owens room.
On a regular day, Peter would have been angry but today he was so flushed and rushed.
He knew today had to be special as Lara Jean had not really been on many dates before. He had booked a table at Cardona's. He knew it was a low blow considering that Gen and him had gone there multiple times. They had even done things they were not meant to do in the bathroom.
Peter shakes his head quickly as the waters run down his hair in the shower.
Get those thoughts out your head, Peter thought, it is probably going to be a while.
Peter hops out the shower quickly dries his hair and pulls out some decent clothes. His mom walks past as he is putting his aftershave on.
"Ooooh," she smiles, "Big date?"
"Yeah I am taking Lara Jean to Cardonas," Peter says as he sits down at his bed to put his shoes on.
"Wow Cardona," Dana said to her son, "That's cute."
Peter could see that his mother wanted to say more, so he gave her that look.
"Mom I can hear your brain buzzing from here." Peter said, "What's up."
"Nothing!" Dana says far too quickly.
Peter grimaces at his mother until she says, "Fine! Look Lara Jean seems like a lovely child but-"
"Oh boy," Peter rolls his eyes.
"What?" Dana says frowning at Peter.
"This better not be the sex talk," Peter says standing up from his bed. He is so tall he looks down on Dana.
Dana's face goes red, "Of course not. Should I be having that talk with you?"
"God please no!"
"This is going nowhere," Dana shakes her head then smiles, "We can talk later. A gentleman never leaves a woman waiting. You should probably go."
"Wait mom are you ok?" Peter says before Dana can walk away.
"Don't worry about it ok." Dana smiles and then leaves and then walks to her bedroom.
Peter shakes his head as to shake out what just happened and grabs his keys.
The drive to Lara Jeans is short as Dr Covey's house is not that far from his.
Peter takes the flowers he bought that afternoon, before his weird nap, and walks to the door.
He had no idea why he was nervous.
They had technically been real dating for almost a month.
And granted a lot had changed in the short month.
Actually a lot had changed.
For one, Greg had been sent to a boarding school in London.
His behaviour had kind of driven his parents mad with anger considering that had finally caught him in the act of throwing a party while rolling a joint with his sister.
Funny enough that same night, Trevor hooked up with someone that wasn't his girlfriend, Pam.
Which then led to Pam's huge breakdown in bio class when surprise surprise, Gen was the one to tell her.
Noone really sees Pam on campus anymore, including Lara Jean and Lucas James.
The weird thing was that Trevor was mad about it for a day and then got over it.
I think, Peter thought.
As for Gen…
The door opens before Peter can even think more about everything that has happened in the past month.
And there in the midst of the drama is Peter's perfect depiction of happiness.
Wholesome.
Compassionate.
Beautiful.
And his girlfriend.
There stands Lara Jean beaming from ear to ear in a beautiful red dress.
Her hair is down the way Peter likes it and she won't stop smiling which causes Peter to smile even more.
"Hi," Peter says.
"Hey." She smiles back at him.
Peter walks in and says, "What's up."
"Nothing much." She shrugs and Peter leans down to kiss her, "no?" He says.
"I got you something." He hands her the flowers but plucks one flower out of the bunch.
"Oh hey, kitty!" He says handing her the flower, "this is for you."
"Gerbera daisies are my favourite!" Kitty smiles.
This was of course all Lara Jean. She had texted him before hand telling him to bring flowers for her so she would not feel too left out. Peter loves Kitty so he did not see this as an inconvenience.
The inconvenience came after she told him exactly which flower to get and he couldn't pronounce it.
But here he was seeing Kitty smile and his girlfriend beam with pride at him.
"Dr Covey." Peter greets Lara Jean's father casually but knowing full well that the man is a doctor so chances of his body disappearing if shit went wrong were high.
And the proof of that is when he says to Peter next "What restaurant did you pick," trying to appear casual, "I know some of the best ones."
"No ok dad!" Lara Jean says, "Put these in water!"
