Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the delay. I just came back to school this week and I needed to catch up. And I just became busier and busier. But everyday I tried to write a snippet for the next chapter before I lost all what I wanted to write. For those of you who are reading my other story, Underaged Love, don't worry. I am still going to write it. It's hard juggling two stories, but it's my fault for making another one lol. I wanted to update this story before I updated that one. I hope you all don't mind. I hope you like this chapter!
Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. I appreciate it! :)
Sadly, I had no time to make a playlist for this chapter. Maybe one song fits.
"Meet Virgina" by Train! ENJOY!
Chapter 2 //Meet Virginia
My grandmother was everything that I hoped she'd be. I know that I've known her my whole life – especially through letters- but it's different when she's right in front of me. She confessed some secrets and told me stories through her letters. And now that I'm here with her, she can tell me those secrets while holding my hand, smiling at me and hugging me. I can finally eat the awesome cookies and cakes that she talks about instead of eating my mother's attempt at making them just like Grandma's. It's like listening to your favorite musician sing a song on the radio and wanting so badly to finally see them in concert. And when you finally get those tickets for the front row seats, it's like adrenaline running through your veins because of all the excitement. The real thing is in front of you and that's how I felt when I finally saw my grandmother.
"How's the pancakes?" she asked me while she poured my glass with orange juice.
I cut a piece of chocolate chip pancake from my plate and put it in my mouth, savoring the delicious flavor.
"It's fantastic. If only I had this every morning." I chewed and took a quick swig of orange juice.
"You're mother doesn't cook you breakfast?" she asked sitting in the chair across from me with a glass of orange juice in her hand.
"Oh she does, but not as well as this. She usually cooks two sunny side eggs, a couple of bacons and strudel. It's never really from scratch."
"Well you're mother was never that talented in the kitchen, but she does make a mean meat loaf," she replied.
I nodded in agreement. She was the master at cooking meatloaf and maybe some lovely desserts. Other than that, she usually ordered take out. Both my father and I didn't mind that at all. We'd rather have McDonalds more than my mother's failed attempts at making roast chicken.
"So what are the plans for today?" I asked wiping my mouth with a napkin.
"Oh well I was invited to a barbeque this afternoon, so we're going to that," she smiled. "But we have to go to the bakery and finish the cake."
"Is it someone's birthday?" I asked.
"Nah. My young friend, Ellie, has this beginning of the summer barbeque for the whole town. It's at an old plantation. It's really gorgeous over there. You're going to love it."
I smiled. "Sounds great!"
Then she stood up from her seat and grabbed my plate and put it into the sink.
"So I heard that you met Nathan yesterday. How was that?" She asked as she turned on the faucet and started washing the plate.
I sighed deeply remembering that embarrassing moment. How could I forget about that?
"It was different," I replied.
She turned around, turning off the faucet and wiped her hands into a blue towel.
"Different? How?"
I gave her this look as if I was too embarrassed to even speak about it and I was. "I thought he was stealing money from the register." And I almost wanted to cover my face. I figured that she knew already. She knew Nathan and she obviously knew Merriam. The laugh and the comforting look on her face said it all.
"It's okay, honey. Nathan has been doing that for the past year. I'm just starting to get used to it. I told Merriam it wasn't a good idea because things like this could happen, but she said she trusted him," she replied.
I rolled my eyes. He was a guy and no one could truly trust a guy. Trust me. I know from experience. I dated Aaron Armstrong for a few months and he's told me a billion lies. What makes Nathan any different? But who knows? I barely knew the guy.
"Well get ready for the day. Did you bring any sundresses?" she asked.
"I have like two. I wasn't sure if I was going to wear anything fancy."
"Oh that's fine. If anything fancy comes along, we'll try and find you some cute outfits downtown."
"Thanks Grandma," I smiled and quickly ran up to my room with the lovely bed and beautiful wooden desk.
Sleeping in that comfortable bed was probably one of the best nights I've ever had. I wanted to stay in bed for twenty four hours, but I knew that I had a big day and a big summer ahead of me.
I pulled out my suitcase that still had all the clothing I packed inside and rummaged through it to find one of two sundresses that I had. I had a light blue one with a ruffled lining and a yellow one with a white lacey lining. I wasn't sure what I wanted to wear. The yellow one looked too sexy so I chose the blue one.
I quickly dressed up, pulled my hair in a pony tail and applied light make up and lip gloss. I always pulled my hair up when I didn't want to look dressy. The only time I wanted to curl my hair and leave it down was when I wanted to look good. I mean really good. I guess today wasn't one of those days that I wanted to impress anybody.
