Ughhhhh I just have an everything block!#$#$35458982$%KGKF! But I need to get this show on the road, seriously. &Please bare with the descriptive details, imo they're a pain in the ass to write and I know they're even worse to read:\

I can see the block of sunlight lying across the blanket pooled around my legs before I even open my eyes. In fact, it's the reason I'm awake at… 10:02 am. Oh, farm life, how I love thee.

I snatch my phone from the bedside table, and quickly flicker through all…two of my unread texts. Well, if it weren't for the stupid Tennessee sunrise I would still be sleeping, which I'm sure my friends are doing instead of, y'know, texting.

Yoo skaterguirl.. hows tn?! That's from Oliver, from last night. Such a loyal companion.

uh do you know wht book the summer readin is on? And that's from some kid that was in my English class last year.

I kick the blankets off. The room is as warm as it was under the covers. I sigh, and head downstairs, trying to blink the sleep out of my groggy eyes.

I hear conversation and chattering even at the top of the stairs, and start down them, neglecting to brush my teeth and wash my face. As childish as it is, I'm secretly satisfied to be surrounded by so much family. I feel at home already.

I enter the noisy kitchen, where my own little family unit as well as Dean and Tiff plus seven all turn their heads to me.

Every inch of the table is covered in plates of food. Who made all of this? I give a sigh-infused "Good morning," and immediately start piling French toast on my plate.

Once my mouth is stuffed to capacity, I take a moment to observe. Uncle Dean is telling my parents a story, Aunt Tiff is wiping off the face of the child she's sitting beside. Some of the little kids are babbling, like Max, and others are eating.

My eyes land on the oldest one, the eleven year old, Brooke. When I saw most of the kids yesterday, I was shocked to see how they transformed. Brooke changed the most. She got taller, and her voice got more mature, in the slight way girls' voices do. It's weird how fast kids grow up.

After Brooke, there's Taylor, and she's ten, and I have to do a double take because Taylor looks so much like Brooke. After Taylor there are the twins, Christopher and Carline, who are nine. They both have boxy little faces that will draw out into Uncle Dean's strong jaw. Then there's Lane, who's eight and a piano prodigy, Lorrie four years younger, and the youngest at two years old, Danielle.

To be honest, I kind of like them all. I'm not one of those people who have a soft spot for little kids, but my cousins are disciplined correctly, so they don't get all whiny all the time and none of them are too spoiled. If they were any other kids, I think I'd dread this already hell-ish vacation way more.

"So, Lilly how was your year?"

I gave standard answers to all of Aunt Tiff's questions. My parents and Uncle Dean hopped over to the little check up on my fairly boring teenage life and threw in some comments themselves.

"Lilly, wanna play football when we're done eating?" Christopher asked while I was in the middle of a sentence.

"Uh, sure." One nice thing about a ton of siblings is you always have people to do something with. Well, for the time being. They'll probably get all independent from each other when they get older.

I finish eating, and go back upstairs to change clothes and wash up for the day.

I unzip one of the suitcases at the foot of my bed. The fact that I have multiple suitcases reminds me of how annoyed I am we can't just spend a short little week or two here. I pluck out a pair of black cotton shorts and a pink t-shirt and throw them on along with a pair of beat athletic sneakers. I tie my hair up into a loose ponytail, and heave yet another sigh.

Well, let's look at the bright side. There's no possible way I could get fat having eight little kids to hang out with all summer.

-

I have to squint to adjust to the sun beating down in the open space of field surrounding the house like a grassy ocean. For the first day of summer, it's blazing hot and I'm sweating after I leave the porch.

All of my cousins and my brother are gathered a football field's length away, under the shade of a single huge oak tree. As I'm walking I realize it's slightly uphill, and eventually I can see the single neighboring house up the road, surrounded by trees and slightly obscured by a white fence running along the road.

The first thing I notice when I reach the tree is Christopher peering pointedly in the opposite direction of everyone else, rolling the football between his hands. I narrow my eyes and begin to ask what he's looking at until someone announces my arrival and god I'm hanging out with a bunch of elementary schoolers.

"Okay, me and Carly are choosin' teams," Chris says, and his voice actually kind of wavers.

Carly chooses me, then Taylor and Lane, and Chris gets Max and Brooke.

We play for a while as the sun beats down on us. Chris is almost as good as I am, which is kind of sad, but then again he and his twin are the jocks. Max is attempting to compete with Chris, and he's not bad, but Chris is just better. Brooke is fast, Taylor seems to be able to throw pretty well for a ten-year-old, and Lane is also making out well with scurrying along. I'm surprised when the girls get tackled they get back up and tackle just as hard as their brothers and Max. I don't bowel any of them over as much as lift them and drop them as gently as I possibly can—for the exception of Chris and my brother.

"It's hot, Chris, I'm getting a drink," Taylor whines eventually. She immediately walks into the house and everyone but Chris and Carly follow her.

