Life is made of moments

Some change the path your life will take

May 5th 2001 – Six years old

A loud rumbling noise shook my bedroom window, waking both of us up. I rolled over and looked at my best friend in his sleeping bag on the ground.

"Stiles, why is someone mowing the lawn so early?"

Squinting as the sound cut off, I said, "I don't know Scott but let's go find out."

After about ten minutes of getting dressed and shoveling a couple of pop tarts in our mouths, we ran towards the front door. Only to be stopped by my mom.

"Whoa, hold up boys. What's going on, why are you up?"

Wishing she hadn't stopped us, I said, "Mom! There was this loud noise, it woke us up and then we thought it was a lawnmower but it stopped and the-"

She laughed and held up a hand as she said, "Okay, okay slow down. If you really want to know, it was a moving van. Ms. Lewis across the street has someone moving in with her for the summer. A nephew I think; I saw one of the guys unloading some boxes that said Danny."

Scott grinned and punched me in the arm.

"That's great! Hey, you wanna go over and say hi?"

Looking up at my mom, we both smiled. She sighed and opened the door, "Fine but be nice, who knows maybe you two will make a new friend."

As we dashed across the street, I looked back over my shoulder and grinned, "Thanks mom, see you later!"

Once we were in the front yard, I spotted Ms. Lewis and walked up to her. She was always really nice to me and Scott, so when she saw us she waved and motioned us over as she said, "Hello there boys, what brings you here this morning?"

I pointed to the boxes.

"You've got someone moving in, me and Scott thought we'd come say hi."

She raised her eyebrows and smiled, almost like something was funny.

Glancing at the boxes she said, "That's right, you two are about the same age. How nice of you Stiles, go on in Danny should be upstairs unpacking."

Scott grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the front door, as I waved one more time at Ms. Lewis. She was pretty nice, she always had cookies and that was a plus in my book. And she didn't talk to me like a dumb little kid, sure we were only six but she never treated us like that.

The front door was open because of the guys coming in and out with boxes, so slipping inside with Scott right behind me we made our way upstairs.

"Hey Stiles, check it out."

Turning around, I saw Scott pointing at a big box filled with kid-sized lacrosse equipment. Sticks, pads, and spare nets. Perfect, now we had someone else to practice with. Someday when we were older me and Scott were gonna be on the team.

"Awesome, this is great! I already like this guy," I said, Scott nodding in agreement as we made our way upstairs.

We got to the end of the hall and stopped, there was a kid in a big sweatshirt with the hood up sticking letters on one of the doors. That must be Danny.

Calling out, I said, "Hey! You're Danny right? I live across the street."

He held up a finger and stuck another letter up, not yet turning around.

Wait…was that nail polish?

I looked at Scott and he looked just as confused as I felt.

He backed away from the door and put his hands on his hips.

"There, done!"

Then he turned around and grinned at us.

The guy had on a Star Wars hoodie that said 'These are not the droids you are looking for', but when he flipped down the hood I felt my mouth fall open.

Danny wasn't a boy, she was a girl!

She had curly black hair, bright olive-green eyes, and a big smile on her face. I glanced at the door and kicked myself for noticing, it wasn't spelled Danny, but Dani. How had I not noticed that on the boxes outside?

"You're a…you're a…"

Scott elbowed me, and I quickly shut up and looked at her, she was…laughing. At us. Wow did I feel stupid.

"A girl. You're a girl!"

She giggled and walked closer to us.

"Yeah, I am. My name is Danielle but you can call me Dani. Who are you?"

I gulped as she got ever closer to us. Girls were weird, only moms were okay.

"Uh, right. I'm Stiles, I live across the street. Um, I like your hoodie," I said, very unsure of what to say to a girl.

Before I could say anything else, Scott spoke up, "I'm Scott, nice to meet you Dani. Is Ms. Lewis your aunt?"

She grinned and nodded.

"Aunt Elle is awesome!"

Then she looked right at me and said, "Thanks Stiles, Star Wars is one of my favorite movies."

Then she looked back at Scott, leaving me shocked. Girls didn't like Star Wars! Girls liked dumb stuff like rainbows, Barbie's, and the color pink.

Looking back at Scott she looked down and started playing with the drawstring on her hoodie as she said, "I'm staying the summer with her and my brother is staying with our Uncle David. My mom and dad are always busier in the summer, they work all the time."

I frowned; I know what that's like. My dad was a police officer and he was always busy, at least mom was home with me. I looked at her again and smiled. Maybe being friends with a girl could be fun. At least she had good taste in movies. And sports, maybe girls played lacrosse too.

"My dad's busy a lot too. You wanna go outside with us? Or we could go back to my house and watch a movie if you want," I offered, not sure she would even be interested.

Her eyes widened and a huge smile came across her face as she looked back and forth between me and Scott.

"Really?"

Okay I really didn't know anything about girls, this would be interesting for sure.

I looked at Scott to see what he thought and when he nodded, I grinned at her.

"Yeah, it'll be fun. We can show you around and stuff. Come on!"

As we made our way downstairs and out the door, she ran ahead of us to go tell her aunt what she was doing. We both watched as she started talking to her aunt and then pointed at us. I just waved at Ms. Lewis and then looked back at Scott.

"So what do you think Scott? Can we play with a girl or is that weird," I asked, needing to know if I was crazy for asking her to come over.

He shrugged and said, "I think so, I mean that way we have someone else to play space wars with."

I rolled my eyes.

"It's Star Wars Scott. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Scott just looked at me and I sighed. Why were we friends again?

"Whatever, same thing," he said, "But now you can be the captain guy and she can be the princess, cause you are not talking me into that again!"

I groaned, he was never going to let that go, was he?

"That was one time Scott! One time! And Han Solo is not just some captain guy!"

I jumped when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

"You're right about that, Han Solo is awesome!"

Whirling around I saw Dani standing there, smiling at me.

"Finally, someone gets it! Uh is your aunt okay with you leaving?"

She nodded and grinned as she said, "Yeah, so let's go!"

As we started across the street back to my house I grinned, maybe having a girl around wouldn't be that bad.


Hey guys!

Some of you might remember this story from when I posted it years ago, I picked it back up and it'll look a bit different. If you're just now reading Danielle's story then get ready for a ride, this will be a lot different from what some of you might be used to with Anna.

If you're a fan of slow burns, complex plots, and lots of drama then you're in the right place. This is a darker story with a lot of twists and turns so I look forward to seeing what you guys think and I've got a lot of this already written so I'm in the process of editing and writing new chapters and hope to get this entire thing written and posted this year!

As always, thank you for reading and I appreciate y'alls love over the years!