My grandmother wore a white button up shirt and beige dress pants. She even wore a small hat to go with her outfit. "Well look at you!" she sang when I met her by the foyer. "You look beautiful!"
"Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself," I complimented as we both headed out towards the bakery.
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When we arrived, I was surprised to see more people here than yesterday. Everyone looked all dressed up. I'm guessing this barbeque was a pretty big deal. Some men were wearing nice slacks and a few ladies were all in cute sundresses. I wonder who this Ellie lady was and if she was some heiress or something.
My grandmother guided me towards the back and I saw the same people that Merriam introduced me to. There was Jonathan icing a cake and Eliza working on it by applying red roses on the edges.
"Eliza, don't forget to make the green leaves!" my grandmother ordered as she started looking over the cake. I walked around, smiling politely at all the familiar faces and then found myself getting bumped into from behind.
"Oh sorry," the person apologized. I turned around and found myself glancing at Nathan Scott. I noticed him look me up and down and I just rolled my eyes.
"What are you looking at?" I asked annoyingly.
"Nothing. You look nice," he smirked as he put the white boxes that he was carrying on the counter beside us. "I see that you're attending Ellie's Annual Barbecue."
"Yeah, I guess. My grandma told me to wear a sundress."
"It is the required outfit," he responded. I looked at his clothes and noticed that he was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a regular blue cotton shirt. Nothing fancy. I lifted my eyebrow.
"Are you wearing that to the party?" I asked.
He started to chuckle. "Nah. I'm not going."
He walked passed me and headed towards an area with tin shelves full of fresh baked cookies. He grabbed the tray and walked back towards the counter where he left the white boxes.
"Have you been to this kind of thing? I'm not really used to this whole small town annual event stuff." I watched him as he started putting a dozen cookies into the boxes.
I heard him laugh and glanced up at me with his blue eyes. "Well, I've been to quite a few and it's fun when you want it to be. They have a large grill prepared with a personal chef who wears this large hat. He tosses those pieces of steaks like a juggler. The people dress up and the girls wear their cute sundresses," he stated looking me up and down again. "But personally, I'm not much of a fan because it means that I have to dress up for once." He closed the box and grabbed another tray of cookies to fill the second one.
"Well hey there, Haley. You look lovely," Merriam greeted me as she walked into the kitchen from the front.
"Thanks."
"And hey, Nate," she stated as she patted his shoulder. I noticed her gazing at his outfit and she said, "Why aren't you dressed?"
"What are you talking about?" he replied putting the cookies into the second box one at a time. "I am dressed up."
"I mean for the barbecue today. You're going aren't you?"
"Nana, I am working today," he replied. "You gave me this shift, don't you remember?"
"Well I didn't realize that today was Ellie's barbecue at the time. I'm now taking you off the shift," she replied.
"What? Then who are you going to replace me with?" he asked, curiously while he closed the box.
"No one. Olivia and I decided to close the bakery for today. Nobody's going to be coming in because of the barbecue and you know that."
"Are you serious?"
"Very serious. So hurry and get dressed."
I tried to stop myself from giggling. The face he was making was priceless. It almost seemed like he wanted to choke his grandmother to death, but was struggling to hold it back.
"I'm going to go give this to the customer now," he replied annoyed, carrying the boxes in his arms and exiting out of the kitchen.
"That boy is so stubborn these days," Merriam stated, shaking her head at his now disappearing figure.
"He seems like it," I smiled as Merriam starting cleaning the excess cookie crumbs from the counter with a rag. "So who is Ellie?" I asked.
"Ellie? She's the former mayor's wife. Ever since he became mayor of town she set up this barbecue party and it's still going on even though Larry isn't the mayor anymore."
"Wow. Are they wealthy?"
"They are definitely wealthy. They have a house in England, I hear. At least that's what Nathan tells me. I wouldn't be surprised if they did."
"They definitely do, but they only visit during the winter," Olivia stated walking over to hug me. I smiled and hugged her back. "The cake's almost finished. It just needs a little bit more adjusting and then we're going to head off to the barbecue," she stated towards Merriam.
"Good. I feel like they've been working on that cake for hours. You'd think they would be faster with this especially since they've been doing it for the past what, three years?"
"Eliza's just learning, Merriam. You have to give the girl a chance."
"If only she wasn't so obsessed with searching the town's ghost history in the library," Merriam stated as we all looked over at Jonathan and Eliza. He had just slapped her hand because she was about dip her finger in the icing bowl. I laughed when I saw her stick her tongue out.