The three of us sit under the tree Indian style while Chris squints up the hill like he was before.

Carly takes a dramatic, animated breath and… "Chris and Mi-ley sittin' in a tree," he swipes at her, and she hops up and continues, "F-U-C—"

"Wow, you're not seriously going to spell what I think you're gonna spell, right?"

Carly freezes and grins cheekily. "What, kissing?"

I laugh as they sit back down. Ah, sweet year nine… my personal age when I tapped into the wonderful knowledge of verbal profanity.

I look at Chris to see his cheeks dyed hot pink beneath his bowed head.

"So," I poke his shoulder. "Who's," poke, "Miley?" poke. Ugh, being around these little kids is definitely wearing down my maturity level… which is low enough to begin with.

Chris swats my hand away, as Carly pipes, "She lives in the house up the road, and Chris swears he's gonna marry her someday."

"No I don't! I don't even care about Miley," Chris growls lowly.

"That's not what you said in your sleep last night."

I chuckle, because that was actually funny despite the fact it came from a pre-pubescent know-it-all. "So can I meet her?"

"She might be at work," Carly says over Chris who begins to protest.

I pause for a second. Child labor, much? Then it registers Miley is an older girl. "Oh, an older woman," I wiggle my eyebrows at Chris who is picking at the ground. His entire face is now scarlet.

"Yup. You should meet her, she's really cool. Maybe you guys could be friends."

I instinctively think against it. Even though my cousins are kind of, somewhat cool, the coolest person in Hick Land would still be below the freaks back home on the social chain. "Uh huh," I say. Conversation terminated.

Or maybe not. "Wait—there she is," Carly says.

I watch Chris whip around so fast I thought he was going to throw his entire neck out.

I squint a football field's length away to scarcely make out long, tan, lanky legs and arms and brown hair.

"Come on, let's go meet her." Carly insists.

"Actually, mom did need me to ask for some brown sugar for a pie," Chris mumbles.

I shrug and suppress a sigh. Hopefully this girl isn't clingy, ditzy, or unable to shut up—my least favorite combination, and my basic opinion on any person that I could possibly fall into this situation with in this town.

I stare down at my sneakers while we walk across the road and along the fence.

My cue to look back up is when I see Chris's head snap down.

I get a closer look at this Miley. And I see why Chris has a ginormous crush on her.

We approach her from the side as she rounds her house. She's carrying a sack of something over her shoulder, and her arms I at first thought were lanky are actually lanky and toned. As are her legs. I gaze at the dents in her calves and thighs absently.

"Hi Miley!" Carly greets cheerily.

Miley gives a jolt, and the load almost falls from her shoulder. She turns around and I see her face.

The first thing I notice is big grey-blue eyes. Then I see pouty lips and, strangely enough, I don't notice her one surprised raised eyebrow and other curiously descended one until last. Her face is round. Her hair is tied back, but a few strands have escaped.

It surprises me that she doesn't look like a complete hillbilly. She's wearing these really short light wash denim shorts and a kelly green spaghetti strap that's exposing a strip of tanned waist, and sneakers. What do I think of it? Sluggishly, a word begins to form, something to label this girl, but right when my brain goes to pluck it out, her lips part and out comes:

"Hey Carly. And Chris," he mumble-stutters a response, "and… who are you?"

Her thick accent throws me off a little at first. I immediately compare her to Jessica Simpson when she was in the Duke of Hazards. I think its the shorts. But Miley's accent is real, and her voice is kinda gravelly and damn, what kind of person is naturally this attractive without makeup after puberty?

"My name's Lilly…" my voice is soft and quiet and high, practically a purr. I have to say, I'm not usually this shy. I take a moment to analyze this and I find that I feel something like intimidation swirling in my tummy and head.

"She's our cousin from California. She's staying with us all summer," Carly jumps in, and I actually feel a little relieved.

"Oh, that's cool," Miley smiles politely. "Feel free to come over anytime."

My breath hitches a little as I pictured how, for some reason, delightfully frightening that promised to be. And at the same time, how badly I wanted to accept her offer and get to know her. I plan to pick that apart later.

"Okay," I couldn't wipe the cheek-splitting grin off my own my face.

For a moment it was silent, besides the birds twittering in the golden sunny distance, as I looked at Miley and she looked at me. I was still wearing a small smile, and hers returned, and as the sun glows at her I'm kind of gazing at this new pretty face as though I've never seen a good looking person before. As if there aren't herds of gorgeous girls in California. The funny thing is, she's gazing right back, but it feels more like she's sizing me up, silently with her big blue-grey eyes.

"My sugar needs some brown mom!" Chris shouts abruptly. I instantly begin snickering and have to shield my face with my hand. I feel terrible, but its hilarious to see my tough jock cousin act so dysfunctional just because he's in this girl's presence. Ah, young, one-sided love.

Miley shot him a confused look, and Carly translated, so Miley told him to go ask her mom.

