Hey guys, I bet you're wondering where the heck I've been on this site! Yeah, actually I did post a story not TOO long ago, it's just so slow here, and no one is really coming on anymore. We should change this. I wrote this story last summer, and I found it and decided to type it for everyone because I have yet to write a "after RFR" story, and I wanted to kind of. This story was inspired by the Sherwood song, "The Summer Sends it's Love" played during The Last Dance episode of RFR. So yeah, let's go!

The Summer Sends it's Love

There was evidence all around that he did not feel at home. The fact that every time he thought of something, it was about Roscoe or someone who lived there. And then there was the fact that he couldn't laugh at anything without remembering some silly game that Parker had made up. Travis was homesick at home if that was even possible.

He had always spent summer lonely, but this year he was even lonelier than ever. It was useless to call or to write. How could he ever convey what was happening and how he was feeling without being there in person? He could imagine Lily, Robbie, and Ray, but he wanted them to be real. It was just like when he left Hong Kong for the first time, missing Bridget with each step he took.

It was different this time, because it was not easy to forget a place where he was accepted, or where he belonged. It was not easy to forget a girl named Parker, who was there thinking about and waiting for him with every step they took.

Tuning her bass was like life, Parker thought to herself. Tuning the strings and changing the pitch to make a perfect sound. She had always had to fine-tune everything. Constantly through her life, she had been stepped on; criticized for being who she really was. Instead of letting herself change pitch, she would show even more of herself and stay in tune.

As she plucked the strings and turned the knobs on her bass, she realized it was harder to tune than normal. She was a world away from Travis. Nothing like this had ever happened before: having a good friend who left. She couldn't let herself change. It was hard because she was so lonely, even surrounded by Lily and Megan's friendship.

He was probably the happiest he'd been in awhile. He had his friends, summer, and most of all: Kim. Robbie was always excited to see what new adventure Kim would bring; what new adventure Kim would think up next. His favorite day so far was when they spent the entire day planting flowers in her garden.

That day was great, planting seeds and laughing, watering the ground and singing, picking flowers and dancing. The only thing wrong was the fact that this Kim was new and different. It was as though she had changed herself and became distant from the past after she went to France. Robbie liked both Kims, but he wished he could have both at the same time.

He wanted critical, secretive Kim when they talked on the phone late at night. But still, when they ran through the summer rain, or were out on one of their many "field trips", he wanted the fun, energetic Kim. He loved her both ways, but he wished for a balanced. But most of all, he hoped that she was being the one that made her happiest.

She was finally the person she wanted to be, she had found her in France, that happy girl that everyone loved. The exact girl that was perfect for Robbie. Kim had changed, but sometimes she wished she could step back into her old skin again and give it one more try.

Or maybe this was the way she was supposed to be, and had hidden from the truth all these years because of her parent's pressures to be perfect. What was perfect? Someone who always seemed to say and do the right things? Someone who everyone wanted to be? No, perfect was who each person wanted to be. There was a different perfect for everyone, making just using that word wrong. It was pretty much non-existent.

This was who she wanted to be, and who she was now. If she wanted to change, she could. She picked up the phone to call Robbie and tell him.

He was funny. Everyday he told jokes to people he knew, and to ones he didn't. It was something natural; something he was born to do. But was Ray's own life a joke? Right then Lily was probably off somewhere, not even thinking about him.

This whole year, Ray had let love control everything he did. He was just a boy who loved a girl, who just happened to be kind of funny. Maybe he shouldn't let love run his life. Maybe he would do something this summer that he loved to forget it all.

But he knew he wouldn't. He would spend his summer waiting for Lily like the good boyfriend he was, and was trying to be. He would be supportive like he always was to his best friend. He knew once school started everything would go back to normal, and Robbie would hang-out with him again, instead of just Kim. He'd just have to wait.

For now, he was just a boy who loved a girl . . . who was really quite funny, and that was okay.

She always loved to imagine what Ray would say in each situation, even when he wasn't there. Lily wondered if this was what love was like. She didn't know if it was, but if she ever experienced it, it would have to be the way she felt with Ray.

She always thought maybe she was a complicated person, but he was too. The way he could change from funny, to serious, to super charming, made him seem like all the colors of a mood ring painted on the word. It was like the expression where they say you can read someone like a book. Was that Ray? If it was, the book would be a dictionary filled with the many words he had made up himself.

She wished he could be here, on the road with No Man's Land. He would cheer her on no matter what, never missing a beat.

And she also wished for Roscoe.

For Ray.

Travis.

Robbie.

They would be together again, she just knew it. But for now, she had to concentrate on the biggest summer of her life so far. And it was the biggest and longest summer of their lives so far.

Well, that's it, the first fic I've typed, not written in awhile. My Last Letter fans- there is another un-typed chapter sitting in the binder next to me, and I plan to get that out soon, as much as I've said that before. I also have a new one in the bag I don't want to give away yet, but I'm suddenly so inspired by RFR again, I just needed something to trigger it, usually songs do for me.

The key to writing is other people's opinions and suggestions. As someone else said, if you took the time to read it, you should take the time to review. From my over a year of being on the site, I've found that if you review someone else's story, they will review yours, or at least that's what I do.

Thanks and peace,

Thea (LilyR2)