Lara Jean hands the flowers to her father and pulls Peter's hand. To this day Peters hand and heart still warm at the feeling of his hand in hers.
"Say it out loud!" Dr Covey says, "Eleven o'clock!"
"Eleven o'clock!" Peter nods as he walks out the door.
"Ok have fun!" Dr Covey smiles walking back to the dining room table.
"Not too much fun!" Kitty says making signs to show that she is watching them.
When they get to Peters Jeep, Peter opens the door for Lara Jean and holds it open for her.
"My lady?" he says in a fake British accent.
"Why thank you kind sir." Lara Jean giggles and climbs into the truck.
When Peter is in the truck he looks at Lara Jean and smiles before saying, "Are you ready to be blown away."
The "we should have a first date" was actually Peter's idea if you would believe that.
Lara Jean was a hopeless romantic and she made that very clear in everything she did. From the clothes, she wore to the book she read. To the movies, she watched to the shows she downloaded on Netflix.
It started to show.
So Peter suggested it to her and she was so excited Peter couldn't contain his excitement either.
Every good couple has a good first date.
Although they had been out to eat before but to be fair that was fake.
But then again Lara Jean would have lived the Diner anyway.
As Lara Jean and Peter walk into Cardenas with nothing but pure excitement Peter decides that he made the right choice.
"Gosh, I have never been to Cardonas." Lara Jeans says squeezing his hand.
"It's a good place." Peter chuckles.
"I am so excited!"
"Yeah?"
"This is a good place." Lara Jeans smiles leaning into Peter's arm.
"I think you're gonna like it."
"It's so beautiful." Lara Jean says as she looked around the restaurant.
"Mm-hmm." Peter smiles at her.
They walk to the podium where the maître d who smiles at them as they approach.
"Table for two?" He asks his voice thick with an Italian accent.
"Yes," Peter smiles, "Reservation for Kavinsky?"
"Ah Signor Kavinsky, sei Italiano?" The maître d asks Peter.
Peter's Italian was not bad in terms of understanding since his father was Italian as was a part of his mother's side but replying was where he was always so uncomfortable with.
"Sì." Peter settles with a simple term which causes Lara Jean to giggle.
"Proprio in questo modo." He says and grabs menus and leads Peter and Lara Jean to their table.
Lara Jean links her arm in his and smiles up at him, "SI," She whispers to him giggling.
"Whatever." Peter rolls his eyes.
The maître d takes them to their table and helps Lara Jean sit down. Lara Jean continues to look around and smile at everything. Peter sits down and continues to smile at his girlfriend.
"For the signorina." The maître d hands the menu to Lara Jean.
"Thank you." She says.
"And the signor." Peter takes his menu.
"Grazie," Peter says opening the menu.
"Wow, they have big menus here." Lara Jean says opening the menu. Peter loved this about her. How simple she saw things. How humble she is. How perfect she is.
"The bigger the menu, the fancier the restaurant," Peter says. "Everybody knows that. It's actually a two-fork restaurant. They give you the second one just in case you knock the first one off the table."
Lara Jean frowns at him and says, "No, that's not... that's not it."
"That's what it is," Peter says in a mocking tone.
"No, it's not." Lara Jean shakes her head.
"Watch." Peter picks up his salad fork and slowly edging it to the flower, "You ready?"
"Peter, stop." Lara Jean says looking around completely mortified, "That's so embarrassing. Oh, my God."
"It's happening," Peter says dropping the fork.
"Peter!" Lara Jean exclaims.
"It's a good thing I have my backup." Peter grins at her.
"Uh-huh." Lara Jean rolls her eyes and looks at the menu. Peter picks his up and does the same.
Cardona's was one of the best and well priced fancy restaurants that were close to his house. He was very impressed with the prices of Italian food.
"This is my first date." Lara Jean says suddenly.
"What are you talking about?" Peter says looking at her, "We have been on a bunch of dates."
"Yeah but those weren't real," Lara Jean says simply, "I've never been a girlfriend before." She shyly looks down before looking at him with eyes which he wants to believe are just filled with love. "I hope I'm good at it."