Once Chris was gone, Miley gave a light giggle. "He sure gets weirder and weirder every day, dun' he?"

"Yep," Carly giggles.

I stand there looking from the grass, to Miley's knees, to Carly, and back to the grass again. It's green and luscious for miles, just like Uncle Dean and Aunt Tiff's yard.

"Lilly, we need'a show you the creek," Carly turns to me and says, just as the vast sea of grass was beginning to mesmerize me. A creek? Swimming? Hm, I do like to swim, but I know a tiny little creek can't make up for my case of homesickness for my Californian waters.

"Yeah, that would be so fun," Miley adds. A mental image of Miley in a bikini pops into my head without warning. I feel a beat of intimidation strike me again.

But "Sure, I'll go," plops out of my mouth anyway.

Chris appears with half a plastic bag of brown sugar, and watching the blood rush to someone's cheeks has never been so entertaining.

"Well… I gotta finish doing yard work. I'll see y'all around. Nice meeting you, Lilly."

Miley smiles at me again, but it was less polite and more honest.

Even though Miley has only smiled at me three times in the past ten minutes of my life, by the third time a pang of—what was it, alertness? Awareness?—felt strangely familiar. "Nice meeting you too." I still spoke in that low, girlish voice.

"Bye Miley," Chris and Carly say simultaneously.

As Miley lifts the sack back up onto her shoulder, I look to her face one last time. She glances back, and her eyes on me make me feel hot and alerted, like I had just stubbed my toe and the pain has yet to register.

The boredom factor of this vacation definitely just dropped a couple pegs.

-

I sit in between Brooke and Lane on the huge, maroon, wrap around leather couch facing the wide-screen TV. We're watching Spiderman 3, and god this TV is huge!

I feel surrounded, especially with their two dogs, breathing damp and hot on my ankles. The one to my right is Rusty. He's an Australian shepherd, a white stripe from his stout nose down around his head, and rust brown and pepper gray-and black covering the rest of him. Beside him pants Rex, an all black lab whose head is level with my waist when he stands. Sweet dogs, though, I'm a dog person.

Spiderman's costume is being consumed with the black substance when I hear, muffled,

"It's the means

Twenty-twenty surgery

Well, twenty-twenty surgery for cheap

Dollar signs doll up a picture perfect point of view…"

I flip my phone open and am bombarded with multiple voices shouting, blaring into my ear. I hop up and amble into the kitchen, picking at some left over monkey bread on the counter.

I'm glad my friends haven't abandoned me yet. Warmth and contentment swells inside of me like I drank it down—or maybe it was the monkey bread.

Oliver's voice differentiates from the rest, I hear him shushing everyone. "Lillyyyy! How's Hick Land!"

I give a chuckle. "It's, ah, it's not all that bad," I say, as I move onto some lukewarm caramel fudge brownies. With whipped cream strewn around them.

"Really?" Oliver sounds surprised. I can hear Amber and Matt in the background.

"Yeah, the food is mad good, and my cousins are sorta fun. And they have a neighbor who's my age," I feel funny addressing Miley, kind of like… I don't know. Like she only exists here and talking about her to my friends across the country makes it like… ugh, I don't know. I'm wondering how things are back home and not about why this is, especially since it just gives my a head ache.

"Sweeeet, is it a chick?"

"Mhm?"

"She hot?" Matt butts in. I can hear an audible slap on his arm that's probably from Amber. They have this thing going on, and, yeah.

It takes a moment for his words to register. My face gets hot. "Uh…" I have eyes, and common sense tells anyone Miley is attractive. I already pointed that out within the thirty seconds I first saw her. Thinking about this makes me apprehensive with… with what? "I guess."

I ask them what they're doing and honestly, as somewhat not bad it is here, I feel extremely homesick as I'm talking to my friends, which is kind of stupid because… I'm talking on the phone with them. I just miss everything back home…

Large crashes pulsating through the surround sound tell me there's a fight scene going on.

"Lilly, Lilly! You're missin' it!" Lane calls, and other little kid voices echo him to call me in.

"Okay guys, I'm in the middle of a movie, but I'll check up on you all later, kay?"

"Okay, try not to die or kill yourself of boredom, since, y'know, you seem to be suffering OH so very much…" Oliver drones sarcastically. I chuckle and give another round of goodbyes and receive them at high decibels.

I shut my phone, clip it onto the waistband of my shorts, grab another brownie, and plop back into the leather couch.

As I watch Spiderman pummel a villain into the asphalt, a surge of satisfaction overcomes me.

Glancing around the room at all my cousins, some gazing blankly at the television screen, others alert, I find my homesickness I was feeling seconds ago subside into… contentment. Life on Lilly Island just got a little less isolated.

-

Yeah, I don't own Spiderman, btw. Hmm so she met Miley, how do you think that went? Nothing too eventful so far pertaining to the Liley, but uh, that'll be changin'. :] Peace!