"That's what Eliza likes, let it go," my grandmother stated. "At least she's the go-to girl during Halloween." Olivia looked over at me and said, "About two years ago, Eliza made this black and white cake that looked like a hill with a grave stone on top. And when you cut it, it looked as if there were three different layers of earth inside. There was a vanilla cake on the top layer, mocha in the middle and a chocolate cake at the bottom. It was brilliant. I would've never thought of something like that. The customers were raving over the Grave Yard Hill cake for weeks." She walked over to her office in the back and showed me the picture of the cake. It looked phenomenal. "But unfortunately, she's not a big fan of bright and happy cakes like that one over there."
"She has to get used to this place now that she's working here. We do more than just Halloween cakes, Olivia."
"And I'm sure she knows that," Olivia stated and patted Merriam's shoulder. "Well we're about to head out. We'll see you and Nathan at the barbecue?"
"Of course. See you girls," Merriam smiled and we walked to the front.
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As I was staring at the plantation from the car window, I felt like I was entering a fantasy world. None of this felt real to me. Everyone roaming the grass by the house looked like ants in Easter colors; blending into each other like a canvas of paint. We drove along this rocky road where the large oak trees curled inward, creating a tunnel. The sunlight shined through the branches and reflected over my face as we drove closer and closer to the plantation.
We parallel parked by plenty of cars on the street and entered the crowd of lemonade drinking and barbecue eating people. Some of those cups I'm sure weren't filled with lemonade.
"Come on, Hales. I'll introduce you to Ellie," Olivia stated as she linked arms with me and headed towards the steps of the white house. It had long white columns and a balcony that wrapped around the whole second floor. The windows were framed with green shutters and flower pots decorating the window sill.
When we approached the front of the house, I noticed a woman with shoulder length blonde hair chatting with two or three people. She was wearing a long yellow tunic dress and I automatically assumed she was Ellie.
"Olivia! You came!" The woman called out, moving in between the man and the woman to greet my grandmother. She embraced her with opened arms and glanced at me for a second before smiling. "This must be Haley," she stated. "Your grandmother has told me a lot about you."
"So I've heard," I replied.
"You're going to Stanford after this summer, right?" she asked in this high pitched voice. She was too excited to meet me and it kind of creeped me out.
"Yep, I'm majoring in humanities."
"That's sounds wonderful! My daughter Peyton is going to The University of North Carolina School of Arts. She's a born artist. Do you do any painting?"
I shrugged my shoulders and thought about the painting of the Pacific Ocean that I made in kindergarten. Even though it was just a piece of paper I painted completely blue, I thought it was pretty amazing. "Not really."
I heard my grandmother chuckle beside me. "She's a wonderful singer though."
"Grandma!" I whined.
"Oh yes, I've heard. Glee club." I didn't like how she said it. She made it seem like it was a dirty word and that it was forbidden from her lips. I may not be the one who would announce the fact that I was in glee club like my grandmother, but to say it like that is insulting.
"She's won a few medals for her soprano and alto range. It's pretty impressive," Olivia continued as I thought about the CD my mother sent of me during my Spring Concert. Ellie nodded uninterested and started to say something about her daughter.
"Peyton won a couple of medals for her clay replica of The Pieta. I believe that's what gave her the full scholarship at the university."
"Is that the statue inside your house, Ellie?" Olivia asked.
"Oh yes! We wanted to put it up for display. We have such an accomplished daughter. Speaking of, there she is," Ellie replied, feeling a breeze beside us as a blonde curly head girl walked by.
"Peyton, dear. Come over here!"
We both looked over at the girl. She was wearing a green tank with a white skirt. I noticed her expression when she approached us. It was a mixture of annoyed and angry.
"Peyton, you know Olivia," Ellie began.
"Of course, she makes bad ass cookies!" Peyton stated, giving my grandmother a high five. I noticed the look on Ellie's face as if she wanted to slap her daughter for using that kind of language, and especially giving an old woman a high five.
"And this is Haley." She looked at me as she slightly smiled.
"Hey," she greeted.
"Why don't you two grab a drink and get some food," Ellie suggested. I looked over at my grandmother and she nodded. And we both walked away from them slowly.
"So you're from California?" she asked as we walked past a couple of people to get to the table full of food.
"Yeah, the good ol' San Francisco."
"No way! You totally live in the city that Patrick Monahan walked on," she replied. I laughed when I saw her face light up. She was no longer annoyed and angry.
"You like Train?" I asked.
"Are you kidding me? I think 'Meet Virginia' was written about me." I laughed.
"So you wear high heels when you exercise?"