Peter couldn't help but take her hand and then kiss it.
He loved her.
It was just that simple.
The girl who had written him a love letter so long ago was surely the love of his life.
Peter had never believed in that "the one" bullshit but lately, it seems possible that Lara Jean was made for him and he for her. Everything that has happened so far has been proof of that.
"You're amazing you know that." Peter says and then says, "You're generally amazing at everything you do."
"That's not true." Lara Jean says and then lifts her menu again, "I suck at going to new places because I never know what to order."
"Well then Covey," Peter lifts his menu, "Allow me to show you the powers of a Kavinsky appetite."
"A Kavinsky appetite?" Lara Jean giggles, "Did you just make that up?"
For the rest of the dinner, Peter and Lara Jean do nothing but laugh and swap meals between eating.
For the rest of the dinner, Peter beams at the fact that Lara Jean Covey is his girlfriend and can't stop smiling at him.
At one stage he even spotted her take out her phone and sneak a photo of her food.
She was definitely better with her Instagram game. In the past month Lara Jean had picked up on followers but that was no doubt had something to do with the fact that she was dating Peter.
(There was also the whole hot tub video, which was something that neither one of them brought up)
But Peter was still posting about them more than her.
She made their relationship more public two weeks after he had declared his love for her by posting the picture of them lying in bed with her sleeping on his chest. He thinks Kitty took he picture.
Her caption was subtle but pretty intent: "Yawn *heart face*"
That got her solid 130 likes within an hour.
Peter then takes his phone out and snaps a picture of her as she slurps up a piece of spaghetti.
"Hey!" Lara Jean protests.
"What?" Peter chuckles, "I want to show the world that I am on a hot date with my even hotter spaghetti loving girlfriend."
Instead of arguing, which she does often, she just beams at him and continues to eat.
After Peter pays the check, he looks at the time and realizes that it's only nine pm.
"Hey wanna go for a drive for a little bit?" Peter asks as they walk out.
"I actually have something to show you." Lara Jean grins.
"Yeah?" He frowns at her because he thought that tonight was just on him. Well when he dated Gen, dates were always on him.
"Yeah." They begin to walk out.
"Hey." Lara jean says suddenly as they put their jackets on.
"Hmm?"
"Give me your keys." She holds her hand out.
"Oh, you really wanna drive?" Peter says genuinely frowning.
"I'm a good driver now!" Lara Jean defends herself. This was semi-true. During the time they were fake dating into when they were real dating Peter had been taking her out more to drive so she could get used to driving herself. Peter didn't mind driving her but Margot had insisted one night when she had a video called Lara Jean one night Peter was over.
"But Peter can drive me." Lara Jean had said to her scolding sister.
"Yes Lara Jean but Peter can't always be there for you." Margot said, "Tell her Peter!"
And because Margot intimidated him, he quickly agreed.
"I have a fear of driving in the snow," She says knocking the memory out of Peter, "but guess what? It's not snowing." She sings the last part.
Peter reluctantly hands her the keys to his jeep.
"Okay, fine. Just please don't kill us."
"Yes!" She squeals and runs to the car.
"Please?"
Once in the car, Lara Jean does the tedious safety checks that Peter hardly ever does anymore. Although she has gotten better at not doing it as often.
"Seatbelt Peter!" Lara Jean says as she puts the key in the ignition. Peter rolls his eyes but puts his belt on.
Lara Jean put the gear into drive and begins to back out of the parking lot of Cardonas.
"Glad to see you are not bumping into anyone." Peter smiles.
Lara Jean giggles and then says, "Oh whatever."
Peter chuckles then take his girlfriend's hand, "I'm glad. I am convinced that's probably when I fell in love with you. And if that's how you get guys to fall in love with you."
Lara Jean continues to giggle which is music to his ears.
Lara Jean smiles and continues to smile, "Well thank god that you taught me to look behind me before I drive."
Peter watches as Lara Jean drives towards the central park close to their school and watches in amazement as she easily parks and won't stop grinning.
When he finally tears his eyes away from he see where all her excitement comes from.
The one part of the park is filled with people preparing lanterns to lift up into the air.
Some people are sitting on picnic blankets and writing stuff on the lantern and other people are fluffing theirs up.
Lara Jean quickly gets out of the car as does Peter. She runs up to the ledge and holds her arms open in a silent ta-da.
"How did you know about this?" Peter asks in nothing but awe.
"I have my ways." She smiles and takes his hand leading him to the table where a woman is handing out lanterns and paint.
Peter grabs the paint from the women and Lara Jean takes the lantern.
"When you are ready," the woman says, clearly bored, "Take this lighter and light em up. Please do not burn yourself."
"Thank you?" Peter frowns at her and they grab one of the blankets and walks with Lara Jean to an open spot.
"She seemed friendly." Lara Jean giggles at the frown on Peters befuddled face.
"So you noticed it too?" Peter says wondering why he was so offended by the woman's sour mood.
Because you want everything to be perfect, Peter thought. But then he looked at Lara Jean who had already forgotten the offensive woman and had laid out the blanket and the lantern. She was already kneeling down on the blanket and opening the paint jar.
"Ok, so how does this work?" He lies down next to her and she begins to dip the paintbrush into the paint jar.
"Okay, you write a wish…" Lara Jean begins to beautifully stroke the paintbrush onto the paper leaving a big bold LJ encapsulated on the lantern. She dips the paintbrush in the paint again to continue writing.
"Mm-hmm?"
"and then you send it into the sky." Peter watches as she writes "and PK" in just as bold letters.
"That's not a wish," Peter says simply.
"What do you mean?" Lara Jeans chuckles.
"It's not a wish." Peter points out, "It's happening right now, so it can't be a wish."
Peter watches as she finishes and for one slight moment he feels the heaviness in their silence. He looks up to see her looking at him.
This happened more often than you would think.
It was when Lara Jean would gaze at Peter in something that looked almost like disbelief. It was as if Lara Jean could not believe that she was his, and he was hers.
Lara Jean hardly ever, and Peter really meant ever, rate herself before this. He figured that one out when they were fake dating.
"What?" He said, smiling.
"What?" She said back.
"What's up?" Peter pushed because he knew Lara Jean. Lara Jean was the world's biggest over-thinker. About everything.
"I just don't want this to end." She looks back down as she says this.
WHAT?
"You're thinking about us ending right now?" Peter asked trying to sound casual but failing as you can hear the disbelief in his tone.
"It's just a thought that popped in my head, okay?" Lara Jean attempts to chuckle and also be light but Peter could hear the panic in her voice, "Just…"
"Well, tell that thought to get out of your head!" Peter says and his voice is so high from the panic he feels himself that he continues to try and play it casually.
If you freak out Kavinsky. She freaks out. Peter thought.
"You can't think about us breaking up on our first date," Peter says.
"I just," She breathes before looking at him. "don't want us to break each other's hearts."
Well, that makes sense, Peter thought.
The reality was that Peter did date Gen but was still seen as a player. Fair enough he was friends with people like Greg and he was not shy about his manwhore ways. And now recently, Trevor and his transgressions. Nothing was looking good for him at this point.
But he didn't know how else to put it.
He loves Lara Jean.
He is IN LOVE with her.
And though she is yet to say it back, Peter knows she feels the same way.
But he can't say this so he settles for, "I promise I am not going to break your heart."
Peter watches as she smiles slightly before drawing a massive heart on the lantern around the words "LJ and PK". She lifts her head up when she is done and continues to smile slightly before saying, "I promise not to break your heart."
She lifts his hand to her lips and kisses it as if to seal the promise.
She continues to colour in the edges quickly before beaming at her handy work, "Do you love it?"
"I do." Peter nods at her excitement and elation.
"Look at that! That's awesome." She exclaims.
"You have really great handwriting." Peter smiles at her and they begin to stand up as she grabs the lantern and fluffs it out.