She gave me a look at first before realizing what I meant and she began to laugh.
"You're funny and no, I don't."
"I guess San Fran is a pretty great place."
"Dude, the things I'd do to live there," she spoke. "Actually, I'd do about anything to get out of this hell hole."
I lifted my eyebrow as she grabbed two plastic cups from the pack on the corner of the long table.
"I'm guessing you don't like it here."
"It's not that I don't like it, it's just. . ." she paused as she looked at me, glancing at my blue dress. "Nice dress."
"Thanks," I replied, confused as she poured herself some lemonade and then gave me a cup to pour some myself.
"It's just things like this are a bit much for my liking. I think I was born at the wrong place, at the wrong time and maybe even to the wrong parents."
I chuckled as I took a sip from my cup. "Why is that?"
She was hesitant to answer. Peyton didn't seem like the perky type like her mother seemed to be. I had the slightest feeling that there was something else going on behind her blonde curly locks. Her skin was a little pale and I noticed the darkness of her eye shadow and eyeliner like it was hiding something underneath.
"Uh, just random stuff has happened," she finally said. "But if I tell you, I'd have to kill you."
"Right," I nodded.
"Peyton!" I heard Ellie call out.
"My mother beckons," she said as she took a sip from her cup. "I hope you enjoy the rest of the barbecue. I'll see you later." And there she went, disappearing through the crowd.
She left me alone by the food table as I gazed over people's head, searching high and low for my grandmother. I wasn't expecting to visit a gathering like this on my second day here. It was almost like a big hit in the face and I forgot to duck. I was still trying to take this all in. I was just like Peyton. I felt almost out of place in this town.
"Fun party, huh?" someone asked from beside me. I glanced up and noticed him standing there wearing a nice button up shirt and darker jeans. He wasn't looking directly at me. His back was against the food table like mine was and he was gazing at the crowd with a hand in his pocket and a cup in the other.
"You clean up well," I complimented.
"It's required to dress well to this jamboree. And I must say, I'm regretting it."
"What, sundresses and pastel colors don't suit you?" I asked with a smile.
"I feel like I'm living in a damn Easter basket," he replied sipping his drink.
"You shouldn't be talking. I'm wearing this," I stated, grabbing the side of my dress.
"But you look nice."
I started to blush a little, but I didn't want him to see that so I just shrugged it off and said, "I'd rather be wearing a tank top and jeans right now."
"You'd look good in that too," he said again, not even taking one glance at me.
"I bet you tell that to all the girls."
"Nah, just you," he replied. I rolled my eyes and tried to control the blushing of my skin.
"Right," I began. "You seem like the womanizer type. Don't pretend to act like you aren't."
He finally turned his head away from the crowd, which I'm pretty sure was flooded with busty women, and gave me a look. "What makes you think I'm a womanizer?"
I lifted my eyebrow and took a drink of my lemonade. "I just know guys like you; always complimenting a girl just to get in their pants."
"Wow!" he exclaimed with a slight smirk, looking away for a second. "Was that your first impression of me – that I was some guy who wanted to sleep with you? Or was that your second one since you assumed I was a thief yesterday? This is your second day and you're already judging me," he stated in a serious tone. I found myself almost standing in a very uncomfortable position when he glanced at me.
I didn't know what else to say. I am not that good at first impressions. I'm actually really bad at meeting people because I have this sudden urge to judge them. I guess living in a city is pretty hard on a girl. It's too crowded and there are more people to meet than there are over here. In order for me to remember some of the people in the city, I depend on their first impressions. Whether they are rude at first or really shy, I keep that in mind like a warning to myself. It's like a big "WATCH OUT FOR HIM OR HER, THEY MIGHT GET YA" flashing in my head when I see them again. It's like I don't know about the extra layers in the inside.
Finally, I heard him chuckle. "I was kidding. I'm not that sensitive."
I was relieved. I thought I hit a soft spot on this boy. Good thing I didn't because I was going to feel terrible for expecting more than I should have. "You scared me."
"You should be. First impressions aren't really great. There's more to people around this town than you think or any other town," he said with a comforting smile. "Just to help you out around here, try to read people better. Sometimes reacting so suddenly based on first impressions can be harmful. So try learning that this summer. K?"
I nodded. He was right. I really need to work on that. But then I began to wonder, was I right about him? Was he really a womanizer or was he just playing with my mind? It's like I'm Little Red Riding Hood and he's the wolf. And I'm trying to uncover the person beneath the surface.
"There's Jon and Eliza. I guess I better go help them out," Nathan spoke and said nothing else as he walked away.
R&R