Peter tries to help her.
"We can do it." She says but Peter notes how she is taking charge of it and allows her to do it by herself.
"You got it. Yes!" Peter laughs as she waves the lantern around carefully not to break it but still carefree.
"Whoo!"
Once the lantern is puffy enough Lara Jean orders Peter to light her up.
"Let it fill up." She says as the lantern begins fatten with air. They both look at each other as they let go.
Peter looking at he "LJ and PK" lantern in awe as it flys into the air.
"That's cool," Peter says as the come together so he can put his arm around her shoulder.
"Oh, my gosh!" She says happily.
"There it goes." Peter smiles.
"We did it. It's so beautiful."
"You can still see our initials," Peter says happily.
"Mm-hmm." Lara Jean agrees and then looks at him, "Did you make a wish."
Peter thinks about it.
He has never been superstitious. And he would never consider himself a believer of these things but she is and Peter wants to take this seriously if not for her but to ensure that she is always happy.
Then he thinks of it.
I wish she is always happy like this around me, Peter thinks and then says out loud, "It looks to me like it's coming true anyhow."
Lara Jean blushes and then leans up to kiss him.
It's a chaste kiss but like her, it's still perfect.
Peter drives home because even though she wasn't that bad over to the park, she is tired and he doesn't trust that she won't fall asleep at the wheel.
On the way, he holds her hand again but they sit in comfortable silence as the radio plays Hailee Steinfeld's Back to Life. Peter could hear Lara Jean humming to the song as they drove to her house.
The drive is short as the park is literally five minutes away from her house and about ten from his.
When he stops the car, they both climb out of the jeep.
"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to how deep your car is." She says suddenly as he meets her at the other side of the car. He catches her into a hug as she speaks and he can't help but take in once again for the millionth time tonight the beautiful smell of her hair and perfume, which smelt of strawberries and vanilla.
The smell was always welcoming and cosy.
"It's a bit…" Peter looks his car, which he was sure he loved just as much as he loved this girl holding his waist.
"It's so tall." She finished his sentence.
"It is a pretty, pretty tall wagon," Peter emphasised on pretty because it was true his ride was sweeter than most of the kids at school.
"When I get down," Lara Jean says as he takes her hand and they begin walking to the front door, "I feel like I'm falling."
"Then you should wait." Peter smiles knowing full well that what he is about to say is so corny, "I'll come around and catch you on the other side."
"What?" Lara Jean chuckles in disbelief.
Peter then pulls her in front of him to end this conversation about the depth and height of his really pretty pretty truck.
"So…" He smiles at her, "How was your first date? And tell me like it wasn't me who took you."
"It was…" Lara Jean sways slightly before saying, "perfect."
This word was something that Peter had been using the whole night in his head and now to hear her say them outloud, he feels as though he could explode right there right now.
"Yeah?" He smiles pulling her closer to him.
"Mm-hmm." She says before allowing him to close his mouth around his.
This was definitely not their first kiss but it felt the same as it did the first time they kissed, for real.
Dizzy.
Warm.
In love.
Guilty.
Wait what?
Peter thought about that last one and quickly shook it out of his head.
When he pulls away Lara Jean smiles shyly at him and says, "Okay, good night.".
"Good night." Peter smiles as she walks to the door. Once she opens it and is inside she looks at him one last time with the biggest smile on her face and closes the door.
Peter shakes the utopian feeling into a quick move with happiness.
"YES!"
Peter walks to his car thinking, last year was a straight-up mess.
This year will be different.
I am back! This is so exciting because I had somewhat mixed feelings about the second movie but ultimately what I loved is that it
gave me a lot to work with.
I would love what you guys thought of the second movie.
And before a lot of people ask, I am still sticking to the way I wrote the first one but amending some of the characters in accordance to the second movie as this is in his POV.
STAY TUNED: Because so many things about Peters life will be explored and I am so excited to share them with you.
A usual remember to review review review!
Chapter 2 will be coming soon,